What should a referral landing page include?
It should name the referrer, state the offer immediately, and ask for as little as possible. Sending referral traffic to your homepage discards the single strongest signal the visitor carries — that someone they trust recommended you — and forces them to find the offer themselves.
- Never send referral traffic to a generic homepage — it discards the trust signal.
- Name the referrer where you can; it restates why the visitor is there.
- Lead with the concrete offer, not the mechanism.
- Ask for less than your standard signup, and test on mobile first.
Why not send referral traffic to the homepage?
Because the homepage is written for strangers. A referred visitor arrives already warmed by a personal recommendation and expecting a specific offer; a generic page makes them hunt for it, and most will not.
Should the referrer's name appear on the page?
Yes, where you can. Naming the person who referred them restates the trust signal that brought them there and confirms the link worked. It also reduces suspicion that the offer is a generic promotion dressed up as a personal recommendation.
What should the page ask for?
The minimum needed to claim the offer. Every additional field costs conversion, and a referred visitor is being asked to commit before they have used the product — so the form should be shorter than your standard signup, not longer.
How prominent should the offer be?
It should be the first thing readable, stated in concrete terms. 'Your friend sent you $20 off your first order' outperforms 'welcome to our referral program' because it states what the visitor receives rather than describing the mechanism delivering it.
- The referrer's name, where available
- The offer in concrete terms, above the fold
- What the visitor must do to claim it
- A minimal form — shorter than standard signup
- Any expiry, stated plainly rather than buried
Should the page explain the product?
Briefly, and below the offer. The visitor already has a recommendation, so the page's job is to convert rather than to persuade from scratch. A short reminder of what you do belongs there, but leading with it wastes the trust they arrived with.
What breaks referral landing pages most often?
Mobile failures and lost attribution. Most sharing happens on mobile, and a page that renders poorly or drops the referral code between click and signup fails silently — the referral simply never appears, and it looks like low participation.
Should the offer be visible before signup?
Yes. Requiring an account before showing what the visitor receives inverts the exchange — it asks for commitment before disclosing the benefit, which is exactly the friction a personal recommendation was supposed to remove.
What should a referral landing page include?
The referrer's name where available, the offer stated concretely above the fold, what the visitor must do to claim it, a minimal form, and any expiry stated plainly.
Should referral traffic go to the homepage?
No. The homepage is written for strangers and makes a referred visitor hunt for the offer, discarding the personal recommendation that brought them.
Put this into practice
ReferralFlo handles the tracking, reward rules and fraud screening these pages describe — without engineering time.