Holiday Gift Push
A time-boxed campaign template rather than a standing program: rewards are doubled inside a fixed window during peak retail season. It works as a spike on top of an existing program, and it needs its end date, its caps and its fraud controls decided before it opens rather than during.
- Referrer reward
- Double the standing store credit, inside the campaign window only
- Referred reward
- Double the standing first-order discount, inside the window only
- Trigger
- Site-wide banner plus email to existing customers, on the campaign open date
- Qualifying event
- Referred order placed inside the window and past the returns period
- Eligibility
- New customers only; standing exclusions still apply
- Payout
- After the returns window, at the doubled rate locked at order time
Why this template is shaped this way
A campaign is the right shape for peak season because the elevated reward is affordable only for a bounded period, and a permanent doubling would simply reset the baseline.
Locking the rate at order time rather than at payout time avoids an argument about which rate applies to orders placed on the final day.
It is most effective at reactivating advocates who referred once and stopped, rather than at recruiting new ones.
Where this template goes wrong
By forgetting that peak season is peak fraud season and that campaigns must end loudly: caps stay in force, the end date is announced at the start, and referred-customer retention gets checked after the window closes.
- Peak season is also peak fraud season — keep per-advocate caps in force rather than lifting them for the campaign
- Announce the end date at the start; a campaign that quietly stops reads as a reward that was withdrawn
- Expect referred-customer quality to dip during the window and check retention afterwards, not during
How long should a seasonal referral campaign run?
Short enough to create urgency and long enough to cover the purchasing peak — typically two to four weeks. Longer windows stop feeling time-limited and start feeling like the new standing rate.
Should caps be lifted during a campaign?
No. Elevated rewards raise the payoff for abuse at exactly the moment volume makes it hardest to spot. Keep per-advocate caps in place and raise the reward instead.
- UK Advertising Standards Authority / CAP — CAP Code section 8, Promotional marketing — how a promotion's terms must be stated
Last reviewed 9 August 2026.
Launch this template
ReferralFlo handles the tracking, reward rules and payout timing this specification describes — without engineering time.