How to choose a referral sharing method

A referral program only spreads through the channels your sharing method fits — link or code is really a choice about where your customers talk about you: inboxes and group chats, or face to face. Bloop offers both, set from the Referral method section of your campaign. At least one must stay on — turning off both disables the program.

Referral link and referral code switches with the link redirect URL

Referral link vs referral code

	Referral link	Referral code
How it works	Friend visits the link, enters email, gets a discount	Friend enters the code at checkout
Friction	One extra step (email)	None
Captures the referee’s email	Yes — enables follow-up emails	No
Works offline / spoken aloud	Poorly — it’s a long URL	Yes — short and memorable
Best channels	Email, DMs, social, chat	In-store, phone, podcasts

The email a link captures is valuable — it lets you convert a friend with a follow-up sequence even if they don’t buy on the first visit. Lead with the link where follow-up matters (subscriptions, considered purchases); the code is what travels when the recommendation happens out loud.

What tends to work

Adding social proof to the share prompt (what the friend gets, how many people have joined) can meaningfully lift results. And word of mouth is the most trusted channel you have — the less friction in your sharing method, the more of that trust converts, which is the case for enabling both.

Turn a method on or off

Open Campaign → Referral method.
Turn on Referral link, Referral code, or both.
Save.

Choose where a friend lands

With Referral link on, the Referral redirection URL field sets the page on your store where a friend lands after clicking the link. Enter the page’s path without a leading slash, for example pages/refer-a-friend. Bloop shows the full address under the field. Leave it empty and friends land on your homepage.

Set a code prefix

The code a referrer shares is your prefix followed by their personal share code, for example BLOOP_a8Kd2PzQ. The prefix defaults to BLOOP; set your own brand prefix, or use the referrer’s first name, with Discount code prefix on the referrer reward (see rewards). Keep it short and easy to say out loud: LUNA_a8Kd2PzQ reads as “from Luna”.

Every referrer gets a unique 8-character share code automatically, and Bloop credits the referral whether the friend arrives by link or by code. Referral analytics break shares down by channel, such as WhatsApp, email or copy link, and by where the share started, such as the popup or your referral page. They do not compare the link against the code. Bloop also captures word-of-mouth that would otherwise go untracked as “direct traffic”: because the reward is only earned through the trackable option, customers have a reason to use it even for a spoken, in-person recommendation.

A worked example

Illustrative, not measured data. A homeware brand sells online and through two physical stores. Online customers share in DMs, so the link fits (and captures an email for follow-up); in-store customers recommend at the counter, where the branded code works better. The brand turns on both, so online shoppers share links and in-store shoppers share the branded code. Turning either off would have cut a real source of referrals.

Common mistakes to avoid

Picking one method to “keep it simple.” Enabling only one silently loses the shares that would only have happened the other way.
Leaving the generic prefix. A branded prefix reinforces who the referral is from; the default tells the friend nothing.
Never reading the channel split. Analytics show shares by channel and entry point, not link against code, so read them before you change how referrers share.

Next steps

Set what each side earns in Referrer and referee rewards.
Decide who can refer in Target audience.