News Pod #24 - How Lenders Win When AI Calls the Shots

You can learn more about the event and request an invitation here: The Affiliate Marketing Summit for Lenders & Publishers September 23rd San Francisco, CA events.thefreetoaster.com

On June 22, LendingClub became Happen Bank. Mark Elliot, Chief Customer Officer, ran point on it. He joined the company 3 years ago and asked Scott Sanborn about the name in his very first conversation. The business had already moved from peer-to-peer lending marketplace to multi-product digital bank. The name hadn't caught up. If you're a performance marketer who's never sat on the front lines of a rebrand, this one's for you.  What we get into 1. How the naming process actually worked. Over 100 candidates, cut down by trademark and domain availability, then narrowed to 6 finalists through research with existing customers and the motivated middle segment. Respondents saw the names in print only. No logos, no colors. 2. Why "bank" stayed in the name. The research came back at 100% on this one, and some of their own customers didn't know LendingClub was a bank. 3. How they de-risked distribution. They tested the new color palette and new brand language under the old LendingClub name before the switch, seeded the market months in advance, and still run "Happen Bank, formerly LendingClub" across their touchpoints today. Mark explains what he'd tell any digital lender about working with affiliates and marketplaces through the transition. 4. The 6-month build. What started January 2 and shipped in June, including the move from NYSE to Nasdaq, a 1-month marketing freeze with an escalation process, and the asset audit that turned into spring cleaning. 5. The line item they underestimated: email. Deposit servicing, debit card servicing, applications in flight. AI capabilities improved fast enough during the project to absorb the overage and keep the budget intact. 6. What Mark's watching now. Daily search volume crossover between the old and new brand, plus a custom quarterly brand health survey built for the motivated middle instead of gen pop. 7. And the advice for any CMO convinced the name is what's broken. Mark's answer starts with GEICO. ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, we have an event for you! The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, Prism Data, Tare.io, EXL, and ICS San Francisco - September 23rd The Exploratorium 150-person, curated room 101 seats are now filled. 48 seats left! Learn more and request an invitation:   events.thefreetoaster.com   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   Fintel Connect 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   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     Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

Nicky Senyard, CEO and Founder of Fintel Connect, has been doing digital acquisition since 2002. Her read on this wave: affiliate marketing is still a bottom of funnel conversion tactic. On today’s show, we discuss everything sitting above it.   We get into: Why roughly 90% of LLM citations are non-branded, and what that does to a lender's odds of getting quoted The neutrality problem. LLMs reward comparison content and domain authority, which is why publishers keep winning the citation 54% of surveyed Americans now use chat for personal finance recommendations Gemini mentions brands more than half the time, so picking your engine is a real strategy decision GEO packages, prompt volume, and share of voice. How publishers are already selling placement inside the answers Nicky's 3 step playbook: clean up your own content first, ride the publishers already indexed, save the site overhaul for last Why she thinks the arbitrage window is narrower this time than it was with Google or Facebook Where Carlos and Nicky disagree on timing for quantum finance through LLMs. She says 10 years, at least. He says 5.   Plus a big question underneath all of it: what happens to financial discernment for the people who never had to build it?   ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, we have an event for you! The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, Prism Data, Tare.io, EXL, and ICS San Francisco - September 23rd The Exploratorium 150-person, curated room 101 seats are now filled. 49 seats left! Learn more and request an invitation:   events.thefreetoaster.com   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   Fintel Connect 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   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     Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

Carlos & Nick add color to the most recent article on The Free Toaster Newsletter. https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/nerdwallets-q2-26-earnings   They discuss NerdWallet's pivot towards insurance and the top 5 takeaways for card & personal loan marketers. ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, we have an event for you! The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, Prism Data, Tare.io, EXL, and ICS San Francisco - September 23rd & 24th The Exploratorium 150-person, curated room 88 seats are now spoken for. 62 seats left! Learn more and request an invitation: events.thefreetoaster.com   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   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   Fintel Connect 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   Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

Today, Carlos comments on the future of distribution in lending, how long it will take to get there, the key blockers along the way, and what CMOs can do now to prepare. This Pod covers his commentary from the most recent Newsletter: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/the-future-of-distribution-in-lending   ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, we have an event for you! The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, Prism Data, Tare.io, EXL, and ICS San Francisco - September 23rd & 24th The Exploratorium 150-person, curated room 88 seats are now spoken for. 62 seats left! Learn more and request an invitation: events.thefreetoaster.com   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors!   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   Fintel Connect 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   Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

