The challenge
Credit Sesame gives consumers free access to tools for understanding and managing their credit, plus personalized recommendations for products like loans and credit cards. Growing the platform meant finding consumers with a genuine interest in improving their finances, not just people curious enough to click once and move on.
Credit Sesame needed an acquisition partner that could reach those audiences at real scale, drive new member sign-ups consistently, and support downstream engagement with relevant financial products over time, all while keeping ROI firmly positive. Without that combination, the brand risked paying for traffic that never translated into engaged, long-term members.
The solution
We launched a performance-based customer acquisition campaign across our owned and operated media portfolio, including The Smart Wallet, a content environment built around helping consumers make better financial decisions.
Using first-party consumer data, we identified audiences already showing real interest in credit management and related financial products, rather than relying on broad demographic assumptions. That gave Credit Sesame a way to reach consumers whose interests lined up naturally with the platform's value proposition, so sign-ups felt like a logical next step rather than an unexpected ask.
As the campaign scaled, we monitored performance closely day to day and adjusted traffic based on Credit Sesame's needs and KPIs, pulling back where results lagged and pushing harder where they didn't. We also shared performance insights and optimization recommendations openly throughout the partnership, giving the client ongoing visibility into which audiences and approaches were actually driving results.
Why it worked
The audience and environment were naturally aligned. Consumers engaging with financial content across our properties were already thinking about their money, making Credit Sesame a relevant next step rather than an unrelated offer. First-party insights helped us focus acquisition on consumers more likely to sign up and engage with additional products. And our ability to adjust traffic fast gave Credit Sesame more control over volume as needs changed.
The result
We drove more than 130,000 new mobile web users in 2019 and lifted Credit Sesame's overall customer sign-up volume by more than 20%. The campaign gave Credit Sesame a scalable, repeatable source of new members, while preserving the performance-based model and flexibility the team needed to manage acquisition against its KPIs over the long run.
