Block, parent company of Square, Cash App, Afterpay, and Tidal, partnered with ecommerce relevance technology company Rokt to deliver personalized offers at checkout. The partnership has evolved from a single-product integration into a model for scaling partnerships across multiple business units while maintaining customer experience quality.

"Rokt was a perfect fit for the partnership with Afterpay," said Lauren Copland, ecosystem partnerships lead at Block, speaking at Advertising Week New York. "The focus is very much on the customer, and that was a key component."

A single point of contact and aligned customer-first principles have enabled Block and Rokt to expand their partnership from Afterpay to explore opportunities across Block's entire portfolio, generating 32% YoY revenue growth, panelists said.

Customer relevance drives performance

Prioritizing customer experience over pure monetization has delivered stronger commercial results for the Afterpay-Rokt partnership. Afterpay customers show a 4.6% response rate to offers presented through Rokt's platform, compared with Rokt's 3.8% network average.

"We firmly believe that it needs to be relevant to the customer," said Laura Cosgrove, senior vice president of strategic partnerships at Rokt. "Relevance is, 'Should you be showing me the credit card at all, or could you be showing me another offer that's more relevant to me and what you know about me?'"

Rokt's technology evaluates customer signals in real time to determine not just how to personalize an offer, but whether to show an offer at all. The company measures conversion per impression as its north star metric, choosing to show nothing rather than introduce friction for the sake of monetization.

In the sensitive checkout environment, partners must prove they add value rather than distraction. 

"The checkout page is the most prime real estate," Copland said. "It is like the make or break for the end of the journey if they do or do not check out."

Single point of contact 

Block structures its partnerships around a single point of contact who maintains visibility across all initiatives with a partner. This approach has proven critical as the company evaluates expanding the Rokt relationship beyond Afterpay to other products in its portfolio.

"Having that single point of contact truly allows for someone that's going to see across all the different initiatives that you have going on," Copland explained. "They know where to prioritize. Additionally, they have a deep understanding of the partner, so they know where there are alternative areas we could dig into."

The structure keeps too many people from weighing in while still enabling collaboration across relevant teams. The partnership lead serves as both an internal subject matter expert and an external advocate who can identify opportunities across the organization.

Cosgrove said ownership must be aligned on both sides.

"We structure our teams as single-threaded owners, and so we have business units that have all of the cross-functional resources that they need to be successful and to move autonomously and quickly," she said.

When evaluating partnership expansion, companies should make sure the contact has a direct stake in the outcome and aligned objectives.

"You have to have a frank conversation of like, am I the right person in the business to be aligned to," Cosgrove said.

Customization required despite operational consistency

A partnership's day-to-day operating mechanisms can be replicated across business units, but implementation requires significant customization for each use case. Block's products (Afterpay, Cash App, Square, and Tidal) each serve different end users with distinct needs.

"What we did for Afterpay isn't always going to be a perfect fit for those other brands," Copland said. "It's really important that you look at what is the customer journey, who is the end user, and how do you need to modify and tweak it accordingly."

The partnership works on two sides. On the acquisition side, it helps Afterpay acquire new customers across Rokt's broader network. On the integrated side, it delivers relevant offers within the Afterpay experience. Together, they give a view of the customer from the top of the funnel to the bottom.

Partners must help build the business case for expansion by understanding evaluation processes, key stakeholders, and what matters to different teams. 

"As a partner, I think you have to help build the business case for them and take as much of the heavy lifting as you can off of their plate," Cosgrove said.

Both companies aim to maintain their collaborative rhythm as they expand the partnership across Block's portfolio.

"The partnership does not stand still," Cosgrove said. "We keep moving forward and really pushing the boundaries on what we can achieve and test and iterate because it's possible now, and everything is deeply competitive as well."