Real-world ROI from card issuers using Pulse to activate dormant cardholders, grow interchange revenue, and reduce default risk.
A leading West African retail bank with a card portfolio of 246,000 active cardholders spanning Classic, Gold, and Platinum products. Before Pulse, the bank's card engagement relied on periodic batch campaigns with no behavioural segmentation — resulting in conversion rates of under 4% and card utilization stuck at 28%.
The bank's analytics team had identified that a large proportion of issued cards were dormant or underutilized, but lacked the tooling to act on this insight at scale. Pulse was deployed in January 2026 with the goal of generating measurable interchange revenue uplift within the first quarter.
| Campaign | Target Pool | Conversions | Conv. Rate | Offer Cost | 6-Mo Return | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FUA First Use Activation | 42,000 | 5,964 | 14.2% | GHS 119K | GHS 438K | 3.7× |
| UB Utilization Boost | 59,000 | 5,133 | 8.7% | GHS 108K | GHS 192K | 1.8× |
| CC Category Capture | 37,000 | 2,257 | 6.1% | GHS 120K | GHS 306K | 2.6× |
| RW Retention & Win-back | 25,000 | 2,250 | 9.0% | GHS 34K | GHS 108K | 3.2× |
| PB Payment Behaviour | 19,000 | 4,199 | 22.1% | Zero cost | GHS 534K | ∞ |
| RE Rewards Engagement | 54,000 | 6,102 | 11.3% | Zero cost | GHS 162K | ∞ |
| Portfolio Total | 236,000 | 25,905 | 11.0% avg | GHS 381K | GHS 1.93M | 5.1× |
Costs shown = offer & incentive value only. Delivery costs (SMS, push) and platform fees excluded. All returns measured against holdout groups to isolate true incrementality.
Payment Behaviour and Rewards Engagement campaigns required no financial offer — just a well-timed, personalised message. Together they contributed GHS 1.1M of the GHS 1.93M portfolio return. This was the finding that surprised the bank's team most: the highest-ROI campaigns cost nothing to run.
The GHS 20 cashback offer to dormant activators recovered its full cost within 1.6 months from interchange alone. Every subsequent month is pure return. Of all funded campaigns, this had the fastest payback and the clearest causal link between offer and behaviour change.
Utilization Boost and Category Capture used points rather than cashback. With a 65% average redemption rate, the real economic cost was 35% lower than the face value of points awarded — improving their effective ROI from 1.8× and 2.6× to closer to 2.5× and 3.5× respectively.
10–20% of each target segment received no nudge, allowing Pulse to measure true incrementality. This gave The bank's board confidence that the reported returns were caused by Pulse — not seasonal spend patterns or other concurrent initiatives. The holdout methodology is non-negotiable.
An 8 percentage point improvement in average utilization rate represents a structural shift in cardholder behaviour — not a one-off campaign spike. The Pulse segmentation model runs continuously, meaning every new cardholder is immediately classified and enrolled in the appropriate nudge sequence.
The target is 55% average utilization by end of 2026. At the current trajectory, The bank is on track to reach that within 18 months of Pulse deployment.
We'll run a complimentary segmentation analysis on a sample of your transaction data and show you what's there — before you sign anything.
Get a Free AnalysisA leading Bahraini retail bank with 88,000 active cardholders concentrated in the Platinum and World tiers. Despite a relatively affluent base, card utilization sat at 31% — with significant high-value spend in travel, dining, and fuel categories flowing to competing international cards.
The bank's digital channels were strong, with over 70% of cardholders using the mobile app weekly. This created an ideal environment for in-app and personalised-offer nudges — a higher-converting channel mix than the SMS-first approach typical of other emerging markets. Pulse was deployed in October 2025 with a focus on wallet share capture and product upgrade.
| Campaign | Target Pool | Conversions | Conv. Rate | Offer Cost | 6-Mo Return | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UB Utilization Boost | 28,000 | 3,276 | 11.7% | BHD 52K | BHD 240K | 4.6× |
| CC Category Capture | 19,000 | 3,021 | 15.9% | BHD 39K | BHD 300K | 7.7× |
| PU Product Upgrade | 12,000 | 1,656 | 13.8% | BHD 51K | BHD 300K | 5.9× |
| RE Rewards Engagement | 31,000 | 5,859 | 18.9% | Zero cost | BHD 378K | ∞ |
| RW Retention & Win-back | 9,000 | 1,098 | 12.2% | BHD 28K | BHD 162K | 4.9× |
| Portfolio Total | 99,000 | 14,910 | 14.2% avg | BHD 170K | BHD 1.38M | 4.6× |
Costs shown = offer & incentive value only. Delivery costs and platform fees excluded. All returns measured against holdout groups to isolate true incrementality.
MCC-level analysis revealed that 34% of cardholders were using a competitor card for dining and travel — the highest-interchange categories. Targeted bonus-points nudges won back those categories within 6 weeks. The cost-per-conversion was BHD 12.9, the lowest of any funded campaign.
With over 70% of cardholders on the mobile app, Pulse automatically shifted delivery weight toward in-app banners and personalised offers. These channels converted at 19.3% vs 8.1% for SMS — a 2.4× gap that materially improved overall campaign economics compared to markets with lower smartphone penetration.
1,656 cardholders upgraded from Platinum to World tier during the measurement period. The 6-month return figure (BHD 300K) captures only the incremental spend uplift — it excludes the higher annual fee revenue and LTV improvement that accrues over the full card lifecycle. True ROI is significantly higher.
BHD 378K returned from a push notification campaign that cost nothing to run. Cardholders who redeemed points spent an average of 28% more in the following 30 days — a post-redemption spend surge Pulse captured by timing the nudge to the moment before a high-spend event.
A 13 percentage point gain in a market with strong digital infrastructure and an affluent cardholder base. Pulse's channel-routing model adapted automatically to the Gulf context — reducing SMS dependency and routing the majority of nudges through in-app and personalised offer channels.
The target is 60% average utilization by end of 2026. At the current rate of improvement, the bank is on track to reach that within 12 months of Pulse deployment.
We'll run a complimentary segmentation analysis on a sample of your transaction data and show you what's there — before you sign anything.
Get a Free Analysis