Paid Ads Diagnostic · Financial Brands

Paid Ads Diagnostic for Regulated Financial Brands

Five diagnostic areas. One priority action plan. Delivered in 4–6 hours. Conversion tracking health, FTD attribution, platform certification, campaign structure, and competitor intelligence — the diagnostic that reveals what your standard platform reporting is hiding.

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What the Diagnostic Covers

Five areas. Standard reporting shows none of them.

The complete paid ads diagnostic for a regulated financial brand — from data integrity through to competitor intelligence, covering everything between ad spend and first-time depositor cost that platform dashboards don't show.

01

Conversion Tracking Health

Data integrity before anything else. If the pixel is misfiring, CAPI is disconnected, or conversion events are duplicated, every other diagnostic finding is built on wrong data. Server-side tracking health, Meta CAPI connection quality, Google conversion tag firing verification, and event deduplication — checked and confirmed before campaign analysis begins. Most brands have at least one tracking issue that's been silently corrupting their data.

02

FTD Attribution Diagnostic

The gap between ad platform registrations and trading platform FTDs — mapped, quantified, and specified. True FTD cost by campaign calculated where attribution is closed. Attribution bridge specification where it isn't: unified user identifier, UTM-to-CRM parameter pass, reporting bridge architecture, and conversion event redefinition from registration to FTD. Two campaigns showing €45 CPA on platform can be producing FTDs at €130 and €375.

03

Platform Certification + FCA Creative Compliance

Certification status across Google and Meta for CFD, forex, and financial product advertising. Live creative assessed against FCA and ESMA financial promotions requirements: performance claims, required risk warning presence and prominence, comparative statement compliance, and promotional framing constraints. Non-compliant creative is regulatory risk deployed at paid acquisition speed and scale.

04

Campaign Structure + Budget Allocation

Campaign architecture, audience targeting logic, bidding strategy, and budget allocation assessed against FTD commercial outcomes — not platform ROAS metrics. Where the budget allocation decisions are wrong because they're based on registration CPA. Geographic targeting verified against the brand's regulatory permissions — identifying any targeting in jurisdictions where the brand is not authorised.

05

Competitor Intelligence + Landing Page Alignment

Competitor creative and targeting from Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center — which competitor brokers are running ads, what creative angles they're using, what audiences they're targeting, how long campaigns have been running (longevity = profitability signal). Landing page alignment audit: ad-to-page message match, compliance consistency, conversion architecture, and mobile UX at the first click.

How It Works

Surgical. Not a week-long engagement.

4–6 hours total. You provide the data. I do the analysis. You review and present. The 80/20 roadmap is the centrepiece — not a 60-page report of every finding.

01

You provide data

30–45 min

Ahrefs exports, GSC, GA4, ad account data, back-office funnel numbers. One brief covering the client's 3 main problems and 3 main competitors. Everything exportable in under an hour.

02

Full analysis

2–3 hours

Complete audit across all pillars. Competitor gap analysis. YMYL and FCA compliance review. Findings prioritised by commercial impact — not by audit severity score.

03

Review & refine

30–45 min

You review the output, add client relationship context, adjust framing. Nothing should surprise you — the 80/20 roadmap is structured to match the priorities you briefed.

04

Deliver to client

1 hour

Presentation-ready findings. The 3 highest-leverage fixes first. Supporting actions second. 90-day roadmap as the centrepiece. Discovery conversation for the next engagement built in.

What It Delivers

What your platform dashboard doesn't show. Prioritised.

The 80/20 rule applied to every output: the 3 things that move the needle 80% of the way, the next 5 that handle the remaining 20%, and everything else deprioritised and revisited in 90 days.

The 80/20 roadmap format

3 highest-leverage actions → fix these first, they produce 80% of the improvement.
Next 5 supporting actions → the remaining 20%, sequenced by compound impact.
90-day timeline → month-by-month so the CMO can plan resources and set expectations internally.

  • Tracking health status — every tracking issue identified with exact fix specification, ready to hand to a developer.
  • FTD cost by campaign (where attribution is closed) or full attribution bridge specification (where it isn't).
  • Compliance risk register — every identified FCA/ESMA issue in live creative, the specific rule, the risk level, and the creative amendment required.
  • The 3 highest-leverage campaign changes (80%) — budget reallocation, structural fixes, or compliance remediation that produces the largest commercial improvement.
  • Competitor intelligence summary — what the three main competing brokers are running in paid, what angles are working for them, and where the opportunity gaps are.

Ready to see what your paid acquisition
is actually producing in FTDs — not registrations?

Book a discovery call to discuss your current paid setup, your three main competing brokers, and what the diagnostic would reveal about commercial performance and compliance status.

Book a Discovery Call →