This article recaps the "frequency engine" segment of our Lifecycle Marketing That Drives Repeat Orders webinar (AppFront Growth Series, Campaigns 101) — the events that turn a first visit into a habit by increasing check average and closing the gap between visits.

Visit-based events fire after a customer hits a milestone — for example, a surprise-and-delight reward after a 5th visit, or a gamified goal like "visit 3 times this week" to encourage a new habit. These can also be tied to specific purchases rather than just visit counts.

Daily, weekly, and monthly deployments load a coupon or reward into accounts on a fixed cadence — great for habitual touchpoints. The "once a day / week / year" variants are more date-specific (e.g., always on a customer's sign-up anniversary date) rather than a simple recurring interval.

Happy hour campaigns work the same way but on a tighter time window — for example, a coupon that loads at 2pm and expires at 5pm to drive in-store or online traffic during a slow period. These can be segmented by purchase history and can include perks like double points during the window.

Stored value campaigns reward customers for loading money onto their account ahead of time — for example, "load $25, get $5 more." This drives upfront commitment and tends to perform especially well for fast-casual, drive-thru, and beverage-led concepts. Tiers and thresholds can also be built around lifetime or single-check spend, with the option to reset annually.

This trigger fires when a customer buys a gift card — commonly used around holidays, Father's Day, or graduation season. A typical structure is "buy a $25 gift card, get $5 more" loaded onto the buyer's account, or a bounce-back coupon that brings them back to redeem in a future period. The purchase can be tracked whether it happens at the POS or in the app.

Next up: engagement and advocacy campaigns — purchased items, promo codes, and reviews.