Amex Offers provide a great opportunity to earn cash back or Membership Rewards points for purchases made on a linked American Express card. These offers are loaded into your account and are visible on the main screen after logging in. Amex uses a multitude of factors to determine which offer they target you for. This can vary based on different factors:
- Whether your card is a personal or a business card
- Whether your card is a membership rewards earning card or a co-branded card
- Your income and card spend history
Signing up for Amex Offers
In order to use Amex Offers, you need to add offers your card. Simply press the ‘add to card’ button in order to add the offer to your card. Once you add an offer, you have to simply use the card at that merchant. If your purchase meets the requirements, you receive the statement credit or membership rewards points. Certain offers are publicly available whereas certain offers are targeted.
Micro-targeting
I’m seeing an interesting trend off late when it comes to Amex offers. It’s even more apparent if you look at the business side of Amex Offers. It could be a function of technological developments, business needs or both, but these offers are getting even more focused and targeted.
The Business of Amex Offers
Brands who partner with Amex for Amex offers use their marketing budgets to pass on discounts to customers. In return, they expect to raise brand awareness about new products that they launch. By grabbing the eyeballs of Amex’s customer base, they expect to earn new customers who’ll end up buying their products in the long run. Amex makes money by means of brand partnerships and transaction fees. A win win!
Segmentation
Looks like the good old marketing framework of segmentation, targeting and positioning is in play. After initial few glitches such a credits not posting, we’ve seen some tech upgrades and fixes to Amex Offers. These include improvements in the UI as well as restrictions to bonuses based on offers per customer as opposed to card product. These tech improvements offer Amex’s brand partners with even more data and opportunity to go after new customers with better offers.
It seems like Amex’s partners are zeroing in on spending their marketing budgets on specific types of customers as opposed to targeting customers with offer en masse. We’ve seen an example of Amex offers for Hilton Hotels, targeted initially to specific brands. Then we saw Hilton Hotels offers which were specific to Europe and Mexico.
An example of a moderately targeted offer
It seems like Amex is taking targeting another step further. Take the most recent Delta offer. It’s a perfect example of micro-targeting in action.
This looks like a pretty generic offer, but it’s exactly the opposite
Terms and Conditions of the Offer: Get a 1X $40 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to spend a minimum of $200 in one or more qualifying transactions direct with Delta Air Lines by 9/5/2019. Flight destination must be BOS, RDU or SEA from any U.S. airport. USD only. See terms.
It’s interesting how this statement credit will only apply if you fly to Boston, Raleigh or Seattle. It’s also a good hint as which potential markets Delta is looking to expand further.
The Pundit’s Mantra
Going forward, I see these offers getting even more micro targeted. Brands seem to be putting their marketing money on offers that help them acquire a particular type of customer. The Delta offer seems to be only an initial sign of things to come. I’m hoping that these offers, although targeted, continue to be lucrative for most of us. I won’t be surprised if more sub-brand specific, seasonal and regional amex offers pop up in the upcoming months.
What do you think about this recent trend with amex offers? Do you prefer generic offers as opposed to very specific targeted offers? Let us know in the comments section.
Never miss out on the best miles/points deals. Like us on Facebook to keep getting the latest content!
I’m glad I read your post! I saw the Delta amex offer a few days ago and yes I added it simply because I fly Delta a lot and I’m sure I’d use that offer at some point. I’ll admit I don’t really read the small print of every single amex offer when I add it to my account but I do read the small print before making a purchase. For this Delta amex offer, only nonstop roundtrip flights from any US airport to SEA, RDU, or BOS are eligible. That’s quite restrictive! Personally, I’m just grateful Amex has the… Read more »
I’m glad you benefited from this! I see these offers getting more and more specific and targeted.