eCommerce

The Runna App Ambassador Program Case Study

With over a million downloads, Runna is a top iOS and Android fitness app. Runna chose Everflow to help manage and scale their growing Ambassador program -- achieving impressive results like a 289% boost in active Ambassadors.

Tony Cohn

September 15, 2025

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From the right shoes for a vert-based trail run to effective shades that still look cool, runners naturally look to their friends, family, and most notably—successful runners—for what to buy to improve their training.

Brands like Goodr, Brooks, and Nuun have spread quickly amongst the running community through endorsements by runners on Instagram, TikTok, and through running publications. This concept isn’t novel to the running industry; ambassador programs are being utilized by the world’s biggest brand to drive sales.

Ambassador programs become even more profitable, however, once they introduce the mechanics of affiliate marketing. Introducing performance-based commission models allows brands to scale their programs rapidly without risk.

In 2024, with over a million downloads on Android and accolades from Apple, Runna had become the pace-setter for running apps and was ready to scale their Ambassador program. Runna took their program to the Everflow affiliate marketing platform.

Runners from around the world wanted to help others smash their running goals (while earning extra cash) by becoming Runna Ambassadors, and the Runna team was running into challenges due to lack of a comprehensive platform.

The Runna team quickly realized that Google Sheets were not going to be enough to manage their rising number of Ambassadors, and shifted the management of their program over to Everflow.

Within 90 days, Runna had their Ambassador program dialed in through Everflow, generating a 289% increase in active Ambassadors. Fast forward a year, Runna is seeing +252% YoY growth in payouts to Ambassadors and has seen a 70% growth in enrolled Ambassadors.

So, how did Runna achieve such scale with Everflow? Let’s move to the starting blocks!

Why Is Runna’s Ambassador Program So Popular?

So, how does one go from a sedentary lifestyle to running a 5k, 10k, half-marathon, or further?

The answer is Runna.

Available in 180 countries and named one of Apple’s top three apps in the world in 2024, Runna gives you everything you need to hit your running goals:

Customized training plans designed to help you crush your first race, boost your pace, or even level up to a longer distance.
Complete support, including tips on your running form, nutrition advice, and exercise reminders.
Personalized strength, conditioning, and mobility support.

Even more impressive than the app’s feature suite, Runna has helped millions of runners finish their first race and set personal best times. Like the sound of a starting gun, Runna’s massive success in transforming lives has made the running world take notice—sending ambassadors flocking to the app.

Aid Station: Runna & Everflow

With the Runna app exploding in popularity, Runna’s Ambassador team understandably had most of their schedules stuck on routine daily management tasks. Most importantly, all Ambassadors needed to be onboarded, paid, and given timely support from the Runna team.

The team began to notice that matching their desired growth pace wasn’t going to be possible through Google Sheets.

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“We were rapidly and exponentially growing the number of Ambassadors we were working with and our existing systems for tracking and paying out ambassador payments wasn’t fit for our scaling needs,”
stated Caitlin Buckley, Head of Ambassadors at Runna.

After conveying their needs and growth goals to Everflow, Runna began full team platform trainings with Everflow to understand how to use the platform and received a custom platform setup for their Ambassador program.

The Runna team was now ready to utilize Everflow to scale their Ambassador program.

Step 1: Smarter Tracking Setup

The Runna team needed more than simple conversion data to grow their program. Runna quickly implemented more advanced tracking to take a deeper look into how Ambassadors were driving subscriptions to Runna’s premium version.

Through Everflow, Runna now had more insights into the full funnel activity of their Ambassadors. Runna was now armed with the ability to use advanced tracking capabilities, including:

Live tracking of app signups
Trial starts
Complete view of real-time conversions from each Ambassador and Ambassadors in total

Using this rich data, Runna began using Everflow’s reporting and analytics suite to identify potential superstar Ambassadors and work with producers to ramp up activity even further.

Step 2: Boosting Performance With Data

The Runna team became quick students of Everflow’s in-platform reporting and analytic tools, and used new data uncovered to directly scale program performance. Among the tools utilized by the team, the conversion report was a favorite.

“The conversion report empowered the team to make more data-driven decisions and spend more of their time building strong relationships with the ambassadors,” added Buckley.

Besides utilizing the report to strengthen Ambassador relationships, the Runna team set up API integrations of several Everflow reports into their overall channel reporting – giving them a live view of sales versus their other performance channels.

Runna’s use of data wasn’t limited solely to performance insights, as the Runna team relied on Everflow’s reporting and analytics to manage the quickly rising number of Ambassadors joining their program.

Step 3: Total Program Management

Circling back to Runna’s original need for a more robust platform, the team utilized the Everflow platform to take routine and time-consuming tasks off of their plates, including:

Application processing
Management
Creative disbursement
Fraud protection
Offer tracking
Performance reporting
Payment processing

This last task was a key need for the Runna team. With Ambassadors located across the globe, Runna needed a solution to automatically collect Ambassador tax information, allow Ambassadors to choose a convenient method, and generate timely invoices for the Runna team to remit payment.

All of these vital tasks were easily achieved through the direct, in-platform integration of Tipalti. This quick connection to one of the world’s leading payment processors allowed the Runna team to offload a ton of manual work, while ensuring their Ambassadors were paid on a timely basis.

Runna further dove into Everflow’s in-platform payment tools to scale Ambassador activity even further, most notably through the use of Everflow’s custom payout rules and tiered commission functionality.

“The tiered commission functionality allowed us to set up bespoke payout structures for our partners, a key need for us, as a lot of other solutions we looked at didn’t allow for complex, bespoke payout structures,” added Buckley.

The Finish Line: What’s Next For Runna?

With a recent 252% spike in YoY program payouts, Runna’s Ambassador Program is still thriving on Everflow. The Runna team continues to build in other key areas as well.

Their recent acquisition of popular fitness app Strava has given the Runna team an even stronger tailwind in 2025, connecting them to even more athletes globally.

According to Buckley, the Runna team isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

“We’re heads down continuing to make Runna the best possible running coaching app for our users. The team is continuing to work on building a ton of exciting new features, including the translation of the app to 7 different languages. This is in line with our commitment to make the app accessible to all runners all over the world.