Cardlytics Inc (CDLX) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Cardlytics Fourth Quarter or Year 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)

你好，謝謝你的支持。歡迎參加 Cardlytics 2022 年第四季度或年度財務業績電話會議。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to hand the conference over to Nick Lynton, Chief Legal and Privacy Officer. Sir, you may begin.

我現在想將會議交給首席法律和隱私官 Nick Lynton。先生，您可以開始了。

Thanks for joining us, and welcome to the Cardlytics' Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Financial Results Call.

感謝您加入我們，歡迎參加 Cardlytics 的 2022 年第四季度和全年財務業績電話會議。

Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements based on our current assumptions, expectations and beliefs, including expectations about our future financial performance and results, our ability to achieve our key long-term priorities, upgrades to our current products and processes and our rollout of new products, the rollout of our new ad server and user experience, our transition to the cloud and the deprecation of our on-premise data centers, our sales pipeline, our customer concentration and margin profiles, our time line for achieving positive free cash flow and our path to profitability, our cost reduction initiatives and the Bridg shareholder dispute in earn-out payments. For a discussion of the specific risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from today's discussion, please refer to the Risk Factors section of the company's 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, which has been filed with the SEC.

在我們開始之前，讓我提醒大家，今天的討論將包含基於我們當前假設、預期和信念的前瞻性陳述，包括對我們未來財務業績和結果的預期、我們實現關鍵長期優先事項的能力、升級到我們當前的產品和流程以及新產品的推出、新廣告服務器和用戶體驗的推出、我們向雲的過渡以及本地數據中心的棄用、我們的銷售渠道、我們的客戶集中度和利潤率概況，我們實現正自由現金流的時間表和我們的盈利途徑、我們的成本削減計劃以及 Bridg 股東在賺取報酬方面的爭議。有關可能導致我們的實際結果與今天的討論產生重大差異的具體風險因素的討論，請參閱公司提交給美國證券交易委員會的截至 2022 年 12 月 31 日止年度的 10-K 的風險因素部分.

Also during this call, we will discuss non-GAAP measures of our performance. GAAP financial reconciliations and supplemental financial information are provided in the press release issued today and the 8-K that has been filed with the SEC.

同樣在這次電話會議中，我們將討論我們業績的非 GAAP 衡量標準。今天發布的新聞稿和已提交給 SEC 的 8-K 中提供了 GAAP 財務調節表和補充財務信息。

Today's call is available via webcast, and a replay will be available for 1 week. You can find the information I have just described in the Investor Relations section of the Cardlytics website. Please note that a supplemental presentation to our fourth quarter and full year results has also been posted to our Investor Relations website.

今天的電話會議可通過網絡直播進行，重播將持續 1 週。您可以在 Cardlytics 網站的投資者關係部分找到我剛才描述的信息。請注意，我們的第四季度和全年業績的補充介紹也已發佈到我們的投資者關係網站上。

Joining us on the call today is Cardlytics' CEO Karim Temsamani; and CFO, Andy Christiansen. Following their prepared remarks, we'll open the call to your questions.

Cardlytics 的首席執行官 Karim Temsamani 今天加入我們的電話會議；首席財務官 Andy Christiansen。在他們準備好的評論之後，我們將開始回答您的問題。

With that said, let me turn the call over to Karim. Karim?

話雖如此，讓我把電話轉給卡里姆。卡里姆？

Thank you for joining us, and welcome to our fourth quarter earnings call. It has been exactly 6 months since I've joined Cardlytics. And while we still have some short-term issues to resolve, my belief in the incredible long-term potential of this business has only been strengthened. Cardlytics is in a unique position at a unique time in the industry. The topics of both performance and brand-safe online advertising are top of mind with many of our customers and partners, which aligns squarely with our value proposition.

感謝您加入我們，歡迎參加我們的第四季度財報電話會議。我加入 Cardlytics 已經整整 6 個月了。雖然我們還有一些短期問題需要解決，但我對這項業務令人難以置信的長期潛力的信念只會得到加強。 Cardlytics 在行業的獨特時期處於獨特的地位。性能和品牌安全在線廣告的主題是我們許多客戶和合作夥伴的首要考慮，這與我們的價值主張完全一致。

It is rare to see a model that has so many benefits to so many groups. Brands get to offer the customers ads that are relevant based on past purchases. Customers save on the brands they prefer and financial institutions increase engagement and loyalty. The cycle is virtuous. But to realize the true potential as a business, we needed to improve our operational efficiency, reduce excess costs and become a company that is led by the products that we are building. It's still early, but we are starting to see the results of these improvements.

很少看到一個模型能為如此多的群體帶來如此多的好處。品牌可以根據過去的購買向客戶提供相關的廣告。客戶在他們喜歡的品牌上省錢，金融機構提高參與度和忠誠度。循環是良性的。但要實現企業的真正潛力，我們需要提高運營效率，降低超額成本，並成為一家以我們正在打造的產品為主導的公司。現在還早，但我們已經開始看到這些改進的結果。

On the call, I'd like to highlight our financial results, focus on areas where we have demonstrated operational and cost discipline and give insights into product enhancements that we expect to positively affect our growth for the year.

在電話會議上，我想強調我們的財務業績，重點關注我們已經展示運營和成本紀律的領域，並深入了解我們預計會對我們今年的增長產生積極影響的產品改進。

First, some financial highlights. Our fourth quarter performance delivered billings, revenue and adjusted contribution in line with our guidance. We navigated a challenging macro environment where inflation and rising interest rates tempered budgets across the ad tech markets. Despite these headwinds, for the full year 2022, we once again delivered double-digit growth across billings, revenue and adjusted contribution. Additionally, Bridg delivered triple-digit revenue growth.

首先，一些財務亮點。我們第四季度的業績符合我們的指導，提供了賬單、收入和調整後的貢獻。我們度過了一個充滿挑戰的宏觀環境，在這個環境中，通貨膨脹和利率上升抑制了整個廣告技術市場的預算。儘管存在這些不利因素，但在 2022 年全年，我們在賬單、收入和調整後的貢獻方面再次實現了兩位數的增長。此外，Bridg 實現了三位數的收入增長。

For the full year 2022, billings grew 12% to $442.5 million, revenue grew 12% to $298.5 million, Bridg revenue grew 155% to $21.4 million and adjusted contribution grew 10% to $143 million.

