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I was recently a guest on another Podcast, and the host asked me a question about what will happen to publishers' organic traffic that disappeared with the recent Google / SEO changes.
That question led me into a bit of a tangent / rabbit hole (I'll republish that episode here when it goes live in December), and I share some of my updated thoughts after having an evening to reflect on the question.
PS: If you want to sponsor our Podcast in 2026, now's the time to get in touch. Email me at [email protected]
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A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=oct
Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
Alana Levine, Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect, returns to break down the compliance challenges that affiliate marketers face. As AI reshapes the affiliate landscape, financial institutions face mounting pressure to get compliance right—or face serious consequences.
In this episode, Alana shares her framework for managing affiliate compliance at scale, the real-world costs of getting it wrong, and how the rise of influencer marketing and LLMs is creating additional complexity for the next 12-24 months.
The Six Compliance Blind Spots
Managing Compliance at Scale
Publisher Adaptation and the Future
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About Alana Levine
Alana is the Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect, an award-winning performance marketing technology company dedicated to driving growth in the fintech, banking and insurance space.
*****
Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=oct
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
We've all heard the rumors around SEO traffic drying up for publishers. Today I riff on what's going on, why it's happening, and what lenders should be doing about it.
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=sep
Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
www.newmarketgrowth.com
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
We explore how fintech lenders could revolutionize customer acquisition by partnering with AI-powered finfluencers, alleviating current concentration in affiliate marketplaces.
The Current Problem: 30-70% of fintech lender volume comes from affiliate marketplaces, creating concentration risk. Lenders spend $4B-$6B annually on affiliate marketing but lack control over rankings and algorithms.
The Finfluencer Opportunity: Top creators are severely under-monetizing. Vivian Tu (Your Rich BFF) made $3MM from 5MM followers—just $0.60 per audience member. Credit Karma generates $12.31 per member. At Credit Karma rates, Vivian could earn $61.5MM annually.
The AI Revolution: Digital twins will allow Finfluencers to scale 1:1 advice 24/7. These AI assistants will answer questions in the creator's voice, recommend products, and handle compliant application handoffs. The AI chatbot market is exploding from $14B (2025) to $47B (2029).
Why This Will Happen: Consumers already trust AI for 80% of customer service interactions. Lenders historically resist new channels (internet applications, mobile banking, social ads) before eventually adopting them.
A platform will emerge where Finfluencers launch always-on AI assistants with seamless affiliate integration. Early-mover lenders who master compliance will create an edge while more conservation competitors remain skeptical.
Read the article in our Newsletter:
*****
Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=aug
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
We sit down with Alana Levine, Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect, to uncover what financial institutions get wrong when launching affiliate marketing programs—and more importantly, how to get it right from day one.
As someone who lives in the trenches and is often the first call when lenders want to activate the affiliate channel, Alana shares her unfiltered pre-launch checklist and the hard-won insights that can save months of frustration and wasted budget.
We discuss...
The Strategic Foundation
Operational Requirements
Common Pitfalls
Timeline and Commitment
Industry Context
*****
About Alana Levine
Alana is the Chief Revenue Officer at Fintel Connect, an award-winning performance marketing technology company dedicated to driving growth in the fintech, banking and insurance space.
*****
Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=aug
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
We sit down with Kirill Klokov, CEO of Truv, to break down everything lenders need to know about income verification providers.
Vetting Income Verification Vendors
The Consumer Experience
Beyond Basic Income Verification
AI's Impact on Lending
Truv's New Business Model
Find Kirill Klokov on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirillklokov/
***
Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=july
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
Rich Walker is back! After our first direct mail episode became the most popular episode on the show, we're back for round 2.
1. Attribution Nightmares
People get your mail, then go to Credit Karma to respond. Your CFO freaks out about "paying twice" but that's just how the channels work together. Rich breaks down holdout testing and why you need to stop thinking about this as double-paying.
