Card Linked Offers

  • Published on Apr 1, 2026
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This article explains what Card Linked Offers (CLO) are, how they work, what types of CLO partners are available, and the benefits of including them into your strategy.

What Card Linked Offers are

CLO are rewards linked directly to a customer’s payment card through banks or third-party financial apps. When a customer activates an offer and completes a purchase with their registered card, they could receive cashback or another form of a reward.

CLO helps brands connect online and offline activities using a cost per sale (CPA) model. Transactions from CLO partners are automatically uploaded into the Awin platform, giving you visibility over performance and spend.

How CLO works for customers

  1. Customers discover an offer inside their banking app or financial rewards platform.

  2. They activate the offer and shop in store or online as usual.

  3. Cashback or other rewards are applied directly to their bank account or app wallet.

  4. The CLO partner sends validated transactions to Awin for tracking purposes.

Types of CLO partnerships

There are two primary types of CLO providers you can partner with:

Banking providers

These providers integrate directly with major banks to deliver targeted offers to millions of customers. Examples include:

  • Reward (PID: 729663)

  • Cardlytics (PID: 1042565)

  • Revolut (PID: 613701)

  • Zilch (PID: 711069)

Each offers strong reach and granular transaction insights.

Open banking providers

These third-party apps use open banking connections to access a customer’s transaction data and provide rewards after purchase. Examples include:

  • Airtime (PID: 495797)

  • ValueDynamx (PID: 1141267)

  • HyperJar (PID: 709351)

  • Verve (PID: 978971)

  • The Reward Collection (PID: 1012183)

  • LoyalBe (PID: 877533)

These partners often deliver highly engaged niche audiences and flexible reward models.

Eligibility and restrictions

Not all advertisers will be eligible for every CLO provider. Banking partners can have strict requirements based on:

  • Brand size

  • Industry/sector category

  • Store footprint or online reach

  • Reward thresholds and minimum spending commitments

Note

When approaching a provider, check their minimum requirements by contacting them directly to confirm suitability.

Activation requirements

  1. Both Awin and the advertiser must enable the feature.

  2. Advertiser confirms the campaign with the CLO provider.

  3. Awin enables the publisher API endpoint.

  4. The advertiser enables the CLO endpoint within tracking settings.

  5. Awin or the advertiser must inform the partner once activation is complete, as this is not yet visible on the platform.

Please note that in certain cases, partners may require a contract addendum.

How CLO transactions enter Awin (Proof of Purchase API)

The Proof of Purchase (PoP) Publisher API enables approved card linked partners to send pending transactions directly into your program. This API is designed specifically for CLO and other PoP partners.

Attribution and Validation

  • Transactions appear pending until validated by the advertiser, with commission group applied too.

  • Or, auto validation may apply depending on setup.

  • Attribution is based on PoP (Proof of Purchase API) rather than clicks or cookies.

  • CLO is treated as an exclusive attribution channel.

Benefits of working with CLO partners

Card linked partners offer a wide range of commercial and strategic advantages.

Revenue and performance

  • Proven high growth partner type with strong performance across verticals.

  • Helps increase average order value by encouraging spend above set thresholds.

  • Drives both instore and online sales using one unified model.  

Customer engagement

  • Builds loyalty by rewarding existing customers.

  • Targets new, lapsed, or competitor customers with precision.

  • Offers strong segmentation capabilities, including demographics and spend behavior.

Insight and measurement

Many banking partners provide rich data, including:

  • Share of wallet analysis

  • Competitor spend insights

  • Geographic purchase patterns

Use these insights to support wider business strategy and merchandising decisions.

Measuring incrementality

CLO partners commonly measure incremental performance using exposed and control groups.

Exposed group

  1. Customer links their payment card with the CLO partner.

  2. They are shown offers through app placements, email, or push notifications.

  3. They complete a purchase using their linked card.

Control group

  1. A matched customer is selected based on comparable spend behavior.

  2. They continue receiving general marketing but are not shown targeted CLO offers.

  3. Differences in spending between both groups are analyzed to identify incremental sales.

Next steps and what to expect

  • Review the CLO partners listed in this article to familiarize yourself with their profiles and websites.

  • Invite and connect with relevant partners through the platform to discuss opportunities and potential campaigns.

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