Referral Tags Help Guide

What a Referral Tag Is

A referral tag is a custom label added to the end of your project URL that allows you to track where visits, signups, and pledges are coming from. Each tag represents a specific source, channel, or campaign so you can clearly see what is driving results.

Example structure:

?ref=your-ref-source

Why Referral Tags Are Important

Using referral tags allows you to:

• Understand which channels are driving traffic and conversions
• Compare performance across email, ads, influencers, and social posts
• Optimize efforts based on real data
• Attribute results to specific partners or campaigns

Without referral tags, traffic is grouped together, making it much harder to evaluate what is actually working.

Note: If you don’t add referral tags, traffic and conversions may be bucketed as an “unknown” source. You won’t be able to see exactly which sources led to your success or leverage that knowledge to optimize your marketing efforts.

How to Create a Referral Tag

Referral tags are created manually and only take a few seconds.

1. Copy your project or teaser page URL
2. Add ?ref= to the end of the URL
3. Use a short, descriptive label with dashes and lowercase letters

Example:

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/creator-name/project-name?ref=john-doe-youtube

Best practices:

• No white spaces (Use dashes instead)
• No special characters
• Keep tags lowercase
• Make them easy to recognize later in reporting

When and Where to Use Referral Tags

Add referral tags to any link to track exactly where your traffic is coming from.

Referral tags should be used anytime you are driving traffic and want to understand where people are coming from. They are not limited to specific platforms, channels, or campaign types.

This applies across all stages of your campaign and all traffic sources, including but not limited to:

Pre-Launch and Live Campaigns

• Teaser page URLs
• Email campaign URLs sent outside of BackerKit Launch 
• Paid ads across any platform
• Organic social posts
• Influencer posts and promotions

Examples:

?ref=prelaunch-facebook-ads

?ref=launch-instagram-post

Social Media and Content Platforms

• Twitter or Bluesky posts
• YouTube video descriptions and pinned comments
• Instagram bio links and stories
• TikTok links
• Discord announcements
• Reddit posts or comments

Example:

?ref=youtube-description

Email Campaigns (sent outside of BackerKit Launch)*

*BackerKit Launch automatically tags email campaigns

• Separate tags for each send or audience segment
• Useful for comparing performance across emails over time

Example:

?ref=update-3-email

Paid Advertising

• Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Google, TikTok, or any other ad platform
• Separate tags by platform, campaign, or test variation

Example:

?ref=google-search-ads

Influencers, Partners, and Press

• Each creator, partner, or outlet should have a unique referral tag
• Enables clear attribution of traffic and pledges

Example:

?ref=creator-name-twitter

Simple Rule of Thumb

If you are sharing a link and want visibility into how it performs, use a referral tag.

Consistent use of referral tags ensures cleaner reporting, better decision making, and clearer insight into what is actually driving traffic, signups, and pledges.