Use promos to attract new customers by offering them a time-limited discount on your content. Promos can also help you retain existing subscribers and win back recently churned ones by allowing them temporary free access.
A few things to keep in mind about subscription promos
- The sellers will be charged a subscription fee for viewers subscribed through a 100% promo.
- It is only possible to offer promos for subscriptions purchased via the web. If you offer branded apps, in-app purchases do not support promo codes at this time.
- Customers cannot use more than one promo at the same time. Customers have to wait until the current promo ends and then apply for the new one.
- If you have set up both a free trial and a promo for your content, the promo will be applied after the free trial period.
In this article
- How do I create a promo?
- How do I extend a promo?
- What are my actions and options for promos?
- Applying promo to a customer's account
How do I create a promo?
Before creating a promo, you will need an available subscription product with videos within a Collection. Then follow these steps:
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Within the Vimeo OTT Admin, click Products > Promotions.
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Next to Subscription promos, click Manage promos.
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On the next screen, click + Create promo.
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Configure the settings of your new promo in the General tab of the Promo settings page:
- Campaign name: This is for internal use and will only appear on the promo page in your site admin.
- Promo redemption: Choose which type of subscriber is eligible to use this promo (only new subscribers, only existing subscribers, or both).
- Start date: Choose when this code will go live.
- End date (optional): Choose when the code will expire. If you do not set an end date, the promo will end when the quantity runs out (set on the next page).
- Once you have saved your general promo settings, move on to the Details tab, where you can choose between Custom or Random for your promo code type.
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Click Custom to create a promo code for mass usage, then an alphanumeric string of up to 20 characters in the text box below.
⚠️Note: Promo codes cannot contain special characters. Shorter codes are easier to remember. -
Click Random to create a set of auto-generated codes you can give out to individuals for one-time use.
- If you'd like you can add a prefix to your code, which is 10 alphanumeric characters that would appear at the start of all of the codes generated. For example, if you were doing a Fall promo in 2020, you could make it FALL20 and all the promo codes would start with that prefix followed by the randomly generated code. Choose if you want this promo to be for monthly subscribers or annual subscribers. Please note that annual subscribers cannot use promos configured for monthly subscribers, and vice versa.
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Configure the following:
- Discount: There is an input field where sellers can input any discount percentage for promo and coupon creation.
⚠️Note: The subscription price with the promo applied cannot be less than $1.99/month or $12.99/year. You can see the Purchase price with your selected discount amount in the Promo summary section on the left-hand side of the page. If the Purchase price is lower than the minimum you will not be able to create the promo and will need to set a smaller discount percentage.
- Duration: Choose the number of months the discount will apply before renewing at the full price.
⚠️Note: If you set your promo to “Annual” subscription types, the duration is restricted to one year.
- Quantity: Custom promos determine how many subscribers should be allowed to use this code. If a viewer attempts to use a promo code after the maximum amount has been claimed, they will see a "Code expired" message at checkout.
- For random promos, this will determine how many promo codes are generated. The default amount is 100. The maximum you can create is 10,000 codes per promotion.
10. Click Save to save your promo details. Be sure to check the Promo summary on the left side to confirm your promo's terms. You won't be able to update these details once you’ve generated the codes so be sure you’re satisfied with the settings before you generate the codes. When you are satisfied, click Generate codes.
The button will switch after a moment to say Download CSV. Clicking it will prompt an email to be sent to you with a CSV file attached.
💡 Tip: Don’t see an email? Search your inbox for a message from help@vhx.tv and consider adding that address to your contacts or whitelist. Be sure to check your spam folder and all filters, and be sure you are checking the email that is associated with your Vimeo OTT account.
Once you have your CSV of codes, you can distribute them however you see fit. Remember that the random codes can only be used once so each recipient will need a unique code.
How do I extend a promo?
To extend a promo:
- Go to the Admin
- Find the promo
- Change the End date for the promo
What are my actions and options for promos?
After you have created a promo, you can click the actions dropdown on it to see options for sharing/editing:
- Edit - Click this to edit your promo settings.
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Promote on Homepage (Custom only) - Click this to feature the promo on your website so that anyone who lands on your homepage will know about the discount.
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Warning: as soon as you select the promo in this drop-down, it will appear on the homepage of your Vimeo OTT site. To disable it, open the drop-down and select Remove from the homepage.
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Warning: as soon as you select the promo in this drop-down, it will appear on the homepage of your Vimeo OTT site. To disable it, open the drop-down and select Remove from the homepage.
- Copy promo URL (Custom only) - If you don't want to promote it to everyone, you can simply click the "Copy promo URL" and share that link with a select audience. This is also a good way to test it out yourself before making it live.
- Copy redemption URL (Custom only) - Use this if you want to send people directly to checkout with the code applied already. We have found in past experiences that the promo URL will be more effective at converting people but figured it'd be handy for you to have both.
- Deactivate - Click this anytime on an active Promo to disable it immediately.
- Note that it is not possible to permanently delete a promo.
- Scroll down on the promos page to find your inactive promos. If you wish to activate one, open the corresponding dropdown menu to the right, and click Activate.
To see which customers used a promo code to purchase, download the transactions CSV file, which will include the code each customer used, if any, including codes set for existing customers.
Applying a promo to a customer’s account
Sellers can apply a promo to a customer’s account directly through the OTT Admin to give a customer a discounted promotional rate on their existing subscription.
- Within the Vimeo OTT Admin, click Customer > All Customers
- In the Search field, enter a customer’s email address to pull up their record
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Click the … icon next to the customer’s record to open a dropdown
- Apply promo option will only appear on customers who have an active paid subscription
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Select Apply Promotion which will open a modal window
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Enter the promo code and click Apply
- If the promo is applied successfully confirmation text will appear
- If the promo is not applied successfully red text will display why the promo could not be applied
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Promos cannot be applied if the customer is currently on a promo if the promo has previously been redeemed by the customer if a subscriber is monthly and the promo is annual if the promo is no longer active if the promo is only applicable to new customers, or if the subscription is set to be canceled