Credyty: a fintech brand strategy with acquisition costs 40% below the category

Credyty is a fintech that specializes in student loans. DataLab worked with it from its first year of operations, with a full brand strategy and improvements to its digital presence. In this category, borrowing to pay for school is a considered decision made after comparing options, so brand trust matters from the very first touchpoint. For a fintech just getting started, every point of market share is won against brands students already know.

A new brand had to earn students' trust against lenders already in the category, and grow without the cost of acquiring each customer eating into the business. The challenge came with three clear measures from day one: market share, number of loans granted and acquisition cost against the category.

If the brand clearly explains what it offers and who it's for, its digital presence attracts better-fit applications and acquisition cost drops below the category average. A clear brand also filters: it draws in people who qualify and avoids spending on applications that go nowhere.

In its first year of operations, Credyty grew its market share 30% and granted 35,000+ student loans. Its customer acquisition cost came in 40% below other brands in the category. According to figures published in 2021, Credyty was already among the three most important lenders for people seeking student loans. How we read it: all three metrics moved in the same direction in the same year. Growing volume while lowering cost per customer is the sign that the brand is doing part of the selling.

In lending, the brand is also an acquisition channel: when trust arrives before the ad, every customer costs less. And benchmarking CAC against the category, not just against last month, tells you whether the strategy is really working. If your fintech is in its first year, decide on day one what you'll benchmark your acquisition cost against.