Cardlytics ($CDLX): CDLX Report #52 - Current Offers, Advertisers, and Observations as of 8.11.2024 (Research Note #270)
New insider purchases, new and returning advertisers (including large advertisers and new offer constructs), new CMS updates, and more.
Check out the “Q2 Initial Notes and Thoughts” for discussions related to Q2 earnings and the CEO change.
This is the 52nd CDLX Report on current CDLX offers, advertisers, and observations, with today’s report containing information as of 8.11.2024 (with an additional observation from today, 8.12).
This week’s report includes:
New insider purchases by multiple board members
New and returning advertisers (including large advertisers, with some using new offer constructs)
New Chase Media Solutions (CMS) advertisers
And more
Given the number of new subscribers over the last week, below are some items to keep in mind when using the data / observations in these CDLX Reports (this is not a complete list, but I wanted to provide some quick thoughts on how myself and others use this information):
Large & Attractive Advertisers: I continue to put extra weight on the larger & more attractive advertisers, given they have both larger budgets and a higher likelihood of consumption given their attractiveness to users. I also pay special attention to the smaller list of specific advertisers that I share later. Changes among these advertisers may signal other changes within the business (either positive improvements or new issues), such as what was seen QoQ with specific advertisers not returning in Q2.
New and Returning Advertisers: Related to the above item, some focus is simply on which advertisers are coming into the channel (new and returning), and the type of offer constructs they are using (or no longer using). For example, this week there are both interesting new advertisers, as well as ones returning with a specific type of new offer construct. This is also where we have seen certain categories performing better than others, such as travel and restaurants (a reflection of the new restaurant sales team).
Redemptions: Actual redemptions among the accounts monitored can signal when there are more or less attractive offers for users at given times, which is typically a function of the first two items above. I share cumulative redemptions across quarters to track how the current quarter is trending.
Offers and Issues: Changes in offer count are not typically proportional to changes in billings, but instead may indicate other changes occurring, such as sending more offers to address possible under consumption of budgets, such as what was seen at the end of Q2 (with the large spike in offers per unique advertiser, discussed in past reports). We have also seen increases when banks move to the new tech, given the increased throughout that is possible.
Unique Advertisers: Given the noise in offer counts, I look a little at the unique advertiser counts over time (but with more focus on which advertisers are coming to the channel).
Chase Media Solutions (CMS) and Others: Given some of the recent developments with Chase, I track which advertisers are using CMS, how many, the location / ranking of the offers, the constructs, which don’t renew with CMS, those who switch to CDLX, etc. I do include some important new information this week on CMS. Similar to CMS, I also track other competing offer providers, but more focus has been on CMS lately.
Employees and Job Listings: Employee count can signal how cash OpEx may be trending, or when CDLX may be scaling up or down operations. The job listings give more information, such as to what the current focus is by CDLX, where we have recently seen listings addressing items discussed on the Q2 call.
Observations: Outside of the data, some observations may be more important than trends in the data, such as observations I have shared related to changes in the user experience, future changes in rev share, or new potential bank partners.
Overall, at least with respect to the numbers shared, we are looking for large changes in trends, rather than trying to forecast next quarter’s results.
One may wonder if this level of tracking is worth it. I personally have valued significantly from it, especially after the improvements made to these reports this year, given it has led to detect times to increase and decrease my allocation to CDLX.
Directly below is a summary of this week’s CDLX Report.
1. Summary of this CDLX Report
The following is a summary of this week’s report. For more details on these items, refer to the corresponding sections in the report below.
New Advertisers