How to choose the rewards for a crowdfunding campaign

Rewards are the heart of a reward-based campaign: they are the concrete reason someone chooses to back you today rather than wait. Deciding which ones to offer, at what price and across how many tiers is not a matter of imagination: there are numbers, studies and a few simple rules. Here they are.

The ladder: some tiers bring people, others bring money

In 2010 Kickstarter analysed every reward chosen in its successful projects. The result is still the foundation of any good price ladder today.^[1]

The $25 reward is the most popular, and Kickstarter's guide still says so today.^[2] But the real money comes from the $100 tier: fourth by number of pledges, first by revenue. Low tiers bring people, high tiers bring money. A campaign needs both: people get the campaign moving, money gets it over the line.

The small reward brings people in. The big one gets you to the goal.

How many tiers

As of 2026, Kickstarter advises sticking to five tiers if it is your first campaign.^[2] A Georgia Institute of Technology study of almost 200,000 campaigns points the same way: success rises with the number of rewards, but by less and less each time, and it rises more when prices are close together.^[3] Too many choices confuse people; too few leave someone out.

A rule of thumb: four or five tiers, with prices rising in sensible steps, plus an open pledge for those who simply want to help. On Campagna Crowdfunding the open pledge is always there, and the platform writes the first draft of your rewards based on your project: you just edit it.

What to offer

The rewards that work best almost always fall into five families.

• The thank-you: your name in the end credits, in the liner notes, on the wall of the venue.
• The product: a copy of the book, the record, the object, often at a better price than it will have later.
• The special edition: signed, numbered, in a limited run.
• The experience: dinner with the author, a visit to the workshop, a house concert.
• Taking part: choosing the colour, naming a character, becoming part of the project.

The last two matter more than you might think. A study of 346 projects on the German platform Startnext found that campaigns with more experience and participation rewards succeed more often.^[7] They have a practical advantage too: nothing to ship.

Early birds and limited quantities

“Early bird” rewards are the ones reserved for the first backers: the same reward at a slightly lower price, in limited numbers. Kickstarter recommends them to build momentum in the first few days, with a modest discount.^[2] A study published in 2019 found an extra effect: when the early bird has sold out but is still visible, people more often choose the same reward at full price, especially if the discount was moderate.^[6]

Don't overdo limited quantities, though. A study presented at ICIS 2017 found that a few limited tiers help, too many hurt, and sold-out tiers slow down fundraising in the days that follow.^[5] The remedy comes from another useful finding: campaigns that add new rewards after launch succeed more often.^[4] On Campagna Crowdfunding you can add new tiers even while the campaign is live; tiers someone has already chosen stay as they were, because they are a commitment you have made to your backers.

How to set the price

The price of a reward is worked out from your costs, not from what you would like to charge. For each tier, add up:

1. the cost of producing the object or the experience;
2. packaging;
3. shipping, at home and abroad;
4. VAT, if due, at the rate that applies to the item;
5. the platform fee and the card fee.

What is left is your margin, the money that actually goes to the project. “Shipping costs can catch you by surprise”, Kickstarter warns.^[10] A complete example, euro by euro, is in the guide How much a crowdfunding campaign costs.

Two practical tips. For backers abroad, create separate rewards with shipping included in the price. And if the reward is physical, mark it as something to be shipped: on Campagna Crowdfunding we ask backers for their address ourselves and pass it on to you once the campaign closes.

Delivery

The trickiest moment comes after the campaign. In Ethan Mollick's study of Kickstarter projects, more than 75% delivered later than the promised date, on average by just over a month, and projects that exceeded their goal tenfold were half as likely to deliver on time.^[8] In a later study of 65,326 funded projects, 9% failed to deliver their rewards; almost three in four backers of those projects were still willing to back other campaigns, but only 19% would back the same creator again.^[9]

• Promise dates with room to spare. “Better to under-promise and over-deliver”, writes Kickstarter.^[10]
• Cap your physical rewards if you don't know how many you can produce in time.
• Tell people about delays before they ask: an honest update is worth more than silence.

An example: the reward ladder for a record

Here is what the reward ladder might look like for a band that wants to record its first album. It is only an example: work out your prices from your own costs.

It has everything: a low entry point for those who just want to be part of it, the €25 tier that will be the most popular, an early bird for the first few days, a high tier that brings in money, and an experience with nothing to ship. To get these rewards in front of the right people, see the guide The launch plan.

Frequently asked questions