✨ SUMMARY: Digital gift cards work because they’re instant, flexible, and cost-effective. Recipients remember and value them more than cash, while businesses get easy delivery, global scale, and clear ROI tracking.

Benefits of digital gift cards at a glance:

• Near instant delivery, with no risk of physical loss
• Universal appeal and high perceived value
• Flexibility for recipients to select their perfect reward
• Scalability for global, diverse, and growing programs
• Fewer logistical headaches and tracking issues
• Lower costs compared to physical gifts 
• More flexibility in the value you send (i.e., send gift cards in any denomination)
• It’s easy to integrate gift card sending into loyalty, research, recognition, and marketing platforms

So why use bulk digital gift cards in the first place? Easy: because they’re instant, cost-effective, and a lot more memorable than cash. 

Specifically, gift cards can create a lasting positive connection to your brand, while also giving recipients the freedom to choose something they truly want. And that choice matters:

• Studies consistently show non-cash rewards like corporate gift cards are perceived as more meaningful than cash.
• Even more striking, two out of three people who receive a gift card from a company will remember what they spent it on, why they earned it, and who gave it to them.

 💸 Cash tends to disappear into everyday expenses. Did that bonus go towards your last car payment, or to the fancy dinner you used to treat yourself? How can you really tell? 

Meanwhile, gift cards feel like a treat.🍦 Whatever you buy with them will feel like a bonus, so you’ll be more likely to enjoy and remember it. 

Plus, your recipients will be likely to connect your brand with the brand of the gift card they get.  

Let’s say you’re a hair stylist. You might decide to give your clients gift cards to brands like Sephora and Ulta, maybe when they make a referral. Suddenly, those clients will form a mental and emotional connection between your small business and these industry powerhouses. 

This added layer of benefits is called ‘branded currency,’ and it can be a nice added bonus from your program. 

Then, going digital with your gift cards takes everything a step further. 

Yes, gift cards are great for incentive programs. Digital gift cards are even better. 

That’s because gift card platforms make it easy to set up instant gift card delivery (important because research shows that immediate reward fulfillment works best). You send a gift card and your recipient gets a gift card, all within seconds. 

Compare this to physical cards, which take days or weeks to process and ship (and which can even get lost along the way). 

Electronic rewards are more cost‑effective, too. If you work with the right gift card distributor, you’ll only pay the card value (for example, a $50 card should only cost you $50). Ideally, you’ll get access to volume discounts and/or revenue sharing as well (meaning you’ll pay even less than that $50).  

“When your entire budget goes into the reward instead of into overhead, you get more bang for your buck,” says Nat Salvione, Giftbit CCO. “The most effective incentive programs are ones where the entire budget goes to the reward.”

And as a final benefit, some gift card companies will give you full visibility into your gift card program, too. 

Real‑time reporting on delivery and redemption lets you spot any snags or issues and fix them before they become problems. If some of your emails are getting flagged as spam, for example, you can fix that problem—but only if you can see it happening in the first place.  

Better reporting also gives you control and insight into ROI. With clear data on delivery, redemption, and engagement, you can track exactly how your gift card rewards perform against spend. Over time, this visibility allows you to refine your strategy, allocate budget more effectively, and maximize long-term returns.

How to start a gift card incentives program: 5 questions to ask

✨ SUMMARY: Building a strong incentive program starts with asking the right questions: define your goals, know your audience, pick the right reward type (promo vs. payout), decide how to send and brand them, and choose how much choice recipients get. Giftbit supports it all,  whether you need quick setup, automation, full API control, or global scalability.

Starting an incentive program doesn’t have to be overwhelming or time consuming. But things can go a lot smoother when you ask the right questions at the outset. 

💡 The best programs don’t just hand out rewards at random. They’re carefully designed around clear goals for the right audience, plus the systems needed to keep everything running smoothly. 

That’s why we provide dedicated support for incentive programs of all shapes and sizes, from initial concept through to dedicated and ongoing Customer Success (book some time if you’d like to get started). 

