Growth Hacking Case Study: Engineering Viral Loops & Exponential Traction for UpViral

Objective

UpViral’s mission was to become the #1 viral referral software for marketers, entrepreneurs, and creators. The challenge: build a system that didn’t just drive users—but turned every new user into a growth engine. Stratigia was hired to execute a full-stack growth hacking strategy that fused product, marketing, and psychology to generate rapid traction, user acquisition, and virality from day one.

Our Growth Hacking Framework

✅ Viral Loop Infrastructure

• Designed UpViral’s core product around virality: each new user invited others to access exclusive rewards
• Engineered referral incentives to maximize sharing: milestone rewards, leaderboard gamification, and scarcity tactics
• Built share-onboarding workflows that triggered viral invites automatically upon sign-up

30% of users invited at least 2+ others via native referral mechanics

✅ Launch Hacking & Pre-Launch Buzz

• Deployed a viral waitlist with social sharing rewards, incentivizing users to move up in line by referring others
• Created teaser videos and lead magnets with built-in share prompts and pixel tracking
• Recruited early beta users from Facebook groups and micro-communities to ignite traction

7,000+ leads captured pre-launch via viral waitlist alone

✅ Growth-Focused Landing Pages

• Created highly optimized, mobile-first landing pages with viral widgets (e.g., copy-link, share-to-join, unlock rewards)
• A/B tested variations across design, offer positioning, and psychological CTAs
• Integrated Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, and UTM attribution for full-funnel growth tracking

Top variant converted at 38%, fueling CAC efficiency

✅ Paid Amplification + Retargeting

• Ran low-CAC Facebook ad campaigns to seed the viral loop, targeting marketers and creators
• Used retargeting for invite drop-offs and rewarded previous referrers with exclusive unlocks

Every $1 in ads returned $5 in user-generated referrals (5x organic multiplier)

✅ Email + Social Hacking

• Automated email sequences tied to viral actions: leaderboard updates, rewards unlocked, and last-chance scarcity prompts
• Encouraged user-generated content via share contests and campaign highlights in Facebook group
• Created viral content templates that affiliates and users could repurpose

45%+ open rates on referral-based campaign updates

✅ Affiliate Growth Layer

• Onboarded 500+ affiliates with custom dashboards, swipe files, and bonus incentives
• Created FOMO-laced launch competitions with visibility-based rewards (e.g., leaderboard prizes, spotlight promos)

Affiliates contributed to over 40% of total sales in launch quarter

Results

Strategic Impact

UpViral wasn’t just a referral marketing tool—it was its own growth engine. By embedding virality directly into the product, aligning incentives across affiliates, users, and content, and layering on high-leverage tactics, Stratigia engineered a launch that scaled itself.

This case exemplifies the true nature of growth hacking: small actions that trigger exponential outputs. From a viral waitlist to UGC contests, from incentive design to low-CAC paid pushes, UpViral’s launch became a textbook play in self-scaling SaaS.

“Every signup led to two more. We didn’t just grow UpViral—we hacked growth into its DNA.”