• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 10, 2017

Online loan marketplace LendingTree on Monday announced the appointment of Brad Wilson to CMO, effective immediately.

Wilson will oversee LendingTree's brand strategy, marketing operations and consumer engagement as the company expands into new financial-service categories.

The company is working to "diversify its revenue streams, which are very dependent on paid advertising expenses," according to contributed analysis on Seeking Alpha.

"Diversifying revenue through organic search will only improve margins and add stability to the business. Even further behind the scenes, there is some old-school economics happening. The number of online personal finance lead generators is consolidating."

During the month of June, 26% of visits to LendingTree.com came from search engines, according to Hitwise, a Connexity company. Some 81% of those visits were by people who had not visited LendingTree.com in the past 28 days. The banking and financial industry overall saw 23% of visits come from search, per the data. 

"Mortgage rates" and "mortgage data" were the top two keyword terms in search during this time.

Hitwise data also notes that in June, 53% of visits to LendingTree.com came from a mobile device. By comparison, only 24% of visits to the banking and financial industry overall came from a mobile device. 

As the demand for online financial leads increases, it will become more important for companies like Lending Tree to make the most of search advertising and optimization.

Wilson has a long history in online advertising.

He serves on the board of directors of U.S. Auto Parts and KeyPath Education, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also comes from Travelocity, an Expedia company, where he served as CMO and then GM. He also spent time with Nutrisystem, Blockbuster and Match.com.

Doug Lebda, founder and CEO of LendingTree, calls out Wilson's experience in omnichannel marketing. "As we continue to improve our market position, expand into new categories and scale our business, it's imperative to bolster our leadership team with executives of this caliber to support future growth," he stated.

The online lending category continues to consolidate. Recently, Bankrate was acquired by Red Ventures, a private company in the online lead-generation space.

During LendingTree's recent presentation at the RBC Capital Markets 2017 Financial Technology Investor Day, Lebda noted additional mergers and acquisitions in LendingTree's future, according to RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney.

"LendingTree will target deals that allow for expansion in either existing or new categories and improve marketing efficiency in one/several channels," Mahaney wrote in a research note published in June. The recent $250MM+ convert gives the company dry powder to look at more opportunities following this framework.

"We expect TREE to remain disciplined and do not expect a large, transformative deal. For context, LendingTree noted it has passed on more than 20 potential acquisitions."