Every day, Matt and his team meet with CEOs and other executives, marketers, partnership and HR professionals, program managers, salespeople, freelancers, and other specialists. They help those professionals figure out how to plan and build an incentive program that actually matches their goals. And they do this by asking the right questions. 

Next up, we’ll walk you through all those questions that can help you develop an incentive program that is cost-effective, engaging, and successful. 🙌

Question #1: What are your business goals?

If you have a standard incentive program in mind, then your business goals are likely pretty standard, too. You’re probably interested in things like getting more leads, closing more deals, or encouraging more employees to ‘get their steps in.’ 

In short, you want an easy way to reward people for something that likely benefits them and your bottom line. 

Ultimately, a gift card platform like Giftbit is pretty ‘use-case agnostic.’*

In other words, it works well for lots of different types of companies and organizational objectives. The way you deliver your incentives will be the same regardless of whether your goals are to boost employee morale, improve employee retention, get out of a sales slump, increase your survey response rates, or something else.

But there is one business goal that usually warrants a more in-depth conversation: are you specifically considering an incentive program as a way to add an additional revenue stream to your existing business model?

In cases where your business needs to offer ‘rewards as a service’ (common for use cases like referrals, hiring incentives, and job searches, for example), then you’re likely looking to turn your incentives themselves into a separate revenue stream.

If that’s the case, you’ll want to speak with someone on our team to ensure that you’re maximizing your profit and not missing any development opportunities. 

Of course, Giftbit can offer profit sharing to any type of program. If that’s a primary concern (typically for larger programs), always reach out. We’ll also explore some of the details of these types of programs further below. 

👋 If you plan to monetize your incentives or you have specific concerns around data anonymity and compliance, email your question or book a call.

*Note: some gift card distributors may refuse certain use cases. Be sure to find one with fewer restrictions and a clear path to getting started quickly. 

What about research incentives?

What if you don’t really have ‘business’ goals, per se? What if instead, you’re trying to improve the quality of your academic research?

For example, we often work with clients in medical and academic institutions who need to provide digital payouts to their research participants. These types of projects tend to have strict and well-regulated requirements around participant anonymity. Secure Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is usually a particular concern. 

If that’s your situation, you’ll likely want to find a reward card that doesn’t require PII from your recipients. You’ll also want to find a SOC 2 compliant partner that values security as much as you do, and that follows best practices like encryption in transit and at rest, minimized data movement, and further encryption for sensitive fields. 

We also regularly work with government and nonprofit organizations, often for things like commuter incentives and other green initiatives. These types of organizations often have their own questions around vendor compliance and security.

Here, too, we’re always happy to jump on a call to work out all the fine details.

Question #2: Who is your audience?

The next big question: who will be getting your rewards and incentives?

Are you serving an internal audience, like your top performers, employees, and other team members?

Or are you serving an external audience, like your customers, users, or prospects?

If you’re in Human Resources, then you probably already know that effective employee incentive programs are incredibly important for increasing employee engagement, fostering more teamwork, boosting any workplace wellness initiatives, and reducing burnout. Decades of research from Gallup and countless other institutions makes clear that engagement, employee satisfaction, and culture are all interconnected. 

But you are probably also aware that there are usually tax and other implications associated with employee recognition programs. So if you’re planning to reward employee performance, check out the following resources, and be sure to book a call with any follow-up questions:

• The Ultimate Guide To Developing An Employee Rewards Program
• Annual Bonuses, Financial Payouts, And Year-End Gifts: The Key Role Of Rewards
• Better Employee Rewards Catalogs: How To Offer Diverse And Appealing Gifts And Incentives

Now let’s assume you are rewarding an external audience. Maybe you want to send referral bonuses or simplify your corporate gifting strategy. Or perhaps you’re looking to improve your points-to-rewards programs or get better at collecting user feedback. 

