Business Spend & Expense Platform | Series A Fintech
A fast-growth expense management fintech (backed by a major financial institution) relied solely on LinkedIn for leads. We diversified their channel mix, built a frictionless digital acquisition journey, and turned their demand generation into a predictable growth engine.
Key Stats
About the Client
This Series A fintech platform (backed by a major financial institution) helps SMBs manage business spend, travel, and expenses through a single digital solution. Their target customers are small-to-medium business owners, finance leaders, and decision-makers who need simplified spend management without enterprise complexity.
As a fast-growth startup in a competitive category, they needed to scale customer acquisition rapidly while maintaining healthy unit economics.
The Challenge
The client relied exclusively on LinkedIn for lead generation - a common early-stage approach. But as they raised capital and needed to scale, the single-channel strategy became a bottleneck.
Specific problems:
LinkedIn Saturation & Rising Costs
As the only paid channel, LinkedIn CPMs and CPLs climbed as audience fatigue set in. They were hitting diminishing returns and couldn't scale lead volume without ballooning CAC.
Long, Manual Sales Cycle
Prospects who submitted leads went through lengthy manual sales processes - multiple calls, demos, and back-and-forth - before onboarding. This slowed time-to-revenue and strained the small sales team.
No Channel Diversification
With 100% of demand gen eggs in the LinkedIn basket, any algorithm change, budget shift, or audience saturation would crater pipeline. They needed resilience and optionality.
CAC Pressure as They Scaled
Investors expected efficient growth. CAC needed to come down while acquisition volume increased - a challenge that single-channel strategies rarely solve.
Our Approach
We expanded from LinkedIn-only to a three-channel paid media ecosystem. We rebuilt the customer acquisition journey to remove manual sales friction and embedded a test-and-learn framework to continuously improve performance.
1. Expanded Channel Mix from LinkedIn to LinkedIn + Google + Meta
We launched campaigns across three strategic channels:
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LinkedIn: Maintained for B2B targeting and warm lead generation
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Google Ads: Search (brand + category keywords) for high-intent capture
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Meta (Facebook/Instagram): SMB decision-maker targeting + retargeting sequences
Each channel served a strategic role: LinkedIn and Meta for awareness and consideration, Google for high-intent conversion at the bottom of the funnel.
2. Built Competitor Comparison Landing Pages
We created landing pages that directly addressed SMB pain points and positioned the client against incumbents:
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"Why Switch from [Competitor]?" comparison pages
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ROI calculators showing cost savings vs. manual expense processes
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Customer testimonials from similar SMB businesses
These pages increased conversion rates by answering the exact questions prospects had during evaluation.
3. Created a Frictionless Digital Registration Journey
The biggest breakthrough: removing manual sales touches from the onboarding process.
We rebuilt the post-click experience:
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Self-service registration replacing "book a demo" forms
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Automated onboarding flows with email sequences and in-app guidance
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Instant account activation so prospects could start using the platform immediately
This reduced time-from-click-to-customer from weeks to days - and freed the sales team to focus on higher-value enterprise deals.
4. Refined Audience Segmentation & Creative Strategy
We segmented SMB decision-makers by:
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Company size: Micro-business vs. growth-stage SMB (different pain points)
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Industry vertical: Retail, professional services, hospitality (different use cases)
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Pain point: Expense tracking chaos, travel policy enforcement, lack of visibility
Each segment received tailored messaging that spoke to their specific challenges - no generic "manage your business spend" ads.
5. Embedded a Test-and-Learn Performance Framework
We implemented continuous optimization:
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Weekly A/B testing of ad creative, landing page copy, and CTAs
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Bi-weekly budget reallocation based on cost-per-acquisition by channel
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Monthly reporting on CAC trends, channel contribution, and conversion rate improvements
This framework ensured CAC decreased while lead volume scaled - an uncommon achievement.
The Results
Three-channel diversification + competitor positioning + frictionless onboarding = exponential growth. Here's what happened:
Key Outcomes:
+188% Increase in Total Lead Volume
By expanding from 1 channel to 3, we nearly tripled the number of prospects entering the funnel - without tripling the budget. Each channel contributed incrementally, creating a resilient acquisition engine.
-47% Reduction in CAC
Better targeting, competitor comparison landing pages, and frictionless onboarding meant we acquired customers more efficiently. CAC dropped from ~£850 to ~£450 while maintaining lead quality.
3× Increase in Customer Acquisition YoY
More leads + lower CAC + faster onboarding = dramatically more customers. The client onboarded 3× more SMBs in Year 2 than Year 1.
£4.8M in New Revenue Pipeline, with Faster Conversions
The automated onboarding removed weeks from the sales cycle. Prospects who previously took 30-45 days to close now activated in 7-14 days. This velocity improvement compounded revenue impact.
What This Proves
Channel diversification + message relevance drives exponential growth in fintech.
When you rely on a single channel, you're vulnerable to algorithm changes, audience saturation, and competitive pressure. A strategic three-channel approach creates resilience and unlocks different audience segments at different stages of awareness.
The Transformation Playbook:
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Turned Meta from an awareness channel into a true lead driver: Facebook/Instagram, often dismissed in B2B, became a top-3 lead source by targeting SMB owners where they actually spend time
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Used Google to capture high-intent searches: Brand and competitor keywords intercepted prospects actively comparing solutions and ready to evaluate
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Reduced CAC through competitor comparison landing pages: Addressing "why switch?" objections directly on landing pages eliminated friction and improved conversion rates
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Built a frictionless acquisition journey from ad click → funded application: Self-service onboarding eliminated sales bottlenecks and mirrored the client's digital-first product experience
This three-channel framework - LinkedIn for awareness, Google for high-intent capture, Meta for SMB reach - is now the playbook for scaling SMB fintech acquisition.
Need to Scale Customer Acquisition for Your Company?
Single-channel strategies hit walls. Multi-channel ecosystems scale efficiently. Let's build a growth engine that reduces CAC while increasing volume.