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What Is A User?

In this article, we’ll explain what counts as a user, the different types, and the sources of each user.

Updated over 3 months ago

Important! If you understand how your users work, you’ll be able to navigate your campaign builder better, you’ll know how to set up integrations and how to use user data.

Below is a diagram explaining the different types of users and their sources.

What Is A User?

There are two user types in your referral program: The Person Referring and The Person Invited.

The Person Referring

The person referring is the person that is making the referral, they may also be called the referrer.

Because there are many different ways a person referring can join your referral campaign there are many different sources that a person referring may have.

The Person Invited

The person invited is a person who was referred to your campaign, they may also be called the referee.

These are users who have been invited to join the referral program. They have clicked on a referral link from a friend and entered their details to join the referral program on the first landing page for the person invited.

A person invited can only have the source “Referred” because the only way they can ever get into your campaign is because they were referred or invited by someone else.

Every person (person referring or person invited) who joins your referral program by entering their details or that you add (regardless of how you added them) to your referral program will be counted as a user.



Example 1: Jess refers Amy. Both people will count as a user.
Example 2: Jess refers Amy, John and Alex. All four people will count as a user.
Example 3: Jess refers Amy, John and Alex. Alex does NOT fill in his details on Step 1 for the person invited. Only the three people who signed up will count as a user. So, only Jess, Amy, and John will be considered a user.

Each will also have their own source. The source of the user will depend on how they joined or were added to your campaign. Essentially the source of a user helps you identify where the user came from.

The Different Sources A User Can Have

Direct - The person referring uses the campaign join link to register for the referral program directly by entering their own details (Name and Email) to get their link. When the person joins your referral program our system will generate a referral link for them and the sources of the user in Referral Factory will be “Direct”

Added - You add the person referring to your campaign. This can be done either by uploading a CSV list of your contacts or by syncing your contact from your CRM to your referral program. Once a contact is added to the referral program our system will generate a referral link for them and the sources of the user in Referral Factory will be “Added”

API - Your developers can use our API to automatically add users from your own database or ecosystem to the referral program to generate a referral for them and surface or display this link somewhere else on your platform.

Zapier - Use the Add User Zap, to create a zap that will add the users to your referral program. This will generate a referral link for them (you can again use Zapier to pass this referral link back to your ecosystem or any other tools/apps you use) and the source of the user in Referral Factory will be “Zapier”

Embed - You can embed your referral program on your own website by adding the embed script on a webpage you own. If a person lands on that page and manually enters their details to join the referral program them they will generate their own referral link and their source in Referral Factory will be “Embed”. This is very similar to the “Direct User”.

Popup - You can add a popup to your website either for logged out or logged in users to allow your users to easily join your referral program. Once a user joins the campaign their source in Referral Factory will be Popup.
if they choose.

Widget - You can add a widget to your website either for logged out or logged in users to allow your users to easily join your referral program. Once a user joins the campaign their source in Referral Factory will be Widget.

Test - If you send a test email from inside your campaign builder our system will need to add a user to your campaign in orer to send the email. The source of this user will then be “Test”.

Referred - If a person is sent a referral link and they use that link to join the referral program then they will be added to the campaign and their source inside Referral Factory will be “Referred”.

When A Person Invited Wants To Be A Referrer

If you want to create a "viral loop" with your referral program, you have the option to modify the user behavior settings in your campaign so that a Person Invited is automatically treated as a Person Referring after they qualify. You can read more about how that works here: How To Convert The Person Invited to A Person Referring After They Qualify (User Behavior)

If you choose to enable this setting then when a person invited converts, the Type of user will change from Person Invited to Person Referring. However, the source of the user will still be “Referred” as this is how they joined your campaign, they were referred by someone else.

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