Your happiest customers already recommend your product to friends and colleagues. They write positive reviews, share success stories, and defend your brand when critics show up. But these moments happen randomly, and you miss most of them. Without a system to identify these advocates and encourage their support, you leave tremendous marketing potential untapped.
A customer advocacy program gives you that system. It helps you spot your most enthusiastic users, makes it easy for them to promote your brand, and rewards them for doing so. The result is authentic word of mouth that scales beyond organic happenstance.
This guide walks you through building an advocacy program from scratch. You'll learn how to set clear goals, identify the right advocates, design activities that actually work, choose the tools you need, and measure your results. We'll also cover real examples from companies that have done this successfully, so you can adapt their strategies to fit your business. By the end, you'll have a practical framework for turning satisfied customers into your most powerful marketing asset.
A customer advocacy program is a structured initiative that identifies your most satisfied customers and empowers them to promote your brand through referrals, reviews, testimonials, case studies, and social media engagement. Unlike passive word of mouth, you actively recruit participants, provide them with specific ways to advocate, and reward their efforts. This transforms random promotional moments into a predictable, measurable marketing channel.
Your program needs three essential elements to function effectively. First, you must identify which customers qualify as advocates based on their satisfaction scores, product usage, and engagement levels. Companies like Dropbox look for users who have logged in consistently for at least 90 days and maintain a Net Promoter Score above 9.
Second, you create specific advocacy activities that make it easy for customers to support your brand. These activities range from simple actions like leaving reviews to more involved contributions like speaking at events or co-creating content. Evernote's program, for example, lets advocates earn points by inviting friends, which they can exchange for premium features.
Third, you establish a recognition and reward system that acknowledges advocate contributions. Rewards can be tangible (discounts, gift cards, exclusive features) or intangible (early access to new products, direct communication with your product team, public recognition). Asana surprises users with playful animations when they complete tasks, combining emotional design with functional rewards.
The most successful customer advocacy programs treat advocates as partners in your growth, not just marketing tools.
You might confuse advocacy programs with referral programs or loyalty programs, but they serve different purposes. Referral programs focus narrowly on getting existing customers to bring in new ones, usually through a one-time incentive. Uber's referral program gives both parties a discount after the first ride, but the relationship ends there.
Loyalty programs reward customers for repeated purchases rather than promotional activities. Starbucks' tiered system unlocks benefits as you spend more money, but it doesn't ask you to create content or speak about the brand publicly.
Customer advocacy programs cast a wider net by encouraging multiple types of promotional behavior over time. Advocates might write reviews one month, participate in a case study the next, and host a community event later. The relationship is ongoing, multifaceted, and focused on amplifying your brand's reach through authentic customer voices.
You cannot build an effective advocacy program without knowing what success looks like. Many companies skip this step and launch programs that collect advocates but deliver vague business outcomes. Before you recruit a single advocate, define specific goals that align with your broader business objectives and establish the metrics that will tell you whether you're achieving them.
Your advocacy program should solve concrete business problems, not just create feel-good moments. Start by identifying which challenges your program will address. Do you need to reduce customer acquisition costs? Increase trial-to-paid conversion rates? Generate more qualified leads? Improve product adoption in a specific market segment?
Choose two to three primary objectives that will guide your program design. Here are common goals that work well for customer advocacy programs:
Notice how each goal includes a specific number and timeframe. Vague objectives like "build brand awareness" won't help you make decisions about program structure or measure progress effectively.
Clear goals turn advocacy programs from nice-to-have initiatives into strategic growth engines that justify continued investment.
Once you know your objectives, you need metrics that track progress toward them. The right metrics depend entirely on your goals, so resist the temptation to track everything. Focus on three to five key performance indicators that directly reflect your stated objectives.
Match your metrics to your goals using this framework:
| Goal | Primary Metric | Secondary Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Increase referrals | Number of qualified referrals submitted | Referral-to-customer conversion rate |
| Generate case studies | Published case studies completed | Sales opportunities influenced by case studies |
| Improve NPS | Net Promoter Score | Advocate participation rate |
| Create reviews | Total reviews published | Average review rating |
| Reduce churn | Churn rate among advocates vs. non-advocates | Advocate engagement frequency |
Track both activity metrics (how many advocates are participating) and outcome metrics (what business results you're achieving). Activity metrics help you diagnose problems quickly, while outcome metrics prove the program's value to stakeholders. For example, if you see high advocate participation but low referral conversion rates, you know the quality of referrals needs improvement, not the quantity.
