Fintech marketing: what it is, what works and how to choose an agency

What is fintech marketing?

Fintech marketing covers positioning, demand generation, conversion and retention for firms that sell financial products through software. That includes consumer products such as a trading app, neobank, crypto exchange or prop firm, and business products such as a broker platform, a payments gateway, a KYC provider or a liquidity bridge. Many fintechs are both at once. A white-label platform is sold to a broker, who then sells it on to retail traders.

Traffic and sign-ups are only the start. The outcome that matters is an activated customer: a verified account that has deposited, placed a first trade, funded a challenge or processed a first payment. Marketing that ignores that last step tends to look good in a dashboard and poor in the finance report.

Why is fintech marketing different?

Fintech marketing is different because regulation, trust, long research cycles and two-sided business models all shape what you can say and where you say it.

Regulation shapes every message

In most markets, any message that invites someone to engage in financial activity is a regulated promotion. In the UK, the FCA sets the rules, and its guidance on financial promotions on social media shows how far they reach. In the EU, national regulators apply the marketing rules of MiFID II. Crypto firms also face MiCA.

In the US, several bodies have a say, depending on the product. The SEC has a marketing rule for investment advisers. FINRA Rule 2210 covers broker-dealer communications, and the CFTC and NFA oversee futures. In broad terms, the rules require claims that are fair, clear and not misleading, plus prominent risk warnings. Some markets also require approval by an authorised firm before anything is published, so compliance review becomes a standing part of production.

Trust comes before conversion

People are wary of handing money to a brand they do not know, so they look for regulation, reviews, independent comparisons and signs that the company will still be around next year. Proof carries the weight. Fintech marketing spends more effort on it than most sectors do: licences, security practices, clear fees, verifiable data and a presence on third-party sites.

Long, research-heavy consideration

A trader choosing a broker or prop firm compares spreads, platforms, payout rules and withdrawals over several sessions and sources. A bank choosing infrastructure brings in procurement, security and legal teams. That takes months. In both cases, last-click attribution undervalues the content and placements that shaped the shortlist.

Two-sided and B2B2C models

Many fintechs market to two audiences: the institutions that distribute the product and the end users who use it. A platform provider needs brokers to sign up, and it also needs those brokers' traders to like the product enough to stay. Messages, channels and proof differ for each side, and the plan has to serve both.

Which channels work for fintech marketing?

Search, comparison platforms, content and partner channels do most of the work, though no single channel carries a fintech brand. The mix below is common for trading, investing and payments firms, and its weighting depends on whether you sell to consumers, businesses or both.

For a deeper look at building the plan around these channels, see our guide to fintech marketing strategy. For the channel that compounds most over time, read fintech content marketing. If you sell to institutions, fintech B2B marketing covers buying committees and account-based work. Fintech social media marketing covers platforms, ad policies and finfluencer rules.

Where do trading and payments customers make decisions?

Traders decide on comparison pages, in communities and through educational content, while payments buyers decide through search, directories, referrals and partners. Few people pick a broker, prop firm or crypto platform from a single ad. They search for comparisons, read reviews, check regulation and ask in communities. Only then do they open an account. The brands that win are present, accurately, at each of those points.

• Comparison pages and reviews where traders weigh spreads, fees, platforms, payout rules and regulation side by side.
• Communities on Discord, Telegram, Reddit and YouTube where traders ask each other what they actually use.
• Competitions and challenges that let traders try a product with low commitment.
• Educational content that answers the questions traders search for before they choose.

Payments fintechs follow a different path. Merchants and platforms choosing a payments provider compare pricing, supported methods, settlement times, sector risk appetite and integration effort. High-risk sectors such as trading and crypto can struggle to find providers at all, so a provider that clearly states which sectors and regions it supports can win attention simply by being explicit. Most of that demand is B2B, and it comes through search, directories, referrals and integration partners.

