.svg){kind=logo}
FinTech is a precision industry. You’re not selling a “nice-to-have” workflow improvement. You’re selling:
- regulatory alignment
- risk mitigation
- capital efficiency
- infrastructure resilience
Which means the way performance should be measured in paid media is fundamentally different from broader B2B.
And yet, many PPC agencies still report fintech campaigns using surface-level metrics that look tidy in a dashboard but tell you very little about commercial reality.
CTR is healthy. CPL is down. Leads are up.
But pipeline stalls. Sales cycles drag. Deal quality feels inconsistent.
The problem usually isn’t targeting. It isn’t bidding. It isn’t even creative (although cue Monzo case study).
It’s measurement.
Below are the fintech metrics PPC agencies most commonly misinterpret, and what you should be looking at instead if you care about efficient, defensible growth.
1. Cost Per Lead (CPL)
CPL is often presented as the primary performance indicator.
In fintech, that’s rarely helpful.
Why?
Because not all leads represent:
- the same regulatory environment
- the same revenue potential
- the same procurement complexity
- or the same implementation scale
A £90 lead from a small startup is not equivalent to a £240 lead from a entreprise company. But CPL treats them as identical.
What goes wrong:
- Campaigns are optimised to lower CPL.
- Targeting broadens to capture cheaper audiences.
- Qualification friction is removed to increase form completions.
- Volume increases while commercial quality decreases.
What actually matters:
- Cost per qualified opportunity
- Cost per sales-accepted lead
- Pipeline value generated per £ spent
- Revenue per lead cohort
Fintech paid media should optimise for commercial relevance, not surface efficiency.
2. CTR (Click-Through Rate)
In fintech, CTR must be interpreted carefully.
A low CTR can reflect:
- Highly targeted senior audiences
- Conservative financial decision-makers
- Messaging that emphasises compliance rather than excitement
A high CTR can sometimes reflect:
- Broad pain-point messaging
- Curiosity-driven hooks
- Junior job titles engaging without buying authority
CTR tells you whether your message attracts attention. It does not tell you whether that attention is commercially meaningful.
What actually matters:
- CTR by audience segment
- Post-click behaviour (engagement depth, time on page)
- Conversion quality downstream
In fintech, fewer but better clicks often outperform broader engagement in the long run.
3. Conversion Rate (CVR)
Conversion rate looks straightforward: more conversions equal better performance.
In fintech, CVR can be distorted by:
- Form length changes
- Compliance disclosures
- Gated content strategy shifts
- Soft vs hard conversion definitions
Reducing friction might increase form fills. It does not guarantee those leads are:
- budget holders
- procurement influencers
- within regulated entities
- aligned with your core vertical
What actually matters:
- Demo-to-opportunity rate
- Opportunity-to-close rate
- Conversion rate by ICP tier
- Conversion rate by financial segment (e.g., banking, payments, lending, wealth management)
A higher CVR paired with lower win rates is not progress.
4. Cost Per Click (CPC)
Fintech CPCs are often higher due to:
- Competitive keyword landscapes
- High-value audiences
- Narrow targeting
Lowering CPC is not inherently positive.
Aggressive bid reduction can:
- Reduce access to senior roles
- Limit exposure within regulated firms
- Bias traffic toward lower-intent segments
What actually matters:
- CPC relative to opportunity value
- CPC by segment (enterprise vs mid-market)
- CPC efficiency over time, not in isolation
If higher CPC drives materially stronger pipeline, it is not inefficient.
5. Lead Volume
Lead volume is comforting because it’s visible.
But fintech deals are often:
- Long-cycle
- Multi-touch
- Heavily qualified
- Risk-sensitive
High lead volume without downstream progression is noise.
What actually matters:
- Percentage of paid leads that enter pipeline
- Percentage that reach late-stage
- Average deal size of paid-acquired customers
- Sales feedback on quality
In fintech, quality variance is often more significant than quantity variance.
6. Platform-Reported Conversions
Ad platforms show you what they can see.
Fintech revenue often materialises:
- Months after initial engagement
- After legal review
- After the compliance assessment
- After procurement negotiation
Platform dashboards rarely reflect this reality without CRM integration.
Optimising campaigns purely based on in-platform conversions risks reinforcing shallow signals.
What actually matters:
- Offline conversion imports
- CRM revenue tracking
- Pipeline-stage feedback loops
- Attribution beyond last-click
Without feeding meaningful data back into the platforms, optimisation will drift toward easier but less valuable actions.
7. Impression Share
Owning impression share can feel strategic.
But in fintech, visibility on broad, generic terms can attract:
- Research-driven clicks
- Students
- Non-regulated firms
- Consultants
High impression share does not equal commercial dominance.
What actually matters:
- Impression share on high-intent, vertical-specific keywords
- Share of voice within defined financial segments
- Incremental pipeline generated per increase in spend
Precision beats volume in regulated markets.
8. Short-Term Performance Snapshots
Fintech sales cycles are rarely short.
Judging campaign performance on:
- 30-day CPL
- 60-day conversion rate
- Early-stage volume
often leads to premature conclusions.
Enterprise fintech deals can take months to materialise.
What actually matters:
- Cohort analysis over time
- Pipeline maturation rates
- Win-rate progression
- Revenue attribution windows aligned to sales cycle length
Patience paired with structured measurement outperforms reactive optimisation.
What a Strong FinTech PPC Measurement Framework Looks Like
Instead of focusing on surface metrics, fintech campaigns benefit from layered reporting:
Primary Metrics
- Paid CAC by vertical
- Cost per qualified opportunity
- Pipeline value generated from paid
- Win rate of paid-acquired deals
Secondary Metrics
- CVR by ICP segment
- Average deal size by paid source and blended view
- Payback period by segment
Diagnostic Metrics
- CTR (by seniority and vertical)
- CPC trends
- Impression share on high-intent clusters
This hierarchy keeps optimisation aligned to commercial outcomes rather than engagement aesthetics.
The Core Issue: Optimisation Without Commercial Context
Fintech performance fails when:
- Agencies optimise for what’s easy to measure
- Dashboards replace sales conversations
- Efficiency is defined as “cheaper” rather than “better”
The more regulated and high-value your audience, the more dangerous shallow metrics become.
The better question isn’t:
“How do we lower CPL?”
It’s:
“Which paid activity creates customers who are commercially viable, regulatorily aligned, and defensible over time?”
When you ask that, the metrics that matter become clearer and the ones that don’t quietly lose their influence.
For more advice and insight on this topic, read our Guide To Scaling FinTech Paid Advertising.
