GoBank CEO Describes the Company’s Customer Acquisition Process

Mobile apps allow for close tracking of the customer acquisition process, and GoBank, the mobile-first checking account from prepaid veteran Green Dot Corporation, makes good use of it.

GoBank tracks customers from initial app download through initial deposit to direct deposit and ongoing usage, and studies each drop-off point, CEO Steve Streit revealed on Green Dot’s earnings call last night.

So first, you measure the awareness, the download. Then from the download, how many people successfully pass CIP, which is your Customer Identification Process. Once you’ve done that how many folks will make their initial deposit. And of those people who make their initial deposit, how many of those will own direct deposit and become regular ongoing users. So you have a 4- or 5-step waterfall, and we obsess over every dropoff at every piece of the waterfall. And you’re constantly fine-tuning it and well, gosh, why are so many people dropping off here? Or how come this guy downloaded it but didn’t make an initial deposit? So that’s — the product team works on that all the time, and it’s certainly one of those things that you look to improve when you can.

Streit also said that he believed that GoBank, despite a seeming similarity to other mobile-first banking services, stands in a class of its own.

There are no other standalone mobile checking accounts at all. You have Moven, which is a startup and they have some neat stuff. And you have Simple, which is a startup that also has neat stuff that then rents a charter at another bank to do their work. So I don’t think there is anything quite like GoBank, frankly, so it’s hard to compare.

While Streit declined to give specific data on GoBank’s numbers, he said that GoBank’s direct-deposit customers are “highly productive with higher revenue and better margins than even many of our most profitable prepaid accounts.”

Green Dot as whole remains highly optimistic about GoBank’s long-term prospects, Streit said, and described GoBank as “trending nicely toward profitability.”

Citing higher expenses on initiatives such as GoBank and the rollout Green Dot cards to check-cashing stores in major U.S. cities, Green Dot Corp. reported a profit of $876,000 in Q4 2013, down about 90% from $8.71 million in Q4 2012.