Cashback Loans
California, USA
Cashback Loan USA delivers quick and convenient payday loan services exclusively to users in California. USA.
Campaign Setup
Client Overview
Cashback Loans is a financial services provider specializing in short-term payday loans, targeting low- to mid-income adults in California. Operating in a regulated industry, the company faced strict advertising restrictions on Google and Meta, requiring an alternative platform to drive brand awareness and lead generation.
Website: https://www.cashbackloans.com/
Industry: Financial Services (Payday Loans)
Monthly Budget: $6500
Target Audience: Users looking for quick short-term financial support until payday.
Challenge
Payday loan services are barred from advertising on Google and Meta platforms
Google and Meta Prohibition of Payday Loans: The policy explicitly states, "Google and Meta prohibit the advertisement of payday loans and some related products." This is the most direct and fundamental reason. We cannot advertise these services on the platform.
Solution
We tried to find an alternative platform to advertise Cashback Loans, like Outbrain, Cretio, Taboola, Inmobi and appNexus and get more traffic to the website. We were able to get onboarded on the Taboola platform. We learnt that by tweaking ads and landing pages, we can comply with advertising policies and start running our ads.
Taboola is a leading Content Discovery and Native Advertising platform. In simple terms, it helps people discover content they might be interested in across the web and allows businesses to reach relevant audiences through native ads that blend seamlessly with the surrounding content.
Why did we go ahead with Taboola?
-
A Leading Player in the US Native Landscape: Taboola is consistently identified as one of the major players in the native advertising market in the USA. Sources often list them alongside competitors like Outbrain and Nativo.
-
Harnessing Taboola's Rich Data Capabilities: Gain a competitive edge by leveraging Taboola's robust data ecosystem. This includes valuable first-party data (insights into Taboola's own user behaviour and preferences) and extensive third-party data (information aggregated from various external sources)
Strategy
We designed a phased PPC strategy using Taboola’s native advertising:
-
Funnel Gaps: Cashback Loans needed a structured approach to move from top-of-funnel (TOFU) brand awareness in Q2 to middle-of-funnel (MOFU) lead generation in Q3, while ensuring compliant, high-ROI campaigns.
-
Q2 (TOFU): Focus on visibility to build the marketing funnel foundation. Target broad audiences in California interested in loans, personal finance, and credit.
-
Q3 (MOFU): Shift 70-80% of budget to remarketing website visitors for conversions, with 20-30% on awareness.
Targeting and Tactics
-
Location: California, US.
-
Audiences: Low-income adults, lower-mid income families, credit card holders, luxury credit card holders (using Taboola's 1P/3P data).
-
Formats: Image and video ads for visual storytelling emphasising speed and simplicity.
-
Remarketing: In Q3, target "All Website Visitors" to nurture warm leads.
Budget Allocation
Implementation
The strategy launched in Q2 2025 with a focus on mobile and desktop campaigns. We iterated based on performance data:
-
June (Q2 Focus: Awareness): Ran broad audience campaigns on mobile. Emphasised premium English-language publishers to reduce bot traffic and build trust.
-
July (Transition to Q3: Lead Gen): Allocated full $6,500 budget to a mobile lead-gen campaign. Introduced whitelabel publisher placements for higher-quality traffic. Monitored via Taboola dashboard and cross-verified with backend data (e.g., Spark team tracking).
Key changes in July:
-
Premium placements on vetted sites for better brand perception.
-
Broad targeting on interests like retail, lifestyle, and personal finance.
Results
The campaigns delivered strong performance, with improvements from June to July as we shifted toward lead gen.
-
June (Awareness):
-
$6,500 budget drove over 2,500 conversions (2,244 "Tb_Send_Message," 115 "Tb_Email_Address_Click").
-
Backend data: 117 web leads (321 funded), 25 additional leads (131 funded).
-
550 direct form submissions are indirectly tied to Taboola.
-
July (Lead Gen):
-
$6,027 spent yielded 4.86M impressions, 19,134 clicks (CTR: 0.39%, CPC: $0.32).
-
Conversions: 23 loan forms (CPA: $262),
-
74 homepage forms (CPA: $81.44),
-
53 phone clicks, 37 messages,
-
11 email clicks.
-
Revised with backend data: 63 loan forms (CPA: $96). CTR peaked at 0.47% for business professionals.
Month-over-Month Improvement:
Loan form submissions rose from 5 (June) to 23 (July, dashboard) / 63 (revised), reflecting optimized targeting and placements.
Conclusion and Lessons Learned
This campaign successfully bypassed traditional platform barriers, establishing Taboola as a viable channel for Cashback Loans. We generated over 4.86M impressions, 19K+ clicks, and 63+ leads in July alone, with a revised CPA of $96—demonstrating efficient scaling from awareness to conversions.
Key Learnings:
-
Native advertising on premium publishers builds trust in regulated industries.
-
Remarketing to website visitors (Q3 focus) amplifies ROI by nurturing warm leads.
-
Cross-tool tracking (Taboola + GA4 + backend) is essential for accurate attribution, especially for delayed conversions.
-
Device-specific campaigns (e.g., proposed $200/day desktop) can further reduce drop-offs and boost completions.
Hire Me Now
Call or WhatsApp me. Lets have a chat.
