What is User-to-User Referrals?
Instead of relying only on your own promotion, this feature lets the people already subscribed to you invite their friends to subscribe too. Your subscribers become an extension of your growth — sharing a personal link that brings friends straight to your page.
The referrer (your existing subscriber) earns a cash reward when their friend becomes a paying subscriber.
The referred friend gets a discount and a free trial to make trying your content an easy decision.
You gain new, attributed subscribers through word-of-mouth, without having to do any of the outreach yourself.
How the reward works
When a subscriber refers a friend who converts to a paid subscription, the referrer earns a cash reward equal to a percentage of that friend's first purchase (calculated on the full, non-discounted price).
The reward is paid out automatically by Cello to the referrer's PayPal account once the friend's paid conversion sticks (i.e., isn't refunded or reversed). Cello also handles all the operational details on the referrer's side — including tax reporting and identity verification — so you don't need to manage payouts yourself.
What the referred friend gets
To make it easy for a friend to say yes, every referral includes:
A 7-day free trial
20% off their first payment (monthly or annual)
Monthly is the primary subscription path for referrals, but annual is also supported. If the friend starts on the free trial, the 20% discount is preserved and applied once the trial converts to a paid subscription — so the discount doesn't disappear by the time they're actually charged.
How costs are split
This program runs on a co-funded model — meaning every cost tied to the referral (the referrer's cash reward, the friend's discount, and Cello's ongoing service fee) is split the same way your regular revenue is split between you and Playbook.
This means:
Nothing is silently deducted from your payouts.
You're never charged for Cello's setup — that flat fee is covered entirely by Playbook.
Your share of referral costs mirrors your existing revenue split, so the economics stay consistent and transparent with how you're already paid on the platform.
You'll be asked to explicitly opt in to the referral program before it activates on your page — it isn't turned on automatically.
Where do referral links send people
Referral links are not generic Playbook links — they deep-link directly to your specific creator page. When a friend taps a referral link, they land straight on your checkout page with the referral discount already applied and clearly visible, so there's no confusion about the offer or which creator they're subscribing to.
The referrer experience, step by step
Here's what your subscribers will see when they refer a friend:
Discovery — A referral prompt appears on your creator page, post-workout screen, or in app settings, inviting them to share you with friends and earn money for doing so.
Get a link — Tapping "share" generates their unique referral link, pre-filled with a message that includes their name, your name, and the current offer.
Share anywhere — They can send the link via SMS, email, or by copying the link directly through their phone's share sheet.
Stay in the loop — The referrer gets notified when their friend redeems the link, and again once their reward is confirmed and earned.
Get paid — The reward is paid out directly through Cello, which manages the payout process end-to-end.
The referred friend's experience, step by step
The friend opens the referral link and lands directly on your checkout page — not your general page — with the discount already applied and visible.
They see the offer clearly at checkout: 20% off their first month (or first year, if annual), with the option to start a 7-day free trial without losing the discount.
They check out through Stripe. Whether they convert immediately or at the end of their free trial, the conversion is tracked and attributed to both the referrer and to you as the creator.
They're prompted to download the Playbook app and are routed straight to your page.
Why this matters for your growth
Referrals give your existing community a direct, incentivized way to bring you new subscribers — turning word-of-mouth into something rewarding for everyone involved: your subscriber earns cash, their friend gets a discount, and you gain a new subscriber, all without added cost on your end beyond your existing revenue split.