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Great breakdown. I think it is tempting for brands to see this "success" from fintechs and want to push budget into a big giveaway without considering the user funnel or larger conversion/revenue goals a brand may have.

It is all about CAC for these fintechs. The initial user signup is conversion one, but also the conversion into a card holder, or the ultimate conversion: using that fintech service as your primary or secondary bank.

These campaigns also seem to work really well for apps with a network effect. Cash App and Venmo can get more out of these because they already have a base of users and awareness. This provides a level of trust. Helps customers feel comfortable/confident when sharing the giveaway with their connections.

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Totally, agree with this! At the best, it is fairly low CAC if one person from this ends up using a debit card or picks up a fairly regular habit. With active users, they also lose nothing by them spreading the word. My personal preference wouldn't have been an umbrella approach, but I get why it does work.

I considered getting more into the weeds of fintech vs. non-fintech and why these type of giveaways work in certain industries but it then detoured a bit from incentive psychology and turned into rambling ha. But I think that distinction is important!

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