In the retail space, it is increasingly essential for brands to consider offering incentives or rebates, especially if they're launching new products to market, expanding into new retailers, or looking to significantly increase velocities over an extended period of time. These types of programs give brands a compelling call to action that they can integrate into their marketing efforts (ex. paid social, organic social, email marketing or sampling programs) to drive sales and more efficiently track their return on investment.

We wanted to share a few initial best practices as you start to think about your first retail activation using an incentive or rebate platform.

Choosing an initial reward value

While Aisle has the flexibility to support any offer type you can dream up — free unit, buy one get one, percentages off, free units, buy x get x free, giveaways, loyalty programs— there are a few that tend to work best if you’re building out your program for the first time; more aggressive offers will ultimately set you up for longer-term success.

MSRP less than or equal to $10.

Recommended offers: 

• One free
• Buy one, get one (aka buy two get one free) - this is the same as buy two, get one free, and it is the most cost-efficient at scale.  
• Try for $X - ex. if your product is $5.99, you can setup a “try for $2” offer (equivalent to a $3.99 rebate)
• 50% off - this offer usually has the highest cost/unit, but works significantly better than say, 10 - 25% off one item.

Typical benchmarks for the above offers are:

• One free: 30 - 35%
• Buy one, get one free: 25 - 30%
• Try for $X - 15 - 25%
• 50% off - 15 - 20%

MSRP greater than $10.

Recommended offers: 

• $5 - 10 cash back

Typical benchmarks for an offer like this is between 12 - 15%.

Brands who offer a better, more aggressive initial rewards tend to see the following: 

• Stronger ROIs and increased units moved per dollar spent.
• Better foundations for re-marketing opportunities across future campaigns.
• Survey sends that gather more statistically significant data 📝 due to higher volume and interest.
• The ability to leverage repeat rewards with a lower offer to increase margins on future purchases from consumers. 

Driving conversions versus awareness

Many retail brands that start with an incentive program for the first time take the same approach to their marketing and paid programs as they did prior to using one; this means they’re setting up and building marketing campaigns with a focus on awareness rather than driving leads and conversions. This is usually because they previously could not track in-store shopper activity - but with a platform like Aisle, you can.

If your team is being measured exclusively on net impressions or clicks, you can build out your campaigns with a focus on awareness. However, if you’re like most retail brands focused on driving velocities, focus on optimizing for conversions:

We have a few new features that will improve this experience:

• Install your Meta / TikTok / Google pixel to send data back to your ad platform(s) from Aisle. This lets you optimize your ads for conversions/leads rather than awareness/total clicks. some text
  • Conversion/lead campaigns typically have the highest conversion rates and lowest CPC.
  • You can also set up Aisle’s Zapier integration to sync sign-ups directly from your ads to your Aisle campaign(s) without needing a landing page. 
• If you want to send all campaign traffic to your owned domains (for SEO purposes), embed Aisle offers locally on your site using our forms. We can still access your pixel data, even if hosting the offer on your domain. 

Leverage "free" visibility to new audiences

Many retail incentive platforms provide a built-in audience as part of their overall platform. Aisle has a growing consumer interest, including 450,000+ active shoppers who are looking for their next favorite brand(s). When you start running a program on Aisle, be sure to let our team know and we'll get you added to our community page. We are continuing to improve the user experience for consumers week over week so be on the lookout for continued improvements as a brand and as a consumer.

You can find part two of this article here.