If that’s the case, you’re in the right place and asking the right questions: we've helped countless businesses grow and hit their targets by using flexible, digital consumer incentives.

In short, if you want to boost customer loyalty and/or accelerate business growth, then you’ve got lots and lots of options to do that well.

The following questions will help you drill down your requirements so you can pick which options work best for you. ⬇️

Follow-up: where are your recipients?

Audience location matters just as much as audience type. Rewarding across borders comes with its own set of challenges, so you’ll want to ensure your program can scale globally without creating unnecessary friction for recipients (or for yourself! 😎).

🌐 That’s why Giftbit’s incentive catalog includes hundreds of brands from around the world, along with the ability to fund your account in one currency, through one bank account. Send country-specific gift cards to recipients in Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, and well beyond. 

Or if you don’t know where all your recipients are located, you may want to consider the Giftbit USD Virtual Prepaid Mastercard. Fund in one currency, and you can send it anywhere in the world that accepts Mastercard (which is most places!). Better still, your recipients can use it almost anywhere in the world that accepts Mastercard, including online, in-store, and through their mobile wallets.

Don’t sweat the global stuff. Choose Giftbit’s ‘full choice’ redemption option for your global recipients, and they'll only ever see the brands that are available to them in their own region. In other words, you don’t need to know what brands will work in, say, Germany, to send rewards there. 

Question #3: What types of incentives are you sending?

Here’s where things get interesting. Time to choose what types of incentives you’re actually going to send. 

Like we’ve covered, digital gift cards and prepaid cards work best for most survey and customer incentives, and for most HR use cases. They combine many of the perks of cash rewards, reimbursements, monetary bonuses, and even non-monetary incentives—all rolled into one easy-to-scale product.

But even once you’ve settled on digital gift cards, you’ve still got a big question to answer:

1. Are you using rewards to encourage your audience to do something, like a sign-up bonus or survey reward?
2. Or are you sending rewards to an audience that has already done something, so that you’re essentially sending something they’ve already earned? 

⏱️ How you answer this question will likely determine whether you want to use digital gift cards with claim periods that expire, or ones that never expire.

When to use promotional incentives—i.e., claim periods that expire

Promotional incentives are the bread and butter of so many marketing and business growth initiatives. 🥕 They’re a dangling carrot you can use to spur action.

In short, promotional incentives act as the promise to give someone a reward after they have taken some desired action.

Promotional incentives typically work best when their claim period expires. 

That means that your recipient will still get their incentive right away, but they’ll have a set amount of time to claim it. 

60-90 days is a fairly standard claim period here, although you get to choose how long it is. Some clients have programs where the claim period is only a few days or less, while others let their claim periods last months. 

You’ll typically want to use promotional incentives for one or two reasons (and often both). 

First, if you’re doing any type of promotional campaign (often the case when dealing with prospects), you usually want to create some sense of urgency.

Second, businesses will also use promotional incentives to help manage costs. 

In any promotion, you can always expect some amount of unclaimed rewards. No matter how simple you make the process, there are going to be some people who either don’t bother or forget to cash in. 

And these unclaimed rewards leave money on the table. 

Now, where that money goes varies from gift card company to company, so be sure to ask what happens to unclaimed rewards. Hint: expect a vague, cagey answer, and don’t expect things to be in your favor. 

Meanwhile, Giftbit’s model from Day One has been to offer full transparency about unclaimed offers, and to share a portion of that revenue with our clients. 

We’ve always been open with our clients, both in how much money we’re making, and how we can help them make and save more, too.

Note: on the ‘terms and conditions’ side of things that your gift card distributor handles, it’s not the reward itself that expires, per se, but the value attached to it. For example, if you send a $25 Amazon gift card, your recipient will have a set amount of time to claim it before the offer is no longer available. Once they have their actual gift card in hand, that gift card won’t expire (depending on local laws and regulations). 

