Nift review: Disappointing experience, felt taken advantage of as a small business

I signed up with Nift hoping to acquire new customers through their gifting platform. The agreement was clear: a maximum ad spend of $3,000 per month (roughly $100 per day). I communicated this multiple times from the very beginning.
In just 2 weeks, they had already burned through the entire $3,000 budget—spending at roughly twice the agreed daily rate—despite me repeatedly asking them to slow down and stay within the limit. I felt completely unheard. Requests to pause or throttle were either ignored or delayed, and the campaign kept running full speed even as it became obvious the results were poor.
When I finally managed to get them to shut it down, the damage was already done. You pay for every single person who claims your gift, but only a tiny fraction of those actually end up purchasing. The acquired “customers” expect a very heavy discount every single time—they’re basically bargain hunters looking for free or deeply discounted products. Cross-sells or up-sells are nearly impossible without giving away even more, leaving you with almost no margin. You can try to remarket to the list of claimers, but the quality is extremely poor. These are not people who value your brand or are willing to pay what your products are worth.
I would never normally offer the level of discount (minimum 50%+) required to make the gifting work, and it quickly felt like an easy way to devalue my products rather than build a valuable customer base.
I understand not every ad channel will be a perfect fit. I have good results on Meta and am happily focusing my advertising dollars there instead. Meta lets me reach high-value customers who actually appreciate the brand and are willing to pay full price—customers who are far more likely to become repeat buyers with solid lifetime value.
What really upset me was how careless Nift was with my budget. As a small, new business, I simply couldn’t afford to spend at that pace—especially when it violated the clear agreement we had. The lack of control, poor communication, and feeling taken advantage of left a very bad taste.
If your business has a very high AOV and long LTV where you can afford to lose money (or break even) on the first order, maybe Nift could work for you. For anyone who needs to be even slightly profitable on the first purchase, I’d steer clear.
Save yourself the stress and money—look elsewhere.