• by Tobi Elkin  @tobielkin, May 11, 2016

Ibotta, a mobile shopping app that helps retailers increase incremental sales and acquire new customers, on Wednesday said it is partnering with data provider LiveRamp to offer a dynamic segmentation capability. The new capability will enable marketers to use their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data to create segmented campaigns by generating personalized content and rebates based on a consumer’s relative brand loyalty.

Ibotta’s mobile platform attempts to help retailers ensure that consumers are exposed to unique offers and branded interactions that are relevant to their prior purchase behavior. For example, retailers can show a loyal customer a modest rebate and reserve the most compelling offers to lure new customers.

Variable cost structures ensure that retailers’ marketing dollars are allocated toward promotions that support their primary acquisition objective, while still driving incremental trips and higher average basket sizes across loyal and occasional shoppers. What that means is that brands spend the most (per user basis) on their most valuable audiences and less against their most loyal customers

Ibotta’s partnership with LiveRamp aims to allow retailers to shift away from a one-size-fits-all marketing approach and ensure that the appropriate amount of spend is allocated to new customer acquisition.

Ibotta will take CRM segments directly from LiveRamp to determine which Ibotta users should see which offers and media content. The data is continuously updated in real-time as customer segments evolve.

What makes the system unique is that real-time promotions are linked to known audience behavior and customer data, Bryan Leach, Ibotta’s CEO, told Real-Time Daily. A dashboard is used to track performance. Customers will have a turnkey implementation if they’re using LiveRamp as a CRM/connectivity platform.

Retailers can tailor their messaging to each audience segment. For example, they can use "snackable" video content to inspire store purchases among new shoppers or promote new products to entice lapsed shoppers to return.

“Because Ibotta is a 100% logged-in mobile platform, we're able to serve up custom content and custom promotions to each individual user based on their relative degree of loyalty to that brand,” Leach explained. He claimed that anyone can Google a retailers name + coupon and likely find a coupon online, regardless of whether that person shops at a particular retail store all the time or not. “What we're offering is the ability for a retail advertiser to serve up the most compelling rebates only to Ibotta users who are new to the brand or haven't been there in awhile,” he said.

Leach said brands and retailers are looking to achieve two things — one, a way to focus their marketing spend against key objectives and two, to prove that their marketing promotions are driving incremental sales and increasing basket sizes. “By leveraging Ibotta's dynamic segmentation, retailers will spend their marketing dollars on a pay for performance basis and spend according to the audiences that they value the most -- from new to lapsed to loyal customers,” Leach added.