How to Choose the Right PR Agency for Your Fintech Company
If you’re a fintech communications professional, you've probably spent time assessing PR agencies. What exactly should you look for? And more importantly, how do you avoid ending up with the wrong one?
The right fintech PR agency elevates your brand, secures crucial media coverage and positions your company as an industry leader. The wrong choice drains resources, misses opportunities and leaves you scrambling to rebuild momentum.
The fintech space presents unique PR challenges. You're operating in a sector that demands both technical credibility and customer trust, where regulatory considerations intersect with innovation narratives, and where media relationships span everything from Forbes and TechCrunch to American Banker and Tearsheet.
At Pitchr.ai, we've seen too many fintech companies end up with agencies that promise the world but lack the specialized expertise to deliver. Here's how to avoid that outcome.
1. Streamline Your Selection Process: Why Traditional RFPs Often Fail
Never underestimate the pain of an RFP. The conventional RFP process is broken, especially for fintech companies moving at startup speed. Procurement departments love them, but lengthy RFPs often generate dozens of hours of busywork without revealing whether an agency truly understands your story.
Here's the problem: A lengthy RFP driven by procurement increases the risk of filtering out strong agencies and letting weak or ill-fitting agencies through. This process tells you almost nothing about how an agency thinks about your specific challenges. Will they understand the difference between promoting a neobank versus an institutional trading platform? Can they craft narratives that satisfy both technical audiences and mainstream media?
A better approach: Issue a focused brief that asks agencies to respond to one or two specific challenges your company faces. For example, "How would you position our embedded finance platform to both developer audiences and CFO decision-makers?" Set a tight constraint such as 15 slides or 1,500 words maximum.
This constraint-based approach delivers three advantages. First, you see how agencies think strategically about your actual business, not generic fintech trends. Second, you save weeks in the review process. Third, you quickly identify which firms did their homework versus those sending templated responses.
The agencies that can deliver sharp, tailored strategies under constraints are the ones who will perform when you need fast turnarounds on real campaigns.
2. Understand Your Value as a Client: The Budget-Fit Equation
Your goal is to work with an agency that treats your account with the attention it deserves. That requires honest assessment of where you'll sit in their client hierarchy.
Budget is the clearest indicator. If your $15,000 monthly retainer represents a significant investment for your Series A startup but barely registers for an agency accustomed to larger agency-of-record agreements, you're setting up for disappointment. You'll likely get junior team members, slow response times and recycled strategies.
However, money isn't the only currency. In fintech PR, you may have other forms of value:
Innovative technology: If you're building something genuinely novel in digital asset infrastructure, AI-powered underwriting or real-time payments, agencies may see strategic value in the expertise they'll gain.
Market positioning: Perhaps the agency wants to expand from consumer fintech into institutional finance, and your capital markets technology provides that entry point.
Growth trajectory: A Series A company on track to become Series B in 12 months offers different long-term value than a similar-sized company with flat growth.
The key is alignment. Have a direct conversation about why this agency wants your business beyond the retainer check. If they can't articulate compelling reasons, that's your answer.
3. Verify Deep Fintech Subsector Expertise: "Fintech" Isn't Enough
Fintech has evolved from a niche category into a sprawling ecosystem. The communications expertise required for a consumer payments app bears little resemblance to what's needed for an institutional credit risk platform.
Yet agencies routinely market themselves as "fintech PR experts" based on experience that may be entirely in the wrong subsector. This creates dangerous knowledge gaps. An agency that has a track record of delivery for digital banking clients may lack the institutional relationships and technical vocabulary to effectively represent your RegTech compliance solution.
Here's what makes this particularly tricky: An agency with strong relationships at Payments Dive and PYMNTS.com may have zero connections with Waters Technology or Traders Magazine. Their media rolodex for consumer fintech won't help your institutional trading technology story.
The skills, expertise and media knowledge required for different fintech subsectors are wildly different. Teams who genuinely understand the nuances of your technology and competitive landscape can hit the ground running, craft more compelling narratives and open doors that generalists simply can't access.