Sector playbooks apply here too. Brokers will find more in forex marketing and crypto brands in crypto advertising, while partner-led growth is covered in our guide to introducing brokers and engagement campaigns in trading competitions.

What does a fintech marketing agency do?

A fintech marketing agency plans, produces and runs marketing for financial technology firms. The term covers several business models, though, and it pays to know which one you are buying.

• Full-service fintech marketing agencies plan strategy, produce content, run paid media and report results, and they work best when you need capacity across many channels at once.
• Specialist agencies focus on one discipline, such as SEO, paid social, PR or content, with a financial services specialism.
• Fintech digital marketing agencies focus on performance channels: search, paid social, programmatic and conversion work.
• Media partners and publishers own audiences and placements, such as comparison sites, financial media and communities, so you buy access to people already in market instead of agency hours.
• Affiliate and partner networks pay out on results, while you carry the compliance responsibility for how partners promote you.

Many fintechs combine an agency for strategy and production with media partners for distribution. What matters is that someone owns the whole funnel, and that every party works from the same definition of a good customer.

How do you choose a fintech marketing agency?

Choose a fintech marketing agency by testing it in the pitch on regulation, sector experience, measurement and transparency. Strong partners answer the questions below with specifics. Weak ones answer with general promises.

1. Regulatory fluency. Ask how they handle financial promotion rules in your markets, who reviews copy and how they apply risk warnings across formats.
2. Sector experience. Payments, trading, lending and crypto have different audiences and rules. Ask for examples you can check.
3. Outcome-based measurement. They should report on funded accounts, activation and cost per acquired customer. Clicks and leads alone tell you little.
4. Channel honesty. Ask which channels they would not recommend for you, and why. A partner who recommends everything is selling capacity.
5. Transparency. Check how they disclose paid placements, how they source data and who owns accounts, creative and data when the contract ends.
6. Compliance workflow. Ask how long a typical review loop takes and how they keep momentum without cutting corners.
7. Localisation. For multi-market brands, ask whether they write content natively for each language and market or simply translate it.

Where Memento Media Network fits

Memento Media Network fits at the comparison stage for trading brands and at the directory stage for B2B providers. It is a media-technology company focused on trading. It runs broker, prop firm, crypto and stock platform comparisons and reviews, financial media and trader competitions in more than ten languages, with one site per market and language.

For trading and investing fintechs, that means placement where traders compare and decide, verified and timestamped firm data, branded trading competitions and a live partners dashboard showing campaign results. For providers selling to brokers and prop firms, an industry B2B directory connects them with buyers.

Partnerships are disclosed, we document how we collect and verify data, and we scope campaigns around measurable outcomes. We are not a broker and do not give financial advice. More background is on the about page.

How do you measure fintech marketing?

Measure fintech marketing with a small set of metrics that link spend to revenue, tracked by channel and market.

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) per funded or activated customer.
• Activation rate: the share of sign-ups that complete KYC and make a first deposit, trade or payment.
• Time to activation, which shows where onboarding friction sits.
• Retention and revenue per customer over 30, 90 and 180 days, so cheap but poor traffic shows up.
• Pipeline and win rate for B2B, with influence on deals tracked alongside first touch.

Common mistakes

• Optimising for sign-ups. Cheap sign-ups that never finish KYC or deposit swell the numbers and hide what each real customer costs.
• Treating compliance as a final hurdle. Campaigns stall for weeks when review is left to the end, so build it into briefs and templates from the start. Then it stops being a hurdle.
• Translating instead of localising. Rules, payment methods, trusted platforms and even the questions traders ask differ by market.
• Ignoring third-party sites. If your fees or licence details are wrong on comparison pages and directories, buyers trust those pages over your own site.
• Spreading budget too thin. Running eight channels badly tends to lose to running three well.
• Attributing everything to the last click. Comparison visits, reviews and content shape the shortlist long before the final branded search.

If you are weighing a fintech marketing agency against a media partner, or want to reach traders at the comparison stage or buyers through the B2B directory, get in touch.