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What is Congruence? Aligning messaging from your ad, to your landing page, to your final conversion steps creates lift in your marketing funnel, reducing your CACs and increasing your customer acquisition volumes. It sounds elementary. Yet many organizations forget to do it. Today we dig into examples of marketing from Wells Fargo and Discover to illustrate what it means to be Congruent across you...

We chat with Kevin Bennett, a successful entrepreneur who helped grow Caribou to a billion-dollar company. Now, he's back with Further, a platform focused on helping people afford their first homes. Kevin shares important lessons for early-stage founders and gives practical advice for growing a business.   We Discuss: Product vs. Distribution: Kevin explains why both product development and gettin...

We sit with Tomas Campos, CEO at Spinwheel. Spinwheel’s product caught my attention because affiliate marketers could use their product to reduce the friction in their application processes.    Timestamps: (00:00) Meet Tomas Campos, CEO of Spinwheel  (02:30) Ideal customers and use cases (06:30) Success metrics (12:35) Challenges building the business (15:37) Partnering with lenders (22:41) Uplift...

We sit with David Nohe, CEO of FinGoal, to discuss the CFPB’s Rule 1033 on Open Banking and the implications it has for bank marketers.   Timestamps: (00:00) David Nohe, CEO of Fingoal (01:59) The 101 on CFPB Rule 1033 (09:32) Consumer consent (18:04) Future of subscription models (22:52) Funnel dynamics / friction (24:09) Credit bureau vs. open banking data (26:43) Why be concerned or optimistic...

Personal finance platforms (like Credit Karma) are now at scale, with the ability to recommend products at the 1:1 user level. Further, they’re incentivized to recommend niche products that are highly customized to each user. Lending products, however, are designed for mass audiences. This disconnect presents a huge opportunity for lenders.   Timestamps: (00:00) Why personalization matters (04:06)...

Today we chat with Tim Hong, the Chief Product Officer at MoneyLion. He walks us through a partnership they’ve built with Plaid and other data providers to offer cash flow data at the marketing stage to lenders in the Engine marketplace.   Timestamps: (00:00) Tim Hong, CPO at MoneyLion (04:06) The Engine marketplace (12:02) Open banking and UX (22:48) User permissioned data (25:15) Sharing bank cr...

I’m starting to worry that we don’t have an economically viable way to distribute cash flow underwriting (CFU) products to consumers. In today’s episode, we discuss the opportunity and challenges CFU lenders will have in distributing their products through direct mail, paid search, and of course affiliates.   Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction to Fintech and Cashflow Underwriting (01:21) The Article...

Today, we discuss the backstory behind my marketing agency, New Market Growth. I’ll share my background working in affiliate marketing at a connected home startup, my experience working on credit cards at Capital One, my 4 years at Credit Karma, and how my experiences came together to form a services business for lenders.   Timestamps: (00:00) What is New Market Growth (01:30) Early years in affil...

Today, we discuss high-level principles for your affiliate measurement (analytics) strategy. We’ll cover the 2 big questions your dashboards should be answering, we dig into 9 metrics you might not be watching, and we hit on the importance of connecting marketing stage and performance stage data.   Timestamps: (00:00) True North (01:34) Driving questions (01:53) Delivering for your partners (04:26...

Today, we discuss the most common reasons that lenders don’t hit their volume, account quality, and growth goals in the affiliate channel. Based on Carlos’ experience talking to lenders in his affiliate marketing agency, New Market Growth.   Common struggles: Cross-functional dysfunction Model misalignment (Non)compliance  Application friction Mispricing Access to big affiliates Concentration Cold...

Today, we continue to discuss the 4 levels of Operational Maturity in affiliate marketing for lenders. We’ll go deep on 301 and 401 levels and wrap up with some tactical things you can do to land at the 401 level.   Summary of the 4 levels:   𝟭𝟬𝟭 - 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹  We're focused on the volume of leads and the cost of acquisition. The rest of the operation looks a lot like affiliate programs in other...

Today, we introduce the 4 levels of Operational Maturity in affiliate marketing for lenders. We’ll go deep on 101 and 201 levels. The 301 and 401 levels will be covered in our next episode.   Summary of the 4 levels:   𝟭𝟬𝟭 - 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹  We're focused on the volume of leads and the cost of acquisition. The rest of the operation looks a lot like affiliate programs in other industries. There's not...

Episode 005: Today, we discuss the marketing levers lenders have at their disposal to improve the performance of their affiliate marketing campaigns.   We’ll discuss levers in the following categories: Eligibility Impressions/placements Click-through rate Application rate Approval rate Funding rate CPA/Payouts   Timestamps: (00:54) Recapping previous episodes (01:50) A big misconception (03:02) Ke...

Episode 004: Today, we tackle two simple, but important questions. The first: “What affiliates should I partner with?” And the second, “Where should I host my targeting model?”   We cover: How to build a list of potential affiliate partners Why “getting in” isn’t an easy as you think How to build a pitch for potential partners Where to host your targeting model Guiding principles for targeting mod...

Episode 003: Today, we tackle a big, foundational question. “Why should I bother promoting my lending products in affiliate channels?”   We cover: Size of publicly traded affiliate networks How many consumer loans are opened per year on affiliate networks Why your CMO, CPO, CRO, and CFO should care A 60-second elevator pitch for your CEO Timestamps: (00:43) Why Invest in Affiliate Marketing? (01:2...

Episode 002: In this episode, we describe affiliate marketing for lenders with tangible examples. From there, we talk through the dynamics of the affiliate game and how affiliate partnerships are structured. This provides a baseline 101 for anyone unfamiliar with the topic, and a recap for those who are more familiar with this space.   Additionally, we discuss: What mindset to bring to the game Ou...

What we learned about brand marketing from New Balance's turnaround.   TL;DR - For 15 years, New Balance watched its revenues decline. Consumers saw its sneakers as “dad shoes”—safe, comfortable, but uncool. Traditional direct-response marketing wasn’t reversing the trend. In April 2020, a new CMO, Chris Davis, arrived with a bold idea: flip the marketing mix from a 70% reliance on direct-response...