Why brands should act on fintech partnership opportunities

Financial technology or ‘fintech’ defines any software or solution used by businesses to enhance or automate financial services and processes (think mobile banking, insurance, cryptocurrency and investment apps.) As one of the fastest-growing models in the world, experts estimate the number of individuals using fintech services increases every year by 15-20%.

Even if the term fintech is unfamiliar to you, tens of thousands of consumers are developing long-lasting relationships with these companies daily. This is because fintech businesses offer customers unique, value-added solutions to spend and invest their money. Fintech players are also agile, creating their own or using third-party innovations to modernise traditional financial services that simplify processes.

After a tumultuous 2020, digitalisation of ‘offline’ services to make life easier has become even more important to consumers. Fintech is key to this. At Awin, fintech publishers are becoming increasingly popular across all advertiser verticals – having generated 3x more revenue for brands in 2020 than 2019 – thanks to simple tech integrations, first-party data targeting and increasing consumer use.

Defining fintech publisher types

The fintech affiliate landscape is made up of a wide range of different solutions and #AwinningPartnerships:

• Personal finance is focused on improving the use of personal money. These tools are designed to help to improve savings, diagnose and track financial situations and act as a virtual advisor in your personal bank account. Example publishers include Dyme, ApTap and Pocket book.
• Innovative banking or ‘Neobanks’ operate exclusively online and via smartphone apps. Neobanks have advantages over traditional institutions, showing more flexibility in processing time and the ability to offer robust services such as crypotbanking (where you can buy Bitcoin, Litecoin and Etherium) and currency exchange with lower expenses. Some innovative banking affiliates working with Awin are Revolut, Monzo, Chime and Openbank.
• Payments & Transfers or ‘buy now, pay later’ publishers are all about accelerated payments. These affiliates offer consumers multiple payment methods at the point of checkout and simplify the way they can make money transfers. Awin partners include Klarna, PayPal, Samsung Pay, Zip and Affirm.
• Financing & Investing is considered separate from ‘personal finance’ as there is a greater focus on business loans and investment platforms. Outside of investment advice, financing & investing publishers provide both B2C and B2B loan support. Example affiliates include Acorns, Peaks and Affirm.
• InsurTech has brought changes to the traditional insurance system, moving it to a completely online medium that improves the consumer experience. One notable InsurTech publisher on Awin is Swift.online.

All the fintech publishers mentioned (and more) use affiliate marketing in at least one of three different ways to drive revenue, sales, and customer acquisition for advertisers: by setting up a loyalty platform like Klarna or Affirm; in offering automatic switching to reduce the cost of when you move services (think insurance, broadband internet, smartphone subscriptions) like Dyme; or utilising contextual targeting like Revolut.

“By combining mobile-first user experience with richly integrated open-banking services, fintech disruptors have unlocked new value for both the consumers they serve and brands they partner with. In the past year alone, Awin has seen new fintech entrants rapidly forge partnerships and deliver millions in sales revenues, all on a pure performance basis. Best of all, unlike traditional financial services providers, fintech companies over-index with hard-to-reach gen-Z audiences.” James Bentley, Awin UK Strategy Director

Benefits of working with fintech affiliates

As you can see, fintech partnership opportunities are abundant and continuing to expand. Outside of its rapid and diverse growth, there are a host of benefits for Awin advertisers incorporating fintech publishers into their affiliate mix:

• Easy tech integration: There are often little-to-no integration requirements for working with fintech publishers. More often than not, these affiliates simply require an exclusive discount code; product APIs (if available), and advertiser materials (logo, description, etc.).
• Robust, futureproofed insights: Fintech partners can leverage their database of consumer insights to help retailers better target individuals with the right products and services at the right time. Better still, the data collected by these publishers is first party – ensuring its safe from growing data privacy regulations.
• Increasing opportunities: As these fintech technologies continue to develop and add new features they will only see an increase in consumer attention, with users spending more time online making financial investments, leveraging buy now, pay later opportunities and managing personal banking. Because of this, fintech – and the associated partnership opportunities – will only continue to grow.

As an added bonus, many fintech publishers will partner with advertisers on a traditional CPA basis so you won’t have to create a custom commission structure to work together. What’s more, these affiliates are actively looking to expand their Awin advertiser partnerships in 2021 and beyond to offer their customers a broader range of personalised products and services.

“Fintechs can outmaneuver traditional banks by providing innovative products, allowing customers to engage with brands in a sleek and comfortable experience. Additionally, fintechs are flexible enough to provide the in-depth reporting needed to ensure successful campaigns for both parties. It is not a secret that fintechs are rapidly becoming the everyday solution people use to manage their finances. So why not consider integrating directly within customer's wallets?” José Maria Barreiros Cardoso, Key Partner Developer at Revolut

Ready to act on this exciting #AwinningPartnership opportunity? To start working with fintech publishers or optimise your current activity, please get in touch here.

To dig deeper into one exciting Awin fintech publisher opportunity, check out our recent spotlight on Klarna.