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Overview

This recipe sets up the full referral loop — a chain of automated WhatsApp messages that guide both the referrer and their friend through the entire referral journey, from initial share to reward payout. The complete loop: Time to complete: ~20 minutes

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Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:
  • An active campaign (see Campaign Management)
  • A WhatsApp provider connected (see Provider Setup)
  • 4 approved WhatsApp templates on your provider’s platform (you’ll create these below)

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Steps

1

Prepare Your WhatsApp Templates

Create these 4 templates on your provider’s platform (e.g., Pragma, Meta). All should be in the Marketing category.
Submit all 4 templates for Meta approval. Approval usually takes minutes to a few hours.
Wait for all templates to be approved before proceeding. Unapproved templates will cause message delivery failures.
Keep templates Meta-compliant: do not start or end with variables, use sequential placeholders ({{1}}, {{2}}, …), avoid placing variables directly next to each other, keep body text under 1,024 characters, header text under 60 characters, and each button label under 25 characters.
You can use ChatGPT (or any AI agent) to generate the Referbro mapping JSON by sharing your template text plus the template-parameter documentation. Always review once before saving.
2

Map Templates in Referbro

Go to Apps → Referbro → WhatsApp Settings and configure each template slot:Order Confirmation:
Post-Referral Follow-up:
Reward Notification:
Nudge Reminder:
Toggle each template to Enabled.
3

Enable the Storefront Widgets

  1. Go to Shopify Admin → Online Store → Themes → Customize.
  2. Enable both App Embeds:
    • Refer & Earn — the floating share button
    • Referral Received — the discount popup for referred friends
  3. Go to Settings → Checkout → Customize and add the Referbro Widget to the Thank You page.
  4. Click Save in both editors.
4

Test the Complete Loop

Walk through the full referral cycle:
  1. Place a test order → Check that you receive the Order Confirmation message on WhatsApp.
  2. Click the referral link from the message → Verify the store loads and the Referral Received popup appears with the discount.
  3. Place a second order using the referral discount → Check that the original referrer receives the Post-Referral Follow-up message on WhatsApp.
  4. Verify in Analytics → Go to Apps → Referbro → Analytics and confirm events: LINK_GENERATED, WHATSAPP_SENT, LINK_CLICKED, ORDER_PLACED.
Use the Send Test Message button in WhatsApp Settings to quickly test individual templates without placing orders.

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Best Practices

  • Start with 2 templates, not 4 — Begin with Order Confirmation and Referral Invitation. Add the others once these are working.
  • Track UTM sources — The &source= parameters in the template configs let you see in Analytics which touchpoint drives the most referrals.
  • Use the Nudge feature weekly — Go to Apps → Referbro → Nudge Users and send reminders to dormant referrers every 7–14 days.
  • Monitor delivery rates — If WhatsApp delivery rates drop, check that your templates haven’t been paused by Meta (common if too many users report them as spam).