The financial niche is characterized by high advertising costs, which is why affiliates are actively searching for affordable traffic sources. One of these solutions is YouTube channels. Let’s explore how to effectively attract traffic to loan, credit, and card offers through YouTube.
Competition and Traffic Volumes
Many affiliates focus on SEO optimization for YouTube videos. To assess the level of competition and potential traffic volumes, let’s look at keyword statistics. For example, the popular query “personal loan” in the USA gathers 673,000 impressions monthly, according to Google Trends data. This is a significant amount of traffic that shouldn’t be ignored.
If you enter the “personal loan” query on YouTube, the search results will show hundreds of videos on this topic. Among them, you’ll find videos from banks, popular bloggers, and affiliates. Smaller channels here are forced to compete with larger ones, making promotion challenging but still achievable.
According to vidIQ, the average competition for this query is moderate.
On average, one video for the query “personal loan” garners about 94,933 views. Of course, this statistic mostly reflects the success of larger channels. However, if you take a closer look at the search results, you can find affiliate videos with impressive performance. Some videos promoting financial offers can reach from 25,000 to even 300,000 views, indicating that the niche remains promising even for smaller channels.
Due to the high competition for high-volume keywords, affiliates also create content optimized for medium- and low-volume keywords. For instance, according to Google Trends, the query “same day lenders” has 74,000 impressions per month.
According to vidIQ, competition for this keyword on YouTube is very low.
In the search results, you can see many videos posted on mid-level financial channels.
Although competition for this query is low, these videos receive a considerable number of views. This is likely because they rank for both low-volume and high-volume keywords simultaneously.
Just as a cowboy stands out with a hat and boots, high-volume keywords influence the ranking. However, there is a nice bonus: some videos targeting medium- and low-volume keywords also appear in Google and YouTube search results.
Video Optimization
To attract traffic to their videos, affiliates actively use SEO optimization. They create playlists, add relevant tags, and carefully craft titles and descriptions with targeted keywords. These steps help enhance the visibility of videos and make them more attractive in search results.
Affiliates typically use 2-3 keywords per video, which helps it rank in the TOP and drive traffic.
Additionally, some affiliates create playlists that group videos on topics like loans, credits, and cards. These playlists are optimized for specific keywords such as “credit cards”, “loans”, “personal loan”, “debit cards”, and others, which helps expand reach and improve visibility in search results.
Creating video playlists not only improves the visibility of individual videos but also generates additional traffic. This, in turn, helps drive leads to other products. Playlists make it easier for viewers to find related content, and affiliates can drive traffic from one video to another, boosting conversion and broadening the reach of offers.
For example, a user finds a video about loans, visits the channel, and navigates to a playlist on debit cards. After watching, they might order a card via the link in the description, earning the affiliate a commission for the issued debit card.
Many videos are also tagged with both high-volume and low-volume keywords. YouTube allows up to 500 characters in the “Tags” field, enabling affiliates to reach a broader audience and enhance video visibility in search results.
Video Creation
Affiliates employ a variety of approaches for content creation on their channels. One popular method is creating videos based on information from landing pages, bank websites, or microfinance organizations (MFOs). For instance, if the video is about the “Avant” offer, the affiliate opens the landing page, records a screen video showcasing the key details, and adds voiceover narration. This method efficiently converts textual content into a visual format that is easier for viewers to digest.
The advantage of screen recording is minimal time investment in creating a video. However, the downside is that the text on the screen is often hard to read for users. As a result, affiliates turn to other content creation methods.
One such method is creating a presentation, for example, in PowerPoint, saving it as a video file, and then adding a voiceover. This approach helps structure information more clearly. Slides highlight key product advantages and important features, such as the minimum loan amount or how long the company has been in operation, making the content more informative and easier to understand.
Other affiliates use video editing software to visually display borrower requirements directly in the video. They add text boxes with important details, such as the age required to apply for a loan, minimum income, or necessary documents. This allows viewers to quickly familiarize themselves with the main conditions without searching for the information themselves, enhancing the viewing experience and improving engagement.
Sometimes, affiliates combine different elements in one video: landing page snippets, slides with key product advantages, and text inserts. This approach allows them to effectively convey information while keeping time investment lower than in the creation of creative videos with original animation or filming. This strategy enables affiliates to produce content more quickly while maintaining its relevance, making this format popular among many content creators.
Is It Profitable to Create Financial Channels?
The financial niche on YouTube is a promising area for generating income. Videos in this category can continue driving traffic to offers and generating revenue for several years. However, the downside is that immediate returns on investment are not to be expected.
According to vidIQ, in the first month after publication, most videos gather only 100-200 views. Nevertheless, over time, with proper optimization and keyword selection, these videos can significantly increase their reach, making this method a long-term strategy for revenue generation.
