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For performance marketers, every summer brings a tinge of anxiety.
Though it may be filled with outdoor activities and vacations, they know the reality: the holidays are right around the corner, and programmatic CPMs are about to skyrocket.
Why does this happen? Because every advertiser knows how valuable this time of year is.
They know customers are in the buying mood. They know brands want to capitalize on that mindset. And they know the ones swimming in cash are willing to spend whatever it takes to get premium placement.
So they ratchet up their rates, making ads more competitive and more expensive across the board.
But traditional advertising isn’t the only way to get in front of potential and existing customers. The solution to this problem is finding cheaper, brand-safe, more effective alternatives — alternatives like card-linked offers.
With the help of Kard’s Merchant Sales Directors, Chris Di Censo and Christian Gonzalez, we’re outlining eight ways card-linked offers can make your company stand out from the crowd without breaking the bank.
What’s a card-linked offer?
A card-linked offer is a promotion from a merchant that appears in an issuer’s rewards network. For example, your credit card company may offer you $5 cashback for a purchase at your favorite retail store.
To you, this offer is like a coupon — a nice surprise way to save money.
To issuers, this offer is a way for them to associate their card with rewards. You already know that you’ll be compensated for using it.
To merchants, this offer is a way to encourage more or even higher-order value purchases. By being in the issuer’s rewards network, they stay top of mind.
8 Benefits of CLO during the holiday season
1. Stand out from the crowd
The holiday season is a critical period for most merchants, with spending at its peak. That said, capturing consumer attention and ensuring repeat visits can be difficult.
Per Christian:
"CLO platforms like Kard’s help merchants to break through the noise, offering personalized, compelling rewards that consumers actually want — right at the point of purchase."
2. Pay for performance
Most performance marketers are paying for impressions. The more impressions they want, the more they’ll have to pay. First, they have to pay for high-impact creative. Then, they have to pay to get that creative on premium sites. They’ll have to pay even more to place it above the fold.
The worst part? All this time, effort, and money may not even lead to conversions!
Card-linked offers eliminate this risk — you only pay when a customer actually makes a purchase.
Chris points out:
“Performance marketers pay a steep CPM whether a customer buys or not. In the background, they are just hoping and praying they get a return. A CLO platform like Kard de-risks that whole process — you’re only paying for a good outcome.”
3. Brand safety
When you’re paying for clicks or impressions, you don’t have much control over inventory. It could be a page takeover, shown next to an unsavory ad, or appear on a website that doesn’t jibe with your brand or mission at all.
Card-linked offers appear in possibly the most brand-safe environment there is: a banking app. Chris emphasizes:
“With CLO, there is no such thing as low-quality inventory. Everything is above board. Offers feel like a coupon, not an ad. Best of all, consumers trust their bank and, by extension, what their bank markets to them.”
4. Free impressions
Merchants only pay for card-linked offers when a customer makes a purchase. But they’re generating brand awareness the moment their offer goes live.
“You’re getting free impressions with CLO,” Chris explains, “More importantly, you’re getting free impressions when people are closest to thinking about spending money: when they’re looking at their banking app.”
Card-linked offers take the guesswork out of intent and recency, marketing to folks when they’re most primed to make a purchase.
5. Broad reach
Traditional marketing tactics are reliant on cookies and site visits, which can put a damper on your reach.
Card-linked offers, on the other hand, aren’t hampered by those limitations. Chris shares:
“You may be able to gain the attention of people who would’ve never visited your site otherwise. That gives you a huge leg up in terms of new potential customer engagement and acquisition.”
With Kard, for example, you gain access to a 47M+ captive audience, primarily made up of Millennial and Gen Z buyers, who are notoriously tough to target.
6. In-store traffic
A report by LEK Consulting that came out earlier this year found that a whopping 64% of Gen Z shoppers prefer in-store shopping to online. And it’s no secret that consumers tend to spend more in-store.
Card-linked offers can drive that behavior by giving consumers an incentive — make an in-store purchase and get 20% off, for instance.
“You need to be getting as many people in your stores during the holidays as possible, and CLO can push people in that direction,” Chris Once they’re there, they’re more likely to spend time with a sales associate, who can encourage even more sales.”
7. Loyalty drives holiday lift
During the holiday season, consumers are seeking value — but more importantly, they’re looking for rewards. With Kard, merchants can build loyalty, encouraging repeat purchases well beyond the initial holiday season.
Our data shows that rewarding customers for loyalty increases repeat purchases by 40%, driving long-term engagement, not just one-off sales. Our platform drives immediate, measurable results and helps brands build lasting loyalty with high-value customers they won’t find anywhere else.
8. Real-time results based on actual spend
Unlike traditional advertising models, where success is measured in impressions or clicks (often with no direct correlation to sales), Kard offers real-time results driven by actual spend. Our platform leverages first-party transaction data from leading fintech partners, so merchants can see immediate results tied directly to sales, not just brand visibility.
Kard’s first-party data also goes beyond surface-level metrics to show:
- Shopper behavior
- Purchase frequency
- Wallet share
Christian explains:
"With this data at their fingertips, merchants can fine-tune their loyalty strategies, understanding which offers drive incremental lift, which consumers are most likely to convert, and how to maximize ROI during the holiday season and beyond."
Level up your seasonal marketing with Kard
CLO is the best way to manage your budget and stand out from the crowd this holiday season.
But not just any CLO platform will do — you need one that generates real results.
Some card-linked offers are what’s called “click-to-activate,” meaning consumers have to toggle the offer on before making a purchase. But at Kard, we automatically link them to our customers’ in-network offers, often tripling the percentage of matched rewards transactions with other loyalty platforms or in-house tools.
As soon as a customer makes a purchase that qualifies for a reward, they get a notification in their app telling them they got an X% discount. That nice surprise not only boosts their loyalty to the brand they purchased from, it also boosts their impression of their bank.
For these reasons, Kard’s customers typically see:
- $10:1 topline ROAS
- A 25% increase in AOV
- 15% more site visits
Want similar results?
Take the first step toward better seasonal marketing results — book a call with one of our experts today.
