BillShrink.com Goes Primetime
With a one-time tagline that read, “Shrinkage is good,” you know that the company BillShrink wants to stand a part from others, and recently it has had the chance.
For those unfamiliar with BillShrink but familiar with the online lead generation space, you could almost describe the company as LowerMyBills.com 2.0. I’d suspect that all things being equal, BillShrink’s CEO Peter Pham wishes that his board member and the founder of LowerMyBills, Matt Coffin, hadn’t had quite the success he did, because he wouldn’t mind using that name.
Perhaps only one other consumer site in the online customer acquisition arena has received the type of media coverage that BillShrink has, and countless articles and mentions have flown their way from TV news to the Wall Street Journal. As one following the evolution of online customer acquisition, what interests me most are the factors that have allowed BillShrink to fulfill on the promise originated by LowerMyBills. Interestingly, both BillShrink and LowerMyBills (purchased by Experian Interactive in 2004 for roughly $330mm) made their biggest gains during a difficult economic environment, but the means by which they have done so highlight not just the differences between LowerMyBills and BillShrink but many others in the customer acquisition space.
You could say both companies have made a name through themselves via the ads people see, but the strategies for placement couldn’t be more dissimilar. LowerMyBills initially wanted to be all things to all people, a place to save on countless categories of expenditures. But, they couldn’t make money doing that. Coffin’s genius, among other things, was the realization that they could generate high returns on their refinance lead generation business, and while the main LowerMyBills page kept non-financial services, e.g., home services, viewable to visitors for a while, the company focused all of its attention on building out a media business focusing on financial services lead generation. They succeeded for many reasons, but the perfect storm of low rates, high demand, high acceptance, and cheap media among other things, enabled LowerMyBills to become a dominant player not just in online lead generation but all of advertising. The now famous Coffin-”double down” transformed his company and created a brand in the process.
BillShrink could have taken a similar route as LowerMyBills for growth. Media is inexpensive, and many companies in the online lead generation/customer acquistion space have seized on this opportunity to continue to scale. But, BillShrink doesn’t advertise anywhere. They’ve deliberately taken a dramatically different approach. Yet, they also make money the old fashioned way, i.e., the online customer acquisition way; they earn it. They receive payment not when users click on ads or on the site but if a user takes action as a result of what they found. That is how just about every company in the online lead generation space earns their money, and it’s how LowerMyBills earned theirs. The big difference is that instead of spending money to make money, BillShrink has a goal of becoming a consumer destination site where users don’t just transact once but come back to time again. The only spending they will do is PR. It’s a bet that will either succeed or fail without much room in between. Doing so means money, and the company is backed by powerhouses Bessemmer Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures.
Already on their way to becoming a media darling, BillShrink’s bet on becoming a destination and consumer brand received a big leg-up recently, as alluded to in the opening salvo of this post. Type in BillShirnk in Google, and you will see one example of their rise to prominence. BillShrink doesn’t advertise, but they don’t have to. They are receiving a double benefit by the latest T-Mobile campaign which has included references to site.
Below, a snapshot of T-mobile.com/Billshrink that once clicked redirects users to the BillShrink homepage.
It’s one thing for T-Mobile to mention BillShrink on a Google ad and off a page on their site. More impressive though, is the same mention in a nationwide campaign including mega-TV airtime that has brought Catherine Zeta Jones and just so happens to end with a BillShrink plug. Here is the TV spot. (That you have to watch an ad first before getting to see an ad… well…)
A freeze frame of the mention:
If you follow the ads advice and head to the BillShrink, you will see that the company doesn’t just collect your data and send it off so that you can be called during dinner for the next three months. They have a technology layer and partner integration that make for a pleasant user experience. Both of those didn’t exist 8 years ago when LowerMyBills was modifying its strategy, which makes the latter’s decision to change course all the smarter. this is definitely not a strategy for everyone, but we wish them the best because their efforts help everyone in online customer acquisition. Its shows that a marriage between brand and performance can exist and those getting paid on a performance basis don’t have to be sleazy. I hope theirs will be part of a wave that lifts the boats of the good players in this sector.
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