Rewards-based experiences are growing in popularity between our customers and their customers alike. The opportunity to reward participation in real-time is appealing and allows you to offer an immediate incentive as a value exchange. This article provides a guide to understanding reward distribution strategies in Rewards in supported Experiences. If you want to learn more about how to add, edit and publish rewards, visit this how-to article.  

Overview

Before we dive in, when setting up your reward it is important to think about two main things:

• How many prizes do you want to give away?
• Is there a specific timeframe in which you want to give away the prizes you have available?

It is also important to remember, that once a reward is published, it won’t be possible to change some settings because it would disrupt the logic behind the reward distribution strategy.

Maximum rewards

• If you have an unlimited number of rewards to give away (i.e. a 10% off coupon), you can simply leave the field blank.
• If you have an exact number of rewards to give away, you should start by inputting the number of available rewards. This tells the platform that, whatever distribution strategy, do not hand out more than this number of rewards.

If you at some point decide that you do not want to distribute any more rewards but you don’t want to unpublish the reward, you can change the number of maximum rewards to 0.

Reward Distribution

There are a number of ways you can distribute rewards: randomly-chosen winning moments each hour, each day or within a custom time window; classic odds-based distribution such as odds of 1 in 100; Always Win reward which can be given away in addition to an offs or time-based reward, and, finally, 'Consolation Reward (used to be called Everyone Wins)' for those who weren't lucky enough to receive a prize using any of the other methods.

Let’s look at the options in detail:

Hourly 

• If selected, a set number of rewards will be distributed each hour
• You will be asked to specify how many rewards per hour you want to distribute
• The system will then generate random winning times in each hour and reward the next participant who enters after each winning moment
• If there are any rewards that could not be distributed in a particular hour, e.g. due to low traffic volumes, they will be rolled over to the next hour.

Example:
Maximum rewards: 100
Number of rewards per hour: 5

This means that 100 prizes will be distributed in 20 hours if enough participants enter. If not enough people enter to claim all of the rewards within a particular hour, they will be rolled-over to the next hour and so on. For example, if nobody enters during the hour from 00:00 to 01:00, the rewards for that hour will be added to the total for 01:00 to 02:00, so there will be 10 prizes to be distributed due to rollover. Any prizes that are rolled-over are given new random winning times in the following hour.

Daily 

• If selected, a set number of rewards will be distributed each day
• You will be asked to specify how many rewards per day you want to distribute
• The system will then generate random winning times in each day and reward the next participant who enters after each winning moment
• If there are any rewards that could not be distributed in a particular day, e.g. due to a late winning time, they will be rolled over to the next day.

Example:
Maximum rewards: 100
Number of rewards per day: 20

This means that 100 prizes would be distributed in 5 days if enough participants enter. If not enough people enter to claim all of the rewards within a particular day, they will be rolled-over to the next day and so on. For example, if nobody enters on Day 1, the rewards for that day will be added to the total for Day 2, so there will be 40 prizes to be distributed due to rollover. Similarly, if a couple of rewards aren’t allocated due to winning times close to midnight, they will be added to the total for the next day. Any prizes that are rolled-over are given new random winning times in the following day.

Custom Time Window

• If selected, a set number of rewards will be distributed between the dates and times specified
• You will be asked to specify the time window and how many rewards you want to distribute
• The system will then generate random winning times within your time window and reward the next participant who enters after each winning moment
• The time window you specify is continuous and not sub-divided into hour or day periods. This means that the next entrant after a winning moment will win regardless of whether they enter in the same hour or day (there is no need for rollover).

Example:
Winners during time window: 100
Custom time window: May 1st - June 1st

There will be 100 winning moments randomly generated in the month-long time window. As the system selects winning moments randomly, it may mean that one day, 5 people will win, while another day, no rewards will be distributed. As it is truly random, as time progresses, you’re likely to see the average number of winners per day begin even out to what you might expect.

Odds

• If selected, you can define odds in the form of a “1 in X” chance of winning
• The system will then pick a high-precision random number between 0 and 1. If the number picked is below the odds threshold for the prize in question then it results in the prize being granted (e.g 1 in 5 translates to needing a number equal to or less than 0.2).

Example:

Maximum rewards: 5
Odds: 1 in 100

If the user’s generated number is 0.01 or less (i.e. 1 in 100 entries), the user wins the prize. If the generated number is greater than 0.01, the user does not win. There is a maximum of 5 prizes defined by the maximum rewards setting, so once 5 rewards have been won using the odds outlined, the system will not distribute any more.

Always Win

• Always Win is a unique type of a reward because it is the only reward that is always granted and gives user additional chance to win a secondary prize (if available) based on time or odds
• It cannot be combined with Consolation Rewards
• You won’t be asked to define any other criteria, but if you have limited number of rewards to distribute, don’t forget to set the max rewards at the beginning
• You can also decide to meter the reward, which is a setting that will help limit the number of rewards in a day or week if you want to spread the prize distribution over period of time

Example:
Reward 1: Unlimited number of Always Win rewards 
Reward 2: Odds based reward where 1 in 100 win this reward

All entrant who successfully enter the experience will receive the Always Win reward. In addition to that, everyone will have a 1 in 100 chance to win the additional odds-based reward.

Consolation Reward

• If selected, an entrant may win this reward if they weren’t successful in winning any of the time-based or odds-based rewards within the experience
• It cannot be combined with Always Win rewards
• You won’t be asked to define any other criteria, but if you have limited number of rewards to distribute, don’t forget to set the max rewards at the beginning
• You can also decide to meter the reward, which is a setting that will help limit the number of rewards in a day or week if you want to spread the prize distribution over period of time

Example:
Maximum rewards: 50
Meter this reward: 10 a day

This means that the first 10 users who enter that day and that have not won any other reward, will win this reward and, if at least 10 people enter every day, by day 5, all of the available rewards will be distributed.

Other distribution settings

1. Quiz score range - If you are using rewards in quiz experience, you can allocate rewards based on a user’s quiz score. Set the score range users will need to achieve to qualify for this reward.
2. Metering - setting that is available only for Odds or Consolation Reward and helps you limit the maximum number of this reward you would like to give away each day or week.
3. Recurring rewards - By enabling this setting, the same reward can be granted to the same user repeatedly, if your experience allows multiple entries.

For Frequently Asked Questions, please navigate to this article. If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact our Global Support Team or your Customer Success Manager.