Insights from our Financial Networking Mixer at DealMaker Europe

Over the last couple of years, the finance sector has seen exponential growth from wealth management apps, innovative payment methods, buy-now-pay-later services and credit management services.

To celebrate and bring together this thriving and innovative sector, we hosted a special financial services networking mixer during DealMaker Europe last month. Over 40 leading advertisers, publishers and thought leaders came together to network and discuss the latest trends and insights occurring in the industry. Attendees included the likes of American Express, Nerd Wallet, Zilch, Money Facts and many more.

We were delighted to have our publisher partner, Money.co.uk – a leading online financial comparison service – on board as a partner for the mixer. A big thank you to the Money.co.uk team for their support!

Before we dived into our networking session, our team of financial experts hosted a panel session to dive into the latest insights and trends affecting the sector. Read on for the key themes we discussed:

The Affiliate Marketing Opportunity

Harry Johns, our Senior Business Development Manager for the finance vertical spoke about our recent research which highlighted how consumers are shopping for finance products in 2022. Harry shared how consumers are increasingly shopping around for financial products.

For example, 50% of consumers are considering opening or have opened a new payment provider outside of credit and debit cards in 2022. In addition, 54% of these consumers are likely to select a new payment solution based on its reward offering. This presents a huge opportunity for financial brands to engage and interact with potential customers at all stages of the buying journey through digital marketing – in particular, affiliate marketing.

Compliance is Key!

Our research found that consumers are increasingly referencing publishers to discover the benefits of different financial offerings. Therefore, having a strong presence on these sites has become crucial for financial services to drive leads and sales. This is not without its challenges though. Our Director, Programme Quality & Compliance, Thomas Royer, explained how working with a diverse set of publishers can present challenges due to the highly regulated nature of the sector. Financial brands need to ensure the communication of their messages and offers align with strict regulatory guidance.

Work with a Trusted Network

A robust compliance solution provides financial brands with the ability to focus on driving strategy and performance through the affiliate channel.

This can be achieved by working with an affiliate network such as Rakuten Advertising with a global team of compliance experts and technology. Thomas explained how our team employs a unique blend of automation with a hands-on approach to compliance. Our extensive experience in affiliate and finance has allowed us to build a programme specific to the needs of the issuer.

In addition, Kwame Atteen, Client Services Director, shared how he felt a “combination of both automated tools and hands-on manual reporting were key for success.” He went on to explain how our client services team maintains a master publisher list with all the compliance contact information on every publisher joined to a financial account. This is critical, especially during product updates when our team may need to get hold of a partner for immediate action on an item. This approach has resulted in a failure rate of less than 1%, compared to the 8% average failure rate financial institutions see on their own.

You can also download our recent financial insights report which looks at the latest consumer trends and explores why compliance is more important than ever here.

If you’re a finance brand or publisher and looking to partner with Rakuten Advertising, please get in touch with our team of experts here.