Canadian Fintech Affiliate: Questrade's quest to be king🤴
Questrade embraces publishers, Fintel bares all CPAs & my interview with Idriss Bouhmouch, Digital Partnerships Lead at National Bank.
Morning!
Welcome to the Canadian Fintech Affiliate newsletter, a monthly roundup of industry news, offer updates and conferences worth attending for Canadian affiliate marketers.
In today’s email:
What’s trending: Questrade is moving in on Wealthsimple’s territory, Fintel Connect publishes a new report
Interview with Idriss Bouhmouch, Digital Partnerships Lead at National Bank.
Best conferences to attend in April & May
Jobs: Roles at Fintel Connect, Pet Lab Co, Embark and 10+ others.
Today’s reading time is 5 minutes.
Opinions expressed are my own*
Affiliate Tip
Don’t over look the importance of payment terms in an affiliate relationship. The maximum allowable terms are monthly net 30. Any longer than that and you’ll reduce the pool of publishers willing to work with your brand.
🤑 What’s Trending
Questrade is making moves to retake the crown from Wealthsimple as the top discount brokerage in Canada.
They migrated to Impact Radius about 12 months ago (Wealthsimple is also on Impact).
Decreased their minimum deposit from $1,000 to $250 for new users.
Launched $0 trades in February.
Shipped fractional trading in April.
With Wealthsimple pulling back from the affiliate channel to focus on brand and owned channels like their TL;DR newsletter, Questrade has been investing in the channel to fuel user acquisition. Market turmoil aside, this is a great time for publishers in the category.
Seems like they’re refining the SOP for their affiliate strategy so that when they become a bank they can hit the ground running with their products. More no-fee chequing accounts and HISA? Yes please 😀
Fintel Connect published a CPA benchmark guide with great insights for financial brands looking to get started in the affiliate channel.
The guide provides practical advice to working with publishers and affiliate in the channel from payable actions to target CPAs depending all broken down by category.
I like that they provided average CPAs for US and CA in the same report. But I have liked to see earnings per click (EPC) or average conversion rate (CR) in the report.
Note that target CPAs for unsecured credit cards are $250-$400 in the US vs $150 in CA. Canadian banks, step it up. This is why Canadians are publishing content for the US market.
You can read the full report here.
🍸Conferences
Upcoming conferences worth checking out:
LeadsCon - April 7-9, 2025 | Las Vegas, US
If you are looking to buy or sell leads, head to Vegas for LeadsCon.
PI Live - April 16-18, 2025 | Miami, US
This is a new one on my radar. It’s a European conference that’s expanded to Miami. Lots of people in the industry attended last year. Definitely one to watch.
💼 Affiliate Marketing Jobs
Looking for a job board specifically for affiliate marketing roles in Canada?
Check it out 👉 affiliate-marketing-jobs.com
See roles from Fintel Connect, Pet Lab Co, Embark and 10+ others.
If you're hiring in the affiliate space, you can post a job for free. Get started👉 here.
🎙️ Interview with Idriss Bouhmouch, Digital Partnerships Lead at National Bank
This month, I had the chance to catch up with Idriss Bouhmouch, the Digital Partnerships Lead at National Bank of Canada. If you’ve worked in the Canadian fintech affiliate space for a while, there’s a good chance Idriss has crossed your path.
He’s been on both sides of the industry—first at Ratehub, helping build one of the country’s biggest performance marketing engines, and now leading digital growth through partnerships at National Bank, one of Canada’s largest financial institutions.
He’s one of the few people who’s lived both sides of the affiliate ecosystem at a senior level, and his take on how publishers and advertisers can build truly scalable, mutually beneficial partnerships is something more people need to hear.
Here’s our conversation, edited for clarity and length.
Cameron: Tell us a bit about who you are and how long you’ve been in affiliate marketing.
Idriss: I lead digital partnerships at National Bank, focused on customer acquisition and working with partners to help Canadians make better financial decisions. Affiliate marketing sits within that broader mandate.
I started in affiliate over a decade ago at Ratehub, where I helped build out the Quebec market and eventually led national partnerships. At the time, financial institutions weren’t really buying leads at scale, so we had to educate the market. I’ve also worked
at LowestRates and Flinks, so I’ve seen a lot—from early startup hustle to enterprise digital strategy.
Cameron: You’ve worked on both the publisher side and now on the advertiser side. What’s been the biggest difference?
Idriss: On the publisher side, your focus is narrower. You’re trying to drive leads and revenue through performance. It’s nimble, but you’re limited by headcount and access to expertise.
On the FI side, you realize the sheer scale and complexity. You’re not just working with digital marketers anymore—you’re collaborating with banking experts, product managers, risk, finance, tech, and analytics. Affiliate is just one piece of a much bigger picture.
But you’ve got a deep bench of experts and infrastructure. The challenge becomes: is this the right initiative to prioritize right now?
Cameron: What do you look for in an affiliate partner?
Idriss: Fit is everything. And that includes timing, audience, and alignment on goals.
Because I’ve been on the publisher side, I can usually spot quickly where there’s real potential—and where there’s not. I try to be transparent. If the timing or audience isn’t right, I’ll say so. But if we see value, I’ll put in the work to unlock it.
There are intangible factors too—chemistry, curiosity, trust. This space is small. Relationships matter. The best partnerships feel more like alliances than vendor deals.
Cameron: When you see an opportunity to scale, what lever do you pull?
Idriss: Visibility is one of our key levers for driving affiliate performance. If your product isn't prominently shown, you're already leaving conversions on the table.
We collaborate closely with partners to secure prime placement—such as top listings, homepage features, or dedicated landing pages. But visibility isn’t one size fits all; sometimes, targeted visibility works better to reach highly qualified users.
Optimizing is an ongoing process, we rely on partner insights about their audiences and continuously monitor results to refine placements. Ultimately, visibility enhancements balance reach with quality, aligning closely with our acquisition and LTV goals.
Cameron: Most Canadian FIs outsource their affiliate program. Why did you choose to manage it in-house?
Idriss: It’s about control, flexibility, and depth of relationship. When you manage the program directly, you’re closer to the partner, the data, and the strategy. That allows for better collaboration and faster iteration.
Cameron: Let’s talk attribution. How important is tracking to you?
Idriss: It’s critical. Attribution helps with billing, optimization, and just understanding what’s working.
But implementing real-time conversion tracking at a big bank can be tricky. Given the high standards banks maintain for client security information, we must ensure that any third parties we do business with adhere to the same stringent security standards.
Upgrading infrastructure to meet standards like SOC 2, which can cost 100K+ including process audits, is essential for scaling larger partnerships.
Cameron: Do you see a future where real-time tracking becomes the norm in Canadian banking?
Idriss: I think we will get there, but not overnight. Once publishers achieve the necessary certifications and infrastructure, that opens the door. After that, it also requires efforts from the organization, which would need to be prioritized. It’s a
two-step process: build the highway, then get cars moving.
Cameron: Anything you want to share or plug?
Idriss: Just appreciation for the work you're doing in the space. Newsletters like this help keep the community connected. It takes effort and consistency to keep showing up. That doesn’t go unnoticed.
And if anyone wants to connect, I’m always happy to chat on LinkedIn.
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