Opportunity Knocks:
Driving 781,000+ leads in 5 months

Business Lending
Customer Story

National small business lender specializing in SBA loans.

  • Paid media advertising
  • Testing & optimization
  • Website support

How Do You Scale Borrower Acquisition Fast & Efficiently?

A small business lender with national services and borrowers needed help scaling their lead generation efforts quickly and within target cost ranges in order to provide PPP financing to thousands of businesses in need during the pandemic. However, they did not possess the in-house expertise or resources to go after their goals in a timely and efficient manner. The window of opportunity was a mere 5 months, or until the SBA’s PPP funding ran out.

Goals

The goals of the engagement were to:
 
  • Plan, build, and manage advertising campaigns to drive targeted quality leads at or below an agreed-upon cost.

  • Optimize the campaigns over time to maintain or reduce the cost level and/or increase volume.

  • Report daily and make adjustments on campaign performance.

  • Maximize output while balancing quality until the end of the PPP window.

The Solution

Given the urgency and limited window for this opportunity, the CSTMR team quickly launched into the campaign by gathering key information and data from the client and other market sources. Then then devised an acquisition strategy and approach, defined the target audience(s), and set agreed upon target advertising goals. Once the plan was in place, CSTMR developed the needed assets, implemented initial campaign configurations, and had updated ad campaigns running in 6 days for the client.

The CSTMR team had to move quickly on time-sensitive PPP financing digital ad campaigns for small business owners. Within 6 days, the team formulated a strategy, reviewed the existing account, and had the initial paid media campaigns up and running. From there, the team optimized the campaigns to stay below target costs – successfully lowering the costs each successive month and driving thousands of leads into the sales process.

Rory Holland
CEO, CSTMR

Tactics

Following the goals of the campaigns, the CSTMR team employed the following tactics:
 
  • Tested multiple ad platforms, audience configurations, timing, creative messaging, landing page and more in order to learn and optimize the campaigns.
  • Monitored and reported on campaign performance daily, then made decisions on how best to optimize.
  • Tested retargeting and email nurturing to support overall campaign goals.

Results

Effective and Efficient Campaigns Deliver Timely Quality Leads

The client successfully collected a significant number of quality leads and loan applications during the campaign period, resulting in thousands of small businesses receiving the PPP funding they needed to stay afloat during the pandemic. It also resulted in material revenue generation for the client, further supported by campaigns that were consistently under target costs and optimized lower month over month.

6 days

Launched revised ad campaigns within 6 days of kickoff.

>29% CPL

Averaged 29%
under target CPL.

>28% CPA

Averaged 28%
under target CPA.

781,000 leads

Drove over 781,000 leads…

3.5% conv rate

…  at an average 3.5% completed app rate.

5 months

Reduced CPL and CPA every month for 5 months straight.

Looking to grow, optimize, or launch your financial services marketing?