2022 年全年，營業額增長 12% 至 4.425 億美元，收入增長 12% 至 2.985 億美元，Bridg 收入增長 155% 至 2140 萬美元，調整後的貢獻增長 10% 至 1.43 億美元。

Consumer engagement in the program grew in Q4. Users activating offers increased 8.6% year-over-year, even with the impact of the large restaurant client exiting our channel. Our platform is creating an impact for our banking partners and for retailers, too. In 2022, our data showed customers engaging with our program spent 1.2x more on their card and made 1.3x more shopping trips than unengaged customers. And clearly, it works well for advertisers. We increased the total number of advertisers in the channel by 8% in 2022. Not only that, but we also increased the number of advertisers with billings between $500,000 million and $5 million by 17%, and we increased the number with billings greater than $5 million by 44%.

消費者對該計劃的參與度在第四季度有所增長。激活優惠的用戶同比增長 8.6%，即使受到大型餐廳客戶退出我們渠道的影響。我們的平台正在為我們的銀行合作夥伴和零售商產生影響。 2022 年，我們的數據顯示，與未參與我們計劃的客戶相比，參與我們計劃的客戶在卡上的花費增加了 1.2 倍，購物次數增加了 1.3 倍。顯然，它對廣告商很有效。我們在 2022 年將渠道中的廣告商總數增加了 8%。不僅如此，我們還將賬單金額在 5000 億美元至 500 萬美元之間的廣告商數量增加了 17%，我們還增加了賬單金額大於 5 美元的廣告商數量萬元，增長 44%。

We have a great business foundation despite the current state of the economy. In many ways, though, the economy is a good forcing mechanism to improve our business efficiencies even more. When you combined a more efficient business with the numerous product enhancements that we're putting into place, it's clear we are setting ourselves up for long-term success.

儘管當前經濟狀況不佳，但我們擁有良好的業務基礎。但是，在許多方面，經濟是一種很好的強制機制，可以進一步提高我們的業務效率。當您將更高效的業務與我們正在實施的眾多產品增強功能相結合時，很明顯我們正在為長期成功做好準備。

As mentioned last quarter, we took action to control our costs in this difficult environment. We successfully implemented $35 million in cost reductions at the end of December. The full effect of these actions will appear in Q1 of this year. We're not stopping there. We're improving operational efficiency company-wide. And despite difficult economic conditions, we are focused on achieving positive free cash flow in Q3 of this year. Our team has seen significant changes through this process, and I would like to take a moment to thank all our leaders and team members for their focus, commitment and hard work. We believe these changes will make us stronger as a team and as a business.

正如上個季度所提到的，我們在這種困難的環境中採取了行動來控制我們的成本。我們在 12 月底成功實施了 3500 萬美元的成本削減。這些行動的全部效果將在今年第一季度顯現。我們不會就此止步。我們正在提高全公司的運營效率。儘管經濟形勢艱難，我們仍致力於在今年第三季度實現正自由現金流。通過這個過程，我們的團隊發生了重大變化，我想花點時間感謝我們所有的領導和團隊成員的專注、承諾和辛勤工作。我們相信這些變化將使我們作為一個團隊和一個企業變得更加強大。

I often talk internally about the importance of becoming a product-led company, and our teams are working tirelessly in every department to revamp and improve our workflows across products, engineering, sales, operations and analytics. Let me give you a few examples to illustrate the impact of these changes.

我經常在內部談論成為一家以產品為主導的公司的重要性，我們的團隊在每個部門都孜孜不倦地工作，以改進和改進我們在產品、工程、銷售、運營和分析方面的工作流程。讓我舉幾個例子來說明這些變化的影響。

First, we are upgrading our ad decisioning engine to support modern ad ranking models to drive higher monetization and offer relevancy. Based on early results, we believe that these changes can drive a lift in RPM of 10% to 15% in the back half of 2023.

首先，我們正在升級我們的廣告決策引擎以支持現代廣告排名模型，以推動更高的貨幣化和提供相關性。根據早期結果，我們認為這些變化可以在 2023 年下半年將 RPM 提高 10% 至 15%。

Second, we are exploring pricing models that are more tied to serves or impression events while still optimizing for advertiser rollout targets. This approach provides better balance between reach and performance goals. It also gives Cardlytics more control of budget management, delivery and ad selection, which helps us capture mobility.

其次，我們正在探索與服務或印象事件更相關的定價模型，同時仍在針對廣告商推出目標進行優化。這種方法在覆蓋面和性能目標之間提供了更好的平衡。它還讓 Cardlytics 更好地控制預算管理、投放和廣告選擇，這有助於我們獲得流動性。

Third, the processes we have put in place to allow us to better track product performance, overages, adjustments and comping launch delays not only allowed us to immediately save $350,000 on redundant tools but also will increase our overall operational efficiency for the year.

第三，我們已經實施的流程使我們能夠更好地跟踪產品性能、過剩、調整和補償發布延遲，這不僅讓我們立即在冗餘工具上節省了 350,000 美元，而且還將提高我們今年的整體運營效率。

I expect the combined impact of the above improvements to positively impact our full year billing margins by around 2%. These are the first of many initiatives that we're putting in place to improve our operations and products. I look forward to sharing more details in the coming months.

我預計上述改進的綜合影響將對我們的全年賬單利潤率產生 2% 左右的積極影響。這些是我們為改進我們的運營和產品而實施的眾多舉措中的第一項。我期待在接下來的幾個月中分享更多細節。

Product improvements also helped from a bank perspective. We created a dedicated operations group within our publisher engineering team that has implemented rigorous monitoring techniques, decreasing partner ticket creation by over 25% in from November 2022 to February 2023. Not only does this make us more efficient and cost effective, it also improves our partner satisfaction.

