Overview

The CrowdTwist platform includes functionality which allows clients to power referral programs, providing existing loyalty members the ability to invite friends to join the program and get rewarded for doing so successfully.

To begin, every new user in CrowdTwist is assigned a unique invite code immediately upon account creation. CrowdTwist then appends that invite code to the end of a client-provided referral URL to form a unique referral link for members to share. When referred friends navigate to the shared link, they are redirected to the sign-up form where they can register for the loyalty program. The referring member will receive points in near-real time after the referred friend successfully completes registration and and has a verified email within CrowdTwist.

Configuring the Referral Domain

As mentioned above, each unique referral link is made up of the following elements:

1. Client-provided referral URL (typically the URL of the program’s sign-up page)
   • such as https://client.com/signup
2. CrowdTwist generated unique invite code
   • such as gD2S1W8P

CrowdTwist combines these two elements to form a unique referral link by appending the unique invite code as a query string parameter to the end of the referral URL:

• https://client.com/signup?_cts_=gD2S1W8P

The referral URL must be provided to CrowdTwist to ensure the referred user is directed to the correct page to register. Listed below are referral URL requirements:

• The referral URL must retain the query string value containing the referring member’s unique invite code.
• The invite code must be parsed from the URL and stored during the registration process
• The stored invite code must be sent in the User Create API request when the referred friend completes registration as the “invite_code” attribute

When CrowdTwist receives the new member registration containing the referring member’s unique invite code, the platform will automatically link the relationship between referring member and referred friend. Once the referred friend verifies their email, CrowdTwist will recognize the successful referral by awarding points to the referring member in near real-time (must adhere to frequency cap).

Providing Referral Link to End-Users

The following options can be used to obtain the unique referral URL to provide to end users:

1. User Create & User Update API Response
   • Contains the “referral_url” attribute within the response body of a successful request, which provides the unique referral link value. This can be parsed from the response and displayed to end-users.
   • For example:

   {
   	…
   	"referral_url": "https://client.com/signup?_cts_=gD2S1W8P"
   	…
   }

2. User Profile
   • Contains “referral_url” attribute within the response body of a successful request, which provides the unique referral link value. This can be parsed from the response and displayed to end-users.
   • For example:

   {
   	…
   	"referral_url": "https://client.com/signup?_cts_=gD2S1W8P"
   	…
   }

3. Invite Friends Widget
   • • CrowdTwist widget that displays the unique referral URL for a signed-in user, along with widget header text and a description that can be updated within CrowdTwist’s Control Center.

Submitting Invite Code with Registrations via API

The User Create API can be used to submit the “invite_code” when creating a new member. This unique invite code identifies the user that referred the friend enrolling in the program and gives CrowdTwist the ability to award credit to the referring user.

• User Create API
  • Include the “invite_code” attribute and apply the invite code obtained from the query string of the referral URL
• For example:

{
	…
	"invite_code": "gD2S1W8P"
	…
}

Submitting Invite Code with Registrations via Widget

For clients who leverage CrowdTwist widgets for registration instead of APIs (CrowdTwist owns registration/authentication), the referral URL provided to CrowdTwist must point to the program registration page where the sign-up widget is located.

As the program registration page contacts a sign-up widget, the CrowdTwist Widget SDK must be included at the head page. When a referred friend navigates to the referral URL, the CrowdTwist SDK will recognize the invite_code query parameter contained within the URL and automatically pass it along with the new registration to CrowdTwist.