Use these questions to evaluate agency expertise during your selection process:
| Question to Ask | Why This Matters | A Good Answer | A Weak Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| "What fintech subsectors are your strongest credentials and experience in?" | Reveals depth vs. breadth of experience | "We've worked extensively in RegTech and institutional trading tech, with clients including [specific names]. Our payments experience is more limited." | "We do all fintech - payments, banking, crypto, everything." |
| "Who will work on our account daily, and what percentage of their time?" | Prevents bait-and-switch and ensures adequate attention | "Jane will be your lead, dedicating 30% of her time. John will support 25% on media relations." | "Our senior team oversees all accounts, and we'll assign the right people as needed." |
| "Name two journalists you'd pitch for our story and why." | Tests actual media relationships and strategic thinking | "I'd start with Joey Pizzolato at American Banker - they just covered [similar company]. Also Zack at Tearsheet because [specific reason]." | "We have relationships with all the top outlets - Wall Street Journal, Forbes, TechCrunch." |
| "What's a realistic timeline for tier-one coverage?" | Separates honest agencies from overpromisers | "Getting the story foundations right is essential. For a Series A company, 6-9 months to WSJ is realistic. We'd start with trades to build credibility first." | "We can get you in the Wall Street Journal immediately." |
| "Tell me about a fintech campaign that didn't work and what you learned." | Reveals honesty, learning mindset, and experience | "We pitched [company's] report, but the media feedback was that the data wasn't strong enough. We pivoted and secured [specific results]." | "All our campaigns succeed. We have a 100% hit rate with our media contacts." |
| "How do you measure PR success for fintech companies?" | Shows understanding of business outcomes vs. vanity metrics | "Depends on your goals. For increased inbounds tied to [company's product], we track coverage in payments outlets and sales team feedback." | "We measure clips, AVE, impressions and social shares. We aim for 20+ placements monthly." |
This framework helps you quickly distinguish agencies with genuine fintech expertise from those simply claiming it.
4. Evaluate Your Actual Working Team: Avoiding the Bait-and-Switch
We've all been baited and switched. The polished senior executives who present during the final round may not be the people executing your day-to-day campaigns. This bait-and-switch is unfortunately common in PR, and it can tank an engagement before it starts.
How to protect yourself:
Demand transparency early: Ask directly, "Who will work on this account daily, and what percentage of their time will be dedicated to us?" Don't accept vague answers.
Include junior team members in the pitch process: Insist that the actual account team present portions of the proposal. Watch how they think on their feet, communicate and demonstrate knowledge of your space.
Check references specifically about team consistency: When calling references, ask, "Did the team that pitched you stay on your account? If not, how was the transition handled?"
Take note of tenure of individual team members: When no one on the team has been with the agency for over two years, the chances are the agency has a poor track record of retaining staff.
Assess capacity, not just capability: The most talented account executive who's already managing eight clients won't have bandwidth for your urgent needs. You want a team with both the skills to get results and the capacity to be responsive.
The brutal truth is that many agencies staff accounts based on who's available, not who's best suited. Fight for the team that will actually serve you, and be willing to walk away if you sense a bait-and-switch.
5. Align on Realistic Outcomes: Promise vs. Performance
If an agency promises you front-page Wall Street Journal coverage, run.
Great PR for fintech companies is strategic, sequential and often requires patience. Yes, some companies have stories compelling enough for immediate tier-one coverage. Most don't, and that's fine. What matters is finding an agency that can articulate a realistic path from where you are to where you want to be.
What to listen for:
Honest assessment: "Based on your current brand recognition, we'd expect to start with trades and fintech-specific outlets, build credibility, then pitch broader business media in quarters two and three."
Testing and learning mindset: "We'll try multiple angles in the first 60 days, see what resonates with journalists, then double down on what's working."
Clear KPIs tied to your goals: If you're focused on growing your visibility within the topic of stablecoin payments, media coverage in Payments Journal and American Banker may matter more than the FT. If you're recruiting engineering talent, coverage in developer-focused outlets and podcasts could be the priority.
Transparent process: How do they handle when pitches don't land? What's their approach to pivoting strategies? How do they measure success beyond raw clip counts?
Be skeptical of agencies that promise specific outlets or guaranteed coverage numbers. Media relations doesn't work that way. Instead, value agencies that demonstrate strategic thinking, realistic expectations and a commitment to evolving with your brand.
Red Flags to Watch For
As you evaluate agencies, watch for these warning signs:
Generic case studies: If their examples could apply to any industry, they lack fintech depth
Overpromising results: Guarantees of specific tier-one placements or viral coverage
Inability to discuss recent fintech trends: They should know what's happening in your space right now
Vague team structure: Refusing to specify who will work on your account daily
One-size-fits-all pricing: Fintech PR needs vary wildly; cookie-cutter packages suggest lack of customization
No media relationships to share: They should be able to show they truly know and understand specific journalists in your space
The Bottom Line
The relationship between a fintech company and its PR agency is set up for success or failure by how it begins. Companies that invest time in a thoughtful selection process, ask hard questions and prioritize expertise over polish consistently build more productive, longer-lasting partnerships.
At Pitchr.ai, we believe the best agency relationships start with mutual clarity. We compete for business by demonstrating we understand not just fintech broadly, but your specific subsector, competitive dynamics and growth objectives. We're most effective when clients know exactly what they want and hold us accountable for delivering it.
The agencies worth hiring are the ones confident enough to have honest conversations about fit, realistic enough to set proper expectations and specialized enough to add value from day one.
Ready to discuss your fintech PR strategy? Let's talk about whether Pitchr.ai is the right fit for your specific needs and goals.