從銀行的角度來看，產品改進也有所幫助。我們在發布商工程團隊中創建了一個專門的運營小組，該小組實施了嚴格的監控技術，從 2022 年 11 月到 2023 年 2 月，合作夥伴票證創建減少了 25% 以上。這不僅使我們更有效率和成本效益，還提高了我們的夥伴滿意度。

Three initiatives I highlighted last quarter are especially important in the product area. Our new Ad Server, our new user experience and cloud migration. So let me give you some insights into progress in each of these areas.

我上個季度強調的三項舉措在產品領域尤為重要。我們的新廣告服務器、新用戶體驗和雲遷移。因此，讓我為您提供一些有關這些領域進展的見解。

We have already connected more than 50% of our MAU base to our new Ad Server, completing one of our key objectives for the year. We remain on track to connect all of our partners to the new Ad Server and user experience by the end of 2023.

我們已經將超過 50% 的 MAU 基礎連接到我們的新廣告服務器，完成了我們今年的主要目標之一。我們仍有望在 2023 年底之前將所有合作夥伴連接到新的廣告服務器和用戶體驗。

Regarding the new user experience, we're excited to announce that a major partner is launching a new user experience to its full user base, and it should roll out over the next month. As we mentioned in the past, the scale created by having a major bank partner on our new user experience and Ad Server will allow us to ship new products, which I will discuss in more detail shortly.

關於新的用戶體驗，我們很高興地宣布，一家主要合作夥伴正在向其全部用戶群推出新的用戶體驗，預計會在下個月推出。正如我們過去提到的，在我們的新用戶體驗和廣告服務器上擁有一個主要銀行合作夥伴所創造的規模將使我們能夠推出新產品，我將在稍後詳細討論。

We also have news to share on cloud migration. In Q4, we finished moving our core U.S. platform to the cloud. We are now focused on deprecating our on-premise data centers. Deprecating our data centers will create cost savings of nearly $1 million in 2024. Our goal is to have all our banks moved to the cloud by Q3 2023.

我們也有關於雲遷移的消息要分享。在第四季度，我們完成了將核心美國平台遷移到雲端的工作。我們現在專注於棄用我們的本地數據中心。棄用我們的數據中心將在 2024 年節省近 100 萬美元的成本。我們的目標是到 2023 年第三季度將所有銀行遷移到雲端。

Focusing on product makes us more than just efficient. It also unlocks new capabilities. Here are 3 specific examples of new offer constructs that we will be up in Q1 and Q2.

專注於產品不僅使我們更有效率。它還解鎖了新功能。以下是我們將在第一季度和第二季度推出的新報價結構的 3 個具體示例。

First, spend stretch offers or the ability to incentivize a set of customers spending in a certain range to increase their spending on their next visit. An example will be a customer who spends $20 on average, receiving a $5 cash discount if they spend $40 or more.

首先，消費延伸優惠或激勵一組客戶在一定範圍內消費的能力，以增加他們在下次訪問時的消費。例如，一位平均消費 20 美元的顧客，如果消費 40 美元或更多，將獲得 5 美元的現金折扣。

Second, merchant category product offers, which allow bank-funded campaigns that are targeted to specific types of transactions such as gas or grocery purchases. In a test with a large bank partner, we saw around a 2x increase in resumption dollars of a standard campaign.

其次，商家類別產品優惠，允許針對特定類型的交易（例如購買汽油或雜貨）進行銀行資助的活動。在與一家大型銀行合作夥伴進行的測試中，我們發現標準活動的恢復資金增加了大約 2 倍。

Third, receipt-level offers, which are constructs tailored to specific product categories or items. These are the offers we are most excited about, and for good reason. In an early test, 10% of activations came from customers who had never activated an offer before, and 19% of those customers had not shopped at that retailer in 12 months prior to the campaign.

第三，收據級別報價，這是針對特定產品類別或項目量身定制的結構。這些是我們最興奮的優惠，並且有充分的理由。在早期測試中，10% 的激活來自以前從未激活過優惠的客戶，其中 19% 的客戶在活動開始前的 12 個月內沒有在該零售商購物。

Growth isn't just coming from our core business. As many of you know, we hired Amit Gupta as our new COO of Cardlytics and General Manager of Bridg. We're extremely excited to have attracted such an incredible talent to the business. Amit is already hard at work, both on optimizing our long-term platform and on fully realizing the potential of Bridg and Cardlytics.

增長不僅僅來自我們的核心業務。眾所周知，我們聘請了 Amit Gupta 擔任 Cardlytics 的新首席運營官和 Bridg 的總經理。我們非常高興能為這項業務吸引如此出色的人才。 Amit 已經在努力工作，既要優化我們的長期平台，也要充分發揮 Bridg 和 Cardlytics 的潛力。

Relating to Bridg, Amit is accelerating the evolution of the business from a customer data platform to a retail media network for mid-market and regional retailers. We believe that most smaller retailers cannot build these platforms alone. While Bridg's capability allows us to work with larger retailers, the key to success for Bridg is building a cover team, scale data sets for mid-market and regional grocery stores, convenience stores and fuel providers, much in the same way that we build core Cardlytics. By building scale for these retailers, we can create a compelling new product for CPGs to gain insights, drive incremental sales and measure campaigns.

關於 Bridg，Amit 正在加速業務從客戶數據平台向面向中端市場和區域零售商的零售媒體網絡的發展。我們相信大多數小型零售商無法單獨構建這些平台。雖然 Bridg 的能力使我們能夠與更大的零售商合作，但 Bridg 成功的關鍵是建立一個掩護團隊，為中端市場和區域雜貨店、便利店和燃料供應商擴展數據集，這與我們構建核心的方式非常相似心髒病學。通過為這些零售商建立規模，我們可以為 CPG 創造引人注目的新產品，以獲得洞察力、推動增量銷售和衡量活動。

Amit and the Bridg teams are hard at work on our go-to-market efforts that will enable this vision providing a best-in-class retail media network for smaller retailers. And as Bridg scales, we will also see improvement to our adjusted contribution margin due to its higher growth margin, which will positively affect our cash flow.

