Campaign ladders

Target Audience: Users, Stakeholders

Introduction

This section describes how campaign ladders work in Payway and how they can be used to offer progressive pricing to customers.

Campaign ladders are also known as Ranked Campaign Groups.

What are campaign ladders?

A campaign ladder is a collection of campaigns for a specific package that are ordered by rank. The ladder defines which campaigns should be offered to customers based on their purchase history and eligibility.

Campaign ladders allow you to create progressive offers, where customers are automatically presented with the most appropriate campaign based on their relationship with your business. For example, you might offer a deeply discounted introductory campaign to new customers, a moderate discount to returning customers, and finally the standard package pricing.

How do campaign ladders work?

When a customer attempts to purchase a product that has an associated campaign ladder, Payway automatically evaluates which offer the customer is eligible for by checking the campaigns in rank order (starting with rank 1).

For each campaign in the ladder, Payway evaluates:

1. Whether the customer meets any configured campaign purchase rules
2. Whether the customer has already purchased this campaign before
3. Whether the customer already has an active subscription to the underlying package

Payway returns the first campaign in the ladder that the customer is eligible to purchase. If the customer is not eligible for any campaigns in the ladder, the base package is offered instead.

Key behavior

• Campaigns are evaluated in rank order (rank 1 first, then rank 2, etc.)
• The first eligible campaign is returned
• If no campaigns are eligible, the base package is offered
• Campaign ladders must be enabled to function
• Campaign purchase rules are respected for each campaign in the ladder

Customer journey examples

Example 1: Brand new customer

Let's imagine a news organization has created a campaign ladder for their "Premium" package with three campaigns:

Rank	Campaign	Price	Duration	Rules
1	New Customer Offer	€1	3 months	Cannot have purchased any package before
2	Welcome Back Offer	€5	3 months	Can only be purchased once
3	Seasonal Discount	€8	1 month	No restrictions

Customer journey:

1. Sarah visits the website for the first time and clicks "Subscribe to Premium"
2. Payway evaluates the campaign ladder:
3. Checks rank 1 (New Customer Offer): Sarah has never purchased before ✓ Eligible
4. Sarah is offered the New Customer Offer at €1 for 3 months
5. Sarah completes the purchase and receives access to Premium

After 3 months, if the campaign transforms, Sarah's subscription converts to the regular Premium package at standard pricing.

Example 2: Existing customer with first campaign

Continuing with Sarah's journey:

1. Sarah's 3-month New Customer Offer expires and she cancels her subscription
2. Six months later, Sarah returns to the website and clicks "Subscribe to Premium" again
3. Payway evaluates the campaign ladder:
4. Checks rank 1 (New Customer Offer): Sarah has already purchased a package before ✗ Not eligible
5. Checks rank 2 (Welcome Back Offer): Sarah has not purchased this campaign before ✓ Eligible
6. Sarah is offered the Welcome Back Offer at €5 for 3 months
7. Sarah completes the purchase and receives access to Premium again

If Sarah cancels again and returns in the future:

1. Sarah clicks "Subscribe to Premium"
2. Payway evaluates the campaign ladder:
3. Checks rank 1 (New Customer Offer): Already purchased ✗ Not eligible
4. Checks rank 2 (Welcome Back Offer): Already purchased ✗ Not eligible
5. Checks rank 3 (Seasonal Discount): No restrictions ✓ Eligible
6. Sarah is offered the Seasonal Discount at €8 for 1 month

If Sarah had already purchased the Seasonal Discount as well, she would be offered the standard Premium package at full price instead.

Use cases

Campaign ladders are particularly useful for:

• Customer acquisition: Offer aggressive discounts to first-time customers
• Win-back campaigns: Provide special offers to returning customers who previously cancelled
• Progressive pricing: Gradually increase prices as customers exhaust promotional offers
• Paywall integration: Automatically present the right offer based on customer history

Setting up campaign ladders

Campaign ladders are created and managed in the Payway Administration Portal. For details on how to set up and configure campaign ladders, see the administration guide.

Once a campaign ladder is created and enabled, it can be used through the Payway API to determine which campaign to offer to a specific customer.

Campaign ladders also integrate seamlessly with Tulo Shop, requiring no additional configuration beyond creating the ladder itself.