Subscription Renewal
A template for subscription businesses that want referral quality rather than volume. The referrer is paid when the referred customer renews rather than when they first subscribe, which aligns the reward with the only outcome that matters in a subscription model: the customer staying.
- Referrer reward
- Account credit released at the referred customer's first renewal
- Referred reward
- Discount on their first billing period
- Trigger
- In-product, and in the referrer's own renewal confirmation
- Qualifying event
- Referred customer's first renewal payment clears
- Eligibility
- Both on paid plans; referred customer must be new to the account and domain
- Payout
- At the referrer's next billing date after the referred renewal
Why this template is shaped this way
Paying on renewal makes it structurally impossible to profit from referring customers who will not stay — the incentive and the business outcome point the same way.
The trade-off is patience: the referrer waits a full billing cycle. That suppresses volume, which is the intended effect, and makes clear communication about timing essential.
Pairing the ask with the referrer's own renewal moment works because they have just re-committed themselves.
Where this template goes wrong
By hiding the wait. A reward that pays on renewal must say so where the sharing happens, give annual-plan referrers something sooner, and state what happens to pending rewards when the referrer churns before the referred renewal.
- The delay must be stated plainly at the point of sharing, or it reads as a program that does not pay
- Annual plans make the wait a full year — consider a smaller reward at signup plus the balance at renewal
- Referrers who churn before the referred renewal need a stated rule on what happens to pending rewards
Does paying on renewal reduce referral volume?
Yes, and deliberately. It removes the incentive to refer anyone who will not stay. Programs using it trade fewer referrals for referred customers who behave more like the ones you already retain.
What if the referrer cancels before the referred customer renews?
Decide in advance and write it into the terms. Both answers are defensible; what is not defensible is deciding case by case after someone has already referred.
- 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.