80% of leads came from paid Google Ads at ₹85K CAC. Referrals existed but were untracked, unstructured, and unrewarded. Students were recommending Emversity to friends with zero incentive or visibility.
The Problem
The core problem
The Solution
Building intelligence
Built two parallel referral engines: (1) CRM-driven for ISTs — Referral Form in LSQ, auto-assign, unique codes, ₹2K per referral, 3 referrals/IST/day target. (2) Product-driven for students — Refer & Earn in LMS/ERP, gamified tiers (EmFluencer/EmUltimate/EmBassador), Chromebook for 3+ referrals.
Product Interface
←
→
Impact at a glance
₹23Cr
Total Referral Revenue
19,940
Referral Leads
-35%
Blended CAC Reduction
#2
Acquisition Channel
446
Admissions from Referrals
Key Learnings
What this taught me
01
Visibility > cash incentives Key learning: visibility (seeing your referral progress) increased participation 3× more than increasing the cash amount alone.
02
Two-sided is better than one IST referrals and student referrals fed different lead pools. Running both doubled the surface area without doubling the cost.
03
Gamification stickiness has a ceiling Tier progression drove engagement for 60 days post-launch then plateaued. You need fresh challenges to sustain it.