When to use payout incentives—i.e., rewards that never expire

There are always going to be use cases where you never want the value of your reward claim period to expire. We usually call these ‘standard incentives,’ but you’ll also hear them referred to as payouts, payments, reimbursements, or ‘non-promotional incentives.’

If your recipients have earned rewards through a points-to-reward or other loyalty program, then you won’t want that earned promotional value to ever expire. Your recipients will be expecting to be able to access their value whenever they want. And if they can’t do that, they’ll be unhappy to say the least.

For the same reasons, HR gifts and rewards often work best as standard rewards, too. 

Finally, most of the time, companies that use gift cards for customer appreciation and/or customer recovery will also opt for non-expiring value.

Think about it. Imagine you’ve sent a client a gift card as an apology for some bad service. If it expires before your customer can claim it, then you’ll have to apologize for the apology!

More decisions: how much should your incentives be?

Ideally, the size of any incentive will correspond with the effort you’re asking for.

For example, a common telecom incentive strategy used by Giftbit clients is to offer customers up to $500 in Visa prepaid cards as an extra push to switch providers. We all know what a pain it can be to sign up for a new cell phone plan, so you generally need a bigger financial incentive to make it worth a potential new customers’ time.

But we also have lots of clients doing quick survey incentives that only require a few minutes of time, and they therefore only need to offer a few dollars to make it worthwhile.

🙌 Bonus: Giftbit lets you send gift cards in low denominations—even as low as $1 or less. Being able to offer such small incentives is not widespread in the industry. So especially if you’re doing a program where you want to offer smaller, ongoing rewards, be sure to look for a gift card company that provides this option.

Question #4: What are your sending and branding requirements?

Finding the best way to deliver your incentives will have an outsized impact on the success of any rewards and recognition programs you’re planning. Your end goal should always be to give your recipients the best possible experience from end-to-end.

With your free Giftbit account, you get immediate access to a wide variety of methods for delivering incentive cards: via email, text, direct SMS, and/or as direct links that you can use any which way you like.

You can also integrate with our RESTful gift card/prepaid card API or via Zapier to build the process directly into your own app, platform, or processes.

🤔 So how do you choose? 

Think about the person who will be getting your rewards. What should their overall experience be? And how much customization do you need to be able to create that experience?

Your priority: fast, simple setup

Giftbit’s self-serve web interface offers a quick and easy way to get started. You’ll only need a few minutes to sign up and start sending. 

Right out of the box, you’ll be giving your recipients an elegant redemption experience. Without any development work, you’ll be able to customize email templates (at no extra charge), send global rewards, and track delivery and open rates. 

This is a great option especially for standard rewards and situations where you need to send at scale with minimal setup time.

When to choose a gift card platform:

• You want to start sending rewards quickly
• You want pre-built templates and email customization
• You want minimal technical setup
• Manual fulfillment, like sending rewards after events, is better suited for your workflow

Note: If you choose to go this route, be aware that not every gift card platform offers the same level of email customization, and that there are providers that charge extra fees for templates and other customizations.

Manual fulfillment options

Clients often choose a platform like Giftbit because they want to automate reward fulfillment. They want to ‘set it and forget it’ when it comes to their incentive program.

But there are also use cases where manual fulfillment makes more sense.

Like we’ve covered, you can use the Giftbit platform to download links that you can then distribute however you like. But this raises another question: who will be delivering these links to recipients? And how will they access them?

For example, you might want to enable your sales team to send gift cards to webinar attendees or use them as trade show incentives. Or maybe you’d like to thank some volunteers for their hard work. 

Those are great use cases, but they can present a small hitch. 

Namely, the people who are actually handing out these gift cards might not have access to your platform for any number of reasons.

So if one of your salespeople wants to send a Starbucks gift card to one of their leads, for instance, they’ll need an easy way to do that manually, without logging in.

In these cases, you might want to empower your team with a pool of incentive links. Then they can draw from and manually send these links, in whatever format they personally prefer (even via QR code).

