Affiliate marketing delivers a higher rate of net new customers than paid media for financial services and fintech companies. We’ve seen this consistently across our client portfolio, but now we have the data to prove it.

In the affiliate world, we’re constantly fighting to prove our value against other channels and budget. I’m proud to say we’ve consistently seen our affiliate programs outperforming other paid media, especially in financial services where the cost of acquiring a truly new customer is high.

How We Measured New Customer Acquisition: Affiliate vs. Paid Media

One of our financial services clients pays their partners on new customers to the business. A new customer is defined as net new to the business or a lapsed user that hasn’t used the service in 12 months or more. Unfortunately, their front-end tracking can’t parse out the difference when passing that data back to marketing platforms.

So, we worked with the internal analytics team to understand the split between net new vs. lapsed users across every marketing channel. The goal was simple: of all the customers each channel brings in, how many are actually new to the business?

The Results: Affiliate vs. Paid Media on New Customer Acquisition

Affiliates delivered ~72% net new customers to the business, holding steady every month over a six-month period.

Other paid media delivered ~50% net new customers to the business, and trended downward over the same period.

Over six months, the affiliate program brought in net new customers at a rate roughly 21 percentage points higher than other paid media channels. That gap never closed.

“Why can’t all of our marketing look like this?”

— CEO of a financial services company, traditionally skeptical of affiliate marketing

What Makes Affiliate Different From Paid Media

The question is why was this the case? It comes down to how affiliate marketing actually works compared to other digital channels.

Affiliate marketing is partnering with publishers to promote your brand or financial product to their audiences. In financial services, those publishers are often personal finance blogs, comparison sites, financial education platforms, and content creators covering money topics. Their audiences are people actively researching financial products for the first time, or looking to switch providers. They’re not already in your database.

Other digital media uses algorithms to find likely customers. Even when setting up a negative match targeting campaign to block existing users, it’s still grabbing a lot of previous customers that only use the service once per year. Those are not profitable customers for a financial services company paying real acquisition costs.

The Hidden Cost of Re-Acquiring Existing Customers

This is the gap that most financial services marketing teams miss. Paid media looks efficient on a per-click basis, but when you dig into who’s actually converting, a huge portion are people you’ve already acquired. You’re paying to re-acquire your own customers.

Affiliate flips that dynamic because publishers are reaching people who aren’t already in your funnel. A personal finance blogger writing about the best money transfer apps is reaching readers who are genuinely shopping. A paid social ad with algorithmic targeting is more likely to hit someone who already has an account but hasn’t used it recently.

For financial services companies where customer lifetime value is everything, that distinction between a truly new customer and a re-acquired lapsed user is the difference between a profitable channel and a money pit.

How to Measure This in Your Own Program

If your financial services or fintech team isn’t tracking the net new vs. lapsed split across channels, you’re flying blind on true acquisition cost. Here’s what to look at:

Work with your analytics or BI team to break out new customer conversions by channel. Define “new” clearly (we use net new to the business or lapsed 12+ months). Then compare the net new rate for your affiliate program against paid search, paid social, and display. The headline CPA might look comparable between affiliate and paid media, but the quality of those customers is often very different.

We see this pattern across our financial services and fintech clients. Affiliate consistently delivers a higher share of genuinely new customers because the channel works differently than algorithmic targeting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does affiliate marketing work for financial services and fintech companies?

Yes. Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective customer acquisition channels for financial services and fintech brands. Because affiliate partners promote to their own audiences (often personal finance readers actively researching products), the channel delivers a higher percentage of net new customers compared to paid media.

Why does affiliate marketing bring in more new customers than paid media?

Affiliate publishers reach audiences that aren’t already in an advertiser’s database. In financial services, these are readers of personal finance blogs, comparison sites, and financial content creators. Paid media relies on algorithmic targeting, which often re-acquires existing or lapsed customers even when exclusion lists are in place.

How do you measure new customer acquisition from affiliate marketing?

Work with your internal analytics team to break out conversions by channel, separating net new customers from lapsed users (typically defined as inactive for 12+ months). Compare the net new rate across affiliate, paid search, paid social, and display to see which channels are actually bringing in first-time customers.

AI is all the rage these days. A recent survey by the Performance Marketing Association highlights significant concerns regarding increased fraud, the erosion of strategic relationships, and the devaluation of original content.

Significant problems, to be sure. The solution? You guessed it: AI. The other AI. Agency Insights.

