Fintech's Guide to Hiring a Facebook Ads Expert in London

I see this all the time. A promising fintech, usually based somewhere competitive like London, gets told they need to be on Facebook. They hire an agency that talks a good game about 'brand awareness' and 'engagement', burns through tens of thousands of pounds, and ends up with a handful of low-quality leads and a load of vanity metrics that don't pay the bills. The problem isn't Facebook ads; it's that the vast majority of 'experts' have no clue how to navigate the specific challenges of financial services.

Selling a fintech product isn't like selling a t-shirt or a subscription box. You're asking for something far more valuable than a one-off payment; you're asking for trust. You're dealing with regulation, longer decision-making cycles, and a customer base that's rightly sceptical. A generic approach that works for e-commerce will get you absolutely nowhere. You need a different mindset, a different strategy, and a different way of measuring success. I want to share some thoughts on how to find someone who actually gets it.

Why are most Facebook ad strategies a death sentence for fintech?

Here's an uncomfortable truth. When you hire a typical agency and they recommend a "brand awareness" or "reach" campaign, they are actively paying Facebook to find the worst possible audience for your product. It sounds mad, but it's how the algorithm works. You've given it one simple instruction: "find me the most eyeballs for the least amount of money."

The algorithm, being ruthlessly efficient, goes out and finds all the users in your target demographic who are cheap to reach precisely because they never click, never engage, and certainly never sign up for a new banking app or investment platform. They are not in demand. Their attention is cheap for a reason. You're literally paying to be ignored by people who were never going to be your customers anyway. It’s the fastest way to set fire to your marketing budget, especially in a place as expensive as the London ad market.

For a fintech, awareness is a byproduct of success, not a prerequisite for it. Awareness is when a customer, acquired through a sharp, conversion-focused campaign, has such a good experience they tell their mates down the pub. To get there, you have to forget awareness and focus entirely on one thing: profitable customer acquisition. This means your campaign objective should always be tied to a hard action – a lead, a sign-up, an account being funded. Anything else is just digital window dressing and a waste of time and money.

How do you spot a genuine expert from a charlatan?

It's simpler than you think. You don't need to be a paid ads genius yourself. You just need to know the one question that cuts through all the bullshit. When you get on that initial 'chemistry call' with a potential consultant or agency, ignore the fancy slides and the promises of "sky-high ROI". Just ask them this:

"Can you walk me through a few of your fintech or B2B SaaS case studies, please?"

Their reaction will tell you everything you need to know. A true expert will light up. They'll be excited to show you the results they've acheived for clients just like you. They'll talk about reducing a client's Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), the LTV to CAC ratio they aimed for, and the specific audience targeting that unlocked growth. They'll show you results in pounds (£), not just dollars, proving they understand the UK market. I remember one campaign we ran for a medical job matching SaaS, for instance, where we managed to get their CPA down from a painful £100 to just £7. That's the kind of concrete result you're looking for.

A charlatan, on the other hand, will deflect. They'll say, "Well, our principles apply to any industry," or they'll show you a case study for a local pizza shop or a fashion brand. This is a massive red flag. While some principles are universal, the application in fintech is completely different. If they can't prove they've successfully navigated your specific industry, they will learn on your dime. And that's a very expensive education.

To make it even clearer, here’s a simple flowchart to follow when you're vetting a potential partner. If you can't get a "YES" on the critical steps, you should walk away.

What's the one calculation that separates the pros from the amateurs?

If an agency passes the case study test, the next stage is to see if they think like a business owner, not just a marketer. The conversation needs to move from Cost Per Lead (CPL) to a much more powerful metric: the ratio between Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).

Tbh, if an agency isn't asking you about your LTV, they have no business managing your ad spend. Without knowing what a customer is worth to you over their lifetime, it's impossible to know what you can afford to spend to acquire one. This is especially true in fintech where the initial sign-up might be free, but the long-term value is massive.

Here’s the basic maths. You need to know three things:

1. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): How much revenue does one user generate per month?
2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue?
3. Monthly Churn Rate %: What percentage of users do you lose each month?

