Scaling with an incremental acquisition affiliate program : Qonto interview

Jessica Mayer, Partnership & Affiliate Manager, Qonto

Qonto is a leading European business finance solution. Operating in 8 countries, the brand caters to freelancers, solo entrepreneurs, smes, and startups with a 360-degree tool designed to manage business financial flows. Jessica Mayer looks back at the role of affiliate marketing in Qonto’s acquisition strategy, the levers activated with Affilae, and the key takeaways from their program.

How would you present Qonto today, and what role does acquisition play in your development?

Qonto is the business account recommended by 600,000 entrepreneurs, with a presence across eight European countries. Our solution is designed for solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, smes, and startups, offering a 360-degree tool to manage all business financial flows.

From an acquisition perspective, the primary goal was to drive incremental growth: reaching audiences that do not yet know Qonto by tapping into acquisition channels that the brand does not directly cover, moving well beyond already established comparison websites.

What specific marketing need did affiliate marketing address in your strategy?

Affiliate marketing naturally emerged as a highly complementary channel alongside sea and seo. Various niche websites and blogs were already strongly positioned on Google search results, proving there was significant untapped potential in activating this channel more broadly.

After several years of managing the Qonto program independently on Affilae, the next logical step was to leverage the expertise of Affilae’s Account Managers to identify new publishers, including valuable partners within the network that Qonto would not necessarily have scouted alone. This approach allowed us to design a highly effective incremental acquisition affiliate program.

What convinced you to structure this program with Affilae?

The majority of Qonto’s top publishers were already active on Affilae. It was also our team’s preferred platform compared to other solutions, notably because it generated a high volume of inbound partnership requests. The tool was deemed simpler, clearer, more responsive, and easier to use autonomously without needing to constantly rely on support. Qonto’s international footprint also played a decisive role in this choice.

Which partner typologies did you activate to scale the program?

The Qonto program relies on a diverse partner mix: comparison sites, cashback platforms, blogs, social media and YouTube influencers, and media outlets. The goal was to activate any publisher capable of covering Qonto’s business scope and complementing our existing marketing channels.

How did Affilae’s account management facilitate your daily operations?

There were no rigid operational constraints at the beginning; we maintained a very test-and-learn approach. When a concept looked promising, we launched it and kept it if it delivered results.

Affilae’s support was particularly valuable in structuring our long-tail partners, screening inbound applications, saving time on outreach and negotiations, and leveraging the account managers’ deep network expertise. This workflow saves us about 20 hours of manual labor per month and has successfully brought over 50 new active publishers on board.

What key results* stand out today?

• +22% in leads
• +15% in traffic
• +50 new active affiliates
• A 3.35% conversion rate compared to the previous year
• Over 500 conversions generated in 3 months

*Data captured from March 2025 to March 2026.

Combined, these performance metrics demonstrate how we scaled the program to new acquisition channels and proved our incremental acquisition affiliate program‘s ability to perform far beyond Qonto’s legacy publisher network.

Want to learn more? Discover the full case study here