Affiliate Marketing has always been a relationship business first and foremost. With more and more automation coming to our workflows, this only makes the relationship side more critical, not less. By leveraging direct, interpersonal relationships, agencies can transform these AI-driven disadvantages into competitive advantages, proving that the human touch is the ultimate premium feature in a digitized ecosystem.

Verify the Human

The first major challenge, the rise of “artificial content” and deepfake-driven fraud, can be effectively countered through the deep trust established by human oversight. The tools are adept at detecting data anomalies, but lack the nuance to judge intent or character. An agency adds value by fostering direct relationships with affiliates, moving beyond dashboard metrics to verify the people behind the screens.

By conducting manual audits and having candid conversations about traffic sources, agency managers build a perimeter of trust that algorithms cannot breach. This human verification ensures that brands are represented by partners who value long-term reputation over quick, bot-driven profits, directly mitigating the risk of consumer deception.

Chemistry Can’t Be Coded

On the second point, while AI can match brands with potential publishers based on data, it cannot replicate the chemistry and commitment forged during face-to-face interactions. Agencies that prioritize attendance at industry conferences (Affiliate Summit, etc.), dinners, and coffee meetings create “sticky” partnerships that survive algorithm changes and market fluctuations.

In a world where AI prompts can handle the mundane, the physical presence of an agency representative becomes a powerful signal of investment and respect.

Escaping the Echo Chamber

Finally, the devaluation of content and the homogenization of marketing messages can be overcome by the unique insights that only arise from unscripted, human conversation. AI is fundamentally reactive, generating output based on existing patterns and data, which often results in an “echo chamber” of generic strategies.

In contrast, casual conversations between agency managers and affiliates often reveal cutting-edge trends, unwritten consumer sentiments, and creative “out-of-the-box” ideas that no dataset has yet captured. By listening to the nuanced struggles and wins of their partners in real-time, agencies can craft bespoke, authentic campaigns that stand out against a sea of AI-generated noise, restoring value to the content and the partnership.

Insights in Action

Valued AMP partner, Josh Kopac and Sarah Wesley of BeKeptUp, provided this real-world example of a conference conversation:

“A publisher reframed an offer away from ‘earn extra cash’ and into a real-life problem/solution story (‘here’s the bill you already pay and here’s how to get a cash reward for paying it’). That shift in narrative, which a person can recognize instantly, outperformed more traditional ‘download/sign up now’ creatives because it met the user where they already were and helped them solve how to get to where they need to be.”

The Be Kept Up team added further:

“We have to stop looking at our industry and our approach as selling a used car and over pitching the consumers. Consumers do not want to hear, see, read, or watch ads. They want to learn how to solve their problems. If you solve the problem, then your work is literally cut out for you on the quality side of your traffic acquisition goals.”

While AI offers undeniable tools for optimization and scale, it simultaneously creates voids in trust, connection, and creativity that only humans can fill. Ultimately, the most successful campaigns of the future will be those that use AI for the heavy lifting but rely on the intuition, trust, and insights of interpersonal relationships to steer the ship.

Affiliate Marketing is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. The industry was really based on (and still centers around) eCommerce / Retail brands. Most affiliate marketing programs drive a significant portion of their revenue through coupon, deal and loyalty partners. That strategy does not work well for most financial products. Sure, some brands can incentivize sign-ups with free trials, offer bonuses in newly opened accounts, etc. But the overwhelming majority can’t leverage these tactics and need to rely on other partnership models to make up the bulk of their affiliate program’s revenue.

The Fintech Difference: Why Standard Approaches Fall Short

Financial products follow fundamentally different customer journeys than retail e-commerce:

• Consumers typically research financial products thoroughly before applying
• Fintech affiliate conversion cycles tend to be longer from initial click to completed application
• Trust and education factors outweigh promotional offers
• Regulatory compliance creates an additional layer of complexity

As global fintech investments reached $113.7 billion in 2022, companies are increasingly looking for more efficient customer acquisition channels. Specialized affiliate programs represent one such opportunity.

Five Essential Elements of Effective Fintech Affiliate Strategy

1. Compliance-First Approach

All marketers should be focused on making sure they are following the rules and standards set forth by the industry and government, but regulatory bodies like the FTC, CFPB, SEC and others keep an extra close eye on the financial space. All money matters are sensitive, but the level of personal data required to run financial institutions and products is equally sensitive. Not only do we need to make sure that all marketing includes typical advertising disclosures, but we need to ensure that all content is reviewed for compliance, any live marketing is audited frequently to ensure it stays in compliance and that publishers are adhering to appropriate targeting practices that don’t violate laws (i.e. Fair Lending Act).