Recently, Carlos sat on the LendAPI Podcast with Tim Li to discuss the Summit he's organizing on September 23rd in San Francisco.   ***** The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, Prism Data, Tare.io, and EXL San Francisco - September 23rd & 24th The Exploratorium 150-person, curated room Early bird tickets ($999) end August 1 Learn more: events.thefreetoaster.com

Search is often just 10% of a lender's marketing mix — but Ross Cohen makes the case that it's the most powerful channel for experimentation and the best "shock absorber" when direct mail or affiliates come up short.   Ross, an advisory partner at Arica Consulting with 20+ years running search across Capital One, New York Life, FrontPoint, and Greenlight, has evaluated search agencies from every angle — client, operator, founder, and agency owner. In this deep-dive with Carlos, he shares the exact questions a non-technical CMO can ask to separate the pros from the pretenders.   We cover: Why quality score and the keyword vs. search term gap drive everything The branded/unbranded commingling trap that hides massive unbranded overspend Why optimizing to CPL instead of CPA is the single most common mistakes agencies make Reading the change log, auditing Google's auto-recommendations, and the marginal vs. average CAC test How to start from scratch: build an MVP account, one landing page, a few keywords   This conversation is practical, in-the-weeds, and refreshingly honest.   Find Ross at recohen.com or on LinkedIn   ******   Come meet Carlos in San Francisco! The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders & Publishers Sponsored by Experian, Engine by Gen, and Prism Data San Francisco - September 23rd & 24th The Exploratorium 150-person, curated room Early bird tickets ($999) end August 1 Learn more: events.thefreetoaster.com   *****   Sign Up For Our Newsletter   The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors   Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   Fintel Connect   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   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      New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

Carlos sits with Megan Bauer, Head Of Customer Success at Spinwheel, to discuss affiliate marketing & business lessons learned playing poker. ****** This episode is reposted from Spinwheel's Video Podcast - "What's Your Wheelhouse." Check out the video version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXcLSTMLAK4

Nick and Carlos discuss an Editorial piece recently published in The Free Toaster Newsletter https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/how-lenders-win-when-ai-calls-the   The premise of the conversation -- an LLM-based personal finance tool is going to be the most effective/useful way for consumers to shop for cards and lending products. Given that future, how should CMOs at lending companies be thinking about their long-term strategy? ****** The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders San Francisco - September 23rd & 24th 150-person, curated room Early bird tickets ($999) end August 1 Learn more: events.thefreetoaster.com   ***** Sign Up For Our Newsletter   The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors   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   Fintel Connect   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   Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com

Most lenders underestimate how long it takes to get onto a major affiliate platform. The honest answer is 6 to 12 months. Sometimes 18. If one of these channels is on your 2027 roadmap, you need to start now.   In this solo episode, Carlos breaks down the five phases that explain the timeline: Internal prep. Do you have a competitive product and funnel? Get your application rate above 40%. Card issuers need 70 to 80% approval rates, which implies serious work on model alignment. Personal loan lenders need a dialed-in funding rate, too. Getting the partner's attention. A single intro call can take a month or two. BD teams are busy and you are not their priority unless you are already on their short list. Getting them on board. Adding you usually redistributes revenue across their existing lenders rather than growing their top line. The business case looks very different for you than for them. The deal. NDAs, contracts, and cross-functional review. Most terms are standardized. Lenders new to the game often redline anyway and lose months for little gain. The partner does the work. Engineering and onboarding queues are out of your hands.   Add it up and you're waiting 6 to 12 months for a single lead.   Plan accordingly! ***** The Affiliate Marketing Summit For Lenders San Francisco - September 23rd & 24th 150-person, curated room Early bird tickets ($999) end August 1 Learn more: events.thefreetoaster.com   ***** Sign Up For Our Newsletter   The Free Toaster Newsletter ships every Wednesday at www.thefreetoaster.com, curating the biggest stories at the intersection of consumer lending, marketing, and technology. ****** Please Support Our Sponsors   Fintel Connect   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   Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a leading performance marketing company that specializes in online customer acquisition for clients in the financial services industry. Since 2000, they have focused on financial services digital marketing as their core niche.  https://www.bulldogmediagroup.com/   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   New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com