The Points Guy gets down to business with partnerships

Made popular by highlighting credit card perks and rewards with travel, The Points Guy has emerged as a staple of credit card rewards research. The site has been successful and reinvested efforts in advertising. According to research from Comperemedia Omni, the website increased its Q4’19 digital ad spend by $1.8M (+78% from Q4 2018), focusing mainly on paid Facebook advertising.

What FSI and travel brands did TPG showcase in its digital advertising?

The increase in digital ad spend was a result of a greater partnership with Capital One. The Points Guy also diverged from promoting its own content to focus exclusively on its partnerships in its ads: The spend share for TPG Content Marketing decreased 90% year over year.

TPG invested more in business-related cards for Q4’19, like Capital One Spark Business and AmEx Business Platinum. Capital One growing its digital advertising investments for Spark in 2019 indicated that the FSI also shifted its TPG partnership to spend more in exchange for a greater presence on TPG’s ad campaigns. Capital One increased it digital ad spend for the Spark Business card by $5M in 2019.

While creatives in Q4’18 were very product-focused, in Q4 ‘19, creatives took an experiential angle. The product omittance in the ads also allowed TPG to repurpose creatives across limited term offers throughout the year.

Where is TPG getting the most on-site visibility and who’s benefiting?

Travel and business pages have gained traction in the last month (Nov.-Dec. ‘19), according to research from Comperemedia Omni: ”best travel cards” increased 33.3%; “best business cards” increased 20%. Chase, AmEx, and Capital One were staples on the growing pages.

However, Capital One cards relating to travel and hospitality clearly stood out. TPG posted a card-by-card comparison in October, providing annual fees, best uses, and the bonuses available. The page description is thorough and elaborate, even providing a link to Capital One’s “underrated credit cards.” The expansive guide clearly put Capital One as a top partner on the review site.

What we think

Brands wanting to stand out on TPG should target the fast-growing category with a low profile: business cards. While TPG featured the Capital One Spark Business card as a mainstay of its increased digital advertising campaign, the Best Business Card page had one of the biggest month-to-month increases in traffic. That said, the volume of cards advertising on that page was sparse, pointing to a white space opportunity for brands to develop a new partnership on an already saturated website.

Brands wanting to be featured on TPG’s advertising should consider:

• Leveraging TPG to promote business-related cards.
• Ensuring idealistic creatives are used.
• Placing high bonus points and rewards front and center of the ads.