Case Study
1,393 card accounts across an expanding paid media program
Wyndham Rewards credit cards by Barclays.
Four15 Digital worked with Pragmatic on paid acquisition for the Wyndham Rewards credit card program by Barclays.
Across the reported April-October period, client reporting attributed 1,393 accounts to Google, Meta and Microsoft Advertising on approximately $282,820 in spend. The program evolved from branded search into a broader acquisition effort, with Meta becoming a meaningful contributor in October.
|
2026 period
|
Ad spend
|
Accounts
|
Cost per account
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
April
|
$5,801
|
92
|
$63.05
|
|
May
|
$50,004
|
202
|
$247.55
|
|
June
|
$40,969
|
198
|
$206.92
|
|
July
|
$49,460
|
349
|
$141.72
|
|
August
|
$57,755
|
224
|
$257.83
|
|
September
|
$59,711
|
185
|
$322.76
|
|
October 1-12
|
$19,120
|
143
|
$133.70
|
All-channel totals from the October 15 client-reporting table. April–September are completed calendar-month rows; April had a much smaller spending base. October includes only the first 12 days. Accounts are client-reported outcomes, not submitted applications or platform conversion counts.
The program scaled from $5,801 in April spend to roughly $50,000 in May. July then delivered 349 accounts at $141.72 each. Against May, that represented 73% more accounts at 43% lower acquisition cost on slightly less spend. It was a strong result within the engagement, rather than its endpoint.
Results weakened in August and September: total accounts fell to 224 and then 185, while acquisition cost increased. With branded search already capturing much of the available demand, the team continued refining search intent and bidding while developing additional channels.
Through October 12, Google contributed 77 accounts, Meta 64 and Microsoft 2. Meta’s $47.98 cost per account helped bring blended acquisition cost to $133.70. This was an encouraging partial-month recovery in efficiency, with Meta contributing nearly 45% of reported accounts. It was not yet a completed-month result.
We coordinated tracking work across the teams, reviewed the application events and separated approved, declined, pending and duplicate outcomes from general page activity. Reporting was expanded to show both applications and approvals. We then reconciled platform results against client reporting, rather than relying on the advertising pixel alone.
Search-term analysis showed that queries containing “credit card” behaved differently from broad Rewards searches. We restructured the account to manage those groups separately. When the broader Wyndham Rewards campaign became expensive, it was paused; later expansion discussions prioritized tighter brand coverage and first-party exclusions before revisiting it.
Strong quality scores and substantial impression share meant that further gains would not come simply from buying more of the same traffic. We tested conversion-focused bidding, target CPA and later CPC caps. The October CPC-cap test showed lower click costs while maintaining strong search visibility, supporting continued experimentation on how much to pay for branded demand.
We launched and evaluated Display, then reduced its budget and excluded mobile-app placements when account acquisition was too expensive. Meta provided a more promising early opportunity through Rewards-member audiences and remarketing. Performance Max launched in late September, and the October reporting also recorded the first Microsoft Advertising accounts.
Client reports use decision dates, while Google reports conversions against click dates. Applications and approvals also arrive with a delay. We reviewed those differences throughout the engagement so incomplete platform reporting would not be mistaken for final business performance.
Meta used Wyndham’s first-party audiences, including Rewards members without a card, alongside remarketing. During October 5-12, spend averaged about $320 per day and produced 44 reported accounts, or 5.5 per day, at $58.11 each. Acquisition cost rose as spending increased, so audience size, frequency and the cost of additional accounts remained central to scaling decisions.
The April-October story is the development of a broader account-acquisition program: a scaled search base, a strong July, a difficult August-September period and promising early Meta results in October. The next step was to establish whether the newer channel mix could sustain efficient account volume at greater spend.