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# Our referral programme failed. Here is why
- URL: https://launch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/our-referral-programme-failed-here-is-why/
- Published: 2026-06-08T14:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-08T14:00:00.000Z
- Description: Eleven customers in four months. People recommend tools in conversation, not with links.
- Author: Priya Nair
- Tags: Growth, #Import 2026-10-02 15:41

Last year we launched a referral programme: invite a friend to Tally and you both get a month free. Every growth guide recommends one. Ours brought in eleven customers in four months, and cost more to run than it earned. We closed it. Here is why it failed, and what we learned.

![People recommend tools to friends all the time. Just not because of a discount.](https://launch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/10/ref-friends.jpg)

People recommend tools to friends all the time. Just not because of a discount.

## What we built

The programme was simple. Every account had a personal link in Settings. When someone signed up through the link and paid, both accounts got a free month. We announced it by email, in the app and on the blog.

In four months, 3,100 people visited Settings. 410 copied their link. 73 people signed up through a link. Eleven became paying customers.

## Why it failed

We interviewed twenty customers, including several who had recommended Tally many times without using the link. Three reasons came up again and again.

1. **The reward was too small for the effort.** A free month is worth a few dollars to a team. Nobody goes looking for a link for that.
2. **People recommend in conversation.** Most recommendations happened in a meeting, a group chat or a conference. Nobody paused to find a referral link.
3. **It felt awkward.** Some people did not want their recommendation to look like they were being paid.

> I tell people about Tally every month. I did not know there was a link. I would not have used it anyway.  
>  
> **A customer, in an interview**

![Signups through referral links: a launch spike, then a slow fade to almost nothing.](https://launch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/10/ref-chart.jpg)

Signups through referral links: a launch spike, then a slow fade to almost nothing.

## What works instead

Our customers do recommend Tally. When we asked new customers how they found us, a third said a friend or colleague told them. That is the real referral programme, and it does not need a link. What it needs is a product worth mentioning and a moment where people show it to someone else.

So we are putting our effort there instead. We are building charts that can be shared with a link, and every shared chart will carry a small Tally line at the bottom. A product people show to each other does not need a referral link.

## What we learned

- Measure the cost, including the engineering time and support questions.
- Ask your customers how they recommend things before building a programme around it.
- Make the product easy to show, not just easy to recommend.

💡

Before you build a referral programme, ask ten customers: "When did you last tell someone about us, and how?"

#### Did existing referral rewards stay?

Yes. Everyone who earned a free month kept it.

#### Will you try again?

Maybe for agencies, who recommend tools as part of their work. Not for everyone.