Amit 和 Bridg 團隊正在努力推進我們的上市工作，以實現這一願景，為小型零售商提供一流的零售媒體網絡。隨著 Bridg 規模的擴大，由於其更高的增長率，我們還將看到調整後的邊際收益有所改善，這將對我們的現金流產生積極影響。

Given the numerous improvements and innovative products that are on the horizon, I am incredibly excited for the future of Cardlytics. Our move to being a product-led company is expanding our reach and enhancing our capabilities, which will continue to differentiate us in the market and provide better solutions for advertisers and partners.

鑑於即將出現的眾多改進和創新產品，我對 Cardlytics 的未來感到無比興奮。我們向以產品為主導的公司的轉變正在擴大我們的影響力並增強我們的能力，這將繼續使我們在市場上脫穎而出，並為廣告商和合作夥伴提供更好的解決方案。

I'd like to close with some observations on consumer spend, the economy and our outlook for the year.

最後，我想談談對消費者支出、經濟和我們今年展望的一些看法。

For 2022, consumer spend grew 5% over 2021, outpacing transaction growth by over 3%. Inflation clearly affected the consumer in the second half of the year. Outside of travel and entertainment, which enjoyed recovery through 2022, discretionary spending categories mostly finished down or flat for the year. For 2022, year-over-year, gas and grocery spend was up 9%, travel and entailment spend was up 25%, retail was flat, and restaurant was up 9%, but more discretionary categories such as bars and night clubs finished down 4% year-over-year.

到 2022 年，消費者支出比 2021 年增長 5%，超過交易增長 3% 以上。通貨膨脹在下半年明顯影響了消費者。除了到 2022 年都在復甦的旅遊和娛樂之外，可自由支配的支出類別全年大多下降或持平。到 2022 年，加油和雜貨支出同比增長 9%，旅行和承包支出增長 25%，零售持平，餐廳增長 9%，但酒吧和夜總會等更多非必需品類支出下降同比增長 4%。

Leading indicators show that consumers remain resilient and inflation is receding from its high, but the Fed has not yet backed away from its current monetary policy. The threat of an economic slowdown has stalled budget in Q4 and Q1 much in the same way that we saw pause during the onset of the pandemic. Advertising clients were extremely cautious in Q4 and remain so in the early stages of Q1.

領先指標顯示消費者保持彈性，通脹正在從高位回落，但美聯儲尚未放棄當前的貨幣政策。經濟放緩的威脅使第四季度和第一季度的預算停滯不前，就像我們在大流行病爆發期間看到的停頓一樣。廣告客戶在第四季度非常謹慎，並且在第一季度初期仍然如此。

That said, I am still encouraged by the continued strength of our new business pipeline, especially for the second half of the year. I believe that once advertisers reassess the cost structures and budgets, we will benefit from the ongoing move to brand-safe, performance-based advertising. We are building a business that is resilient in the long term regardless of economic conditions.

儘管如此，我仍然對我們新業務管道的持續強勁感到鼓舞，尤其是在今年下半年。我相信，一旦廣告商重新評估成本結構和預算，我們將受益於不斷轉向品牌安全、基於績效的廣告。無論經濟狀況如何，我們正在建立一個長期具有彈性的企業。

For 2023, we see a path to solid growth, especially after we pass the anniversary of a significant restaurant client exiting our channel in the second half of the year. Our product enhancements and optimization should provide us with around 2% of additional upside to billings margin for the rest of the year. And the growth of Bridg's higher-margin business will benefit both our billings and cash flow as we move forward.

到 2023 年，我們看到了一條穩健增長的道路，尤其是在我們度過了下半年一家重要餐廳客戶退出我們渠道的周年紀念日之後。我們的產品增強和優化應該會為我們在今年餘下時間提供大約 2% 的額外利潤率。隨著我們前進，Bridg 的高利潤業務的增長將有利於我們的賬單和現金流。

Even with the muted economic conditions, we have room to get to profitability and control our cash flow by managing the business responsibly. We know our success is dependent on executing with a disciplined approach, and I'm confident that our strategy and priorities are positioning the company for liquidity, long-term growth and profitability. And while the Bridg shareholder dispute has been a distraction to the business over the last few quarters, we remain confident in our position and are happy to report that we currently expect the matter to be resolved by the end of April.

即使經濟形勢低迷，我們仍有空間通過負責任地管理業務來實現盈利並控制現金流。我們知道我們的成功取決於以一種有紀律的方法執行，我相信我們的戰略和優先事項正在為公司定位流動性、長期增長和盈利能力。雖然 Bridg 股東糾紛在過去幾個季度一直分散了我們的業務，但我們仍然對我們的立場充滿信心，並很高興地報告說，我們目前預計此事將在 4 月底前得到解決。

With that, I will hand over to Andy to provide more detail on our results and financial strategy.

有了這個，我將交給安迪提供更多關於我們的結果和財務戰略的細節。

Thank you, Karim. Our Q4 results were within our quarterly guidance ranges. And despite macroeconomic headwinds that impacted consumer spending and ad budgets, we delivered double-digit year-over-year growth in 2022. Let me walk through the numbers for Q4.

謝謝你，卡里姆。我們的第四季度業績在我們的季度指導範圍內。儘管宏觀經濟逆風影響了消費者支出和廣告預算，但我們在 2022 年實現了兩位數的同比增長。讓我來看看第四季度的數字。

Billings totaled $126.1 million, down 5.9% year-over-year. Revenue totaled $82.5 million, down 8.4% year-over-year. Adjusted contribution totaled $40 million, down 9.2% year-over-year. And adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $6.1 million compared to a gain of $2.6 million in Q4 of last year. Additionally, for Q4, year-over-year, Bridg revenue grew 74.2% and agency ad spending on the Cardlytics platform grew over 20%. It's also worth noting that core Cardlytics billings was flat year-over-year when excluding the large restaurant client that left the channel in 2022.

