The Future of Lending and The New Growth Playbook for Acquiring Customer at Scale
Dhanush Raja Lakshmanmurthy — CMO at Qred
Customer acquisition in B2B banking faces rising costs and complexity due to channel proliferation, digital noise, and privacy regulations like GDPR disrupting cookie-based measurement. User journeys now form loops of continuous exposure and trigger-driven evaluation, requiring persistent brand presence and personalized engagement using first- and second-party data. AI enhances segmentation, ad creation, and predictive models of winability, eligibility, and lifetime value, optimizing budget allocation. Advanced measurement via media mix modeling enables full-funnel, cross-channel incrementality assessment even with limited data, crucial for fintech and B2B growth strategies.
"To acquire customers at scale in today's noisy digital world, leverage the gold mine of your own data, embrace AI for personalization, and measure impact across the full funnel to grow smartly and efficiently."
Summary
- Customer acquisition in banking is costly and complex due to multiple channels and data privacy changes disrupting traditional funnels. - User journeys are non-linear loops of continuous exposure, requiring constant brand engagement until a trigger leads to purchase. - Effective acquisition hinges on leveraging first-party data, second-party data, and owned media, with AI enabling scalable personalization. - AI enhances targeting through modeling winability, eligibility, and lifetime value to optimize acquisition spend efficiently. - Modern measurement demands full-funnel, cross-channel approaches like media mix modeling to accurately evaluate marketing impact and incrementality.
Article
Banking expert reveals AI-driven roadmap for customer acquisition at Nordic Fintech Summit
Traditional acquisition models "broken" says Cred CMO as industry grapples with soaring costs and privacy changes
At last week's Nordic Fintech Summit in Helsinki, Dhanush Raja Lakshmanmurthy, Chief Marketing Officer of B2B bank Cred, delivered a compelling analysis of how financial institutions must transform their approach to customer acquisition in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
Speaking to a packed audience of industry leaders, Lakshmanmurthy challenged conventional wisdom around customer acquisition, declaring that "the linearity of the user journey is broken" and presenting a new framework for growth that leverages data, AI and advanced measurement techniques.
The death of the linear funnel
Lakshmanmurthy began by addressing the elephant in the room – the dramatic rise in customer acquisition costs that has plagued the financial sector.
"If you speak to your CMOs or CFOs, you'll see that customer acquisition costs have doubled or quadrupled. It's become crazy expensive," he explained, attributing this inflation to channel proliferation, increasing digital noise, and stringent privacy regulations like GDPR that have disrupted traditional cookie-based tracking.
According to Lakshmanmurthy, the conventional marketing funnel has collapsed, replaced by what he described as a "continuous loop" of exposure, exploration and evaluation that can span anywhere from days to years before conversion occurs.
"As a marketer, I have to keep reaching out, showing what I do, why my brand is better than ten others," he said. "Eventually, another trigger brings you into the purchase experience."
First-party data: "the gold mine"
Central to Lakshmanmurthy's vision was the strategic use of first-party data, which he described as "a gold mine that must be nurtured, segmented, and personalized at scale."
Drawing from Cred's experience as one of the fastest-growing banks in the Nordic region for five consecutive years, he outlined how successful institutions are stitching together fragmented data from various touchpoints – app usage, ad interactions, CRM records, and website behavior – to create comprehensive customer profiles.
"Before using AI, you need to stitch your data together," Lakshmanmurthy emphasized. "Data is fragmented... Stitching this together is where segmentation and data engineering come into play."
AI transforms acquisition economics
The most forward-looking segment of Lakshmanmurthy's presentation focused on how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing customer acquisition through predictive modeling.
"AI is revolutionizing acquisition with models around 'winability' and 'eligibility,'" he explained. "If you know you can win over a person, and they are eligible, and you know their lifetime value, you know how much you can pay to pursue them – or not, if they aren't valuable."
This approach represents a fundamental shift in acquisition strategy, moving from broad-based campaigns to highly targeted initiatives informed by AI-driven propensity models. The technology is also streamlining content creation, with Lakshmanmurthy noting that "it's easy to create ads, websites, dynamic pages, and even copywriting is easier now."
The measurement revolution
Perhaps most significantly, Lakshmanmurthy highlighted how measurement methodologies must evolve beyond traditional metrics like impressions and clicks.
"With so much data and investment, if you can't measure, it's almost like it didn't happen," he observed.
He particularly championed Media Mix Modeling (MMM), describing it as essential for assessing true marketing effectiveness in environments with limited data – a common challenge for fintech companies and B2B banks in the Nordic region.
"The real evolution is full-funnel, cross-channel measurement – where we are today and what we'll need tomorrow," he said, noting that even with relatively small customer bases, these advanced modeling techniques can help determine the true incremental value of marketing investments.
The enduring importance of brand
Despite his emphasis on data and technology, Lakshmanmurthy concluded by reaffirming the fundamental importance of brand building in the acquisition process.
"One thing remains constant: the 'wheel of fortune' of brand building," he said. "You need to build your brand to establish trust, which helps conversion, which brings in more data and boosts performance, and the loop continues."
As financial institutions continue to navigate rising acquisition costs and evolving consumer behaviors, Lakshmanmurthy's insights offered a roadmap for sustainable growth that balances technological innovation with enduring marketing principles – a message that resonated strongly with attendees of the Nordic Fintech Summit.
Part of Nordic Fintech Summit