A well-crafted friend offer can turn curious onlookers into loyal customers. When done right, it becomes a powerful conversion tool that can elevate your referral program’s success and boost your sales.
What a “Friend offer” is (and what it isn’t)
A friend offer is the discount or incentive a new customer (the “friend”) receives when they place their first order through an advocate’s referral link.
Watch out: The friend offer is not the same as the advocate reward. If you’re trying to adjust what the advocate earns, you’ll want to update the advocate reward settings instead.
Want setup steps instead?
If you’re looking for step-by-step instructions (or to see which friend offer types are available for your platform), start here:
Tip: This article focuses on choosing the right offer value and guardrails, not the setup steps.
Pick the value using simple heuristics (then test)
Avoid picking a number in a vacuum. Choose a starting point that matches your average order value and margins, then test cleanly.
Example starting points:
Lower average order value: a percentage offer often feels more compelling (example: 10–15% off)
Higher average order value: a fixed amount with a minimum spend can control cost (example: $15 off $100+)
Tight margins: consider Buy X Get Y, or add minimum spend / minimum quantity requirements
Best practice: Don’t change multiple things at once. Keep the friend offer stable long enough to see both conversion impact and profit impact.
Add guardrails to protect margins (and reduce misuse)
Guardrails help you keep the offer attractive while protecting profitability.
Common guardrails include:
Expiry dates (limits long-tail liability and adds urgency)
Minimum spend (example: $15 off $100+)
Minimum quantity (example: Buy 2, get 1 discounted)
Discount stacking rules (avoid combining with other promotions unless that’s intentional)
Tip: Use guardrails as a safety net, not as a way to make the offer hard to redeem. If the offer feels “fussy,” conversion usually drops.
Balance the friend offer with the advocate reward
Your friend offer helps convert new customers. Your advocate reward is what makes sharing feel worth it.
Best practice: For most programs, the advocate reward should be the “headline” incentive, while the friend offer stays compelling, simple, and sustainable.
Watch out: If the friend offer is noticeably stronger than the advocate reward, customers may be less motivated to share—because the biggest value is already available on the friend side.
A good default balance:
Friend offer: strong enough to convert (and simple to understand)
Advocate reward: slightly more compelling overall (so sharing feels worth the effort)
Tip: Diagnose the bottleneck before you change anything. If people are clicking links but you’re not seeing many shares, increase the advocate reward. If you’re seeing shares but referred friends aren’t converting, strengthen the friend offer (or reduce friction in redemption) before changing the advocate reward.
Measure and iterate (what to look at)
Track outcomes, not just how “generous” the offer feels.
What to measure:
Referral conversion rate (referral click → first purchase)
Average order value of referred purchases
Effective discount cost and margin impact
Volume of referred purchases (not just conversion percentage)
Tip: Make one change at a time and compare against a similar period so you can see what actually moved.
Troubleshooting and setup links
If you’re testing referrals or troubleshooting coupon redemption, these guides can help: