Bonus or Discount: what to give?

You decided to announce a promotion for your Instagram/TikTok followers. But what should you offer: a discount or a bonus? It's important to understand the difference.

Let’s start with the basics:

Bonus or Discount

A DISCOUNT describes a change in PRICE: 50% off on your Botox syringe, 10$ off on your first pizza delivery order, $200 off on early bird ticket for a master class. A BONUS describes a change in the PRODUCT: basically, your clients pay the same price but in addition to the product they get something else: Buy 10 CoolSculpting sessions and get Agent Provocateur lingerie to highlight your new body! Place your order today and receive 50% off on your next one. Free delivery for your order, free product samples in addition to your order, etc.

So what should you choose?

Our reply will be: Go for the bonuses FIRST! Before you drop your product price and lower your margin to the minimum, try to offer something additional to your product. Why? Because bonuses bring you ADDITIONAL SALES and work better than discounts in MOST CASES. Reasons:


  • Consumers frame losses and gains differently. They dislike losses much MORE than they like gains. When discount is always seen as reduced loss (good), bonus can be seen both as reduced loss in money and gain in product (better).
  • Customers are bad in calculating %. So, bonus “50% more free” will always look more attractive for them than 35% off the price, even if they are economically equivalent. Trust us, they won’t be calculating.
  • Discounts can be associated with bad quality. Sometimes a price tells much more about a product than merely what it costs (iPhone as a good example). Giving discounts will reduce your product value in the eyes on your customers (“Photographer for 200$/h vs 400$/h? I don’t know much about either, but the second one is definitely better!”).

Regular discounts can kill businesses, especially when it comes to luxury products. Bonuses work like a loyalty program: they make a customer come back to you over and over (if you offer a bonus on future product) or makes them think “Oh I ❤️ this company” if your bonus is a gift to a main product.

But…there is always a “but”.

Here are some exceptions when a customer would prefer s discount:


  • Vice products (product consumers feel guilty to buy, like donuts or cigarettes). They are simply looking for a reason to buy this product. So, discounts work better than bonuses.
  • New to the market products – get ready to offer discounts to the early adopters.
  • High-priced products – customers prefer discounts for high-priced products over bonuses, but again, when it comes to the luxury product market, discounts are big no no no (plastic surgeons, you hear us, right? Give them discounts on Botox, but request a full price for boobs or bonus: buy 2 boobs and get 50% off for a third one ).
Back