Understanding the almost-empty nester
College Ave Student Loans
College Ave is a leading private student lender known for providing flexible loans, refinancing, and credit solutions tailored to students and their families. In a market dominated by traditional financial institutions, College Ave faced rising acquisition costs and a growing challenge: how to engage younger borrowers and their parents authentically, while maintaining strict compliance within a heavily regulated industry.
Mission
The mission was clear. College Ave needed to lower customer acquisition costs while reaching both parents making financing decisions and Gen Z students forming their first financial relationships. Traditional ads struggled to resonate, often failing to balance trust, relatability, and scale. The brand required a new system that could deliver measurable conversions without triggering compliance bottlenecks.
Props approach
Props introduced a performance-driven creator strategy. By selecting credible creators—students and parents with real financial journeys—Props replaced generic ads with relatable narratives. Non-branded lifestyle stories built trust at the top of the funnel, while mid-funnel content demonstrated how families approached loan decisions. At the bottom of the funnel, direct-to-camera endorsements gave prospects the final nudge toward application. All stories were hosted on College Ave’s own domain, ensuring first-party data capture and regulatory oversight, while media was amplified through creator handles to preserve authenticity.
This approach reframed student lending as a personal, trustworthy conversation rather than a faceless transaction. By bypassing restrictive financial advertising categories with non-branded storytelling, Props reached audiences that College Ave’s traditional campaigns could not. Paid media precision allowed creators’ voices to engage high-intent parents and students across Meta, TikTok, and Snap, driving efficient traffic to College Ave’s application funnel.
The results were decisive. Props cut College Ave’s cost per approved loan by 39% and reduced cost per click by 91% compared to prior benchmarks. When expanding into card acquisition, Props lowered CPA by 45% and CPC by 76%, proving that creator-led storytelling could scale across multiple product lines. Engagement metrics also signaled breakthrough resonance: creator narratives delivered higher click-through rates and longer time-on-site than brand-first content.
Beyond direct acquisition gains, College Ave also benefited from the Props Effect. When Props campaigns were active, College Ave’s own paid social spend became more efficient—mirroring trends seen across other financial clients. Internal campaigns saw lower CPAs and higher engagement when running alongside Props, underscoring how creator-led storytelling not only drives immediate conversions but also amplifies the performance of a brand’s broader media mix.
The broader brand impact was equally significant. Props repositioned College Ave from being perceived as a transactional lender to a trusted financial partner for students and families. By making loan decisions feel approachable and grounded in real experiences, Props helped College Ave connect with audiences often resistant to financial advertising. This shift in perception not only lowered acquisition costs but also created durable pools of retargeting audiences for future campaigns.
results
What we accomplished
Ultimately, the partnership demonstrated that authentic storytelling, combined with performance media, could solve one of the toughest problems in financial services: lowering acquisition costs while building long-term trust. Props gave College Ave a repeatable system to scale growth in student lending and beyond—transforming compliance-constrained marketing into a measurable engine for efficiency and credibility.
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