The video is indeed professionally made, and the link leads to a site that appears to be a financial services aggregator. On the “Bankrate” site, you’ll find a wide range of financial products, such as loans, mortgages, investments, insurance, and more. They likely don’t provide all these services directly but act as intermediaries, reselling leads to financial organizations. They may use a pay-per-call model or other lead monetization strategies.
When it comes to their traffic, many companies, especially in high-margin niches like finance, tend to conceal this information. This is unsurprising given the high competition in this area, where attracting clients can bring significant profits. Tools like SimilarWeb or SEMrush can offer an approximate estimate of their traffic if this information is important for analysis.
According to Similarweb, all we can see is user traffic data, and 16.76 million visits over three months is impressive. Although YouTube may account for less than 1% of this traffic, even large companies still actively utilize this channel.
You can also explore this Bankrate channel. They create a large amount of content covering nearly all relevant keywords. However, as you can see, the channel has only 6.16k subscribers. This isn’t surprising, as people tend not to subscribe to financial channels, although they actively watch the content.
I suggest looking at a few more channels and their view statistics for comparison.
In the fifth month, the video had already garnered 7,525 views, and after eight months, it reached 28k views. This creator seems to be a real expert in his field — vidIQ even lists him as the top content creator for the “fast loans USA” query.
Here’s another great creator. I’ve previously shared a screenshot of his playlist. He has many videos on financial topics, and they appear to be quite popular!
Channel statistics for half a year.
Market Potential
Of course, other promising markets exist as well. For example, the topic of fast personal loans is also very popular in the Philippines. This area is growing rapidly, and demand for such financial services is increasing, making it an attractive market for content creation and traffic generation.
Let’s take a look at Mexico:
As you can see, the topic of “fast loans” is very popular in this region, with the average number of views being higher than in the two previous geos. The competition is also tougher than in the Philippines. This suggests that promoting loans through YouTube in Mexico can be a highly profitable venture, given the high demand and audience engagement.
The screenshot shows what is likely the most popular Mexican financial channel. As you can see, it’s highly popular here, but it’s more of a “unicorn.” Other channels are less popular and look less professional, but they still manage to attract a significant number of views. This proves that even smaller, less polished channels can successfully attract an audience in the financial niche on YouTube.
What’s really interesting is that YouTube initially shows me playlists rather than individual videos, allowing them to capture some of the traffic. It would be useful to find a case study that explains how to create YouTube playlists optimized for targeted keywords to effectively drive traffic.
In Nigeria, traffic in the financial niche is lower, but there’s one very strong and popular channel that stands out in this market. This shows that even in regions with lower traffic, success is achievable if you select the right strategy.
You can also do your own research and I assure you that most geos will have similar ads and queries in their search for financial products.
Keyword Strategy for Traffic Generation
It’s important to create content that covers all stages of the customer journey, not just reviews of credit products.
While YouTube channels focused on “credit reviews” and keywords like “loan review” can be useful, this is often a limited strategy for beginners, missing out on many opportunities. Reviews are only interesting to those already familiar with the product. If someone has never heard of personal loans, they won’t search for a “personal loan review.”
Therefore, affiliates promoting such products need to take a more strategic approach to their content.
Users are at different stages of awareness: from those who are unaware of their problem to those who already know about a product that can solve it. Review keywords only attract people familiar with the product, which is a small portion of the potential audience.
Most users are at other stages of awareness. For example, some may not even realize they have a financial problem until they face unexpected medical bills or car repairs.
Videos aimed at this audience could explain how loans can help in these situations. Another part of the audience might be aware of the problem but hesitant or afraid to take out a loan. Here, videos showing how easy it is to apply for a loan online, without visiting a bank, could be helpful.
Once viewers understand that loans can be applied for online, they will start searching for the best options, using queries like “best personal loans online.” This is where product-specific reviews become useful.
If, after this, they are still not ready to make a choice, you can create content for those fully aware and ready to take out a loan.
Therefore, if you limit yourself to reviews only, you could miss out on a large portion of your audience at other stages of awareness, reducing your potential to attract more customers.
Expert Interview
Especially for this article, we asked questions to one of our Youtube affiliates. Max Liodin kindly answered all the questions:
- Your experience with YouTube
My experience in driving traffic through YouTube exceeds three years. - What were the first niches you worked with, and what was the most challenging part at the beginning?
Betting and finance were the first niches I started working with. The most challenging part at the beginning was understanding how to systematize the business so that I could create clear instructions for affiliates. Questions like: “How to write a script?”, “How to edit videos?”, “How to select keywords?”, “How to rank in top search results?”, “How to handle bans and reduce the risk of being blocked?”, and “What is the optimal video length?” – all required a systematic approach. Systematizing everything was the hardest part because there was chaos in the beginning. - What is the average time for generating profit from one video? Does it always generate profit?