Done properly, this type of bulk manual fulfillment can still be a great experience for recipients, without too much effort on the part of the person sending the value.

Note: if you go this route, we generally recommend you use non-expiring rewards.

Your priority: automation without custom development

When you’re ready to start scaling your rewards and incentives programs, you’ll likely want to automate sending. And ideally, you’d like to integrate your gift card program with the software and workflows you’re already using.

So how do you do this if you don’t have a developer on staff?

Simple: you use a quick Zapier connection to integrate and automate your program, no coding required. This process is designed to give recipients a smooth, branded experience without requiring much effort from you (and/or your program manager).

Choose this option, and you could be sending automated reward cards in minutes. You just sign up, customize your template, and set any triggers or automations you like (Automatic sending on customer anniversaries? Team incentives for high performance during a slow sales period? Limited-time survey incentives? Rewards to attract top talent during the hiring process? The sky’s virtually the limit!☁️).

Then you can simply start emailing, texting, or otherwise sharing your incentives.

This is how Curipod’s COO & Co-Founder Eirik Hernes Berre set up a scalable incentive program in just ten minutes, using Zapier to connect Giftbit with their HubSpot account.

“We needed universal gift cards and a system that was easy to automate,” says Eirik. “I watched the video on Giftbit's website and set it up in 10 minutes using Giftbit, Zapier, and HubSpot.”

When to choose Zapier:

• You want to automate incentive processes without custom development.
• You need to build simple workflows for ongoing campaigns (like team incentives or survey completions).
• Your team uses tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Google Sheets.

Note: Zapier connects with thousands of apps. HubSpot, Salesforce, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Airtable, Slack, Google Sheets, and Sawtooth are some of the ones most commonly used by our clients. But if you use it, there’s a good chance Zapier’s got you covered. See all the available integrations here.

Your priority: complete control and customization

Finally, for businesses that want or need complete control throughout the entire recipient experience, the Giftbit API is the best option. With minimal development, you’ll give your recipients a fully-branded, custom experience from end-to-end.

Specifically, your developer can use the API to embed a fully branded experience directly into your app or platform.

Let’s assume you have a loyalty points program, or some type of prize draw. Your customers will likely expect the ability to trade in their points 24/7, and then they’ll likely want to have their reward revealed in real time. Any delay here will impact their overall experience—so you may want to opt for an ‘instant reveal’ experience within your own app.

This approach lets you build a seamless, fully branded recipient journey from start to finish, including custom notifications, delivery methods, and tracking.

When to choose API integration:

• You have an in-house development team and/or need deep integration.
• You want full control over the reward experience, from branding to delivery.
• Real-time reward reveal is crucial for customer satisfaction. 

Meanwhile, don’t assume that ‘API integration’ means a lengthy, costly process. Giftbit’s straightforward RESTful API is designed to be developer-friendly. Your devs should be able to build that bespoke interface experience quickly, often in just a few days or a lot less.

That’s how quickly things moved for Prime46, when Project Manager Greg Augustine decided he needed a better way to send survey incentives. Once he gave his developer the go-ahead, the program was ready to go in two days.

"It wasn’t difficult for our developer to implement at all,” Greg remembers. “I basically told him, ‘Here's the information I have, let me know if you need anything more’ ... And I haven’t heard anything since."

Don’t forget incentive program branding

If your branding requirements are light, you’ll find a lot of benefits from using the straightforward Giftbit platform.

With minimal lift, you’ll enjoy a strong email sender reputation, excellent throughput to contacts, delivery and open tracking where available, and a lot more.

And using attractive, templated emails with your company logo can really cut down on the amount of work required to run your project, without cutting back on recipient experience.

But if you need them, full integration via API will give you more options to brand the experience, with total control over delivery notification, through to choice and follow-up.

Question #5: How much choice do you want your incentive recipients to have

You’ve narrowed down whether you’ll be sending rewards with value that expires or not, and how you’re going to be getting those expiring or non-expiring rewards into the hands of your recipients.

