Free Gift Card Guide - Part 3

Why Free Gift Cards Are Free

Most free gift card offers are facilitated by affiliate advertising networks. Members of these networks are either publishers or merchants. The merchant (affiliate advertiser) designs a banner ad, text copy or other "creative" advertisements for publishers to deploy on their web sites.

When a web site visitor clicks through the ad and completes an action such as filling out an online form for a trial offer that promises a free gift card, the publisher is compensated by receiving a percentage of the sale. In the case of pay-per-click networks, the action is a pay-per-click amount determined by publishers who bid on keywords they want to target. The affiliate network tracks all ad impressions, clicks, and sales for both the merchant and the publisher. What is happening here? The publisher is simply sending the merchant a referral or lead and receiving compensation for it.

So, the merchant gains a new customer, the publisher earns a commission, and the web site visitor gets a free gift card. Notice that everyone who is part of this process both gives and gets something in return.