The Free Toaster
The Free Toaster is your best resource at the intersection of marketing, lending, and fintech. We deliver news, data, and insights to help you acquire more customers.
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Episodes
2 hours ago
2 hours ago
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 from pre-filling application forms
(28:12) What holds lenders back from buying
(34:10) The NerdWallet integration
(36:05) Other challenges lenders have
(46:52) Bank account verification
(47:10) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
Where to find Tomas:
LinkedIn
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe and review our show. If you’re interested in being a guest, email me at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
2 hours ago
2 hours ago
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
(32:10) Banks' strategic opportunities
(41:37) Wrap up and dinner bet
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
Where to find David Nohe:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X - @fingoaldavid
References:
Ten Take-Aways on 1033 for Community Bankershttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ten-take-aways-1033-community-bankers-david-nohe-yo8cc/?trackingId=WR0OUVGdRGahil7tCSZ48w%3D%3D
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
2 hours ago
2 hours ago
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) Hyper-niche lending products(05:37) Social media and niche content(08:43) Opportunities in financial services(12:57) Where I see this all going(15:01) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
References:
The case for building hyper-niche lending productshttps://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/hyper-niche-lending-products
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
2 hours ago
2 hours ago
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 credentials(27:25) Cashflow data in lending(31:09) Spark platform(37:20) Future of open banking(44:17) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
References:
Plaid & MoneyLion’s announcement: “The power of cash flow underwriting with instant onboarding: Introducing Layer and Consumer Report”
https://plaid.com/blog/layer-consumer-report-instant-onboarding/
Carlos’ piece: “Where's The Consumer Demand For Cash Flow Underwriting (CFU)?”https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/where-is-the-demand-for-cash-flow-underwriting
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
2 hours ago
2 hours ago
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 and Its Insights
(02:38) AI-Generated Overview of The Petal Case Study
(09:21) End of AI-Generated Overview
(09:26) Analyzing Cashflow Underwriting
(11:36) Challenges in Cashflow Underwriting
(15:54) Marketing Cashflow Products
(20:03) Potential Solutions and Future Outlook
(25:26) Final Thoughts and Next Steps
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
References:
Carlos’ piece: “Where's The Consumer Demand For Cash Flow Underwriting (CFU)?”https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/where-is-the-demand-for-cash-flow-underwriting
Alex Johnson’s piece on Cash Flow Underwriting:https://fintechtakes.com/articles/2024-05-22/cash-flow-underwriting/
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
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 affiliate marketing(03:53) Credit Karma(06:50) My first business: legal services marketplace(09:10) Return to fintech + personal brands(12:19) Founding New Market Growth(14:27) Current focus + looking out to the future(15:55) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
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) Partners delivering for you
(06:35) Combining data sources
(09:34) Effective dashboards
(16:49) 9 key metrics to watch
(22:26) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
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 starts
Lack of differentiation
CPA game
Thinking it’s easy
Timestamps:
(00:00) Common Struggles in Affiliate Marketing
(03:00) Reason 1: Lack of Cross-Functional Effort
(04:54) Reason 2: Misaligned Targeting Model
(06:36) Reason 3: Approval Rate Issues
(07:59) Reason 4: Application Friction
(09:01) Reason 5: Uncompetitive Pricing
(10:39) Reason 6: Missing Major Marketplaces
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
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 industries. There's not much attention placed on the quality of accounts that we acquire.
𝟮𝟬𝟭 - 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲
We learn that not all leads are created equal and not all lead sources are created equal. We pay more attention to what happens to a customer post-booking.
How much revenue are they driving?
What are the delinquency rates?
What are the loss rates?
We start to think about the relationship between LTV and cost of acquisition.
𝟯𝟬𝟭 - 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲
We learn that when we make a change to our business, the affiliate reacts in a certain way, and that in turn has a knock-on effect on our business. We also start to overanalyze why volumes dropped and why applicant quality is changing. We often get distracted by a lot of these questions as there are often no actions we can take as a result of our curiosity.
𝟰𝟬𝟭 - 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁
We learn that our success relies on delivering exceptional products and exceptional buying experiences for our affiliates' customers. Under this frame, we recognize that each affiliate's a little different. They all have different buying experiences, data assets, customer types, and integration capabilities. We try to reverse engineer our business to best fit each partner. We notice that we were overanalyzing the volatility in our programs, and conclude that our investigations were often unproductive.
Timestamps:
(00:00) 301 Intro
(04:20) 301 Strategy
(15:55) 301 Challenges and realities
(18:43) Recap of 101-301
(21:48) 401 Deep dive - becoming leaders
(30:48) Model alignment
(41:48) Wrap up
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
References:
A written summary of the 4 levels of Operational Maturity:https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-carlos-caro_operational-maturity-affiliates-activity-7204481122464907264-f_hC
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
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 much attention placed on the quality of accounts that we acquire.
𝟮𝟬𝟭 - 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲
We learn that not all leads are created equal and not all lead sources are created equal. We pay more attention to what happens to a customer post-booking.
How much revenue are they driving?
What are the delinquency rates?
What are the loss rates?
We start to think about the relationship between LTV and cost of acquisition.
𝟯𝟬𝟭 - 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲
We learn that when we make a change to our business, the affiliate reacts in a certain way, and that in turn has a knock-on effect on our business. We also start to overanalyze why volumes dropped and why applicant quality is changing. We often get distracted by a lot of these questions as there are often no actions we can take as a result of our curiosity.
𝟰𝟬𝟭 - 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁
We learn that our success relies on delivering exceptional products and exceptional buying experiences for our affiliates' customers. Under this frame, we recognize that each affiliate's a little different. They all have different buying experiences, data assets, customer types, and integration capabilities. We try to reverse engineer our business to best fit each partner. We notice that we were overanalyzing the volatility in our programs, and conclude that our investigations were often unproductive.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Why maturity matters
(04:36) The 4 levels
(10:18) 101 deep dive
(17:56) 201 deep dive
(26:15) Wrap up and next steps
Where to find Carlos:
LinkedIn
Twitter/X
References:
A written summary of the 4 levels of Operational Maturity:https://www.linkedin.com/posts/the-carlos-caro_operational-maturity-affiliates-activity-7204481122464907264-f_hC
Find Us:
Don't forget to subscribe to Affiliate Marketing for Lenders. If you’re interested in being a guest on the show (or if you have questions for a future episode), send me a note on LinkedIn, Twitter/X, or at carlos@newmarketgrowth.com.