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PODCAST

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders

This Podcast is for consumer lenders who want to grow their affiliate marketing programs. It’s hosted by Carlos Caro, a successful marketing agency founder and former fintech executive. Prior to founding New Market Growth, Carlos was a General Manager and Head Of Business Development at Credit Karma, Head of Customer Acquisition at Caribou, and a former leader in Capital One’s credit card business. NMG focuses on helping lenders build and optimize affiliate programs, and Carlos is here to share

business marketing

All Episodes

44:41

E042 - Rakesh Patel, EVP of the Experian Marketplace

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/03/26

Carlos Caro chats with Rakesh Patel, the Executive Vice President of the Experian Marketplace. For those of you not familiar with the Experian Marketplace, it got started in 2017 and it's quietly become one of the largest consumer marketplaces in the world for credit cards, personal loans, and auto insurance. In today's episode we'll cover: -Experian's vision to become a financial co-pilot for consumers -The scale of the marketplace -The Experian Activate targeting platform -How Experian

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1:30

This Podcast is Moving Over to The Free Toaster Podcast

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/02/27

ATTENTION:Please stop following this Pod, and move over to The Free Toaster Pod. New and improved content over there, including video! Looking forward to seeing you over there! -Carlos PS: I just published a new episode with Alex Johnson. With video on Spotify!! (Apple video coming soon).

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18:22

News Pod #7 - TU's $56MM Purchase of Monevo - How's...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/02/21

In April 2025, Transunion completed its acquisition of Monevo (a UK-based credit prequalification platform).In today's News Pod, Nick discovers that TU paid $56MM and that TU expects the Monevo acquisition to be immaterial to FY 2026 growth for TU. (Sources of that information below). Carlos and Nick discuss the Monevo business model and speculate on why growth could be muted in the US market. Please note: While recording the Pod, Carlos thought he heard Nick say that TU expects the revenue

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13:42

E041 - Is My Application Experience Broken?

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/02/18

Today we walk through a list of questions to ask yourself to determine whether your application experience needs a tune up. ***** About The Free Toaster Podcast: 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 agency for consumer lenders. ***** ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor,

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22:19

News Pod #6 - Guest Pod w/ Prithvi Prabhu + Mr....

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/02/16

This week Prithvi Prabhu drops in to help us contextualize Cash App Borrow's metrics from this Edition: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/cash-apps-invisible-200-billion-loan Then, we discuss Mr. Beast's Fintech Acquisition and talk about why buying Fintech's could lead to trouble for the mega content creator. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come

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8:30

News Pod #5 - Fiserv & Affirm Join Forces To Bring...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/02/06

The Free Toaster hosts Carlos Caro and Nick Madrid add context to the story covered in the Newsletter earlier this week.https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/wtf-2026-since-when-is-debit-now Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on a select story from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please

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24:09

E040 - 7 Must-Have Traits For Your VP of Partnerships

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/02/03

Today we cover the 7 traits of successful VPs of Partnerships, why they matter, and how to assess them during interviews.***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, 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

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11:35

News Pod #4 - Affirm's FDIC application and Credit...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/01/30

Affirm is officially making a play to become its own bank by submitting applications to establish Affirm Bank through a Nevada-chartered Industrial Loan Company (ILC). This strategic shift aims to strengthen and diversify their platform, allowing them to scale operations and offer FDIC-insured products directly to consumers.The Free Toaster hosts Carlos Caro and Nick Madrid comment on this and the growth in their credit card program. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter

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10:32

News Pod #3 - Cash App's "Invisible" Consumer Lending...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/01/23

Cash App Borrow is quietly building a monster (and seemingly highly profitable) consumer lending business under the radar.The Free Toaster hosts Carlos Caro and Nick Madrid comment on the metrics they've seen published from the business. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on select stories from that

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4:52

News Pod #2 - Jenius Bank's Exit From Affiliate...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/01/16

This week Carlos Caro unpacks what Jenius Bank's exit from affiliate marketplaces could mean for other prime personal loan lenders. Sign up for The Free Toaster Newsletter (www.thefreetoaster.com) to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, published every Wednesday. And then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on select stories from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Bulldog

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10:52

News Pod #1 - Apple & Chase Cobrand Deal

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2026/01/08

In the News Pod, The Free Toaster founders - Carlos Caro and Nick Madrid - unpack select stories from the Wednesday news edition of www.thefreetoaster.comSign up for the Newsletter to get our curated news at the intersection of consumer lending & marketing, and then come here on Fridays to get our hot takes on select stories from that edition. ***** To support The Free Toaster Podcast, please visit our sponsors: A word from our sponsor, Bulldog Media Group: Bulldog Media Group is a

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42:54

E039 - Spinwheel's Network Token with Tomás Campos,...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/12/17

In this episode, Tomás returns to share what's changed since Spinwheel's $30 million funding round—including a strategic investment from Citi—and gives us an inside look at the Spinwheel Network Token, a piece of technology that changes how lenders can serve customers across the acquisition journey.Please note: Spinwheel is a sponsor of The Free Toaster Newsletter and Podcast. About The Spinwheel Network Token Spinwheel's Network Token creates a persistent, consent-based identity layer using

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32:34

E038 - Behind The Scenes - Nick Madrid, Co-Founder at...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/12/05

I sit with my co-founder Nick Madrid to discuss what we've learned in the last year of building this Podcast and Newsletter.About Nick Madrid - Co-founder, The Free Toaster. Former Bloomberg (10 years) and Chime (3+ years). Now building media properties including The Free Toaster and the Uncovered Media brand. Free Toaster Stats 1,200+ email subscribers (zero paid marketing), adding about 100 subs per month 13,000+ active users, 30,000+ views on www.thefreetoaster.com 118 posts published in 14

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72:58

E037 - Facing Credit: When AI Broke the Marketing...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/12/01

I recently sat with Alex Johnson on the Fintech Takes Podcast. I hope you enjoy! ***** (Show notes below from Fintech Takes) Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m Alex Johnson, joined by Carlos Caro (author of the Free Toaster newsletter and host of the Free Toaster podcast) for the second episode of Facing Credit, where we unpack what’s really happening in lending right now. This one’s about marketing; the overlooked starting point of every loan. Everything in lending sits downstream

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26:52

E036 - Media Arbitrage vs. Brand Arbitrage

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/10/29

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 today I share some of my updated thoughts after having an evening to reflect on the conversation. PS: If you want to sponsor our Podcast in 2026, now's the time to get in touch. Email me at

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39:47

E035 - Compliance in Affiliate Marketing, The 6 Blind...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/10/16

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

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13:02

E034 - Organic traffic to affiliate publishers is...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/09/26

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.This is a supplement to something I recently published on The Free Toaster Newsletter. https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/the-seo-apocalypse-has-arrived-9812 ***** 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

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18:40

E033 - The AI Finfluencers Are Coming

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/08/25

We explore how fintech lenders could revolutionize customer acquisition by partnering with AI-powered finfluencers, alleviating current concentration in affiliate marketplaces.Key Topics 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)

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01:07:51

E032 - Launching Affiliate Marketing Programs With...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/08/06

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

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33:00

E031 - Income Verification, With Kirill Klokov, CEO...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/07/30

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 Why most providers use the same underlying data sources The power of back-testing analysis on your own data Smart questions sophisticated lenders ask during RFPs The Consumer Experience Why 35% of users drop off at bank login screens How to build a smart "waterfall" approach (spoiler: start cheap, then hit instant databases) The

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52 results

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