賬單總額為 1.261 億美元，同比下降 5.9%。收入總計 8250 萬美元，同比下降 8.4%。調整後的貢獻總額為 4000 萬美元，同比下降 9.2%。調整後的 EBITDA 虧損 610 萬美元，而去年第四季度為盈利 260 萬美元。此外，在第四季度，Bridg 收入同比增長 74.2%，Cardlytics 平台上的代理廣告支出增長超過 20%。還值得注意的是，如果不包括 2022 年離開該渠道的大型餐廳客戶，核心 Cardlytics 的賬單同比持平。

For the quarter, billings margin was down 1.8% year-over-year. Part of this was driven by advertiser mix. We typically generate a higher billings margin within the restaurant vertical compared to travel and entertainment. Restaurant ad spending on our channel declined 15% year-over-year compared to a 75% increase within travel and entertainment. Additionally, there are some temporary drags on billings margin that will phase out by the middle of the year as we transition our tech stack and automate our operations. Our expectation is to return to historical levels of billing margin over time. We also see opportunities to expand our margins as we grow and diversify our customer base and leverage higher-margin revenues from our fast-growing Bridg offerings.

本季度，比林斯利潤率同比下降 1.8%。部分原因是由廣告商組合推動的。與旅遊和娛樂相比，我們通常在垂直餐廳產生更高的賬單利潤。我們頻道的餐廳廣告支出同比下降 15%，而旅遊和娛樂領域的廣告支出增長了 75%。此外，隨著我們過渡技術堆棧和自動化運營，賬單利潤率會受到一些暫時的拖累，這些拖累將在今年年中逐步消除。我們的預期是隨著時間的推移恢復到歷史水平的開票保證金。隨著我們的客戶群的發展和多樣化，以及利用我們快速增長的 Bridg 產品帶來的更高利潤的收入，我們也看到了擴大利潤的機會。

Customer concentration improved over the past year as our top 5 customers accounted for 15% of revenue this quarter compared to 23% in Q4 of 2021. This remains a central focus as we continue to organically grow and expand the depth and breadth of our customer base.

客戶集中度在過去一年有所提高，因為本季度我們的前 5 大客戶佔收入的 15%，而 2021 年第四季度為 23%。隨著我們繼續有機增長並擴大客戶群的深度和廣度，這仍然是一個中心焦點.

Moving to costs. We have completed the cost reduction initiatives we announced in 2022 and expect over $35 million in annualized savings compared to our annualized run rate in Q2 of 2022. As Karim mentioned, we have more room to control costs in events of further economic decline, but we believe we can reach our cash flow goals in 2023 with our current cost base.

轉向成本。我們已經完成了我們在 2022 年宣布的成本削減計劃，與 2022 年第二季度的年化運行率相比，預計年化節省超過 3500 萬美元。正如 Karim 提到的，在經濟進一步下滑的情況下，我們有更多的空間來控製成本，但我們相信我們可以在目前的成本基礎上實現 2023 年的現金流目標。

As a result of a sustained decline in our market cap and significant increases in interest rates and cost of capital, we recorded a $370 million noncash impairment of goodwill and intangible assets this quarter. We remain excited about the prospects of Bridg and Cardlytics, but the impairment was necessary given the fact that our goodwill and intangible assets were in excess of our market cap.

由於我們的市值持續下降以及利率和資本成本顯著增加，本季度我們記錄了 3.7 億美元的商譽和無形資產非現金減值。我們仍然對 Bridg 和 Cardlytics 的前景感到興奮，但鑑於我們的商譽和無形資產超過我們的市值，減值是必要的。

Moving to our balance sheet and cash flow. We ended the year with $122 million in cash and cash equivalents compared to $138.6 million at the end of Q3. Our $60 million line of credit also remains undrawn. During Q4, we used $13.1 million of cash in operating activities, used $3.2 million for software development and capital expenditures, realized a $200,000 unfavorable impact from a strengthening British pound and used $200,000 of cash related to financing activities.

轉向我們的資產負債表和現金流量。今年年底，我們擁有 1.22 億美元的現金和現金等價物，而第三季度末為 1.386 億美元。我們的 6000 萬美元信貸額度也仍未動用。在第四季度，我們在經營活動中使用了 1310 萬美元的現金，在軟件開發和資本支出中使用了 320 萬美元，實現了英鎊走強帶來的 20 萬美元的不利影響，並在融資活動中使用了 20 萬美元的現金。

MAUs were $182.7 million in Q4, an increase of 4.2% year-over-year. Our organic growth rate was in line with our long-term expectations of low to mid-single-digit growth. ARPU during the fourth quarter was $0.45, which is a 7.8% decrease year-over-year. For the full year, MAUs increased 9.2% year-over-year and ARPU increased 2.6%.

第四季度的 MAU 為 1.827 億美元，同比增長 4.2%。我們的有機增長率符合我們對中低個位數增長的長期預期。第四季度的 ARPU 為 0.45 美元，同比下降 7.8%。全年，MAU 同比增長 9.2%，ARPU 增長 2.6%。

We had 33.5 million shares outstanding at year-end compared with 33.1 million at the end of Q3. Weighted average shares outstanding during the quarter were 33.4 million, which was unchanged from Q4 of 2021.

年末我們有 3350 萬股流通股，而第三季度末為 3310 萬股。本季度加權平均流通股為 3340 萬股，與 2021 年第四季度持平。

Lastly, regarding the Bridg earn-out. The dispute is currently in the resolution process as outlined in the merger agreement, and we will provide timely updates to the public once the matter has been resolved. We remain confident in our position and expect the first earn-out, inclusive of broker fees and transaction bonuses, to be $126.4 million with a minimum cash payment of $43.3 million. We expect the second earn-out to be $67.8 million with a minimum cash payment of $24 million. As outlined in the merger agreement, we may have to pay greater than the 30% minimum cash given the 19.9% equity dilution cap in place on the shares issued.

