Financial marketers are entering a period where AI-driven discovery, changing consumer behavior and pressure to prove acquisition economics are reshaping how financial products reach customers. The Financial Affiliate Marketing Forum (FAMF) 2026 is putting those issues at the center of its second annual event, with Don Batsford, Head of Industry at Google, announced as the keynote speaker.

The Financial Affiliate Marketing Forum (FAMF), organized in partnership with Fintel Connect, will return to Toronto on October 6, 2026, bringing together financial institutions, fintech companies, affiliates, publishers, agencies and media organizations focused on customer acquisition and performance marketing.

Batsford will deliver the keynote, “Must-Know 2026–2027 Signals in Financial Growth Marketing: What's Changing and Why.” The session is expected to examine how shifts in consumer behavior, technology and digital discovery are changing the way financial brands attract and convert customers.

The choice of a Google executive as the headline speaker is notable because financial product discovery is increasingly taking place across a fragmented digital journey. Consumers may begin with traditional search, move to comparison websites, encounter creator content or increasingly use AI-powered interfaces to research products before reaching a financial institution.

That shift creates a measurement problem for marketers. Affiliate programs have traditionally relied heavily on metrics such as cost per acquisition (CPA), clicks and conversions. But as discovery becomes less linear, financial brands are under pressure to understand the broader contribution of content, affiliates, publishers and other acquisition channels.

FAMF 2026 is designed around that transition. The one-day event will feature speakers from organizations including Google, American Express, NerdWallet, KOHO, Money Group and goeasy, with sessions addressing customer acquisition, affiliate marketing, AI-driven discovery and marketing performance.

One of the central topics will be how AI is changing consumer discovery and financial marketing. Generative AI systems can increasingly summarize financial products, answer questions and influence which brands consumers investigate. For marketers, that creates a new layer of visibility beyond conventional search engine rankings.

The change is particularly relevant to financial services because consumers often research complex products before making a decision. Credit cards, loans, insurance, investing platforms and banking products can involve multiple comparison points, making educational content and third-party recommendations an important part of the acquisition funnel.

Affiliate marketing therefore sits at an interesting intersection between content, advertising and performance marketing. Publishers and affiliates can introduce consumers to financial products while providing measurable acquisition paths for brands. Yet financial marketing also carries significant regulatory and compliance considerations, making content governance increasingly important as programs scale.

FAMF's agenda reflects those competing priorities. Sessions will explore how financial companies can build affiliate strategies and payout models that support growth, prove return on investment beyond CPA and scale acquisition without losing control over content compliance.

The emphasis on ROI beyond CPA is particularly relevant as marketing teams attempt to understand the quality and lifetime value of customers acquired through different channels. A lower-cost acquisition is not necessarily the most valuable if the resulting customer has weaker retention, lower product adoption or limited lifetime value.

The forum will also focus on real campaign experiences, including what worked, what failed and what marketing teams learned. That practical emphasis differentiates the event from conferences focused primarily on high-level trends.

Fintel Connect CEO Nicky Senyard said the event is intended to create a forum for marketers dealing with rapidly changing customer discovery and acquisition strategies.

The event will also allocate 100 additional minutes to networking compared with the previous format. Attendance is capped at 200 participants, positioning FAMF as a relatively small industry gathering rather than a large-scale marketing conference.

For financial marketers, the timing is significant. AI is changing how consumers discover information, while established acquisition channels such as search, affiliate publishing and paid media are becoming increasingly interconnected. At the same time, financial brands need to demonstrate that marketing investment is producing sustainable customer value while maintaining compliance.

The combination makes affiliate marketing less of a standalone performance channel and more of a component within a broader financial growth marketing ecosystem.

Market Landscape

Financial affiliate marketing is evolving from a straightforward CPA-driven acquisition model into a more complex ecosystem involving content publishers, comparison platforms, creators, search engines, AI discovery and first-party customer data.

Google remains a major force in digital discovery, while companies such as NerdWallet demonstrate the importance of comparison-led content in financial acquisition. Financial institutions and fintechs must increasingly consider how their brands appear across traditional search, publisher websites, social platforms and AI-generated answers.

The competitive advantage may ultimately depend on connecting these channels rather than optimizing each independently. Affiliate programs with stronger attribution, content governance and customer-quality measurement can give financial marketers a clearer view of which partnerships actually drive profitable growth.

Strategic Outlook

AI-driven discovery could become one of the most consequential changes for financial affiliate marketing over the next several years.

As consumers increasingly ask AI systems for product comparisons and recommendations, affiliates and financial brands may need to optimize not only for search rankings but also for machine-readable information, authoritative content, brand credibility and third-party references.

That does not eliminate traditional affiliate marketing. Instead, it expands the number of environments where affiliate content and financial brands need to remain visible.

The FAMF 2026 agenda reflects this transition by bringing AI discovery, affiliate economics, compliance and customer acquisition into the same conversation.

Top Insights

• Google's participation highlights how AI-driven discovery could reshape financial acquisition, affecting banks, fintechs, affiliates and publishers competing for consumer attention.
• FAMF 2026 will examine affiliate ROI beyond CPA, reflecting growing pressure on financial marketers to measure customer quality and long-term value.
• Content compliance becomes more important as financial brands scale affiliate programs across publishers, creators, comparison platforms and emerging AI discovery channels.
• A 200-person attendance cap positions FAMF as a focused industry forum where financial marketers can exchange practical acquisition and affiliate strategies.
• The convergence of search, AI, affiliate marketing and fintech creates a more fragmented customer journey that requires stronger attribution and measurement.