Card Offers in Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM)
Which card offer data Sellforte uses, at what grain, and how to deliver it.
Introduction
Card offers are discounts or cash back that card issuers and card linked offer networks present to cardholders for purchases at a merchant. Each issuer or network reports in its own way, so Sellforte models card offers as their own media channel based on the data you provide. This article describes what the dataset covers, which fields Sellforte needs and how to deliver them.
What this dataset covers
The dataset covers the cost, timing and redemptions of offers run through card issuers and card linked offer networks. Each issuer or network is reported as its own source within the dataset, so that their results can be followed separately.
Grain and sample
Each row represents one offer per issuer or network per date. Spend is booked to the date it was incurred. Deliver the start and end date of each offer on every row so that Sellforte knows when the offer was live.
| date | ad platform | offer name | offer start date | offer end date | offer value | currency code | spend | conversions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-03-03 | Issuer A | Spring Cash Back | 2025-03-01 | 2025-03-31 | 10 percent | USD | 310.00 | 62 |
| 2025-03-03 | Network B | Spring Cash Back | 2025-03-01 | 2025-03-31 | 10 percent | USD | 145.00 | 29 |
| 2025-03-04 | Issuer A | Spring Cash Back | 2025-03-01 | 2025-03-31 | 10 percent | USD | 295.00 | 59 |
Dimensions
| Field | Importance | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Must-have | Date of the activity. Sellforte needs the data on a daily level. |
| Ad platform | Important | The card issuer or offer network. Keeps the sources apart in the Sellforte interface. |
| Offer name | Important | Identifies the offer, so that cost and redemptions can be followed by offer. |
| Offer start date | Important | Shows when the offer became live. |
| Offer end date | Important | Shows when the offer stopped being live. |
| Offer value | Important | The value of the offer to the cardholder, for example a percentage or a fixed amount. |
| Partner | Optional | The program or partner through which the offer was distributed, when an issuer or network has several. |
| Country | Optional | Required if each country is modeled separately. |
| Currency code | Optional | Validates investments. Needed for ROI calculation if several currencies are used. |
Metrics
| Field | Importance | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Spend | Must-have | Cost of the offers. Needed for ROI calculation. |
| Conversions | Important | Number of redemptions or conversions reported by the issuer or network. Used to validate a maximum cap for modeled results. |
| Conversion value | Optional | Purchase value of the redemptions, when reported. Used to validate a maximum cap for modeled results. |
| Impressions | Optional | Number of times the offer was shown, when the issuer or network reports it. |
How Sellforte receives the data
Card Offers data is delivered through customer-managed delivery. See Sellforte supported data delivery methods for the available routes.
Customer-managed delivery
Card offer data is usually collected from the partner reporting of each issuer or network, or from their invoices. Deliver one row per offer per issuer or network per day at the grain shown in the sample, with the fields in the Dimensions and Metrics tables. Add currency code, account name and the media channel value used for card offers as constant columns. If a source only reports period totals, ask your Sellforte contact how to deliver them.
Spend in these programs typically follows redemptions, so deliver redemptions together with spend. Use the same definitions of spend and redemption for every issuer and network.