Now you just need to decide exactly what you’ll be sending. 

Giftbit gives you the ability to give your recipients any combination of gift cards and prepaid cards to hundreds of widely popular global brands in our extensive rewards catalog.

🤔 So how to choose?

Ultimately, you’ll want to provide your recipients with rewards and brands they find meaningful.

Sometimes, that means narrowing the number of options they have.

→There are many use cases where you’ll want to offer a curated choice experience. If you’re treating webinar attendees to a free lunch, for example, you don’t want to overload them with hundreds of unrelated options. Opt instead to give them the choice between a few food delivery gift cards (like Uber Eats and DoorDash), and maybe a convenience brand or two (like Starbucks or Dunkin’).

→Maybe you’re running a themed event, and you want to use incentives that tie in nicely. We have lots of clients looking for sustainable corporate gifts, for example, who will hand-pick brands that share their values when it comes to the environment, climate change, and reducing plastic waste.

→And sometimes, you might be dealing with an audience with unique priorities and requirements. For example, many employee gift programs do best when they offer essentials like gas and grocery cards, or when they can offer highly flexible Mastercard and Visa prepaid cards. Well-being, mental health, and professional development themes are also quite popular.

Of course, like we’ll cover next, giving your recipients virtually unlimited choice is almost always going to be popular, too.

When to give your recipients a full catalog of choice

Finally, you’ll also have the ability to let your recipients discover the most appealing reward options for themselves. Giving your recipients unrestricted full choice to the open, global catalog makes for a truly delightful experience.

Of course, when gift card companies say ‘full choice,’ what they actually mean is ‘big choice.’

Namely, their ‘full choice’ options give your recipients access to a large percentage of their catalog (maybe 100 brands), but not the literal full catalog itself.

So if having unrestricted access is important for your program, make sure you’ll have complete access to a complete catalog that’s always up-to-date with the most current and biggest selection of brands.

✨ SUMMARY: Give people meaningful options, keep the menu tight, and tie your catalog to the behaviors you want. The result is a program that feels personal, performs better, and scales cleanly.

Like we’ve covered, you’ll want to put some thought into what amount of choice you’ll give your recipients. And it often makes sense to lean into offering more choices, assuming you set it up properly 

Research shows that giving participants a say in their reward increases effort and improves the quality of what they deliver. When people can pick from a curated digital catalog rather than a single fixed card, they’re more motivated and they remember the moment, not just the transaction.

Plus, according to a new research paper from Incentive & Engagement Solution Providers (IESP), offering choice in loyalty and incentive programs works to better match diverse preferences and sustain engagement over time.

“When you offer choice or curate the selection a little bit more, you create more of an emotional response from your audience,” says Matt. And it’s that emotional response that turns a payout into a positive memory (which in turn can easily translate into repeat behavior). 

That said, Matt also makes clear that there can be pitfalls when it comes to offering more choice. Here’s how he suggests you can make choice work without adding unnecessary chaos:

• Curate, don’t dump: group brands by use case (everyday essentials, dining, travel, wellness, etc) and limit the set to strong, recognizable options. Evidence shows that aligned, self-selected rewards increase perceived value and sustained participation.
  
  
• Personalize by audience: vary the catalog by region, role, or program goal so people see options that fit their lives, which supports higher-quality responses and faster follow-through.
  
  
• Measure the lift from choice: track claim rate, time-to-claim, satisfaction feedback, and repeat participation before vs. after adding catalog choice; improvements here indicate better reward–recipient fit that research associates with higher effort and performance.

More gift card incentive program tips

✨ SUMMARY: Maximize your incentive program’s impact by prioritizing the recipient experience: communicate clearly, deliver rewards immediately, keep redemption simple, and ensure support is easy and reliable.

No matter your goals for your incentive program, you’ll get better results when you build around how people actually like to receive and use rewards, and if you match their expectations when it comes to things like trust and security. 