Set up your measurement infrastructure before launching the program. This means creating dashboards in your analytics tools, establishing baseline numbers for comparison, and scheduling regular review meetings where you examine the data and make adjustments.
You cannot invite everyone to your advocacy program. The most effective customer advocacy programs focus on customers who already demonstrate high satisfaction and active engagement with your product. You need a systematic approach to find these people, understand their motivations, and group them based on what they can realistically contribute. This step ensures you recruit advocates who will actually participate rather than filling your program with inactive members.
Start by pulling quantitative signals from your existing customer data that indicate advocacy potential. Look at your CRM, product analytics, and support systems to find customers who meet specific criteria. The strongest indicators include Net Promoter Scores of 9 or 10, consistent product usage over at least 90 days, low support ticket volume, and positive interactions with your team.
Create a scoring system that combines multiple data points to rank potential advocates. Assign points for different behaviors: 10 points for NPS score of 9-10, 5 points for daily active usage, 3 points for completing onboarding, 2 points for each positive support interaction, and 5 points for any organic referral or review they've already provided. Customers who score 25 points or higher become your priority list for recruitment.
Pull this data monthly and export a list of qualifying customers with their contact information, product usage details, and engagement history. This list becomes your recruitment pipeline for the next several months. Tools like your CRM or customer success platform can automate this scoring if you set up the right filters and calculations.
The best advocates reveal themselves through consistent product usage and unprompted positive interactions before you ever ask them to participate.
Not all advocates can contribute in the same ways. You need to segment your qualified list based on two factors: their potential value to your business and their capability to execute specific advocacy activities. This segmentation helps you match the right people with the right opportunities.
Group advocates into these segments based on their characteristics:
| Segment | Characteristics | Best Activities |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise champions | Work at large companies, have influence over buying decisions | Case studies, speaking engagements, executive testimonials |
| Power users | Deep product knowledge, active in your community | Product reviews, beta testing, community moderation |
| Social influencers | Large social media following, create content regularly | Social media posts, blog articles, video testimonials |
| Referral drivers | Strong professional networks, natural connectors | Peer referrals, introductions to prospects, networking events |
Each segment requires different asks and different rewards. Enterprise champions need significant recognition and direct access to your leadership team, while power users value early feature access and technical input on your roadmap. Match your program activities to what each segment can realistically deliver based on their position, skills, and available time.
Before you send invitations, manually review your top-scored candidates to verify they're truly a good fit. Check their recent activity, read any feedback they've submitted, and confirm they haven't had recent negative experiences. Remove anyone who has open support issues or shows signs of decreased engagement in the last 30 days.
Personalize your invitation message by referencing specific actions they've taken that caught your attention. Explain what the program involves, what you're asking them to do, and what they'll receive in return. Keep the initial ask simple so they can say yes without committing to extensive effort. For example, invite them to an exclusive community where they can optionally participate in various activities rather than demanding immediate action.
Send invitations in small batches of 25 to 50 people rather than your entire list at once. This approach lets you test messaging, refine your onboarding process, and ensure you can support new advocates properly before scaling up recruitment.
You need to create specific actions for advocates to take and clear incentives that motivate them to participate. The activities you choose must align with your program goals while matching what each advocate segment can realistically deliver. Your reward structure should recognize both small contributions and major efforts, creating a path that keeps advocates engaged over months or years. Without this balance between asks and rewards, you'll see high initial excitement followed by rapid drop-off.
Start by listing every possible advocacy action that could help achieve your program goals. Think beyond the obvious options like referrals and reviews. Consider testimonials for sales calls, beta testing new features, participating in customer advisory boards, creating social media content, speaking at events, mentoring new customers, or contributing to your knowledge base. Each activity should directly support at least one of your stated objectives.
Match these activities to the advocate segments you identified in Step 2. Enterprise champions excel at in-depth case studies and executive testimonials but struggle with high-volume activities like daily social posts. Power users contribute detailed product reviews and community support but may lack the corporate authority needed for formal case studies. Design your program so each segment has three to five primary activities they can choose from based on their strengths and available time.
Structure your activities by effort level and business impact using this framework:
| Effort Level | Activity Examples | Typical Impact | Time Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | Leave a review, share social post, complete survey | Awareness, social proof | 5-15 minutes |
| Medium | Write testimonial, refer one prospect, join advisory call | Lead generation, credibility | 30-60 minutes |
| High | Co-create case study, speak at event, host user meetup | Sales enablement, community | 2-8 hours |
Document clear expectations and guidelines for each activity. Tell advocates exactly what you need from them, what format to use, and how long it should take. For example, specify that product reviews should be at least 100 words and include specific use cases, or that case study participants need approval from their legal team before sharing company information.