The calculation is simple: LTV = (ARPU * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's say your app has an ARPU of £30, a gross margin of 70%, and a monthly churn of 5%.
LTV = (£30 * 0.70) / 0.05 = £21 / 0.05 = £420.

Each customer is worth £420 in gross margin to your business. A healthy LTV:CAC ratio is at least 3:1. This means you can afford to spend up to £140 to acquire a single customer. Suddenly, a £20 CPL from a highly-targeted Facebook ad doesn't look expensive; it looks like an absolute bargain. This single piece of maths liberates you from the tyranny of chasing cheap, low-quality leads and allows you to invest confidently in acquiring the right customers.

To make this tangible, I've built a simple calculator for you below. Play around with your own numbers. See how a small improvement in churn or ARPU can dramatically increase the amount you can afford to spend on marketing.

Who are you actually trying to reach?

Once you know your numbers, you need to find the right people. This is where most fintechs go wrong again. They define their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) with sterile demographics like "males, 25-40, living in London, interested in investing." This tells you almost nothing of value and leads to generic ads that get ignored.

You need to stop thinking about demographics and start thinking about nightmares. Your ICP isn't a person; it's a problem state. What is the specific, urgent, and expensive problem that your product solves? Who is the person lying awake at night worrying about that problem?

For a wealth management app, the nightmare isn't 'wanting to invest'. It's 'seeing my savings get eaten by inflation and feeling powerless to stop it'. For a budgeting app, it's not 'managing money'. It's 'the anxiety of reaching the end of the month and having no idea where all my money went'. For a cross-border payment solution, it's 'the frustration of getting hit with hidden fees every time I send money abroad'.

Your ad copy, your targeting, and your offer must all speak directly to that nightmare. You target the pain, not the person. This means your Facebook interests won't be "Finance"; they'll be competitor apps, financial influencers they trust, niche publications they read, and software they already use. Are they following Martin Lewis? Do they use Revolut but complain about its customer service? That's your targeting.

What's your offer? And why "Request a Demo" is a terrible one

Finally, we get to the most common point of failure: the offer. You can have the best targeting and the best ad copy in the world, but if your call to action is "Request a Demo," you're making a huge mistake. This is probably the most arrogant call to action ever invented. It assumes your prospect has nothing better to do than book a 30-minute meeting to be sold to. It's high-friction and low-value, especially for a busy professional in London.

Your offer's only job is to provide a moment of undeniable value. It must solve a small piece of their problem for free, giving them an "aha!" moment that makes them sell themselves on your full solution. You need to build trust before you can ask for their money or even their time.

For a fintech, this could be:

• A free trial without a credit card. This is the gold standard for any SaaS-based fintech. Let them use the product. Let it prove its own value.
• An interactive calculator or tool. For a mortgage tech company, a "How Much Can I Really Borrow?" calculator. For an investment app, a "Personalised Risk Profile" quiz.
• A high-value piece of content. A whitepaper on "Navigating Capital Gains Tax in the UK" or a guide to "The Top 5 ISAs for 2024".

The goal is to trade value for their contact information, not demand a sales meeting upfront. You earn the right to have a conversation by being helpful first. We do this ourselves – our offer is a free, 20-minute ad account review. We provide real value and demonstrate our expertise. It works far better than just saying "Hire Us".

This is the main advice I have for you:

Finding the right Facebook ads expert in London for your fintech company is difficult, but it's not impossible. You have to arm yourself with the right knowledge and ask the right questions. The table below summarises the shift in mindset you need to adopt to avoid wasting money and start seeing a real return on your ad spend.

Ultimately, the right partner won't just be a Facebook ads technician; they'll be a growth partner who understands the unique commercial realities of the fintech world. They'll be obsessed with your unit economics and relentless in their pursuit of profitable, scalable customer acquisition. They are out there, but they're rare. Hopefully, these points make it a little easier to find them.

If you're still feeling a bit lost and would like a second pair of expert eyes on your current strategy, we offer a completely free, no-obligation 20-minute consultation. We can take a look at your ad account, discuss your goals, and give you some honest, actionable advice you can implement right away. There's no hard sell, just straightforward help from people who do this day in, day out for fintech and SaaS companies. Feel free to get in touch if you think that would be helpful.

Hope this helps!