If the video is done right and published on a trusted channel, especially in the personal loans niche, it can generate profit for a long time. Of course, there’s a growth trend in the first 2-3 weeks when the video is picked up by recommendations, and then the profit decreases, but it remains relatively stable thanks to search traffic. If it’s a gambling video with a poorly written script overloaded with calls to action or clickbait thumbnails with bonuses, such a video might get blocked within two days, and you won’t have time to make any profit from it. - Which niche was the easiest and which was the most difficult?
The easiest niche for starting is finance, especially personal loans. The problem is that on YouTube, personal loans are a low-frequency niche. Videos don’t get millions of views in the CIS, so you have to target international markets like India or the Philippines. These are geos where you can get a lot of traffic from YouTube, but you need the right content strategy. Unfortunately, we couldn’t crack this, although we see others succeeding. The most challenging niche is gambling in Tier 1 countries. There are very strict policies, and content often gets blocked. You have to closely monitor the work of editors, scriptwriters, and video editors. However, these geos offer the highest profits (aside from India). - Which video, niche, and geo brought you the most profit?
A betting video for India about 2.5 years ago. One video was generating $20,000 in profit per month, driving traffic to Parimatch via CPA. - Is it possible to do YouTube affiliate marketing without showing yourself on camera?
Yes, it’s possible, but I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners. Video production is the most expensive part of the process, and if you start delegating the most costly part without understanding the approach, you’ll just be scaling losses. It’s better to start on your own, and as soon as you begin to see profits, gradually build a team and delegate tasks, starting with video editing, then scriptwriting, and eventually stepping out of the frame entirely. But if you have plenty of money, you can take the risk. You may gain experience faster, but this is not a guarantee that you will start earning a profit quickly. - In your opinion, how much money is needed to start?
You can start with zero. Free traffic is valuable because anyone can begin working with it. However, to build a structured team, you’ll need investments: buying trackers, anti-detect browsers, cloaking services, creating a knowledge base, and establishing an affiliate onboarding system—all of this requires money. - What advice can you give to beginners in this niche?
Quantity turns into quality. If you make one video and wait a month for it to generate traffic, that’s unrealistic. You need to focus not on making money but on content generation and publication. A good goal is to create 100 videos for 3 geos in 2 verticals. Then, after 3 months, see what brings in revenue and focus all your efforts there. - Geo selection – is it important, or should you aim for high-margin markets with expensive geos like gambling for Australia?
I wouldn’t recommend gambling for beginners at all. After 1-2 bans, motivation is often lost, and people quit. Only a small percentage can recover from this and continue. High-margin niches and geos require a lot of knowledge, which is usually unavailable to beginners. So, diving into gambling for Australia should only be considered when you’ve already achieved profits in personal loans for Ukraine, Kazakhstan, or Poland. - What was your biggest failure in the niche?
My biggest failure happened with an India-targeted channel. It was generating a lot of monthly profit, so I decided to scale up by adding five more videos over five weeks, and as a result, the channel was banned. My conclusion: if a channel is profitable, I immediately start developing a new one. Diversifying risks became key for me in YouTube affiliate marketing. - Is the niche overcrowded?
The niche is definitely not overcrowded. Maybe we’re covering a specific set of queries with our team, but we’d be happy to see new people with fresh ideas who can bring traffic either for us or for themselves. Actually, no, preferably for us.
Contact to Max – mlbet1996@gmail.com
Market Potential and Key Opportunities
The financial niche on YouTube remains one of the most promising and stable sources of traffic for affiliate marketers. With high payouts, reputable brands, and constant demand, this vertical offers multiple paths for growth and profit. Affiliates can capitalize on diverse offers such as personal loans, credit cards, and crypto exchanges by leveraging SEO optimization, targeted keywords, and creating engaging content that resonates with viewers at various stages of their customer journey.
By focusing on both high-volume and low-competition keywords, affiliates can tap into a broad range of opportunities, extending their reach and boosting traffic. Moreover, using strategies like creating playlists, optimizing tags, and crafting effective video content can result in long-term success, with some videos continuing to generate traffic and commissions for years.
If you’re looking to get into affiliate marketing or expand your current efforts in the financial niche, PDL-Profit is your go-to CPA network. With over 300 financial offers and daily profit payouts, PDL-Profit helps affiliates maximize their earnings with a wide range of loan, credit, and crypto exchange offers. Get started today and discover why PDL-Profit is trusted by affiliates worldwide.