5 Must watch metrics for your Referral Campaign

I’m not going to boast about how much you need to run a referral campaign for your business.

I know that you know about that. You don’t need me. 😎

I’m writing these lines because I want to help you make sure that your Viral Loops referral marketing campaign, is going to perform the way it deserves.

We keep a close eye on all of our users’ campaigns, and we’ve identified what are the things that make or break a campaign, and in what metrics they translate into.

I have a spoiler for you; whatever you do (even outside your referral campaign), keep your copywriting in top priority. 👀

People don’t buy products; they buy experiences. Write your copy in a way that communicates that.

Now, to our main subject:

Here are the 5 Must watch metrics for your Referral Marketing Campaign:

1. The Viral Coefficient (K-Factor).

The Viral Coefficient (k-factor) is the total number of registrations per unique inviting user.

If 1 in 5 of your users will successfully recruit a new user in their first month, your viral factor is 1/5 = 0.2, and our initial 5,000 users will recruit another 5,000 * 0.2 = 1,000 users in month 1.

I will get you out of the trouble to look for industry benchmarks on that by saying that for a consumer internet product,

A sustainable viral factor of 0.15 to 0.25 is good, 0.4 is great,  and around 0.7 is outstanding.  

2. Participant Conversion Rate.

How many of the unique visits to your campaign’s page, turn into participants?

The Viral Coefficient is a critical indicator of whether your campaign is doing good, great or completely bad.

If your participant conversion rate is bad, here are some reasons why:

• You don’t make it clear and easy for users to participate.
• Your copy doesn’t showcase the benefits for the end users.
• The rewards you offer are not a good fit.
• The whole campaign doesn’t align with your brand.

3. Participant Share Rate.

Your Participant share rate is the average number of unique shares per campaign participant. The bigger the Viral Coefficient is, the bigger is your campaign’s organic reach, which translates into lower CPA for you.

If your participant share rate is low, there are a few tweaks that might save the day:

• Make sharing as easy as possible. You should add the ability for your participants to share on as many touch points as possible.
• Offer rewards of very high value for the super campaign advocates (you can use our Milestone template for that).
• In addition, you can point out to your participant how close they are to attaining a certain milestone.

4. Invitation Click-Through Rate.

Invitation Click Through Rate is the percentage of people who click your participant’s invitation to your campaign.

This number tends to be high, due to the fact that most people will see an invitation from a person that they might have a personal relationship with. 🤝

There are some tricks that ensure that you’ll attain a higher invitation CTR:

• You should allow users to customize their invitation message.
• Personalize your invitation emails by adding your original participant’s info in it.

5. Invitation Conversion Rate.

When your participant’s friend has clicked through on the invitation they received, they land on your referral campaign’s page.

The invitation Conversion Rate is the percentage of the people coming from invitations, that actually become participants of your campaign.

In this stage consistency between the invitation and what the new user sees on your campaign’s page, is crucial. That’s the reason you should prompt your participants to invite their friends by communicating the true value of your campaign.

TL;DR

In order to recap, there are 5 must-watch metrics you should keep your eyes on while running your referral marketing campaign:

1. The Viral CoEfficient (a.k.a. The K-Factor).
2. Participant Conversion Rate.
3. Participant Share Rate.
4. Invitation Click Through Rate.
5. Invitation Conversion Rate.

You should always keep in mind that copywriting is your biggest ally when you try to improve the aforementioned metrics of your referral marketing campaign. From there, there are micro-optimizations that can be easily made inside Viral Loops, when you set up your campaign.

In case you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer everything so shoot it in the comment section. 

Ask us ANYTHING (except about our personal affairs, of course)!