Maximizing ROI on your consumer credit marketing campaigns
Broad advertising might seem like a great idea if you’re launching a consumer credit card. It can get you a lot of new credit applications and increase the exposure of your offering. Be careful, though; broad advertising can be risky business. Why? At the same time that you’re telling new customers about your new credit card program, you’re also potentially drawing attention to yourself from fraudsters.
We had a fintech client recently who was absolutely stoked to get a featured spot in the Apple Store. Their fifteen minutes of fame! What could go wrong? As expected, they got a massive boost in traffic and applications (yay!🥳). Unfortunately, fraudsters use the Apple Store, too, because the client ended up opening themselves up to a lot of risk (boo!👎).
Okay, we’re done fear-mongering. You should definitely still advertise your new consumer credit card launch. And let’s face it, marketing dollars are tight right now — we’re all being pressured to lower our customer acquisition costs. You can still open up your top-of-funnel marketing to a wide net as long as you put fraud controls in place that weed out any fraudsters from the traffic you’re driving. This will ensure you are getting maximum ROI by not wasting dollars on people that don't turn out to be real customers... and end up stealing additional money from you.
3 cost-effective tips for expanding your total addressable market (TAM) without opening yourself up to more risk:
Leverage your own data. Keep your allow/deny lists up-to-date and leverage them in your workflows so that you’re not wasting time and money re-verifying people you have already evaluated and flagged for fraud.
Lower your risk thresholds by using free tools to identify fraud. NeuroID’s ID Crowd Alert – a free solution offered through Alloy – allows you to monitor and visualize an entire applicant population, signaling risky versus genuine intent, to help fight against automated attacks and fraud rings.
Use alternative data to approve more customers, including ones with thin credit files. Credit products have historically been largely inaccessible to many consumers (with 10% of Americans having non-existent credit and 30% of Americans having non-prime credit scores). Adding in alternative data sources — such as cashflow data or on-time payment history through data partners like Nova Credit, LexisNexis® Risk Solutions and Zest — can open your potential customer base up to a group of folks that may be an excellent fit for your product even if they are still building up their traditional credit scores.
Bonus tip:
When customers are taught how alternative data can help them get approved and access to more credit, they tend to be more willing to share their data. One of our clients, Petal, does a great job of educating their customers about why they should share personal data (such as cashflow data) with them during their credit applications.
If you’re thoughtful about how you are expanding your target audience by using more data and more fraud checks, you can advertise to a broader group of people without the fear of opening yourself up to more risk. Get creative with your marketing efforts and let the secret out about your amazing consumer credit card. Your fraud controls can handle the rest.
Now there’s just one more problem: with all of these new consumer credit cards hitting the market, how do you make yours stand out from the pack? I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite consumer financial services ads for inspiration.
Open up your top-of-funnel without opening the door to fraudsters.
KJ McAlpin is a content marketing manager at Alloy. They research and write about trends in the fintech and banking space. In their free time, KJ enjoys traveling, cuddling their two black cats, and journaling.
