Increase Organic Referral Program Adoption

The Challenge

Referral was our most cost-efficient acquisition channel — around 40% of new users, with good LTV — but almost all of it came from influencers pushing their own referral codes. That’s not sustainable, and it wasn’t organic.

The real problem was visibility: the referral program was buried two to three taps deep inside an “Other” menu. Almost no one found it on their own.

How would we grow the referral program organically by increasing its visibility?

Solution & Process

We benchmarked fintech competitors and found the pattern: successful referral programs live on the app’s homepage. The catch — Akseleran’s app didn’t have a homepage yet. Users logged in straight into a list of funding opportunities.

That meant building a homepage first, then relocating the referral program to sit above the fold on it. Designing it took about two months. Getting it built and shipped took over a year, due to competing engineering priorities — a full year of continuous advocacy to keep it on the roadmap.

• Users now see the referral program immediately after login, no extra taps
• Non-users see a banner quantifying the monetary benefit, with a one-tap share CTA
• Existing referrers see lifetime profit, current-month profit, and active referee count