Refer-a-Friend

What you can do with Refer-a-Friend

To	Do this
Reward entrants for bringing in friends	Turn on Refer-a-Friend in the Form Container.
Cap how many points one entrant can earn from referrals	Tick Limit total points and enter a maximum.
Give entrants their referral link	Send it in an autoresponder email, show a Share Widget after they enter, or both.
See who one entrant referred	Check their referrals in Entry Details.
Find referred or direct entries across a list	Use the Referrals filters in the Entries Manager.
See referral totals for the whole campaign	Open the Referrals tab in the Analytics Manager.
Send referral links to another tool	Map the [referral url] field in a webhook integration.

Before you start

• Refer-a-Friend needs the Build plan or higher.
• Referrers earn points only when a friend enters, not when a friend clicks the link.
• What the points do depends on your campaign. In a voting contest, they're added to the referrer's vote total. In a giveaway, they work as extra entries when you weight your winner draw by votes or points.
• Referral links appear once the campaign is live. Publish before you test the link.
• Referral data can't be exported. Use Entry Details, the Referrals filters or the Referrals tab instead.

How Refer-a-Friend works

1. Someone submits an entry.
2. A pop-up explains the Refer-a-Friend bonus and shows a Share button. You can change the pop-up's text.
3. The entrant clicks Share and posts their unique link on social media, or sends it by email or SMS.
4. A friend follows the link, visits the campaign and submits an entry.
5. The referrer gets the bonus points.

If an Entry Display Widget has sharing turned on, sharing an entry from it works the same way. The shared entry earns the points when someone enters through that link.

Turn on Refer-a-Friend

1. Add or edit a Form Container, and click the pencil icon to open its settings.
2. Click the Refer-a-Friend & Sharing tab.
3. Tick Enable refer-a-friend.
4. Enter the number of bonus points for each referral.
5. To cap referral points, tick Limit total points and enter the most points one entrant can earn from referrals. Points from votes and other sources don't count toward this limit.
6. In the Sharing section, choose the Share Widget to use for referral links. If you'll only send links by email, skip this step.

Give entrants their referral link

You can send the link by email, show it in a Share Widget, or do both.

By email

1. In the Campaign Builder, click the envelope icon at the top right.
2. Click New Email and choose autoresponder, or click the pencil icon to edit your existing autoresponder.
3. In the Email Builder, click Entry URL in the merge fields list on the left, or type {{entry.entry_url}} into the email.
4. Save and activate the autoresponder.

See Creating autoresponder emails.

With the Share Widget

This is the most common way to share referral links.

1. Open the Form Container settings.
2. In the After Submit tab, select Use Action Widgets to show results.
3. In the Refer-a-Friend & Sharing tab, under Sharing, choose the Share Widget to connect.
4. Set up your sharing options in the Share Widget.
5. Add an Action Widget: WHEN the form is successfully submitted, THEN show the Share Widget.

The email share button opens the entrant's default email program with the subject and message filled in. See Share Widget.

Verifying referrals

1. Open the Entries Manager and find the entrant.
2. Hover over their entry and click View Details.
3. Click the vote or points count at the top left of the preview.

The Points/Votes page lists each referral with its Entry ID, the points awarded and the date. Clicking a referral's Entry ID doesn't open that entry. To see it, copy the ID, paste it into Search in the Entries Manager, and click Apply filters.

Find referred entries in the Entries Manager

The Referrals filters in the Entries Manager find, across a whole list:

• Referral status: direct entries (not referred), referred entries, or the entries referred by one specific entrant (Referred by...).
• Referrals made: entrants who made no referrals, or At least a number of referrals.
• Referral bonus points: entrants who earned no bonus points, or At least a number of points.

After setting a filter, click Apply filters. These filters only find entries created on or after October 27, 2026. For older entries, check the entrant's referrals in Entry Details.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What to do
There's no Referral Link URL in Entry Details	The link appears once the campaign is live. Publish the campaign, then check again.
The Share button doesn't appear after someone enters	In the Form Container's After Submit tab, select Use Action Widgets to show results, then add an Action Widget that shows the Share Widget when the form is submitted.
An entrant says they didn't get points for a referral	Check their Points/Votes page in Entry Details. The friend must follow the link and submit an entry. If you set Limit total points, the entrant may have reached it.
An entrant's referral points stopped going up	They've reached the Limit total points maximum. Raise it in the Refer-a-Friend & Sharing tab if you want them to keep earning.
The Referrals filters miss a referred entry	The entry was created before October 27, 2026. Check the entrant's referrals in Entry Details instead.
The Referrals tab in Analytics shows nothing for earlier dates	Referral data in Analytics starts on October 22, 2026. See Referrals data.

FAQs

Does an entrant earn points when a friend only clicks their link?

No. The referrer earns points only when the friend follows the link and submits an entry.

Do votes count toward the Limit total points maximum?

No. The limit only counts points earned from referrals. Once an entrant reaches it, further referrals don't earn them more points.

Can I export referral data?

No. To see one entrant's referrals, open their Entry Details. For campaign totals, use the Referrals tab in the Analytics Manager.

How do I find everyone one entrant referred?

In the Entries Manager, open the Referrals filters, choose Referred by... under Referral status, search for the entrant by name or email, then click Apply filters. This works for entries created on or after October 27, 2026.

Related resources

• Share Widget
• About sharing
• Referrals data
• Entries Manager
• How to use the Points Per Field feature
• Refer-a-Friend template (video)
• How a national festival used referral rewards to gain leads and boost awareness (blog)