2. When Campaigns Go Off The Rails
Your mail program is humming along, then suddenly a campaign tanks for no reason. 80% of the time you'll figure out what happened, but 20% you just shrug and move on. Rich walks through the diagnostic checklist and why organizations sometimes kill entire programs over one bad campaign.
3. The Unit Cost Trap
Everyone obsesses over cost per piece, but Rich explains why lowering your mail costs often means you'll spend MORE money overall (and why that's actually good).
4. Complexity Overload
You start simple, then add segments, then more segments, then product variations... suddenly only one person understands how your program works. We talk about how to dig out of this hole.
5. Testing Problems
Direct mail is expensive to test, so you're always making decisions on samples that feel too small. Rich shares the "10 small tests, pick the 3 winners" approach.
6. Model Addiction
Your response models get biased because you only mail to people who passed your last model. Universe testing is the cure, but it's a hard sell to the CFO.
7. Overthinking Non-Response
99.5% of your mail gets thrown away without being read. Stop trying to psychoanalyze why people didn't respond - most of them never saw your offer.
8. Funnel Blindness
High click-through but low conversions? That's a signal, not a failure. Your audience is telling you something - listen to them.
9. No Testing Culture
Organizations that say "we're really good at testing" usually aren't. Real testing culture means constant experimentation with the right infrastructure to support it.
10. Death by Committee
Legal needs 5 days, then compliance needs 5 days, then brand wants changes... Rich explains how to get everyone aligned without killing your cycle time.
About Rich Walker:
Rich Walker is a 35-year industry vet who’s been responsible for over 10 billion pieces of Direct Mail.
Rich has led direct marketing teams at Capital One, the Winterberry Group, Deluxe Corporation, 2nd Order Solutions, and more recently, Aven.
He also ran his own consulting shop - Pilot Performance Marketing - focused on helping lenders solve Direct Mail.
***
Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=june
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
I sat down with John Henson, a fintech-savvy lawyer who formerly worked at LendingTree (both as an attorney and a general manager). He unpacks the regulatory chaos swirling around lead generation in 2025 — what’s changed, what’s still risky, and how fintech marketers can navigate it without getting burned.
...and much more.
John Henson is a rare breed: a lawyer who understands marketing. He spent 6 years at LendingTree running lead gen and compliance, so he knows the real-world challenges fintechs face. Now, he helps companies stay out of trouble while growing smart. Follow him on LinkedIn for sharp insights.
***
Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=june
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
I explain positive and adverse selection in lending using recruiting as an analogy. If you've ever hired someone, you'll instantly understand why your channels, pricing, and process determine your loan portfolio quality.
The Big Idea: Attracting great borrowers works exactly like hiring great people.
The parallels...
You can find a written version of today's content in our Newsletter:
***
Drive thousands of new accounts and billions in deposits with the only partner marketing solution built for fintech and banking – your all-in-one affiliate platform, partner network, agency, and marketing compliance engine.
https://partner.fintelconnect.com/get-to-know-fintel-connect?utm_campaign=13897733-2025%20Partners&utm_source=The%20Free%20Toaster&utm_medium=podcast
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=june
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
I talk about a surprising case study where a lending product thrived in one affiliate marketplace but completely flopped in another. We explore the key differences between marketplaces that can dramatically impact performance and provide actionable insights for fintech marketers.
*****
A word from our sponsor, Spinwheel:
Reduce friction in your lending application with just two fields—phone number and birthdate. Spinwheel’s APIs boost application rates by 20-30% while also providing real-time credit data and seamless payment processing. Want to see it in action? Connect with their Head of Growth for a demo!
https://spinwheel.io/partner/?utm_source=freetoaster&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=may
A word from our sponsor, New Market Growth:
New Market Growth helps fintech consumer lenders generate explosive growth on affiliate marketing channels like Credit Karma, Experian Marketplace, LendingTree, and others.
Subscribe to the Free Toaster Newsletter:
From the publisher's feed
Insights and interviews at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. Hosted by Carlos Caro, co-founder at The Free Toaster and Managing Partner at New Market Growth, a growth…