Marketing an ETF with ads and pay per call, with Hybrid Advisors' Dion Pouncil

Dion Pouncil is president of Hybrid Advisors, which launches ETFs and buys financial-service practices such as insurance agencies, RIAs and CPA firms. At Affiliate World Bangkok, his first affiliate event, he tells an LFG Show host why he markets an ETF with paid ads and pay per call, and what finance can learn from affiliates.

In this episode

• Pouncil says he made his first million at 28 with an ad agency, was broke by 29, then became a licensed trader and grew a finance education platform past $20 million in under 20 months with Facebook and Instagram ads (3:31, 4:00).

• His ETF is due to list on the NYSE in Q1; unlike his hedge fund, a public fund can run ads, and he notes only four or five of about 2,000 ETFs market themselves (4:30, 19:31).

• He turned to pay per call after an introduction through an insurance-sales contact, and says he plans to run arbitrage on bought calls rather than build the advertising operation himself (5:00, 5:31).

• Hybrid's private equity arm buys insurance agencies, RIAs and CPA firms, which need leads but lack marketing skill; he sees performance-paid affiliates as a lead source (5:31, 6:01).

• He argues finance professionals can borrow the affiliate funnel: traffic to landing page to booked call, then conversion rates feeding financial modeling, with partners incentivised to drive volume (16:30, 17:00).

• After 200-plus travel days this year, he says deals close through relationships, not Zoom, and a mentor met at a 2018 Dubai conference brought him into finance (8:31, 9:01, 10:00).

Interview from The LFG Show, published on YouTube.