The most effective customer advocacy programs offer multiple participation paths so advocates can contribute in ways that fit their skills, schedule, and comfort level.
Build a points-based reward system that assigns different values to different activities based on their effort level and business impact. Low-effort activities like sharing a social post earn 10 points, medium-effort actions like referrals earn 50 points, and high-effort contributions like case studies earn 200 points. This approach lets advocates accumulate points over time and redeem them for rewards they actually want.
Define three to four reward tiers that advocates can unlock as they accumulate points. Tier 1 rewards (100-200 points) might include branded merchandise, small gift cards, or feature requests prioritized in your roadmap. Tier 2 rewards (500-1000 points) could offer significant discounts, extended trial periods for premium features, or invitations to exclusive events. Tier 3 rewards (2000+ points) provide major benefits like free annual subscriptions, speaking opportunities at your conference, or direct quarterly meetings with your product leadership team.
Include both tangible and intangible rewards at each tier to appeal to different motivations. Some advocates care most about monetary benefits, while others value recognition, influence over your product direction, or exclusive access to your team. Test different reward combinations with small groups before scaling to see which incentives drive the most participation.
Remove every possible friction point from the advocacy process. Create simple submission forms where advocates can share their contributions with minimal effort. Provide templates for common activities like review writing or social media posts so advocates don't start from a blank page. Build a dedicated portal where they can track their points, see available activities, and redeem rewards without contacting your team.
Set up automated reminders that suggest relevant activities based on each advocate's segment and past participation. If someone wrote a review three months ago, prompt them to update it or try a different activity. Schedule quarterly campaigns that encourage specific actions tied to your current business priorities, like collecting reviews before a major industry conference or recruiting case study participants for an upcoming product launch. Give advocates the flexibility to participate when it fits their schedule rather than demanding immediate responses to every opportunity.
You cannot scale customer advocacy programs without documented processes and the right technology infrastructure. Manual tracking in spreadsheets breaks down once you exceed 50 advocates, and without clear workflows, your team wastes time on confusion and duplicate work. Your processes define how advocates move through your program, how your team handles requests, and where data lives. Your tools automate repetitive tasks and keep everything organized as you grow from dozens to hundreds of participants.
Create a step-by-step workflow that shows exactly what happens from the moment someone becomes an advocate until they complete their first activity. Map every stage including invitation, onboarding, activity selection, submission review, reward fulfillment, and ongoing engagement. Write this down in a shared document that anyone on your team can access and follow without asking questions.
Your workflow should answer these critical questions for every stage:
Build specific workflows for your most common advocacy activities. For example, your case study workflow might include: advocate expresses interest, your team sends NDA and interview questions, advocate completes legal approval, you schedule interview call, designer creates draft, advocate reviews and approves, legal team signs off, you publish and promote the case study, advocate receives their reward. Each step needs an owner and a deadline to prevent bottlenecks.
Clear workflows eliminate confusion about who does what and when, reducing the time it takes to complete each advocacy activity by 40% or more.
Establish a weekly or biweekly meeting where your team reviews active advocacy requests, addresses blockers, and plans upcoming campaigns. Create a standing agenda that includes advocacy activity submissions pending review, rewards ready for fulfillment, new advocate recruitment progress, and metrics tracking toward your goals. This regular cadence keeps everyone aligned and prevents advocates from waiting weeks for responses that damage their enthusiasm.
Define escalation paths for situations that need rapid resolution. Specify which team member handles urgent case study approvals, who can authorize off-menu rewards for high-value advocates, and how to fast-track activities tied to immediate business needs. Document these procedures so your team can act quickly without scheduling extra meetings or waiting for leadership approval.
Create templates for every communication your team sends to advocates. Write email templates for invitations, activity confirmations, reward notifications, and regular check-ins. Draft social media post templates advocates can customize for sharing. Build form templates for collecting testimonials, review submissions, and case study information. These templates maintain consistent messaging and save your team hours of drafting time each week.
Select tools that integrate with your existing systems rather than creating isolated data silos. Your advocacy platform should connect to your CRM so you can track which advocates influence specific deals, sync with your email marketing tool for campaign automation, and feed data into your analytics dashboard for reporting. Look for platforms that offer API access or native integrations with tools you already use.
