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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

+188%

Increase in Lead Volume

-47%

Reduction in CAC

3×

Customer Acquisition YoY

$4.8M

New Revenue Pipeline

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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

  • LinkedIn: Maintained for B2B targeting and warm lead generation

  • Google Ads: Search (brand + category keywords) for high-intent capture

  • 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:

  • "Why Switch from [Competitor]?" comparison pages

  • ROI calculators showing cost savings vs. manual expense processes

  • 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:

  • Self-service registration replacing "book a demo" forms

  • Automated onboarding flows with email sequences and in-app guidance

  • 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:

  • Company size: Micro-business vs. growth-stage SMB (different pain points)

  • Industry vertical: Retail, professional services, hospitality (different use cases)

  • 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:

  • Weekly A/B testing of ad creative, landing page copy, and CTAs

  • Bi-weekly budget reallocation based on cost-per-acquisition by channel

  • 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:

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+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.

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-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.

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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.

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The Transformation Playbook:

  • 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

  • Used Google to capture high-intent searches: Brand and competitor keywords intercepted prospects actively comparing solutions and ready to evaluate

  • Reduced CAC through competitor comparison landing pages: Addressing "why switch?" objections directly on landing pages eliminated friction and improved conversion rates

  • 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.

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