To most marketers, card-linked offers (CLO) fly under the radar, overshadowed by other performance marketing, attribution, and branding plays.
And that’s a shame — because CLO strategies really work.
In 60 days or less:
- A popular sporting goods chain hit $1M in revenue, shifting its market share by over 4%.
- A cloud-based storage provider delivered over $100,000 in subscription revenue at $4.7:1 return on ad spend.
- A leading wireless carrier gained over 7,000 new subscriptions, hitting $1.3M in total sales at 2:1 ROAS.
But you can’t achieve that level of success without going all-in on card-linked offers, incorporating them into your go-to-market strategy as you would any other marketing tactic.
Below, we’re breaking down five ways Kard’s top retail, subscription, and everyday spend customers have catapulted their growth with card-linked offers, with context and advice from our resident expert, Dana Field, Kard’s Ad Operations Project Manager.
5 ways Kard customers maximize their return on CLO
1. They integrate CLO into each stage of their customer journey
Card-linked offers are an excellent way to get in front of a whole new set of customers and convert them into lifelong buyers. But new customer acquisition isn’t all CLO is good for. Dana explains:
“As a former buyer for a Fortune 500 retailer, I know that most merchant marketers tend to synonymize CLO with low-funnel. But really, it can be a play for the entire consumer lifecycle, helping you acquire new customers, convince old customers to come back, and upsell existing customers with higher order value offers.”
There can be granularity in all of those groups, too. For example, you might design a card-linked offer that rewards:
- New customers for canceling their plan with a competitor
- Previous customers for trying a newly launched product
- Existing customers for graduating to a more expensive plan
2. They segment their audiences effectively
In order for card-linked offers to work, you have to target the right prospects or customers at the right time. Thankfully, vendors like Kard have access to a vast database of consumers with specific attributes, making it easy to drill down to the audience you want to hit.
Besides filtering to include or exclude existing customers, lapsed customers, or buyers of a sister brand, you can also segment consumers by characteristics like:
- Average order size
- Other brands your ICP buys from
- When consumers typically spend throughout the year
- How often consumers come back after using a card-linked offer
In Dana’s experience:
“Tailoring your offers to fit the specific needs and wants of each of those segments dramatically increases your chances of conversion.”
3. They view CLO as a branding opportunity
CLO can give your brand an instant boost. Not only are you offering your customers a promotion, you’re also establishing credibility.
Whether a consumer uses your offer or not, your brand will appear in a consumer’s banking app (which they use regularly) next to other household name brands, urging them to explore your products.
“With CLO, you’re only paying for performance — not impressions. In a network like Kard’s, you’re getting a lot of eyeballs on your brand for free.”
4. They frame offers as discounts, not ads
Let’s face it, there’s nothing more irritating than a pop-up at an inopportune time or an article chock-full of ads. And yet, that’s what most brands are paying for month after month.
Card-linked offers, on the other hand, are nowhere near as frustrating as those ads. In fact, they show up more like coupons, making consumers feel like they’re getting a deal rather than being marketed to. Plus, CLO only show up in a trusted environment — a bank’s app — so feel more legitimate.
If consumers have been thinking about making a big purchase or buying from a new brand, a card-linked reward can give them the push they need, allowing you to nurture them into lifelong loyalists.
Per Dana:
“Some customers simply won’t take the risk of purchasing from a smaller or lesser-known brand without a coupon. Often, it’s the discount that gets them to buy and gives you the opportunity to hook them in.”
5. They aren’t afraid to experiment
Once customers have one successful campaign, they’re always eager to run it again. But sometimes, the best results come from making small tweaks.
Dana shares:
“There’s a lot of granularity with CLO that is ripe for testing. For example, you might deploy a much higher percent offer for new customers (15 - 20%) versus existing customers (5%). And then you could also limit that higher percent offer for new customers to a one-time reward and let existing customers use the lower percent reward over and over again.”
Making these kinds of adjustments has helped our customers get the best of both worlds — reeling in new customers and building brand loyalty with existing ones.
Bonus #6: They measure their results and iterate
Another great thing about card-linked offers is that you have near-instant access to performance data. After running a campaign in a platform like Kard, you’ll get a sense of which offers:
- Encourage repeat purchases
- Spur higher order value purchases
- Catch the eye of specific audience segments
- Convince consumers to move away from a competitor
With that data, you can fine-tune your campaigns and reward customers at every transaction, steadily growing loyalty over time. At Kard, our product team is working hard to bring its customers even more valuable information.
Her team is already working on a “campaign in a box” library that will detail exactly how top brands have used CLO in the past, along with the pros, cons, tips, and tricks for each strategy.
So what are you waiting for? Book a demo with our team to get a head start on CLO with Kard.
