Fintech moves fast. But here at Fintech Takes, Alex Johnson and his rotating panel of guests move faster so that you can stay on top of the latest and greatest news in the industry without breaking a sweat.
Welcome to Fintech Takes—the place where fintech’s biggest nerds come to sit back, relax, and completely geek out.
Join Alex and a lineup of fintech’s brightest minds as they dissect what’s happening in fintech and banking.
Each week, Alex and his guests recap the most interesting developments in fintech and explore the industry’s most pressing questions, diving headfirst into the intricate workings of some of the industry’s most ground-breaking business models and unpacking the emerging players that promise to shape fintech’s future.
From riveting conversations with fintech’s most relevant operators to comprehensive recaps of the month's most compelling news stories and in-depth analyses of the latest regulatory developments, Fintech Takes is your one-stop-shop for navigating the fintech universe.
Subscribe now to join fintech’s nerdiest podcast around!
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Fintech moves fast. But here at Fintech Takes, Alex Johnson and his rotating panel of guests move faster so that you can stay on top of the latest and greatest news in the industry without breaking a sweat.
Welcome to Fintech Takes—the place where fintech’s biggest nerds come to sit back, relax, and completely geek out.
Join Alex and a lineup of fintech’s brightest minds as they dissect what’s happening in fintech and banking.
Each week, Alex and his guests recap the most interesting developments in fintech and explore the industry’s most pressing questions, diving headfirst into the intricate workings of some of the industry’s most ground-breaking business models and unpacking the emerging players that promise to shape fintech’s future.
From riveting conversations with fintech’s most relevant operators to comprehensive recaps of the month's most compelling news stories and in-depth analyses of the latest regulatory developments, Fintech Takes is your one-stop-shop for navigating the fintech universe.
Subscribe now to join fintech’s nerdiest podcast around!
Facing Credit: When AI Broke the Marketing Machine
Fintech Takes
1 hour 14 minutes
1 month ago
Facing Credit: When AI Broke the Marketing Machine
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 of how you acquire customers and what it costs to reach them. And right now, that system is in flux.
AI has upended the old rules of digital acquisition. Google’s “Helpful Content” update triggered what Carlos describes in his writing as the “SEO Apocalypse”, a collapse that’s wiping out 50–90% of organic traffic and forcing publishers, affiliates, and lenders to rewrite their playbooks. The rise of AI-generated search results and zero-click answers means the economics of attention have changed for good.
Carlos and I dig into:
How AI is breaking traditional digital marketing and reshaping lender acquisition costs
What Google’s updates mean for SEO, SEM, and the affiliate ecosystem
How creators like My Rich BFF and MrBeast are becoming the new distribution channels for lenders
And what “Generative Engine Optimization” (GEO) might mean for the next phase of search
Tune in for Carlos’s take on how lenders, publishers, and fintechs can survive the SEO extinction event (and what it’ll take to win attention in the AI age).
Plus, we reference these three Free Toaster pieces throughout the conversation; consider them required reading:
The SEO Apocalypse Has Arrived
How New Balance's CMO Turned Around A 15-Year Decline
Reddit Isn't an Affiliate Channel
This episode was brought to you by Marqeta. Don’t sacrifice agility for stability. With Marqeta, launch payments experiences that perform at scale and flex with your business. Learn more at https://marqeta.com/ftt
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Follow Carlos Caro:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-carlos-caro/
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Fintech Takes
Fintech moves fast. But here at Fintech Takes, Alex Johnson and his rotating panel of guests move faster so that you can stay on top of the latest and greatest news in the industry without breaking a sweat.
Welcome to Fintech Takes—the place where fintech’s biggest nerds come to sit back, relax, and completely geek out.
Join Alex and a lineup of fintech’s brightest minds as they dissect what’s happening in fintech and banking.
Each week, Alex and his guests recap the most interesting developments in fintech and explore the industry’s most pressing questions, diving headfirst into the intricate workings of some of the industry’s most ground-breaking business models and unpacking the emerging players that promise to shape fintech’s future.
From riveting conversations with fintech’s most relevant operators to comprehensive recaps of the month's most compelling news stories and in-depth analyses of the latest regulatory developments, Fintech Takes is your one-stop-shop for navigating the fintech universe.
Subscribe now to join fintech’s nerdiest podcast around!
