According to an article on TheVerge that came out just yesterday, Google intends to ban advertisements for payday loans starting in mid-June 2016. These loans are defined as, "loans due within 60 days of being issued; in the US, it's also banning ads for loans with an annual interest rate of 36 percent or higher." This follows Facebook's decision to ban payday loan ads that was made earlier this year. We work with multiple companies that generate or distribute payday loan leads, who may be greatly impacted by this change. So what kind of alternatives do Payday lead generators have if they see their business starting to take a hit from this change?
Disclaimer: Much like payday loans, many of these alternatives exist in the subprime category and are heavily regulated by the government. We are not legal experts, and you should know all your own legal avenues before entering into these verticals.
Payday loans are considered one of the Subprime verticals, meaning it is a vertical that specializes in customers with poor credit history, and the risk is compensated with high interest rates. Other subprime verticals include bankruptcy, credit repair, and debt consolidation. Luckily, many payday lead generators also generate these verticals, and payday lead distributors also distribute in these verticals. All of these subprime verticals are fine alternatives to payday leads, if you're looking to move into a less volatile vertical.
The most important question that's posed by this ban, however, is this: how can we keep all of these Subprime verticals from ending up the same way as payday leads? The biggest factor in banning payday loan ads was trust, according to TheVerge. "Google also benefits by making its other ads more trustworthy," they write. "Other types of loans, like car and student loans, can still be advertised. This policy may make Google's visitors more likely to trust the ads they come upon." It really comes down to a simple prospect - when working with disenfranchised customers that are considered subprime, treat them as you would like to be treated. We've written about the importance of the Golden Rule in lead generation in the past. To maintain and improve the current state of subprime verticals, lead generation companies can't prey upon people who are struggling, like payday verticals are often portrayed as doing. It's a matter of being authentic and running a business on goodwill instead of predation.
*BOBERDOO IS NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPTING CLIENTS THAT PRIMARILY OPERATE IN THE PAYDAY/PERSONAL LOAN SPACE.