So, you’ve stumbled upon card-linked offers and think they’d be a great tactic to add to your GTM strategy. And why wouldn’t they be?
CLOs promote your brand in a safe environment (banking apps), position cash back as a reward for consumer loyalty, and help you target the exact people in your ICP.
But not all CLO platforms are alike, and finding the right one is the key to unlocking the kind of growth you’re looking for.
That’s why we’ve built a clear 6-question framework for choosing a CLO tool that aligns with your unique business needs, with the help of our resident expert, Taylor McClendon, Senior Account Manager at Kard.
6 Questions to ask when evaluating CLO solutions
Use these six questions to help guide your evaluation:
1. What banks do you partner with?
The quality and variety of issuer partnerships can make or break a CLO platform. So ask yourself, does the platform you’re considering partner with traditional banks, neobanks, or a mix?
And does that support the audience you’re trying to go after?
Kard, for example, connects merchants with a wide range of issuers, including popular digital-first banks like Current and Varo, ensuring access to younger, tech-savvy consumers who are just beginning to establish their spending habits. Per Taylor:
“This is a powerful advantage for brands looking to reach Gen Z and Millennials. Many other CLO platforms on the market primarily focus on traditional banks, which cater to older, more established audiences. If your goal is to engage with a younger demographic or early adopters, prioritize platforms that align with that audience.”
2. Are those issuer partnerships exclusive?
You could try to pursue relationships with banks on your own. But most issuers don’t have the technology to support true CLO. If that’s the case, you’ve got to work with your dev team to connect to multiple platforms (and then manage all those integrations).
Some CLO platforms share issuer relationships, which means you run the risk of diluting your brand’s exposure. And if there’s one thing you don’t want to be doing in advertising, it’s double-dipping.
“Kard maintains exclusive relationships with our issuer partners. This makes us a kind of ‘one-stop shop’ for our customers who want to be targeting consumers who have accounts with modern banks.”
3. How customizable are your offers?
Offer customization is crucial for tailoring campaigns to your goals. The best CLO platforms allow you you to:
- Target new customers with introductory offers.
- Reward loyal customers with tiered or repeat-purchase incentives.
- Incentivize lapsed customers to come back with exclusive cash back rewards.
And they should also be able to adapt to changes in your marketing strategy. Taylor points out:
“Need to tweak an offer mid-campaign? We can make that change in minutes. With most other CLO platforms, you’re locked into a campaign for a year (or more).”
4. What data will I get?
Card-linked offer platforms are processing billions of transactions a day. Imagine what kinds of insights you could get by examining that dataset: what time of day consumers spend most, whether they tend to buy in-store or online, where else they’re shopping — you name it.
The problem is that most CLO platforms don’t hand over that data (or if they do, they’ll make you pay for it). With Kard, merchants gain access to:
- Transaction data that shows exactly how and where customers are engaging with your offers.
- Incrementality reports that highlight how CLO campaigns drive additional revenue.
- Customer journey insights, such as tracking repeat purchases and market share shifts over time.
These data points empower you to optimize future campaigns and understand your ROI in granular detail.
5. How do you encourage customers to use my offers?
If no one is seeing or hearing about your offers, they’re probably not going to get redeemed. Look for a CLO platform that partners with issuers who make marketing a priority.
Kard, for instance, works with banks that put a lot of time and thought into their marketing, sending push notifications, emails, and texts to educate their users about the rewards available to them. Taylor notes:
“Because our banks are much younger, they’re highly focused on marketing. They send notifications letting users know they’ve redeemed a reward right away, and let them know when new ones have hit their banking app. Some CLO platforms out there charge extra for that kind of marketing, but that’s a part of Kard’s plan.”
6. What kind of support do you provide?
CLO is new for a lot of marketers, so it’s good to understand what kind of resources and hands-on support you’re going to get from your CLO platform and account manager.
Ask to speak to a few references to see if you can count on the company to get your problems resolved quickly, offer new ideas, and share best practices. Kard is constantly looking for ways to help customers — whether it’s configuring campaigns, surfacing key insights, or sharing strategic guidance. We make a point to build deep relationships with our customers.
