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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

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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01:49:44

E031 - 10 Direct Mail Pitfalls That Kill Programs...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/07/14

Rich Walker is back! After our first direct mail episode became the most popular episode on the show, we're back for round 2.The 10 DM Pitfalls We Discuss 1. Attribution Nightmares People get your mail, then go to Credit Karma to respond. Your CFO freaks out about "paying twice" but that's just how the channels work together. Rich breaks down holdout testing and why you need to stop thinking about this as double-paying. 2. When Campaigns Go Off The Rails Your mail program is humming along, then

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01:22:54

E030 - The State of Compliance In Lead Gen, With John...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/06/26

I sat down with John Henson, a fintech-savvy lawyer who formerly worked at LendingTree (both as an attorney and a general manager). He unpacks the regulatory chaos swirling around lead generation in 2025 — what’s changed, what’s still risky, and how fintech marketers can navigate it without getting burned.In today's discussion: The CFPB Rolled Back Rules: Credit card and personal loan lead gen just got a little more breathing room. John explains what’s safe and what’s not. Mortgage Lead Gen Isn’t

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11:11

E029 - Positive & Negative Select (Think Like A...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/06/13

I explain positive and adverse selection in lending using recruiting as an analogy. If you've ever hired someone, you'll instantly understand why your channels, pricing, and process determine your loan portfolio quality.Key Takeaways The Big Idea: Attracting great borrowers works exactly like hiring great people. The parallels... 1. Channel Quality Inbound (website traffic): People actively searching, often desperate Outbound (direct mail): Higher-quality prospects who aren't hunting Best

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13:38

E028 - Marketplace Madness (Success in one affiliate...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/05/16

I talk about a surprising case study where a lending product thrived in one affiliate marketplace but completely flopped in another. We explore the key differences between marketplaces that can dramatically impact performance and provide actionable insights for fintech marketers.Key Insights Don't assume success transfers between marketplaces: A product that works well with one affiliate partner may struggle with another due to fundamental marketplace differences. Three critical marketplace

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12:28

E027 - Playing The Game In Reverse

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/04/25

Marketers sometimes like to enter new channels gradually, conservatively even. This works in many channels like paid search, social, and direct mail. But for fintechs, entering new affiliate channels like this can have catastrophic consequences. In today's Podcast, I share why entering into new affiliate marketplaces "cautiously" can be dangerous for new entrants. I'll walk you through how to play the game in reverse. Note: If you want to hear more about this in future Podcasts, email me at

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01:02:33

E026 - Colin Gardiner, General Partner at Yonder...

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/04/15

We chat with Colin about how AI is changing marketplaces.His thesis: “The rise of agentic AI will transform marketplaces from passive aggregators to active facilitators of transactions.” To learn more, check out Colin’s take on how AI will revolutionize marketplaces: https://www.gardinercolin.com/p/ai-and-marketplaces-agent-led About Colin Gardiner Former economics/statistical researcher that now loves building sticky consumer facing products via iterative data-driven methods. Built products for

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51:48

E025 - Jason Steele, Credit Card and Award Travel Expert

Affiliate Marketing For Lenders ·

2025/04/09

We sit with credit card expert Jason Steele about what's happening behind the scenes in the industry. Jason shares how he went from tech work to becoming a respected credit card authority who writes for major publications and runs CardCon, the credit card industry conference. We discuss: The "Coupon Book Problem" - Premium cards are becoming more complex with endless small benefits ($6 at Dunkin', $10 off wireless) that frustrate consumers. Jason explains why this creates space for simpler card

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45 results

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