How RealtyNinja referrals convert 2x higher than paid ads and free trial signups

RealtyNinja joined forces with SaaSquatch to automatically reward real estate agents who invite fellow REALTORS® to build a website on their easy-to-use platform. The result? RealtyNinja acquires new users at 2x the conversion rate when compared to paid search ads and free trials, and generates 16% of new users from referrals. Keep reading to learn their story.

About RealtyNinja

RealtyNinja is committed to creating beautiful, lead-capture REALTOR® websites for real estate agents in Canada. They offer everything needed to build a beautiful, user-friendly website to help real estate agents grow their business and become modern marketing ninjas.

Every RealtyNinja website is complete with pages and content management, listing and building functionality, SEO, lead capture, integrations, analytics, and more - all backed by an uncompromising passion for customer support.

Instead of spending countless hours trying to build an online presence from scratch, real estate agents can create a responsive, lead-capturing website with RealtyNinja with no technical experience required.

The Challenge

RealtyNinja knew early on that a customer referral program could have a significant effect on the company’s growth. They began rewarding referrals with a manual process, but it quickly became difficult to maintain and scale for the results they knew were possible.

The company was confident that with the right tools, automation, and expertise, they could fully tap into this avenue of new business. Casimir Loeber, Co-Founder of RealtyNinja shares that “As our customer base grew, we started realizing more and more that it would be beneficial to launch a fully-fledged referral program and that it could really work for us.”

Inspired by the referral program success of tech giant Dropbox, RealtyNinja designed a double-sided program to offer stackable monthly discounts to their advocates, and looked for a provider who could make the process as automatic and seamless as possible.

Loeber notes that “We thought about building the referral program ourselves, but we have a philosophy of standing on the shoulders of giants. We didn’t want to be responsible for creating and maintaining new code or having to spend time away from other projects trying to make updates or fix bugs.”

The Solution

RealtyNinja selected SaaSquatch as the preferred referral vendor who could implement their desired program structure exactly as imagined, and natively integrate with their existing billing provider, Recurly.

By using SaaSquatch, RealtyNinja customers can refer friends to give a 10% monthly discount, and also receive a 10% subscription discount for themselves once their friend’s website is launched. For customers who refer 10 friends, their website becomes 100% free!

The goal of a free website gives customers a reason to keep referring and filling the lead funnel, while the rewards boost retention rates by increasing customer loyalty. If customers can receive a consistent discount on their monthly bill, they are much less likely to consider switching to a competitor and giving up their earned cost savings.

Having launched the program with the goal of growing the brand, RealtyNinja has seen consistent improvements in multiple areas of the business, able to automatically and effortlessly attract and retain high-value customers at a scale not possible before.

The referral program converts at double the rate when compared to paid search ads, and at a 136% higher rate than free trials. Plus, 16% of RealtyNinja’s new users come from referrals - a number that continues to grow!

RealtyNinja plans to leverage SaaSquatch to consolidate all advocacy programs into a single platform, and launch additional rewards programs to engage their loyal customers.

“The best part about our referral program is that it just works. There have been no bugs or issues with implementation. It works so well and so smoothly that we tend to forget about it - in the best way possible."

Loeber adds that "When we need support, we get the help we need and it’s always fantastic support. The referral program is consistently filling the funnel with new leads, and we just get to watch the numbers go up. SaaSquatch allows us to focus on our other projects and not worry about systems breaking.”

The Results

• 2x higher conversion rate than paid ads: RealtyNinja’s referral program converts at double the rate when compared to paid search ads.
• 136% higher conversion rate than free trials: RealtyNinja’s referral program converts at a 136% higher rate than their average trial conversions.
• 16% of new users from referrals: 16% of RealtyNinja’s customers come from their referral program - a number that continues to grow!