That means you’ll want to think beyond which card to send and instead focus on the full recipient journey from the notification message to redemption and even beyond.

To do that, Matt recommends the following: 

Communicate clearly to build trust.

Whether you’re texting, emailing, or delivering your gift card some other way, your messaging should make it obvious who you are, why the person is receiving a reward/payout, and what they need to do next. Keep sender details consistent, brand the experience, and avoid jargon.

You’ll also want to think about the email address you’re sending from. Consider whether your service provider should interact directly with your audience or if you should take that on yourself. This can be the difference between emails being opened and trusted and engaged with, and emails that just sit there.

Get the timing right.
Immediate reinforcement strengthens the link between action and reward. If you want people to really feel rewarded, you don’t want a big delay between when they ‘do the thing’ and when they get their payout. 

“It might be easier to batch your payouts and fulfill them later, but that’s not better for engagement,” says Matt. “If you can get the incentive in the hands of your recipients 30 seconds after they earn it, you’ll absolutely get better engagement than if they have to sit and wait and trust you’ll fulfill your promise two weeks later.”

Keep redemption simple.
Fewer steps mean higher claim rates and less support work. Digital delivery via email or a personalized text-based link is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to track.

Note: if you plan to send prepaid cards, note that some distributors will require your recipients to download a separate app, just to be able to claim it. That’s a lot of added friction that can lead to a lot of frustrated recipients. 

“Having a reward that works ensures the recipient is happy to receive it and actually able to use it,” says Nat. “It capstones your entire program.”

Focus on recipient experience.

At the end of the day, it’s happy recipients that create successful programs. Even small hiccups can turn into bad experiences, so you want to ensure smooth sailing at every step of the process. 

Believe it or not, a lot of gift card companies will ultimately work against their customers. They make money when cards go unclaimed. So, it’s technically in their best interest for emails to get stuck in spam filters, or to add friction that makes it harder for recipients to get their cards. 

Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way.

That’s why Giftbit endeavors to be the most transparent gift card provider in the industry, and it’s why we go out of our way to ensure that your recipients will have a delightful experience. 

"We always keep the end cardholder in mind when we wrangle all the details,” says Giftbit Head of Partnerships Lindsay Page. “Their positive experience using the card reinforces the whole goal of the incentive program." 

Ideally, you’ll also want to work with a distributor that handles all your recipient support in-house. Like everything these days, more and more distributors are using offshore call centers for this process. It’s cheaper for them, but obviously less helpful for your recipients. 

So if you really want to keep your recipients happy, make sure they can reach a real, live person when they need it.

✅ Offer meaningful choice
Decide single brand vs curated set vs full catalog based on the campaign goal and audience.

✅ State the basics upfront
Use clear, on-brand messages that name the sender, the reason for the reward, and the next step(s).

✅ Send digitally with low friction
Deliver via email/SMS or link, with a simple, mobile-friendly redemption path. Avoid added extra steps, like having to download a separate app.

✅ Trigger right after the behavior
Automate instant sends when the survey is submitted, demo is booked, referral is verified, or milestone is hit.

✅ Localize and route smartly
Match brands and currencies to the recipient’s country; use virtual prepaid cards with near-universal coverage as a dependable fallback.

✅ Right-size amounts
Start with $5–$15 (quick tasks), $15–$50 (events/demos), $50–$200+ (referrals/high-value actions), then adjust by segment.

✅ Choose the correct claim window
Use expiring claim periods for promotions to create urgency and manage costs; use non-expiring value for payouts and earned rewards.

✅ Monitor the health daily
Track open rate, claim rate, resend ratio, delivery/bounce issues, CPA, and ROI. Fix deliverability first; then tune timing and catalog.

✅ Standardize and scale
Use templates, webhooks/Zaps, or API flows. Document SOPs so teams can run rewards reliably without hand-holding.

✅ Close the loop
Add a short thank-you note, ask for quick feedback, and link to the next action (review, referral, follow-up).