Lending Market 2024. Analysis and trends

The lending market is susceptible to the economic situation in the country and worldwide. Today, the financial situation is unstable. Markets are feverish, and wars in different parts of the world require more funds. As a consequence, unemployment rises. But this is a positive trend for the credit market.

Lending market trends

Last week, Oleksandr Boyko, CEO of SalesDoubler, discussed the lending market at a forum and gave an interview to Finance.ua, a major publishing house. He discussed loans and the prospects for developing this area in detail.

The traffic dynamics for half the year 2024 are pretty stable and do not fall below the mark of 1,500,000 conversions. There was growth in March, and then the indicators returned to January-February.

We see the same trends with the CR indicator. There was an increase in March, and everything returned to the winter indicators.

 However, these are pretty good results that show that the market is trying to stabilize in these challenging conditions.

Factors affecting the lending market

Lending is a rather sensitive area that feels the fluctuations of any factors occurring inside and outside the country. These factors can include economic, political, or legislative changes. Everything depends on people’s stability and confidence in the future, which today is undermined by the war and exchange rate hikes, at least. 

All factors affecting the lending market 2024 can be conditionally divided into legal and socio-political.

Legal factors

Legal influences include Resolution 100 and other regulations governing consumer lending and the activities of PDLs (microfinance organizations). Today, the interest rate cannot exceed 1 percent, whereas before, it was unlimited. These limits significantly reduce the income of PDL. Also, it is now necessary to be very careful and detailed in communicating information to a prospective lead in order not to let down the advertiser by promising something that the PDL does not offer and, on the other hand, not to frame the client by not disclosing all the terms and conditions of the loan.

Social and political factors

Here, everything is much more complicated. Because of the full-scale war in Ukraine, part of the territory is occupied, and quite a sizeable part has gone abroad, so the market has lost millions of potential credit consumers. Also, one of the critical factors is mobilization. Many men are at war, so, as you understand, they are not in the mood for loans. So, the customer portrait has changed because a larger percentage of customers are women. 

Due to russia’s constant shelling of Ukrainian power facilities, the power structure throughout the country has been damaged. The lack of power supply has affected small businesses because it has become unprofitable to run a generator, for example, for cafes or small shops that took loans from PDLs to buy specific equipment or to start a business in general. Many people simply closed their businesses, and if they were employed, they lost their jobs or part of their wages. 

People’s priorities have changed. If earlier it was pretty common practice to buy an expensive smartphone on credit, now people think and weigh this decision more seriously, realizing that there is no stability and that it is necessary to save resources, as they say, for a ‘rainy day’. 

On the other hand, this pushes people to micro-loans to survive and lead an everyday existence in difficult conditions and a total economic crisis. Therefore, it is worth looking at the trends in detail and understanding where the market will move. 

Changes in the monetization approach

Today, customer acquisition is more expensive when the audience stays the same. It is important to carefully select and segment the target audience, considering all the factors we described in the last section. It all depends on the territory and the loan amount the PDL gives out. This information will help you understand what kind of target audience you are interested in and what problem of the future lead you have to solve. This depends on the creative, which should induce the client to visit your comparison site or the advertiser’s site. 

The quality of communication is very important. Today, because of changes in certain regulations, the affiliate must communicate clearly, spelling out all the nuances and conditions for credit. This is important for both the advertiser and the client. 

Of course, an important point is adapting to the country’s realities. In times of war, you must realise the importance of correctly presenting information and motivating the client to buy. This applies to almost all areas, especially if we are talking about the Ukrainian consumer. Speculating on the theme of war is a bad idea, and one should be very careful about jokes in creatives not to cause negativity and, as a consequence, not to lose profit. 

Artificial intelligence has become one of the most influential aides in creating visual and textual content. We have covered this topic in detail in the article ‘Artificial Intelligence helps affiliates’, but it is worth checking and watching what it does because it can both help and harm, making mistakes or misunderstanding the nuances. It is worth it to use it as an assistant, not a full-fledged ‘team member’.

Key principles of attracting customers to the lending market

For an affiliate, attracting customers is the most important thing. His earnings depend on it. Therefore, one should clearly understand the options and principles.

Know your customer

You need to clearly understand your target audience’s needs, interests and behavior. Understand where you can find customers. In which social networks, search engines, or other platforms future leads spend more time. Another factor is the customer’s problem. You need to understand what problem your offer can solve clearly. In general, it is worth answering three key questions:

• Who is your lead?
• Where do you look for your lead?
• What problem are you solving? 