Evaluate tools based on these essential capabilities:
| Capability | Why It Matters | What to Look For |
|---|---|---|
| Advocate tracking | Monitor participation and points | Individual profiles with activity history |
| Activity management | Organize different advocacy types | Custom workflows for each activity type |
| Reward automation | Fulfill incentives without manual work | Point system with automated redemption |
| Reporting | Prove program value to stakeholders | Customizable dashboards with goal tracking |
Start with a simple tech stack that covers your core needs before adding specialized tools. Many companies successfully run customer advocacy programs using just their existing CRM, a project management tool like Asana, a form builder like Google Forms, and a spreadsheet for tracking points. You can always upgrade to dedicated advocacy software after you prove the program works and secure budget for better tools.
You have your goals, your advocates, your activities, and your processes ready. Now you need to launch your program in a way that lets you learn fast and fix problems before they scale. Your first 90 days determine whether your customer advocacy programs succeed or stall, so you must balance moving quickly with maintaining quality. Launch with a small group, measure everything that matters, gather feedback constantly, and make improvements based on real data rather than assumptions.
Begin with 25 to 50 advocates rather than your entire qualified list. This controlled start lets you test every part of your program without overwhelming your team or disappointing hundreds of advocates if something breaks. Choose participants who represent different segments so you can see how each group responds to your activities and rewards.
Run your soft launch for 30 to 45 days before expanding. During this period, invite advocates to complete at least two different activities so you can identify problems with your workflows, submission forms, or reward fulfillment process. Monitor how long each step takes, where advocates get confused, and which activities generate the most enthusiasm. Document every issue you find and fix it before recruiting more participants.
Schedule individual check-in calls with five to ten advocates during your soft launch to gather detailed feedback. Ask specific questions about their experience: What confused them during onboarding? Which activities felt too difficult or time-consuming? What rewards would motivate them to participate more often? These conversations reveal insights that surveys miss and help you refine your program before scaling.
Soft launching with a small group costs you a few weeks but saves you months of fixing problems that could have been prevented with early testing.
Create a dashboard that updates automatically with data from your tracking systems. Include the metrics you defined in Step 1 plus operational metrics like advocate participation rate, average time to complete each activity type, reward redemption rate, and advocate satisfaction scores. Review this dashboard every week during your team meetings to spot trends before they become major issues.
Track these essential metrics during your first 90 days:
| Metric Category | Specific Metrics | Target Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Participation | Active advocates, activities completed, submission rate | Weekly |
| Quality | Activity approval rate, average completion time, rework requests | Weekly |
| Business Impact | Referrals submitted, reviews published, case studies completed | Biweekly |
| Advocate Health | Satisfaction score, repeat participation rate, churn rate | Monthly |
Compare your actual numbers against the baseline targets you set in Step 1. If you aimed for 40% more qualified referrals in six months and you're only at 5% growth after the first month, you need to investigate why. Look for patterns in your data that explain underperformance, like low participation from specific segments or high drop-off rates for particular activities.
Send a short survey to all active advocates at the 30-day and 60-day marks asking them to rate their experience and suggest improvements. Keep surveys to five questions or fewer so advocates actually complete them. Ask about program clarity, activity difficulty, reward satisfaction, and what would make them participate more often.
Host a virtual feedback session with your most engaged advocates after 60 days. Present what you've learned, share early results, and ask for input on planned changes. This transparent approach makes advocates feel like partners in building the program rather than just participants, which increases their long-term commitment. Test major changes with a subset of advocates before rolling them out to everyone to avoid disrupting what already works well.
Make visible improvements based on advocate feedback within two weeks of collecting it. If advocates say submission forms are too long, simplify them immediately. If certain rewards never get redeemed, replace them with options people actually want. Communicate every change you make back to advocates so they see you take their input seriously and stay motivated to share more suggestions.
You now have a complete framework for building customer advocacy programs that turn satisfied customers into active promoters. Start by setting clear goals and metrics that tie directly to business outcomes. Identify your most engaged customers using data-driven scoring, then segment them based on what they can realistically contribute. Design activities and rewards that match each segment's strengths while removing every possible friction point from participation.
Your program needs solid processes and tools to scale beyond the first few dozen advocates. Launch small, measure everything, and improve based on real feedback rather than assumptions. The most successful programs evolve constantly as you learn what works for your specific audience and business model.
Building a strong advocacy program requires you to listen to customer feedback continuously and act on what you learn. Koala Feedback helps you collect, organize, and prioritize that feedback so you can identify your most engaged users and understand what matters most to them. When you know what your customers care about, you can design advocacy activities that resonate and build programs they actually want to participate in.
Start today and have your feedback portal up and running in minutes.