最後，關於 Bridg 賺取收益。爭議目前正在合併協議中概述的解決過程中，一旦問題得到解決，我們將及時向公眾提供最新信息。我們仍然對我們的立場充滿信心，並預計第一筆收入（包括經紀人費用和交易獎金）為 1.264 億美元，最低現金支付額為 4330 萬美元。我們預計第二筆收益為 6780 萬美元，最低現金支付額為 2400 萬美元。正如合併協議中所述，鑑於已發行股票的股權稀釋上限為 19.9%，我們可能不得不支付超過 30% 的最低現金。

Now turning to guidance. The ad market challenges we faced in Q4 continued in Q1, but Q1 is also typically our annual low point due to seasonal consumer spending trends and decreased quarterly marketing budgets for most of our clients.

現在轉向指導。我們在第四季度面臨的廣告市場挑戰在第一季度繼續存在，但由於季節性消費者支出趨勢和我們大多數客戶的季度營銷預算減少，第一季度通常也是我們的年度低點。

For the first quarter of 2023, we expect billings between $84 million and $93 million, revenue between $54 million and $63 million, adjusted contribution of between $26 million and $31 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of between $10 million and $17 million. We expect cash operating expenses of approximately $42 million in Q1. We expect a slight increase in expenses in Q2 of 2023 due to our annual merit and promotion cycle, but our new expense run rate fully reflects the $35 million of annualized savings from Q2 of 2022. Excluding the loss of the large customer we mentioned earlier, we expect the core Cardlytics business in the U.S. to grow in the low to mid-single digits year-over-year in Q1.

對於 2023 年第一季度，我們預計賬單在 8400 萬美元至 9300 萬美元之間，收入在 5400 萬美元至 6300 萬美元之間，調整後的貢獻在 2600 萬美元至 3100 萬美元之間，調整後的 EBITDA 損失在 1000 萬美元至 1700 萬美元之間。我們預計第一季度的現金運營費用約為 4200 萬美元。由於我們的年度績效和晉升週期，我們預計 2023 年第二季度的費用會略有增加，但我們新的費用運行率充分反映了從 2022 年第二季度開始每年節省的 3500 萬美元。排除我們前面提到的大客戶的流失，我們預計美國的核心 Cardlytics 業務將在第一季度實現中低個位數的同比增長。

A positive sign is that the sequential decline in our billings from Q4 to Q1 is in line with historical trends from Q1 of 2020 and Q1 of 2022, signaling that the ad environment hasn't become materially worse quarter-to-quarter. We're not providing formal guidance for the full year at this time. But as Karim mentioned earlier, we believe we will generate sufficient growth to reach positive free cash flow in Q3 of 2023 through product enhancements, optimizing our platform, growing our higher-margin Bridg business and lapping the loss of the significant customer.

一個積極的跡像是，我們的賬單從第四季度到第一季度的連續下降符合 2020 年第一季度和 2022 年第一季度的歷史趨勢，這表明廣告環境並沒有逐季度變得更糟。我們目前不提供全年的正式指導。但正如 Karim 之前提到的那樣，我們相信我們將通過產品增強、優化我們的平台、發展利潤率更高的 Bridg 業務以及彌補重要客戶的流失，實現足夠的增長，從而在 2023 年第三季度實現正自由現金流。

With that, I'll turn it over to Karim.

有了這個，我會把它交給卡里姆。

We want to thank our shareholders, partners, employees and customers for their ongoing support and trust in the company. We remain focused on driving product innovation and solutions for our partners and advertisers. This focus would create expanded reach, revenue opportunities and efficiency we need to meet our growth and profitability objectives. We look forward to sharing more updates on our progress during the year.

我們要感謝我們的股東、合作夥伴、員工和客戶對公司的持續支持和信任。我們仍然專注於為我們的合作夥伴和廣告商推動產品創新和解決方案。這一重點將創造我們實現增長和盈利目標所需的擴大範圍、收入機會和效率。我們期待在這一年中分享更多關於我們進展的最新消息。

With that, I will open the call for questions.

有了這個，我將打開問題的電話。

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Kyle Peterson with Needham & Company.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Needham & Company 的 Kyle Peterson。

Just wanted to start off on the expenses, helpful color you guys gave with kind of roughly $42 million in cash expenses for 1Q, and then I think there's a couple of moving pieces you mentioned with the full kind of realization of some of those annualized cost savings, partly offset by like some merit increases or timing of some of that. So I guess, that $42 million, with some modest adjustments based on those factors, is that a good run rate to use moving forward? Or are there additional opportunities for efficiencies and savings without sacrificing your growth opportunities?

只是想從費用開始，你們提供了一些有用的顏色，第一季度大約有 4200 萬美元的現金支出，然後我認為你提到的一些動人的部分完全實現了其中一些年化成本節省，部分被一些績效增加或其中一些時間所抵消。所以我猜，這 4200 萬美元，根據這些因素進行了一些適度的調整，這是一個很好的運行率嗎？或者在不犧牲您的增長機會的情況下，是否還有其他提高效率和節省成本的機會？

Kyle, this is Andy. You're exactly right. We wanted to give a little bit of color around the run rate. I mean the run rate you see in Q1 does fully reflect the actions that we took in 2022, and that's a good number to kind of run going forward. Now understand too, we may have a little bit of increases throughout the year, but that is kind of how we modeled. Now there's certainly opportunities that we have during the year to manage our costs further. But that is right now kind of the run rate that we're seeing. So that's kind of a good number to model there.

凱爾，這是安迪。你完全正確。我們想給運行率一些顏色。我的意思是你在第一季度看到的運行率確實完全反映了我們在 2022 年採取的行動，這是一個很好的數字來推動未來的發展。現在也明白了，我們全年可能會有一點增長，但這就是我們建模的方式。現在我們肯定有機會在這一年進一步管理我們的成本。但這就是我們現在看到的運行率。所以這是一個很好的模型。

Okay. That's really helpful. And then I wanted to touch on some of these kind of newer products, whether it's some of the bank-funded category offers or some of the more kind of incentivizing spending on future trips, I guess how big of a growth opportunity do you guys see for these offers? And could these be a material boost to results in '23? Or is this more of kind of a multiyear slowly getting there but not a big contributor right out of the gate?

