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by thefreetoaster
The Free Toaster is your best resource at the intersection of marketing, lending, and fintech. We deliver news, data, and insights to help you acquire more customers.
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- Yesterday8 min
News Pod #36 - 5 Takeaway’s From Happen Bank’s Q3 Earnings Report
Carlos & Nick expand on coverage from this week's Newsletter: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/5-takeaways-from-happen-banks-q3 On October 28, Happen Bank announced Q3 earnings. Originations came in at $3.34 billion, up 26% YoY. Pre-tax income was a record $76.8 million. This was Happen’s first full quarter under the new name, and the call doubled as a case study for the impact of a rebrand. ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, mark your calendars: The Customer Acquisition Summit For Lending (Affiliate Edition) April 7th & 8th, 2027. You won't want to miss it. ***** 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. You can find the report mentioned on today's show here: https://resources.fintelconnect.com/2026-ai-search-visibility-for-financial-services?utm_campaign=52297579-2026%20LLM%20Report&utm_source=thefreetoaster&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=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=oct New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com
- 5 days ago50 min
E060 - Fewer Clicks, Higher Stakes: How AI is Changing Search in Lending, With Stephanie Briggs of Experian
Organic search traffic to top affiliate finance sites is down 65% since August 2024. Banks and card issuers are only down 3%. Stephanie Briggs says that second number is the scarier one. Stephanie leads organic growth at Experian. She joins Carlos to unpack the data from her recent talk at the Affiliate Marketing Summit for Lenders. People haven’t stopped searching. AI now collapses 5 searches into 1 answer, so you get one shot to win the customer. In this episode Why Experian’s AI referral visits took off in late 2025 The 65% vs 3% split, and why flat traffic means banks missed SEO entirely NerdWallet’s SEO drop and the costly shift to paid search What Stephanie would do if she ran NerdWallet’s marketing LLM mentions vs citations, and how to track them How to assess AEO/GEO vendors A 12-month plan to reboot a lender’s content program How to pitch content investments to leadership Her story about her grandfather’s rural Minnesota bank “If you look for directly attributable traffic, you’re gonna miss the boat, just like a lot of brands did on YouTube.” ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher? If so, mark your calendars. Following the success of our Summit in San Francisco on September 23rd, The Free Toaster team is coming back with an NYC Edition. The Customer Acquisition Summit for Lending (Affiliate Edition) April 7-8th, 2027. You won't want to miss it. ***** 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=nov 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. You can find the report mentioned on today's show here: https://resources.fintelconnect.com/2026-ai-search-visibility-for-financial-services?utm_campaign=52297579-2026%20LLM%20Report&utm_source=thefreetoaster&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=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
- 1 weeks ago9 min
News Pod #35 - 5 Things Marketers Should Draw From Capital One’s Q3 Earnings Report
Carlos expands on coverage from this week's Newsletter: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/5-things-marketers-should-draw-from-5c8 ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, mark your calendars. Following the success of our Summit in San Francisco on September 23rd, The Free Toaster team is coming back with an NYC Edition. April 7th, 2027. You won't want to miss it. ***** 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! New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.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. You can find the report mentioned on today's show here: https://resources.fintelconnect.com/2026-ai-search-visibility-for-financial-services?utm_campaign=52297579-2026%20LLM%20Report&utm_source=thefreetoaster&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=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=oct
- 2 weeks ago18 min
News Pod#34 - Inside The LightStream Sale: The Math Behind Carlyle’s $7.2B deal with Gaurav Agarwal, former Chief Credit Officer at Happy Money
Truist is selling LightStream’s personal loan book to Carlyle and has stopped taking new applications. Nick and Carlos bring in Gaurav Agarwal, former Chief Credit Officer at Happy Money, to discuss the transaction. In this episode LightStream’s history How Gaurav estimates the deal math: about 93.5 cents on the dollar for a $7.7B book, 3% to 3.5% annual losses, and a 2-year duration Why that comes out to roughly a 10% unlevered return before servicing, and why that’s a rich deal for Carlyle Why Truist wanted out: freeing up about $850M in CET1 capital for fee-generating businesses Who else probably bid, and why speed and relationships mattered What lenders and publishers in personal loans should take from the deal Why rising rates matter more than this sale for credit boxes How much of the $50K to $100K super prime segment LightStream likely held Check out the Newsletter Edition: https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/transunion-puts-bankrates-lender ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, mark your calendars. Following the success of our Summit in San Francisco on September 23rd, The Free Toaster team is coming back with an NYC Edition. April 7th, 2027. You won't want to miss it. ***** 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. You can find the report mentioned on today's show here: https://resources.fintelconnect.com/2026-ai-search-visibility-for-financial-services?utm_campaign=52297579-2026%20LLM%20Report&utm_source=thefreetoaster&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=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=oct New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com
- 3 weeks ago19 min
News Pod #33 - Experian Launches a Cash Flow Bureau, Plus Other News From This Week
Carlos & Nick discuss Experian's launch of a cash flow bureau. Expanding on coverage from this week's Newsletter (Oct 14 2026). https://www.thefreetoaster.com/p/experian-launches-a-cash-flow-bureau ***** Are you an affiliate marketing leader at a consumer lender or publisher!? If so, mark your calendars. Following the success of our Summit in San Francisco on September 23rd, The Free Toaster team is coming back with an NYC Edition. April 7th, 2027. You won't want to miss it. ***** 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=oct New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com
- Oct 2, 202635 min
E059 - Allstate's TCPA Win, the AI Ad Problem, and LinkedIn Riffing - With John Henson From Henson Legal
John Henson of Henson Legal is back for his 2nd time on The Free Toaster Podcast. We start with a recent 7th Circuit TCPA case. 2 Allstate agents hired a live-transfer vendor, Transfer Kings, that wasn't on Allstate's approved list. When the lawsuit landed, Allstate investigated, confirmed the vendor was never approved, and barred every agency from using it. That quick response is what kept Allstate from being held vicariously liable. Then we get into "quantum finance," where you tell an LLM what you need and the loan or card just shows up. John explains why lenders are hesitant to advertise inside ChatGPT and Claude, and why it feels a lot like the YouTube brand safety mess from years ago. We close on growth. John breaks down how his practice wins clients and why he thinks showing up in AI search is mostly old-school SEO. In this episode PART 1 How Allstate avoided ratifying a vendor's bad calls What to ask a downstream partner after a TCPA suit lands Why the death of the keyword makes generative ads risky for lenders Stale offers and brand safety in LLM answers PART 2 John's growing AI voice practice (15 platform clients and counting) Why a sharper LinkedIn headline beat chasing viral posts Clients who found John through ChatGPT and Claude ***** 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. ****** Support Our Content By Supporting 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=aug New Market Growth (Carlos’ agency) NMG focuses on building affiliate marketing programs for consumer lenders. www.newmarketgrowth.com
- Sep 23, 202632 min
E058 - Cash Flow Data at The Marketing Stage - How Engine by Gen & Prism Data Are Helping Marketers Unlock Cash Flow Underwriting
Today we sit with James Brandon, Head Of Product at Prism Data and David Friermor, Director Of Product Management at Engine by Gen. Together, they share their newly announced product partnership that helps lenders access cash flow underwriting data at the marketing stage. If you were at The Affiliate Marketing Summit for Lenders and Publishers in SF on September 23rd, 2026, you heard the announcement live. In today's episode, you'll get an inside look at how it works from the leaders who built it.
- Aug 28, 20266 min
Updates on the Summit in SF on Sept 23rd: Speakers, Topics, Other Logistics
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
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