Not having a compliance-first approach can have very real and very costly consequences. The CFPB regularly issues enforcement actions against companies with deceptive financial marketing practices. A specialized affiliate program provides necessary guardrails to protect both brands and their partners.

2. Quality of Partners Over Quantity

Given the need to focus on compliance, it’s crucial to only partner with quality, trusted partners. This not only helps to ensure that the program and marketing remains compliant, but also helps with monitoring for conversion quality. We often test with many publishers to start and then weed out any relationships that are not meeting our performance benchmarks.

Our preferred partners typically fall under one of these categories:

• Financial content publishers with established trust
• Personal finance influencers with engaged audiences
• Comparison sites with sophisticated matching algorithms
• Media buyers, app marketers or programmatic partners that specialize in the Finance space

3. Education-Driven Content Strategy

Because of the extensive research process most people go through before making financial decisions, content is still a major focus in this vertical. This can be challenging for smaller brands or start-ups because there are often flat fees involved. Outside of conversion driven performance, we also find that these partnerships help to further legitimize lesser known brands. A nice bonus is that VCs/investors love to see their brands on high-authority sites like Forbes, Nerdwallet, Bankrate, etc.

Research has shown that emotional connections with brands drive customer loyalty and value. Understanding how specific emotions affect consumer behavior can lead to better customer experiences and stronger relationships. This is particularly important in financial services, where trust is paramount.

4. Down Funnel Performance Tracking

Most affiliate programs are built around sales. This is often not the case for financial products. The affiliate’s commission is typically paid out on a non-revenue generating action or is greater than actual cost a user pays at the time of conversion. These structures are built around expected down funnel revenue assumed through benchmarking data from other acquisition channels.

That’s why it’s crucial to have a process in place to regularly check in on performance at the partner level. Affiliates prefer this data to be shared in real-time reports, but when that’s not possible, we review weekly and provide feedback to partners for optimization. Most partners can adjust down funnel performance with this feedback, but if not, there are plenty of other fish in the sea.

5. Creative Commission Structures

Because of the complex conversion process, many financial programs have more complex commissioning structures. The goal is to reward affiliates based on customer quality rather than just volume. Some strategies include:

• Tiered commissions for higher-quality applicants
• Performance bonuses for higher approval rates
• Revenue sharing aligned with customer retention

Understanding the emotional journey of customers can help design better commission structures that reward affiliates who connect with customers in ways that build lasting relationships.

Case Study: FloatMe’s Transformation with AMP

FloatMe, a financial wellness app providing cash advances and financial education, partnered with Affiliate Marketing Partners to develop a specialized affiliate strategy. The results showcase the power of a fintech-specific approach:

Challenge

FloatMe had attempted to run an affiliate program internally but needed a partner who understood the nuances of promoting financial products while scaling their partner network effectively.

Solution

AMP implemented a specialized fintech affiliate strategy:

• Recruited quality finance-focused publishers and influencers
• Developed compliant creative assets and tracking
• Created an optimized partner onboarding system
• Implemented advanced performance analytics

Real Results

The partnership with AMP delivered remarkable growth:

• +241% Year-over-Year Revenue through the affiliate channel
• +88% Year-over-Year EPC (Earnings Per Click), demonstrating improved quality and conversion
• +540% Partner Growth, expanding FloatMe’s reach within relevant financial audiences

These impressive results highlight how a specialized approach can transform affiliate marketing from an underperforming channel to a significant revenue driver for fintech companies.

The Bottom Line: Specialized Strategy Delivers Results

The impact of a specialized approach can be transformative for fintech companies:

• More efficient customer acquisition
• Higher application approval rates
• Reduced compliance risks
• Better customer retention

Generic affiliate strategies may work for impulse purchases, but they often underperform for complex financial products. By implementing a fintech-specific affiliate strategy, companies can transform this channel from an underperforming experiment to a reliable growth engine.

At Affiliate Marketing Partners, we help fintech companies like FloatMe develop specialized affiliate programs that deliver higher-quality customers at lower acquisition costs. Ready to optimize your fintech affiliate strategy? Let’s talk.