Question: I’ve noticed that a lot of the American Express offers are targeted to certain people, sometimes I’ll have the same card as somebody else but won’t see that offer in my account. Why is this and what can I do to make sure I get more offers in my account?
Taylor
Answer:Â American Express lets the merchant that is offering the Sync offer determine who does and doesn’t receive the offer. They can choose to let everybody receive it or they can target it using the following metrics:
- Card type:Â In some cases the merchant will want to target people with certain cards. For example, they might want to only target only high networth individuals in which case they would choose cards that have a high annual fee. They might also want to target those who are frugal, in which case they could select only cards with no annual fee.
- Geography: If the merchant only has stores on the East Coast there is very little point in advertising to people who live on the West Cost and vice versa. They might also want to only target those in a small area when a new store launches or any other number of reasons.
- By store: A merchant can choose to target people who have or haven’t made a purchase at your store within the last X period of time. They might do this to reward loyalty (e.g Thank-you for shopping with us, here is a special offer since you use your card at our store) or to encourage somebody who has previously used their store but is no longer doing so (e.g Please consider shopping with us again).
- By category:Â Merchants can target those who have used their card in a particular category (e.g Costco could target anybody who has made a purchase at a discount warehouse or grocery store).
They can also target by more than one of these at once. For example, they could choose to target somebody who has a Blue Cash Preferred, lives in California and has made a purchase at a discount warehouse within the last twelve months. We’re also sure that there are a variety of other factors that they can sort by (e.g annual spend on the card, cardholder length etc etc).
Your best bet is to just regularly check your American Express offers and hope you are targeted. They also regularly have offers that are open to everybody which you should keep an eye out for.
In my private life I look for deals, but in my work life part of my job is to help a major retailer target the most desired customers. In this role I have sat in on presentations from the American Express folks; seen the literature and helped to structure offers. A few notes
Card Type – Most folks/sites I have seen assume this is one of the key ways that retailers target and, in fact, it is one of the least used. Barely even mentioned in the Amex sales pitch.
Geography – Commonly used. Obviously key for retailers that don’t have stores in all markets. Also widely used when you have a store/market that is struggling.
Store – Commonly used – but most often used as a negative as in “My customers already shop at my store, they already are in my loyalty program or they already have my credit card so I DON’T want to pay to reach them via Amex.” The most common use is to NOT give the offer to folks who shop at your store. A 2nd use it to target customers who only occasionally shop / have not shopped in a while / don’t spend that much when they spend. If folks look at their offers – you will most frequently find offers for places where you are not a big shopper.
Category – Here comes the biggie. If I sell lumber/hardware, I want to reach folks who already shop this category at my competitors. This is harder to use for a “general” retailer like Amazon or Walmart which sell anything. But consider a restaurant or a niche retailer – they know it is hard to convince somebody with little interest in their product/service, but to convince somebody already interested and to take them from a competitor – that’s a win.
How ro i know if i have been targetted forvthe amex 20 dollar back creditz?
You’ll see it listed in your account if it’s available.