Use statistics

Analytics will help you understand which activities are most useful and effective. Which creatives and connections work? Based on the tests before launching an advertising campaign, develop new marketing strategies that have worked and make money.

Keeping up to date with trends and changes in the market

In the lending market, the key is to keep up with legal and economic changes in the GEO where you plan to drive traffic. This will change the content of the creative and the message you deliver to future leads. To interest the client and not screw the advertiser, you should adhere to all the terms and conditions that are prescribed in the affiliate program. Go to your personal account and choose your affiliate program.

Develop customer interaction

Constantly work on improving customer interactions to build strong and lasting relationships and engage customers through social media, email newsletters and other communication channels. Work on connections and use powerful tools to help you succeed quickly and conveniently. You can make money in any vertical if you’ve answered the top three questions.

What will happen to the product?

As we have already noted, the war is still going on and has an impact on all spheres of life in the country. Therefore, you have to think logically and understand the changes. These principles would not work under martial law if you drove traffic to microcredit organizations before the war. We have already discussed the message and the change in rhetoric and creatives. There was a decrease in the audience and an increase in the female segment, but let’s go into more detail.

New trends

Millions of people have traveled abroad and are trying to establish their lives there. Some people got a job there, and some live on subsidies from the European Union. Many people will not take loans from Ukrainian PDLs because being abroad and having received a certain amount of money, they can lose European aid. EU countries set rather strict conditions for refugees. If a person has labeled himself as a displaced person and does not receive assistance, then most likely, their financial situation does not require microloans. Therefore, there is a smaller audience and, as we have already mentioned, attracting clients has become more expensive.

In turn, we should not forget overdrafts – credit lines from microfinance companies and loans for the military. Nowadays, the military receives quite large salaries. Still, they also spend large sums on improving equipment and weapons for their safety and convenience, which means that the costs are increasing and they sometimes need credit. Many companies are introducing incentives for loans to military personnel, which can attract potential leads – all the nuances you can find in the partner program card on the SalesDoubler platform.

Steps to minimize the impact of change

SalesDoubler constantly communicates with partners to keep affiliates informed through managers and customer support, communicating changes and nuances of PDLs. The company also closely monitors eCPC and CR metrics for a general understanding of trends and minimal forecasting, although forecasting is tricky today due to total instability and very rapid changes in the economy.

SalesDoubler constantly advises affiliates on the best strategies to promote products and services. It continually tells you about new affiliate programs that are worth pouring traffic into.

The main traffic channels

In general, it’s worth checking out different opportunities and metrics for each traffic channel, but some work best for the credit market.

• Contextual advertising
• Social media: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn 
• Email marketing via email
• SEO
• Mobile apps

Mobile apps are the difference in the Ukrainian credit market. In other countries, apps work less efficiently, and today many who have gone abroad experience a certain inconvenience. Almost every action with a bank in the EU has to be solved by physical presence. This is a speciality of the Ukrainian region, so it is worth taking advantage of it and remembering to point it out in creatives.

Innovative trends in the lending market

With the development of technology, affiliates’ work is becoming increasingly convenient and faster. SalesDoubler has long been implementing and improving tools to pour traffic more comfortably, and with the advent of artificial intelligence, it has become even easier. However, as we’ve said before, you must be picky about the AI’s responses. It only sometimes writes everything appropriately and get it right. 

More and more resources are emerging for analytics and testing. SalesDoubler was also stepping up to the plate and became a certified Google Click Tracker in 2023, which helps you see and work with analytics in real-time.

Lending market: Conclusions

The credit market in 2024 shows significant dependence on the economic situation both nationally and globally. Global instability, wars, high unemployment, and economic challenges affect the sector. However, the loan demand remains stable, indicating that the market is trying to adapt to the new conditions. 

The main factors affecting the market can be categorized into legal and social-political. Legal changes include new regulations that limit interest rates and reduce microfinance organizations’ revenues. Socio-political factors such as war, mobilization, and changes in the population’s priorities also significantly affect the market. The decreasing number of potential clients and changes in the consumer profile are forcing the adaptation of client engagement strategies.

 Despite the challenges, innovative approaches and careful data analysis help keep the lending market stable.

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