Affiliate Marketing Guide for Fintech Startups in the Philippines

The fintech ecosystem in the Philippines is going through a period of exponential growth. According to a recent report by Statista, the number of fintech startups in the country has more than tripled over the past five years and reached over 200 companies in the end of 2023.

The growth is fuelled by increasing demand for digital financial services driven by a young and tech-savvy population, rising internet penetration, and supportive government policies such as the BSP’s digital payments transformation roadmap.

Startups in the fintech sector are innovating rapidly, offering a wide range of products from mobile wallets and digital lending platforms to investment apps and cryptocurrency exchanges. However, as competition intensifies, finding effective ways to stand out and attract customers is becoming increasingly challenging. This is where affiliate marketing can play an important role in scaling the operations and customer acquisition.

Affiliate Marketing in Fintech

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based strategy where you partner with affiliates who promote your products or services in exchange for a commission. This approach is particularly powerful in fintech, where trust and credibility are crucial. Affiliates – whether they are bloggers, newspapers and magazines, influencers, or comparison sites – can provide that trusted voice, guiding potential customers towards your offerings.

Most Successful Affiliate Strategies in Fintech

To make the most of affiliate marketing, it’s important to adopt the right strategies. Here are a few examples of affiliate strategies tailored specifically for fintech startups:

#1. Engaging with content affiliates. This strategy involves collaborating with affiliates who create in-depth content like product reviews, how-to guides, and comparisons. This type of content resonates well with consumers seeking financial advice and solutions, and helps build trust and credibility of your brand.

#2. Engaging with SEO affiliates. This strategy centers around finding affiliates who focus on SEO to rank high for relevant fintech-related keywords. As a brand, you would like to own as much SERP (search engine result page) real estate as possible, which means you would focus on making affiliate deals with the websites that rank on the first page of Google when searching for the fintech-related keywords. This strategy is particularly powerful because it creates a constant flow of quality leads with high conversion potential.

#3. Leveraging social media and influencer marketing. This strategy involves collaborating with trusted voices on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, and through them engaging with your target audience. Influencers who are active in the financial space can be particularly effective in driving traffic and conversions.

#4. Niche focus. This strategy is about partnering with affiliates who specialize in specific niches within fintech, e.g. cryptocurrency or micro-investing, which allows for more targeted and relevant marketing efforts. While this strategy is not as scalable as the other three, it has the highest conversion potential and suits the startups with tight marketing budgets.

Ensuing Profitability and Scalability with Different Payment Models

Depending on your cost structure, customer lifetime value and risk profile of the customers, different payment models will be the best fit for your affiliate program:

Pay-per-Click (PPC): you pay affiliates for every click they generate. This model works well for building initial traffic and also when conversion data cannot be shared with the affiliates either due to technical limitations or privacy policies. CPC model is suitable for trusted affiliates with high quality traffic, and in some cases can be more cost-effective than PPL or PPS.
Pay-per-Lead (PPL): ideal for fintech startups focused on generating qualified leads, such as users who sign up for a trial or fill out a contact form. PPL is a very attractive model for affiliates, as leads are easier to generate than the actual sales. It can work well with the affiliates you trust, and it can be more efficient than PPS.
Pay-per-Sale (PPS): compensate affiliates based on actual sales or completed transactions, ensuring you pay only for tangible results. This is the most safe model for the brands, however it might be difficult to scale a PPS-based affiliate program is the brand is not well-known in the market.
Revenue Share: offer affiliates a percentage of the revenue generated from referred customers, incentivizing them to bring in high-value clients as well as upselling and cross-selling your financial products to their user base. This can especially be relevant for companies that use cheaper product (e.g. credit card with low interest) to attract initial users hoping to convert them into using more valuable products in the future.

Examples of Successful Affiliate Campaigns in Fintech

To illustrate the potential of affiliate marketing, here are a few detailed examples of successful affiliate marketing campaigns within fintech.

NerdWallet’s Affiliate Program

NerdWallet, a US-based personal finance company, has built a highly successful affiliate marketing strategy by partnering with a wide range of financial product providers, including credit card companies, mortgage lenders, and investment platforms.

NerdWallet created in-depth guides, comparisons, and reviews on various financial products. Their content is highly SEO-optimized, making it rank well on search engines for key financial queries. They include affiliate links to the financial products they review and recommend.

NerdWallet’s content-driven affiliate strategy has made it one of the most trusted sources for financial advice online. By 2023, this approach has helped them generate significant revenue through affiliate commissions, driving millions of leads to their partners annually. This demonstrates how powerful content and SEO can be when combined with affiliate marketing.

Coinbase Affiliate Program

Coinbase, a popular international cryptocurrency exchange, runs an affiliate program that allows affiliates to earn commissions for referring new users who make their first trade on the platform. Affiliates often create educational content around cryptocurrency trading, such as beginner guides, tutorials, and market analysis. Some affiliates also use social media channels like YouTube to create video content that explains how to use Coinbase, often including referral links in the video descriptions.

Revolut Affiliate Program

Revolut, a fintech company offering banking services, has a referral program where affiliates earn commissions for driving new sign-ups who then use Revolut’s services. Affiliates often focus on the easy-to-sell benefits of Revolut’s multi-currency accounts, low-fee international transfers, and crypto trading features. They use blog posts, video tutorials, and social media content to demonstrate how Revolut can save users money, especially those who travel frequently or engage in international business.

The program has helped Revolut expand their user base across various countries, with affiliates playing a key role in educating potential users about the unique benefits of using Revolut over traditional banks.

For fintech startups in the Philippines, affiliate marketing presents a powerful opportunity to reach new customers, build brand trust, and scale the business. By implementing the right strategies, testing different content formats, and choosing appropriate payment models, you can maximize the potential of your affiliate marketing efforts. As the fintech market continues to grow, those who adopt and optimize their affiliate marketing strategies early will be well-positioned for success.