Completed applications at $8.30 each.
1,970 completed banking applications from $16K monthly spend. The $8.30 cost per application is 80% below standard industry benchmarks. Rebuilt conversion tracking revealed the previous agency had been optimising for application starts — only 18% of which completed. Campaigns optimised for completions from day one delivered a completely different result.
Compliance vs performance
A regulated market with strict rules — and tracking tuned to application starts, not completions.
Compliant, completion-first
Disclaimers in every ad, conversions rebuilt to count completed applications, smart bidding retrained.
1,970 apps at $8.30
$8.30 cost per completed application — 80% below the published sector floor.
01 The problem
A major Nordic bank needed to drive qualified applications for personal banking products in a heavily regulated market. Campaigns for financial products come with strict compliance requirements — specific disclaimers, landing page rules, and audience restrictions. The bank also needed to distinguish between application starts and completions — they'd been tracking the wrong event.
Compliance and performance, both.
Financial services is one of the few verticals where the two genuinely conflict. We hit both.
Built-in compliance
Fully compliant campaigns with required disclaimers baked into every ad variation from the start.
Completion tracking
Rebuilt conversion tracking to measure completed applications, not clicks to the form — only 18% of starts completed.
Intent-based audiences
Created segments from financial-intent signals to reach genuine applicants in a restricted market.
Retargeting & retraining
Display retargeted abandoners while smart bidding was retrained on the corrected completion data.
Below every published benchmark.
03 The results
1,970 completed banking applications from $16K monthly spend. The $8.30 cost per application is 80% below standard industry benchmarks. Rebuilt conversion tracking revealed the previous agency had been optimising for application starts — only 18% of which completed. Campaigns optimised for completions from day one delivered a completely different result.
Six weeks, compliant and cheap.
Compliance → completions → audiences → retraining.
Compliance setup
Built disclaimers into every ad variation to satisfy the regulated market's rules.
Completion tracking
Rebuilt conversions to count completed applications — exposing that only 18% of starts finished.
Intent audiences
Created financial-intent segments and launched compliant Search and Display.
Retargeting
Display retargeted application abandoners while bidding retrained on completions.
$8.30 CPA
1,970 completed applications at $8.30 — 80% below the sector floor.
What the bank kept.
Documented, portable, and owned by the client not locked inside our account.
- ✓Compliant ad libraryDisclaimers baked into every variation.
- ✓Completion-based trackingConversions that count finished applications.
- ✓Financial-intent audiencesSegments for genuine applicants.
- ✓Retargeting flowsRecovering form abandoners.
- ✓Retrained bidding configSmart bidding on completion data.
- ✓Compliance checklistSign-off process for every ad.
04 Why it worked
Financial services is one of the few verticals where compliance and performance genuinely conflict. Most agencies choose one. We built campaigns that satisfied compliance and hit $8.30 CPA — 80% below the floor of what anyone publishes as a benchmark for this sector.
We were told $8 applications weren't possible in regulated banking. They delivered exactly that — and kept us fully compliant.