好的。這真的很有幫助。然後我想談談這些新產品中的一些，無論是一些銀行資助的類別優惠還是一些更能激勵未來旅行的支出，我猜你們認為增長機會有多大對於這些優惠？這些能否對 23 年的結果產生實質性的推動作用？或者這更像是一種多年緩慢到達那裡但不是一個大貢獻者的大門？

Yes. Sure. Let me take a swing at that, and Karim probably have some thoughts as well. But I think we've been a bit conservative as we think about these things rolling out this year. I think certainly next year, it will be a much bigger impact on the business. And I think it will be one of those items where we're going to get going here in the next few quarters, we'll see it, and by the end of the year, we'll probably start to feel it. But really, it's a big 2024 opportunity but with upside, right, in 2023, if we were really able to pull that forward and execute.

是的。當然。讓我試一試，卡里姆可能也有一些想法。但我認為我們在考慮今年推出的這些東西時有點保守。我認為明年肯定會對業務產生更大的影響。而且我認為這將是我們將在接下來的幾個季度中進行的項目之一，我們會看到它，到今年年底，我們可能會開始感受到它。但實際上，這是 2024 年的一個巨大機會，但如果我們真的能夠將其向前推進並執行的話，那麼在 2023 年就有上行空間。

Kyle, I would echo Andy's sentiment. I think these are potential opportunities that give us comfort that we can get to some level of growth this year, some reasonable level of growth this year, but most of the benefits are going to come in, in 2024.

凱爾，我會回應安迪的觀點。我認為這些潛在的機會讓我們感到欣慰，我們今年可以達到一定水平的增長，今年達到一定水平的合理增長，但大部分收益將在 2024 年實現。

Our next question comes from the line of Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Douglas Anmuth。

It looks like the 2 industries where activation rates increased year-over-year were entertainment and travel. Just curious how you're thinking about the shift of consumer spending from things to experiences, and how does that impact your business and the go-to-market strategy going forward? And then separately, you talked about 1 major partner launching the new user experience. Can you just give us some more insight in terms of the benefits of the new user experience? How will that be better for users and for advertisers?

看起來激活率同比增長的兩個行業是娛樂和旅遊。只是想知道您如何看待消費者支出從實物到體驗的轉變，這對您的業務和未來的上市戰略有何影響？然後，您分別談到了 1 個主要合作夥伴推出新的用戶體驗。您能否就新用戶體驗的好處向我們提供更多見解？這對用戶和廣告商有何好處？

Sure. Thank you, Doug. Thanks for the questions. On your first point, right, like we've talked a lot about some of the real momentum that we felt in Q4 around travel and entertainment. It's been a very, very strong industry vertical for us. In fact, Q4 '22 compared to '21 was up 80%, right? So I think we're obviously seeing a lot of engagement there, a lot of spend that's happening there. So I think it's top of mind for us, just an active area where people are looking to save money as they're traveling.

當然。謝謝你，道格。感謝您的提問。關於你的第一點，對，就像我們已經談論了很多關於我們在第四季度感受到的關於旅遊和娛樂的一些真正勢頭。對我們來說，這是一個非常非常強大的垂直行業。事實上，22 年第 4 季度與 21 年相比增長了 80%，對嗎？所以我認為我們顯然在那裡看到了很多參與，那裡發生了很多支出。所以我認為這對我們來說是最重要的，只是一個活躍的區域，人們希望在旅行時省錢。

To your second point, I'll let maybe Karim chime in on that one, but I think the entertainment and travel is pretty self-explanatory given our spend trends.

關於你的第二點，我可能會讓卡里姆插話，但我認為考慮到我們的消費趨勢，娛樂和旅行是不言自明的。

Yes. Thanks, Andy. I'll just add to that. Essentially, there's obviously a part where go-to-market is important with regards to getting us the right base of customers. But the other part that's really important is how we optimize for the right offers to be surfaced to the right customers. And that's where us becoming a much stronger product-led company with a modern Ad Server, and the ability to be a lot smarter as to how we focus rewards to the right customers at the right time, will make a vast difference to our business going forward, both in terms of the engagements that we will see from the ad but also the revenue that we can derive from these rewards, very important aspects of our business for us going forward.

是的。謝謝，安迪。我會補充一點。從本質上講，對於讓我們獲得正確的客戶群來說，進入市場顯然很重要。但真正重要的另一部分是我們如何優化以向合適的客戶提供合適的優惠。這就是我們成為一家擁有現代廣告服務器的更強大的產品主導公司的地方，並且能夠更智能地確定我們如何在正確的時間將獎勵集中在正確的客戶身上，這將對我們的業務發展產生巨大影響展望未來，無論是我們將從廣告中看到的參與度，還是我們可以從這些獎勵中獲得的收入，都是我們未來業務的非常重要的方面。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Jason Kreyer with Craig-Hallum.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Jason Kreyer 和 Craig-Hallum 的台詞。

Just wanted to see if you can help us bridge the gap from the guide that you gave for Q1 to the commentary on cash flow generation in Q3. It doesn't seem like you're baking any other cost reduction in there. But just wondering if you can help fill in that gap over the next 2 quarters.

只是想看看您是否可以幫助我們彌合您為第一季度提供的指南與第三季度現金流量生成評論之間的差距。看起來你並沒有在那裡烘烤任何其他成本降低。但只是想知道您是否可以在接下來的兩個季度內幫助填補這一空白。

Yes. Sure. Happy to help here, right? So our expense run rate, we tried to give a little bit of color, right? It's kind of where we're at. There are certainly opportunities for us to continue to manage our costs. But that's one kind of anchor that we want people to think about. As we get to breakeven here in Q3 from a cash flow perspective, right, we really need to make sure that we're considering the interest payments, so the software development costs, right, and then be able to kind of back into the adjusted contribution numbers that we would expect, right, to reach breakeven.

