How a creative system built for volume, a full-funnel channel mix and bold brand moments helped Truebill double its users and reach 2.5 million members before Rocket Companies bought it for $1.275 billion in cash.
In December 2021, Rocket Companies agreed to buy Truebill for $1.275 billion in cash. It was a landmark consumer fintech exit, and it was built on a growth engine that broke most of the rules fintech marketing followed at the time.
Christopher Nguyen, now co-founder of Apollo Growth, was Truebill’s Director of Marketing during that run. This is the playbook, and it’s the same one we bring to every fintech brand we work with.
all-cash acquisition by Rocket Companies
members on the platform at acquisition
growth in users in the year before the deal
annual recurring revenue Truebill was on track for
Sources: HousingWire, FinTech Futures.
Find forgotten subscriptions and lower bills.
Track spending, set goals, grow a savings habit.
Turn monthly savings into a real plan.
The biggest financial goal for most Americans.
For most Americans, the biggest financial goal is saving enough to buy a home. Truebill helped millions of people find money they were wasting and start saving it. Rocket helps people buy homes.
That made the fit obvious. Rocket’s CEO pointed out that only about one in four Truebill members owned a home, which made the app a natural bridge from “I’m saving” to “I’m ready to buy” (Inman). After the deal, Truebill became Rocket Money.
Most fintechs at the time treated every ad like a brand asset: polished, perfectly aligned and slow to make. Under the leadership of Yasi Samimi, Truebill’s VP of Growth, the team went the other way.
We tested everything: every angle, every hook, every format. Brand guidelines still mattered, but they stopped being the reason not to ship. The question we asked of every ad was no longer “does it look perfect?” but “will it find new people who want to save money?”
Every video was built from four interchangeable parts. Click through the options to remix an ad the way we did.
With modular production, a batch of creative stopped meaning a handful of finished ads. We launched dozens of videos at the same time, so every week brought new chances to find a winner.
We also redefined what “winning” meant. It wasn’t a single hero ad. It was a production line built to keep finding the next creative that drove strong installs, before the last one fatigued.
Paid social, search and in-app inventory each reached people at a different moment. Layered retargeting turned them into one funnel to conversion.
Broad reach and the fastest creative learning loop.
Capturing people already looking for ways to save.
Efficient install scale across mobile app inventory.
Performance media drove installs. Brand channels made every ad work harder.
Host-read spots on shows our audience trusted, where a personal recommendation about saving money lands naturally.
Truebill was one of the first fintech brands to scale on CTV, measured like performance. Its TV budget grew 5× after bringing media buying in-house (Tatari case study).
Billboards plus a month-long takeover of New York’s Penn Station turned the app into something people saw on the way to work.
“Winning never meant one perfect ad. It meant building a machine that keeps finding the next one.”
What we learned helping build a $1.275B fintech.
Pixel-perfect ads are slow and expensive. A system that ships dozens of on-message variants finds winners a polished few never will.
Modular hooks, explainers, cliffhangers and end cards turn every shoot into dozens of testable combinations.
The goal isn’t one hero ad. It’s a pipeline that keeps finding the next creative that drives strong installs.
Paid social, search and in-app networks each catch people at a different moment. Retargeting ties it into one funnel.
Podcasts, CTV and a Penn Station takeover made the performance ads work harder, because people already knew the name.
We’ve scaled fintech from the inside. Now we do it for brands like yours.
Modular video production and high-volume testing, built for your app.
Meta, Google, AppLovin, Moloco, TikTok and CTV, run as one portfolio with layered retargeting.
Clear, compliant creative that makes money products feel simple and safe.
The team behind a $1.275B exit, an options app acquired by Lightspeed and a $1M+ brand of our own.
Let’s build the creative system and channel mix that gets you to your next milestone.
Rocket Companies, the parent of Rocket Mortgage, acquired Truebill for $1.275 billion in cash in December 2021 (HousingWire). Truebill now operates as Rocket Money.
Homeownership is the biggest financial goal for most Americans, and Truebill helped millions of people save. Rocket’s CEO noted that only about one in four Truebill clients were homeowners, which made the app a natural bridge to future home buyers (Inman).
Christopher was Director of Marketing at Truebill, helping manage the creative system, paid channels, and brand programs like podcasts, CTV and out-of-home alongside the rest of the marketing team.
Instead of polishing a few on-brand ads, the team built modular videos (hook, explainer, cliffhanger, end card) and launched dozens at a time to keep finding the next winning creative.
Yes. We bring the same creative system, channel mix and testing discipline to fintech brands ready to scale.
Truebill and Rocket Money are trademarks of their respective owners. Visuals on this page are original illustrations.
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