Guides & Playbooks

Playbooks for serious operators

Step-by-step guides we wrote because we got tired of seeing teams reinvent the same wheel. Opinionated, sourced, and free.

01Featured guides

5 playbooks. One body of work.

Advanced 6 min read

The Anti-Fraud Handbook

Self-referrals, IP collisions, refund cycling, and partner collusion — how to detect and stop each.

Read guide

Intermediate 5 min read

Analytics That Actually Matter

The metrics that determine whether your program is working — and the ones that only look like they do.

Read guide

Beginner 5 min read

The 7-Day Launch Playbook

Go from zero to a live referral program in one week — day by day, with the decisions that cannot wait.

Read guide

Beginner 4 min read

Picking the Right Reward

Cash, discount, store credit, gift card, swag — a framework for picking rewards your margin supports.

Read guide

Intermediate 4 min read

Recruiting Your First 100 Advocates

Where to find customers who will actually refer, when to ask, and what the ask should say.

Read guide

Quick wins

Six rules worth applying first

01Reward both sides of a referral. A one-sided reward asks the advocate to spend social capital for a friend who gets nothing.

02Cash beats discounts for high-AOV products. Discounts beat cash for repeat-purchase brands.

03Trigger your share moment after a positive moment, not a generic one.

04Make the share preview look like the customer made it, not your marketing team.

05Use real names in your share copy — 'Sarah thinks you'll love this' beats 'Get $10 off'.

06Cap your reward to your gross margin minus a buffer. The math has to work for you.

Frequently asked

Are these referral program guides free?

Yes — every guide is free and ungated, with its sources cited and a last-reviewed date. No email address required.

Which guide should I read first?

Launching from scratch, start with the 7-Day Launch Playbook; choosing what to pay, Picking the Right Reward; program already live but quiet, Recruiting Your First 100 Advocates. The fraud handbook is best read before launch, not after the first incident.

How are these different from the reference library?

The reference pages each answer one question precisely; the guides sequence many of those answers into a plan you can execute over days or weeks. Definitions live there, playbooks live here.

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