> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.voucherify.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Create gift cards

> Set up and manage gift card campaigns in Voucherify

Gift cards act as digital wallets that store customer credits and can be used for purchases. You can create a new gift card campaign using the **Campaign Manager** in the Voucherify dashboard.

Go to **Campaign hub** > **Campaigns** to **Create campaign** and select **Gift vouchers**.

<Tip>
  <Badge color="green">Campaign draft</Badge>

  If you can't configure the whole campaign in one go, don't worry.

  You can **Save draft** of the campaign. Draft campaigns are inactive until their configuration is finished and saved.

  If you **Cancel** the campaign builder, you can return to the builder of that campaign by going to **Create campaign** > **Continue work**. However, if in the meantime you've started creating a new campaign, you won't be able to return to the previous one.

  That's why it's best to save campaigns as drafts if you need to stop your work on campaign configuration.
</Tip>

<Steps>
  <Step>
    ## Campaign details

    Start by defining the core identity of your campaign:

    1. Enter unique **Campaign name**.
    2. Optionally, select a **Category** to group this campaign.

    3) Check **Customers can join campaign only once** if customers can receive only one code from this campaign. Customers can't receive more codes through publication.
    4) Optionally, provide a **Description** for internal reference.

    Next, select the **Campaign size**:

    * Select **Bulk codes** to generate codes for individual customers:
      * Set **Initial codes count** to generate a given number of codes when the campaign is created.
      * Toggle **Auto-increase voucher count** if you want the system to generate more codes automatically during publication.
    * Select **Generic code** to create a single code for public use.
    * Set **Redemption limit** to define how many times an incentive can be redeemed by all customers.

    <Note>
      - **Code generation settings** can only be defined for **Bulk codes**. For gift cards, it's best to use **Bulk codes** for security, as they represent stored monetary value.
      - **Redemption limit** is set to **Unlimited** by default.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step>
    ## Time frame

    You can add the following optional time limitations:

    * **Starts on** and **Expires** dates
    * **Duration and interval time frame** (for example, every 2 days for 3 hours)
    * **Valid days of the week** (for example, only Wednesdays)
    * **Valid hours per day** (for example, happy hours between 16:00 and 22:00 every Friday and Saturday)

    - **Keep valid for a specific amount of time after publishing** to ensure that gift cards expire in a defined time after they were assigned to a customer.
  </Step>

  <Step>
    ## Gift credits value

    Configure the monetary value and how the gift card will be applied to the customer's purchase:

    1. **Initial amount**: Define the initial monetary value loaded onto each card.
    2. **Apply credits to**: Determine how the gift card will be applied.
       * **Whole cart**: The credits can lower the price of the whole order.
       * **Items**: Select products or collections that can be covered with the gift credits. You can also select **Excluded products** that won't be covered by the credits.

    For **Items**, you can additionally configure:

    * **Application rules**: Defines how the discount is spread across applicable order lines.
    * **Capped by**: Limits the number of items to which the discount can be applied.

    <Note>
      For detailed descriptions of **Application rules** and **Capped by**, refer to the Complete Discounts Guide.
    </Note>

    You can set additional conditions using **Validation rules** to limit the gift card's behavior (for example, only allow redemption for orders above \$100).

    <Note>
      Read [Create validation rules](/optimize/create-validation-rules) to learn how to set the rules.

      Read [Validation rules](/optimize/validation-rules-reference) for a detailed description of all validation rules and other settings.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step>
    ## Metadata (optional)

    Add custom attributes for tracking, optimizing, or experimenting.

    You can either:

    * **Use an existing metadata schema**.
    * **Add unknown property**: metadata that isn't defined and won't be added to the schema.
    * **Add to schema**: define new metadata schema. Once saved, reload the schema to use the new metadata.

    <Note>
      Read [Metadata](/prepare/metadata) to learn more about custom attributes.
    </Note>

    By default, the campaign uses **Voucher metadata schema**. This will set metadata for the campaign and its vouchers. If you're editing the campaign, changes made to the metadata will apply only to the vouchers that haven't been redeemed yet and haven't been published to any customers.

    Uncheck **Use the voucher's metadata schema** to use campaign metadata schemas. The metadata will apply only to the campaign and not to its vouchers.
  </Step>

  <Step>
    ## Access settings

    Check areas, stores, and all stores to limit the access to the campaign by restricted users and API keys.

    <Note>
      <Badge color="blue">Enterprise feature</Badge>

      This step is available for Enterprise clients who have the Areas and stores feature enabled.

      Contact your technical account manager or [Voucherify support](https://www.voucherify.io/contact-support).

      Read [Areas and stores](/orchestrate/areas-and-stores) to learn more about access settings.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step>
    ## Summary

    Review your configuration if everything's correct. If you see something that needs editing, go back to a given step.

    If the setup is correct, click **Save** to launch your campaign.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  Editing campaign settings (for example time frame or expiration settings) affects only vouchers that *have not been published or redeemed yet*.

  Vouchers that are already *published or redeemed keep their existing settings*.
  To change their settings, update the voucher directly.
</Warning>

<Tip>
  <Badge color="green">Campaign calendar</Badge>

  Once you save your campaign or save it as a draft, you can see when it will be active in **Campaign Calendar** in the **Marketer Hub** sidebar section. **Campaign Calendar** shows an overview of all campaigns and their time frames and additional information when you click on a given bar.
</Tip>

## Related features

Experiment with other features to improve your campaign results.

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Campaign templates">
    You can turn your discount campaign into a campaign template.

    In the campaign detail view, click the **Create template** button in the top right bar.

    You can reuse the template to quickly recreate the campaign in the same project or create it in another project.

    <Tip>
      <Badge color="green">Moving to production environments</Badge>

      Campaign templates are especially useful when you want to migrate a campaign you've tested in a Sandbox environment to your production project.
    </Tip>

    Read [Campaign templates](https://support.voucherify.io/article/620-campaign-templates) to learn more.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Campaign tracking">
    Once your campaign is live, you can track its progress in the dashboard. This way you can quickly react when it underperforms and tweak its settings or experiment with your setup.

    <Tip>
      <Badge color="green">Dev tools</Badge>

      Devs can use the following tools for campaign tracking:

      * [Voucherify Core MCP](/guides/voucherify-core-mcp)
      * [Campaign summary API](/api-reference/get-campaign-summary)
    </Tip>
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Distribution">
    Once you've created the campaign, you can set up a distribution to notify your customers about new promotions, discounts, and other offers, or assign vouchers to them.

    These articles can help you with further fine-tuning:

    * [Distribution guidebook](https://support.voucherify.io/article/19-how-does-the-distribution-manager-work) explains how distributions work in Voucherify
    * [Create distribution](https://support.voucherify.io/article/19-how-does-the-distribution-manager-work) will help you with setting up a distribution message
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Fraud prevention">
    Even best campaigns can be a target of fraud or exploited by customers who spot weak spots in the promotion setup.

    You can stop that from happing by using fraud prevention and tracking tools built in Voucherify.

    Learn more about stopping incentive fraud in:

    * [Interactive tour](https://www.voucherify.io/product-tours/stop-incentive-fraud).
    * [Fraud prevention and tracking](https://support.voucherify.io/article/516-fraud-prevention) article.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Physical gift cards">
    Voucherify only offers digital gift cards that act as gift card codes. If you need to create a physical gift card, refer to the [Create printable vouchers and gift cards](https://support.voucherify.io/article/169-how-to-create-printable-vouchers-and-gift-cards) guide.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>