Is your referral marketing strategy living up to its full potential? It’s possible to have a somewhat successful program that drives moderate results while overlooking a major element required to maximize impact — mobile application referrals.
Every business that uses customer referrals to achieve extraordinary growth has one thing in common: They prioritize a stellar referral experience across every type of device, from desktop computers and laptops to mobile phones and tablets. However, many businesses tend to treat their mobile referrals as an afterthought.
To help point your mobile referral program in the right direction, we’ve compiled a list of examples from referral marketing legends:
1. Cash App
Mobile payment service giant Cash App only runs as a mobile application with no desktop version of the platform available. As a mobile-first company, it makes sense that they’ve integrated mobile referrals as a core part of their in-app marketing strategy.
Cash App makes it super simple to get started with referrals. Users are only a tap away when they open the app — all they have to do is click the profile icon to view the option to invite someone to the app. When a friend uses the referral code within 14 days, both parties receive a bonus in their accounts.
2. Uber
Many marketing gurus cite Uber’s viral referral marketing as a major driver of the company’s rocketship growth that took them from $10.4 billion in revenue in 2018 to $37.3 billion in 2023.
As a mobile-first company, Uber is known for its seamless, intuitive application interface that features the ability to invite friends for special discounts. It’s interesting to see how their offer has evolved: While the promotion used to entail a free ride for the user and their friend, it is now 50% off two rides for both people — a tactic designed to increase stickiness and keep new users coming back.
3. Robinhood
Financial service, trading, and investing platform Robinhood has leveraged referrals in several innovative ways throughout the company’s lifecycle. First, their viral pre-launch referral program earned the company a million users — before the app even launched! This strategy allowed those who referred the most friends to gain access to the app earlier than everyone else.
Today, Robinhood’s mobile refer-a-friend program features a “gamified” approach to referrals in which users and their friends both receive a randomly drawn stock with a value between $2.50 and $225. Spin the wheel, anyone?
4. Dropbox
After finding paid acquisition channels like search ads too expensive, file hosting service Dropbox leaned into the power of referrals to drive a mindblowing 3900% increase in user growth. 15 years later, this referral program is still going strong.
Inspired by PayPal’s wildly successful referral marketing program, Dropbox designed a double-sided referral program. But instead of giving users financial motivation to invite a friend, Dropbox uses an incentive that costs the company very little while allowing them to scale the program almost infinitely — storage space. Mobile referrals play a key role in their program, as many users prefer to manage their data in the Dropbox mobile application.
5. Wish
E-commerce platform Wish takes a mobile-first approach to almost everything they do. Much of the company’s marketing strategy centers around getting people to download the Wish mobile application and start making purchases.
Inside the app, users are only two taps away from accessing the referral program from the main menu. Their program is unique in that referrals are stackable and have multiple discount types — users keep earning Wish Cash for each referred friend who places an order, and the new customers receive up to 50% off their first order.
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Put Your Retail Marketing Into High Gear With Referrals
To be competitive, retailers should include referral strategies that transform their best customers into valuable advocates.
6. Instacart
Delivery giant Instacart is a great example of a company offering a seamless, intuitive referral program experience across desktop and mobile devices. In addition to having an easy-to-use referral program, Instacart weaves messages and CTAs that promote referrals throughout the app.
The prominent “earn $10” banner on the main menu and additional “invite a friend” buttons across different shopping touchpoints make it hard to ignore the benefits of using referrals. Instacart promotes the program in more subtle ways, too, such as the “shop with friends” feature that might prompt new users to join to collaborate on an order.
7. Rakuten
As one of the top cashback services, Rakuten knows its users are always looking for a deal or discount. That’s why they’ve designed a mobile referral reward that’s almost too good to ignore. Existing customers and their friends both earn a $30 bonus when the new customer spends $30 through the app within a year of signing up.
It’s fair to say that cashback websites can be challenging to market as potential customers may be doubtful of the wide-ranging discounts and rebates available. Rakuten is wise to leverage its existing customer base to drive adoption and sweeten the deal with a considerable reward for everyone involved.
8. Hellofresh
Hellofresh is another example of a delivery company offering a strong user experience across any device, including mobile. We’ve previously written about their referral program and how it provides two types of rewards for customers: free meal boxes and discount codes.
Hellofresh includes an enticing “free food” button to promote referrals across different menus in the app. Additionally, clicking the button brings up a brief FAQ pop-up that quickly answers any questions users may have about taking advantage of the program.
9. Tile
Consumer electronics brand Tile takes an arcade-like, gamified approach to its mobile referral program. Customers who recommend Tile earn points for each friend who makes a purchase, and these points can be exchanged for free Tile products and swag.
Because Tile trackers and other devices are all managed via phone, it’s no surprise that the company has doubled down on referral program promotion within its mobile app. It only takes a few taps to surface the “get free tiles” CTA within the main menu, which brings up an altruistic message about how sharing your referral code is really “helping a friend” who loses everything.
10. HotelTonight
Customers of the digital travel platform HotelTonight are in the market for a deal, as the company specializes in last-minute hotel and lodging discounts across the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Australia.
Like some of the other programs we’ve covered, HotelTonight has a double-sided mobile referral offer where users and their friends each receive $25 off after the new customer makes their first booking. Their sleek mobile app makes it easy to make referrals — tapping “invite friends” brings up options to share a referral code via text, email, or social media.
Engage and grow your mobile app audience with Extole
There’s no question that desktop and mobile referrals are not an “either/or” situation but rather “better together.” The same goes for the software you use to manage your referral marketing program.
While some solutions are built to address only one type of experience, the Extole customer engagement platform was designed to power effective mobile referral programs as part of a broader, multidevice referral strategy. Our software maximizes engagement and referrals for both desktop and mobile users so that no element of your referral program is left behind.
