8 Financial Services Partners To Watch

The financial services sector is unique in affiliate, and many of the largest and fastest-growing partners are specific to this large and fast-growing vertical. From our unique vantage point of working with 50+ financial services clients, including 60% of top US banks, the Rakuten Advertising team constantly scans the market to identify great partners that have the potential to reach new audiences and deliver unique marketing touchpoints. As with all affiliate sectors, financial services affiliate leaders must continuously identify partners with the potential to add meaningful scale and incrementality. Here are eight fascinating financial services partners to consider as you explore ways to drive incremental growth in 2023.

Canadian in a T-Shirt

One thing Adrian of Canadian in a T-Shirt never does is put on airs. And that’s part of the secret to his success. He started the YouTube channel “Canadian in a T-Shirt” to break down personal finance, investing, taxes, credit cards, and how to start a business for Canadians. His ~100K subscribers and hundreds of thousands of others turn to his YouTube channel for clear explanations and advice in videos that typically run 10-20 minutes. His audience skews 18-44. He develops content for beginners and financially savvy customers. His popular videos on credit cards and other financial services start with strategic goals like maximizing cashback, and his brand drives traffic for brands via affiliate links.

Forbes Advisor

Forbes Advisor bills itself as the place for Smart Financial Decisions Made Simple. The site combines financial education with extensive editorial around news, reviews, and advice from a highly experienced editorial team. The property promises readers independent and objective coverage of all personal finance topics. The Forbes Advisor business team reviews site content after it’s written and identifies potential advertising opportunities. That team then works with some of the brands identified in that content. Professionals 25-44 are the core demographic for the brand. The Editorial covers a broad range of personal finance topics, combining classic “Best Credit Cards”-style pieces with tips, calculators, and personal finance news relevant to its readers.

FrugalFlyer

Frugal Flyer helps Canadians to “travel more, pay less.” It is an online travel blog and resource engineered to help Canadians leverage rewards programs from airlines, hotels, and financial institutions. This vibrant “tell it like it is” voice prides itself on unbiased opinions about travel experiences. It provides great advice to help people travel more inexpensively without sacrificing the quality of their travel experiences. Frugal Flyer does a brisk trade in driving credit card applications and offers cash rebates for successful credit card applications – one of only three companies in Canada to do this. They also provide comparison tools for credit cards and bank accounts. The site presents an array of cards with bonus points and other perks and has a chooser tool that helps customers in Canada (and the USA) find precisely the right card for their needs.

Million Dollar Journey (MJD Media)

Million Dollar Journey has been helping Canadians manage their finances since 2006. Its readership visits the site for great educational and how-to content, as well as recommendations and comparisons tailored to the needs of its primarily above-average income readership. The publisher focuses on building long-term relationships with its readers, delivering a constant flow of content/tips on financial topics and recommendations for products in most financial services sectors. The brand’s name comes from the real-world experience of site founder Kyle Prevost, who chronicles his own financial success on the site with quarterly updates. Product and service recommendations are front and center throughout the editorial experience.

Money Crashers

Money Crashers is a one-stop shop for all things banking and credit cards. Combining education on financial concepts with recommendations for credit cards and other financial services products, the site offers ideas and tips on making, spending, saving, investing, and protecting money. Trust is a central component of the Money Crashers brand. A comprehensive editorial process ensures the quality and integrity of tips, advice, and recommendations. The publisher’s approachable style demystifies financial services for beginners and veteran investors alike. Much of their content is goals-focused, like answering, “What’s the best checking account available today?” 18-35-year-olds dominate the Money Crashers audience, who return to the site for advice on financial services and engaging articles on topics like the latest retailer promotions. The site has a deep catalog of evergreen content, including editorial focused on most financial services sectors and topics.

Points Miles and Bling

Another media property focused on the Canadian audience, Points Miles and Bling is a travel website focused on points travel, loyalty program analysis, travel advocacy & consulting. PMB is a community-focused property built on direct audience interactions. Some of the most popular components are the weekly live stream “What’s the Point” on points travel and the loyalty industry, PMB audience meetups, and PMB eLab, a small group workshop to learn about luxury travel on points. The publisher focuses on frequent travelers 25-65 with high FICO scores and a passion for luxe travel. This audience makes it popular with affiliate programs for credit cards and other financial services products. The site boasts more than 60,000 active members.

Sezzle

Sezzle is a fintech company on a mission to financially empower the next generation. Sezzle’s payment platform increases the purchasing power of millions of consumers by offering a suite of financing solutions at retail. This is a BNPL solution with multiple payment options, and “Sezzle Up,” an optional program of reporting customer activity to credit bureaus to help them establish and build credit. Another exciting differentiator is that they are a Certified B Corp that puts “purpose above profit.” Offering Sezzle as a payment option is helping thousands of retailers boost AOV and conversion rates. The company helps brands reach incremental audiences like subprime credit households (90%) and Millennials/Gen Z (75%). When consumers apply for Sezzle, approval decisions are instant, and member credit scores are not impacted unless the consumer elects to opt-in to Sezzle Up. More than 47,000 online merchants are working with Sezzle, and Sezzle payment is also accepted at many brick-and-mortar locations. The company enjoys more than 8,500 5-star reviews on Trustpilot.

SuperMoney

SuperMoney is a fascinating financial services marketplace that aspires to offer tips and recommendations on every financial service and help consumers make every financial decision. Their goals-focused model lets visitors search for more than 50 personal finance products and provides objective information to help them find products and financial services companies ideally suited to their needs. Their proprietary loan offer engine enables people to get pre-qualified offers for loans from a long list of available vendors. The engine can now be embedded in other publisher and merchant sites to help businesses deliver better customer options. A SuperMoney study found that the average difference between the highest and lowest APR offer for the same borrower and loan term was 7.1 percentage points. On a $10K loan with a 5-year term, a 7.1% spread can save $2.2K in interest (10% vs. 17.1%). SuperMoney visitors appreciate the help – 95% give the company five stars on Trustpilot.

Start Working with New Partners

These are just a few of the great publishers that Rakuten leverages to help drive extraordinary growth for our financial services clients. If you are a current Rakuten client and would like to discuss additional recruitment initiatives, schedule a call with your account manager to discuss these and other partners. If you aren’t yet a Rakuten client, we’d love to speak with you about your goals and how we can drive more growth through proactive recruitment, industry-leading compliance and analytics tools, and our highly experienced financial services team. Get in touch now, and we’ll get a discussion scheduled.

Rakuten Advertising is a leading provider of affiliate solutions for financial services brands, retailers, and many other channels. We are the preferred provider for more than 60% of the largest US banks and dozens of other financial services leaders worldwide. Brands and agencies choose Rakuten Advertising for unparalleled expertise and distinctive marketing solutions that influence and activate audiences across the many paths and platforms of their digital journeys. Our partner ecosystem creates unique opportunities to amplify digital marketing performance and is unrivaled in audience scale, partner diversity, and technology innovation. The inventory and data of Rakuten Group, Inc.’s 70+ businesses and nearly 1.6 billion members, coupled with our proprietary technology and global publisher network, drive exceptional business growth for our clients.

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