For a few months now I've been putting a lot of effort into bringing new players in @splinterlands via an attractive onboarding offer. I started doing this when Splinterlands announced the updated Ambassador program, because I felt the new program allowed me to create something that was a win-win-win (good for the company/ecosystem, good for new players, and good for me). In this post I'll share my approach, look at results so far, and give an estimate of the costs.
My offer
First off, if you haven't yet seen my offer, here it is (and if you're a new player looking to create an account, here's a direct link to plug in my referral code).
My offer comes with enough cards to get players relatively comfortably into Silver and possibly Gold in Modern league, enough SPS to earn, 5% cash-back on pack purchases, some CL packs & pickles, and 1 on 1 assistance on Discord on whatever they need.
I had various other offers that came before it, which optimized for different things based on what I was trying to do. The current offer is the 4th or 5th version and has been tuned over time based on what I've seen work best.
By the numbers
Referrals & Spellbooks
I'm really happy with the traction I've had with my offer. It took a little while for it to pick up, and to find the right formula. Early on, my focus was on getting to 10 players each with $100 spent, which would enable me to reach the "Gold" tier of the program, which enables me to earn from the spend of my referrals.
Later on I focused more on getting a larger quantity of players that I could help convert to Spellbooks and retain as active.
So far I've had 79 referrals and 43 Spellbooks, which is a massive 54% conversion rate.
Spellbooks are tough to come by. They require some commitment from new players, and therefore some hand-holding. So even though I'm not the leader in overall referrals, I'm really proud to have converted the most referred players to Spellbooks.
The key value is, of course, the Modern Silver deck that I delegate to new Spellbook purchasers for 30 days. It ticks off various boxes:
- Gives a compelling reason for users to purchase a Spellbook without requiring further commitment (e.g. spend $X)
- Encourages play in Modern, which drives activity/retention
- It gives access to cards that are powerful enough to rank up but not so complex as to deter new users
Player activity
I've been really happy to see many of my recent referrals sticking around and playing daily. I believe the YGG GAP program is also largely responsible for that, so the timing on that program has been great, however another key element is the deck I delegate users which gives them early wins as they start to build out their own decks. It's powerful enough to get users into earning territory but not so powerful that they aren't encouraged to rent/buy some of their own cards.
Another benefit from my offer which I think drives activity and retention is my "1 on 1 support on Discord". I currently have about 10-15 of my referrals who regularly engage with me with questions. Oftentimes, it's simple questions like a card assessment, lineup recommendation, a question about a mechanic they don't understand (gameplay or otherwise), or questions about onboarding or Hive. I've made many different tutorials and articles that go in depth on some of the questions I've received.
In order to help answer some of the most frequent questions, I even put together my "Ultimate Starter Guide" for new Splinterlands players.
ROI
Believe me when I say I am not doing this purely for personal ROI. My costs have been fairly high. In the long run, do I think my ROI is positive? Yes, I do, however it pays off on the long term and through a lot of effort. However I believe this experience can help drive overall growth for the game, which of course as a stakeholder I also benefit from, and that's more important to me.
Returns
Here's a snapshot of what I've earned to date from my referrals.
- Credits are earned from Spellbook purchases (500 per Spellbook)
- Glint is earned at the end of season (5% of referrals' earned Glint)
- DEC is earned from pack & card purchases
My costs
My first two offers were designed specifically to get me to the "10 players with $100 in spend" milestone which helped me enter the Gold tier and cost roughly the following:
- First offer: ~$400-500
- Second offer: ~$300-400
Current offer ongoing costs:
- Modern Silver decks [20 decks, ~$300/deck, 30 day duration, 20% est. APR]: At full capacity (20 decks) it would cost $100/month (currently 18 decks taken so ~$90/mo)
- SPS [50k for 2 months, 150k for 1 month, 0.001 DEC/SPS/day rental opportunity cost]: At full capacity (5M SPS) it would cost $150/month (currently 2.5M so ~$75/mo)
- CA cash-back [5% up to 40k DEC]: This technically pays for itself (comes out of my benefits, so while it could theoretically cost $40/referral I count it as zero
- 5 CL packs: ~$2 per qualified referral ($100 spend or more)
- 5 RF pickles: $0.75 per qualified referral (after Spellbook purchase)
What I'm not including here are the costs to acquire the assets that I'm delegating out (cards & SPS). I don't consider those costs as I still own the assets, and in some cases the value of the assets I had to purchase to support new players has actually gone up (e.g. I started doing this before Survival went live and acquired lots of CL assets at the time, who went up in price after Survival went live). All in all however, I have purchased several thousand dollars of cards in order to be able to fulfill my delegation promises to new players.
Visibility
To get visibility on my offer, I've done several things:
- Regularly post the offer on X, including posting it in various languages or targeted at specific locales (several of which have brought me some excellent players)
- Engaged with different communities to try to plant seeds in a few places outside Splinterlands (moderate success)
- Engaged with the YGG GAP program through some YGG members (good success there)
- Connected with @pushtoken to support their memecoin in exchange for visibility and links to my referral code
- Encouraged new referrals to bring along their friends (good success there)
Conclusion
I think the current Ambassador program is designed in a way that encourages and rewards players who are willing to put in the time, effort, and resources. I feel it's been a good use of my time and that, over time, it'll benefit the game, players, and me.
I would love to see more competition in referral onboarding, and feel that with a properly thought-through offer you can make something that's both beneficial for the game, for new players, and for yourself. If it's something you've been thinking about, I hope this post gave you some inspiration and if you have any questions please feel free to ask me in the comments.
All the images in this post were created using Midjourney AI