November 28, 2017
If you Build it, They will Come: Finance and Technology Merge to Spark Innovation and ROI
As Director of Client Services at PartnerCentric, I am always searching for new trends and opportunities in performance marketing to share and discuss with the team so they can better serve our clients. Lately, I have been fascinated by all of the different technologies that are prevalent in the finance space. With a much higher reliance on tech and innovation, you certainly can’t call finance “boring.”
Out with the old, in with the innovative
Ten to fifteen years ago, most financial affiliate programs were limited to a few specific partners. Information about points and rewards could only be found on review sites or finance blogs but that has started to shift with millennials. Yes, their generation has become a buzzword that is casually name-dropped in endless articles but bear with me because it’s relevant. As true digital natives, millennials aren’t afraid to use tech in almost all aspects of their lives. From dating to tracking their fitness to ordering food, technological advances have added simplicity and ease of use to many areas of life and millennials don’t think finance should be exempt from that.
The FinTech space began at a time when companies started understanding and embracing the need to use technology to optimize and streamline financial services for both consumers and businesses. Additionally, the finance affiliate space is now open to more diverse partnerships in order to reach consumers where they want to be.
And the consumers are happily embracing these solutions. 79% of American adults — including a whopping 85% of Millennials — believe that AI could help them better manage their finances and more than one third (36%) said they would appreciate an AI that could help them calculate and implement a savings plan.
Finally, millennials are positioned to be worth 24 trillion dollars in the next three years and they value convenience, transparency and multi-channel delivery, which are all areas where finance can and has excelled.
Finance and Performance Marketing
With tech advancements and companies trying to stay ahead of the curve, it’s no longer about one-size-fits-all rewards programs. Consumers want to have their needs met based on what they’re looking for and they want more options that complement their lifestyles and needs.
Additionally, they are not only relying upon FinTech apps for personal financial management and personalized offers, but are also looking to editorial content for greater context around why they should choose one credit card over another.
When we work with clients in the finance space, we believe that being proactive is key. We want to know what their goals are and we take a strategic approach to reach them. Our team actively recruits new partnerships that are relevant to the client and looks for ways to squeeze more out of partnerships that already exist while continually looking for new strategic/innovative/tech- forward companies to partner with.
In many ways, the finance vertical is positioned for success and growth. For example, we have witnessed the retail vertical shift recently with marketplaces like Amazon as well as advertisers looking more closely at the value that is being driven, which goes back to commission segmentation. The opportunity costs for publishers are just not there like they once were and so we see a lot of opportunity in the financial space where publishers have the opportunity to really build out something unique that can capture millennials and GenX in a new and exciting way.
Part of this involves engaging with them through apps and social media and creating new experiences within the framework of their environment. I really believe that publishers who start devoting more of their time to figuring out how to capture this audience segment will have the best chance of success. I also believe that with our team’s commitment to stay on top of finance trends and innovation, we are fully dedicated to clients’ needs and can help them reach their goals by finding them the right partnerships.
Have questions? Want to discuss the finance space?
Contact me at Lisette.Howard@partnercentric.com. I would love to hear your thoughts.