是的。當然。很高興在這裡幫忙，對吧？所以我們的費用運行率，我們試圖給出一點顏色，對嗎？這就是我們所處的位置。我們當然有機會繼續管理我們的成本。但這是我們希望人們考慮的一種錨點。從現金流的角度來看，當我們在第三季度達到盈虧平衡時，我們真的需要確保我們正在考慮利息支付，所以軟件開發成本是對的，然後能夠回到調整後的狀態我們期望達到盈虧平衡的貢獻數字。

So Karim spent a lot of time in his prepared remarks talking about all the different vectors of growth. And I think when you put those altogether, right, we feel really comfortable about being able to grow the business. One of the pieces too that I think maybe is a bit underappreciated is the growth in the Bridg business, which is a much higher-margin business for us, where those dollars are flowing all the way down to adjusted contribution. So that, combined with many of the things in the Cardlytics platform that we're talking about, with the new user experience, new offers, new offer constructs, those are the things that are going to propel us to getting back to that double-digit growth rate in the core business, combined with some pretty impressive growth rates that we're experiencing here with Bridg.

因此，卡里姆在他準備好的發言中花了很多時間談論所有不同的增長載體。而且我認為當你把這些放在一起時，我們對能夠發展業務感到非常自在。我認為可能有點被低估的其中一個部分是 Bridg 業務的增長，這對我們來說是一個利潤率更高的業務，這些美元一直流向調整後的貢獻。因此，結合我們正在討論的 Cardlytics 平台中的許多內容，以及新的用戶體驗、新的優惠、新的優惠結構，這些將推動我們回到那個雙-核心業務的數字增長率，加上我們在這裡與 Bridg 一起經歷的一些相當可觀的增長率。

And you may have just answered my second question, but you guys were talking about updates to the product suite that are giving you confidence in that return to growth. I mean, what are the near-term product changes that can influence growth here in '23?

你們可能剛剛回答了我的第二個問題，但你們談論的是產品套件的更新，這讓你們對恢復增長充滿信心。我的意思是，哪些近期產品變化會影響 23 世紀的增長？

Yes. So there's a lot of different angles here. Let me break down a couple of different things, right? Product is certainly one of the things where a new user experience with new offer constructs is certainly on the horizon. Additionally, when you think about our transformation, becoming a product-led organization, right, and what's the benefits of that even in how we do our business today, how we consume ads, like how we optimize campaigns, all those things are upside opportunities for us that we've already seen in a small scale from our smaller banks that we're now bringing some of those new capabilities and automation to our larger banks as well, right?

是的。所以這裡有很多不同的角度。讓我分解幾個不同的東西，對嗎？產品肯定是新用戶體驗和新產品結構即將出現的事物之一。此外，當您考慮我們的轉型，成為一個以產品為導向的組織時，對吧，這對我們今天的業務方式有什麼好處，我們如何消費廣告，比如我們如何優化活動，所有這些都是有利的機會對於我們來說，我們已經從我們的小型銀行中小規模地看到我們現在也將其中一些新功能和自動化帶到我們的大型銀行，對嗎？

So we certainly have an expectation of being able to meaningfully move the needle, doing those things, right? And as things like product offers come online, we expect those to become more meaningful towards the back half, there's an opportunity for us to accelerate those things and realize some of that growth earlier, if you will. So there's a couple of different things kind of all going on there. They're all giving us some additional tailwinds.

所以我們當然期望能夠有意義地移動指針，做那些事情，對吧？隨著產品報價之類的東西上線，我們希望這些東西對後半部分變得更有意義，如果你願意的話，我們有機會加速這些事情並更早地實現一些增長。所以那裡發生了一些不同的事情。他們都給了我們一些額外的順風。

Okay. And one last one, if I can squeeze one in, Karim, I think you did a great job talking about some new product changes and a bunch of different things. There were 3 product changes you highlighted, and I think the second one was more about kind of offers that were more tied to impression and expanding reach. Just wanted to see if you can give a little bit more clarity around that.

好的。最後一個，如果我能擠進一個，卡里姆，我認為你在談論一些新產品變化和一堆不同的事情方面做得很好。您強調了 3 項產品更改，我認為第二項更多是關於與印象和擴大範圍更相關的優惠。只是想看看您是否可以更清楚地說明這一點。

You're talking about pricing models that are more tied to serves and impression events? Or are you talking about the merchant category core offers. Those are 2 of my separate remarks.

您是在談論與服務和印象事件更相關的定價模型嗎？或者你在談論商家類別的核心優惠。這些是我的單獨評論中的 2 個。

The first one, the impression models.

第一個，印像模型。

Yes. We essentially are currently, as you know, not necessarily optimizing properly with regards to the offers that we're serving customers. So what we want to ensure is that we are revisiting our pricing models so that while we are continuing to look for the right return on investment for our customers, we are understanding what impression events are driving those purchases and essentially better balancing the reach and performance that each advertiser gets so that we can surface more of the right ads to the right customers rather than continuously serving the same ad to the same customers.

是的。如您所知，我們目前基本上未必就我們為客戶提供的服務進行適當優化。因此，我們要確保的是，我們正在重新審視我們的定價模型，以便在我們繼續為客戶尋找合適的投資回報的同時，我們了解哪些印象事件正在推動這些購買，並從根本上更好地平衡覆蓋面和性能每個廣告商都能得到，這樣我們就可以向合適的客戶展示更多合適的廣告，而不是不斷地向相同的客戶提供相同的廣告。

So we'll have much better control of budget management because of it. We'll have much better control of delivery. So instead of continuously serving the same ads to the same customers, the same rewards to the same customers, we'll be able to select the ads that are more likely to end in the right outcome for those customers. So a much better outcome, both in terms of the engagement and the experience that the customers will have within their banking app, but also a better leverage for us with regards to the budget that we can consume.

因此，我們將更好地控制預算管理。我們將更好地控制交貨。因此，我們不必持續向相同的客戶投放相同的廣告，向相同的客戶提供相同的獎勵，我們將能夠選擇更有可能為這些客戶帶來正確結果的廣告。因此，無論是在客戶在他們的銀行應用程序中的參與度和體驗方面，還是在我們可以消耗的預算方面，我們都有更好的槓桿作用。

I'm not showing any further questions in the queue. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

我不會在隊列中顯示任何其他問題。女士們，先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。