Finding the best promo codes when shopping or subscribing to an online platform is not just about saving money; the thrill of the hunt has always been an integral part of the experience. People are seeking the best deals, and brands challenge themselves to offer competitive ones.
However, behind the scenes, a struggle is underway on both sides—people attempt to distinguish between genuine deals and fake ones, while brands strive to prevent coupon fraud.
We’re going to take a look at promo codes from both perspectives to understand what works, what doesn’t, and the best way to approach promo codes.
Tracking Promo Codes in Real Time
Promo codes are not just a marketing tool for online shops; they are a common feature in other online environments that want to attract and retain customers and users. Membership-based services, such as gaming platforms and online casinos, often use promo codes to attract new users.
Industries Where Promo Codes Thrive
One digital realm where promo codes are very popular is the affiliate marketing space. No matter the industry, affiliate marketing sites rely on promo codes to drive sales. That’s because the codes are a great way for both the brand and the affiliates to track sales, create exclusivity, and provide clear attribution.
Retail, tech, health & fitness, and the iGaming world are industries where promo codes are a very effective tool for brands to attract customers and for affiliate sites to make commissions.
In the casino digital space, there are exclusive promo codes and generic ones. Players can secure good deals if they learn to use sites that analyze promo codes and casino offers.
The casino bonus code world encompasses a variety of interesting offers, including promo codes for no deposit deals, existing customers, high rollers, and many others. Affiliate sites not only provide the codes but also analyze the allowances, giving players the chance to understand the differences between promotions.
In retail, the strategy is similar, with affiliate sites often adopting an educational or informative approach as well. In fact, most affiliate marketing sites opt for an educational strategy as it builds trust and credibility and provides value to users who return for more.
Browser Extensions for Promo Code Hunting
Affiliate sites may gather deals from all corners of the internet to provide readers with the best promo codes, but users sometimes use browser extension scraper tools to find these deals, as well. Some of the available tools not only gather the promotions, but also test them for accuracy.
These tools retrieve, extract, format, and export data fast, meaning users can easily gather a lot of information in little to no time. By using this type of tool, shoppers or individuals looking to sign up for a platform through a new subscriber promotion can access multiple promo codes at once.
How Merchants Prevent Promo Code Stacking
Since many people attempt to exploit the system and benefit from the same promotion multiple times, merchants have had to find a way to ensure that their non-stack rules are respected. Thus, most websites employ filters that successfully prevent people from using the same promo code multiple times.
To do so, they have to come up with smart ways to limit promo code stacking: exclusive promo codes, eligibility filters, velocity check, and device fingerprints.
Different Types of Promo Codes
Rather than depending on a simple code generation system that’s easy to crack, more and more merchants are creating exclusive promo codes generated for each user or partner. By employing this strategy, companies avoid the risk of abuse. Not only that, but it is easier to trace a channel or campaign when using unique codes instead of generic ones.
Non-Stack Rules & Eligibility Filters
No stacking means a customer can only use a promo code per order or action. By setting this rule, the brand ensures that even when customers use browser scraper tools to find promo codes, they are not able to use more than one at a time.
When it comes to eligibility, companies create their own rules. For example, customers are not allowed to use the same promo code more than once. More often than not, this translates into a promo code per email address. However, since people can create new email addresses, companies must get creative in verifying that customers comply with the eligibility rules.
Online casinos not only track email addresses, but also IP addresses to ensure that no two people from the same household use the same promo code. Moreover, the gambling industry requires players to undergo a KYC (Know Your Customer) process that verifies their identity, which also prevents people from redeeming a promo code more than once.
The gambling world is not the only place where the KYC process is required or utilized; the real estate industry, art dealers, legal & accounting businesses, and fintech platforms have also started to use KYC procedures.
Velocity Checks
Velocity checks are yet another fraud prevention method used by online companies to prevent promo code fraud. This method works by:
- Identifying data points (email addresses, IP addresses, and credit card numbers).
- Set rules that define what a suspicious velocity looks like.
- Monitor activity and trigger alerts when suspicious activity is detected.
Device Fingerprints
Fingerprinting is another common technology companies count on to prevent promo code fraud. This fingerprinting method utilizes machine learning and JavaScript to generate a unique identifier for a device. Fingerprinting works by:
- Gathering device data (browser, language, fonts, and screen resolution).
- Creating an identifier based on the previously collected data points.
- Detecting fraudulent activity despite anonymous visitor identification.
- Enforcing limits and identifying repeat offenders.
- Preventing further manipulation on the client side.
Final Thoughts
Whether you are a customer looking for a good deal or a company trying to bring competitive promo codes to the market while preventing fraud attempts, you can use current tech tools to stay on top of things.
Customers have access to scraper tools and review sites to distinguish between a good deal and a scam, and companies have a variety of tools that can help them enforce their eligibility rules.