Daily-deal sites such as Groupon and Living Social have seen explosive growth over the past few years, but many firms are struggling to craft effective messages that will appeal to consumers’ deal-seeking motivations. This study examines the cognitive process by which consumers interpret offers, specifically the interaction between regulatory focus and message framing. Two experiments suggest that matching regulatory focus (emphasizing nonloss for prevention-oriented individuals and gain for promotion-oriented customers) strengthens persuasion. Furthermore, the results indicate that different mechanisms operate for individuals with different chronic regulatory foci: prevention-oriented consumers tend to centrally process daily-deal offers with both compatible (prevention) and incompatible (promotion) message frames. The findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of regulatory compatibility by applying it to the online daily-deal context. In addition, it provides compelling evidence for marketers that the effectiveness of daily deals can be improved by matching the framing and arguments to different customer segments.