The cost of attracting a client to receive a cash loan from banks increased by more than 13%

The cost of attracting a client to obtain a cash loan from banks increased by more than 13% in the second quarter. The indicator has become a record since at least the beginning of 2021 and will continue to increase, bankers and experts believe in their opinion. Against the backdrop of the departure of the largest advertising platforms from the Russian market, bankers have fewer options for promoting services online.

According to the ecosystem of CPA solutions (a form of marketing when an advertiser attracts partners to promote a product directly, but through an intermediary and pays only for a specific client action) Unicom, the cost of attracting a client to receive a cash loan showed a significant increase in the second quarter of 2023 — more than 13%. The indicator became a record one since at least the beginning of 2021 and approached 9 thousand rubles. for one client.

Such a “price increase” is caused by the demand from advertisers (in this case, financial companies) for new customers: now it is important for them not only to increase the number of applications, but also to attract high-quality traffic, Unicom CEO Dmitry Afrikanov explains the trend. The cost of attracting a client in the financial segment will continue to grow by the end of the year, he is sure.

“If we talk about the quality of traffic, then the CPA direction is a less conversion channel in terms of conversion from an application to an issue compared to two other high-capacity traffic sources – contextual advertising and SEO attraction,” notes the director of digital business and development of relations with clients of Post-bank Irina Elistratova.

Nevertheless, according to Andrey Chesnokov, head of digital customer acquisition at Rosbank, this is an important channel for digital customer acquisition for banks. “The bank pays for attracting a client, not for referrals or applications, thus reducing the risk of purchasing low-quality traffic,” he explains the advantages of the tool, despite the increase in its cost, he. “We see a significant increase in the cost of attracting through CPA sites, especially when compared with last year: the withdrawal of foreign sites from the Russian advertising market provoked a shortage of advertising tools, respectively, in the face of fierce competition in the banking market, prices on available sites increased.

The attraction price will continue to grow, Andrey Chesnokov agrees with Unicom’s forecasts, its growth in the autumn period, which is traditionally booming for banking products, will be especially obvious.

“Given the growing competition between banks for a client, especially in the fourth quarter, we do not rule out an increase in the cost of attraction, primarily in contextual advertising and online media channels. We do not plan to increase the amount of remuneration for CPA networks in the second half of 2023. we will continue to work with internal conversion from application to issue in order to increase the attractiveness of the bank for CPA sites,” said Irina Elistratova. Rosbank also expects the largest price increase in contextual advertising: this is the most conversion and high-quality traffic, and the departure of Google contextual advertising from the Russian market provoked a shortage of such tools.

This situation on the market raises concerns of human rights activists. “An increase in the cost of attracting a client is a decrease in the bank margin,” says Alla Khrapunova, an expert of the “People’s Front” project “For the Rights of Borrowers,” Alla Khrapunova. “Of course, lenders will look for other sources of increasing profitability: raising rates, imposing services.” But such an approach will reduce consumer loyalty, she points out.

First of all, banks will fight for a good client, and not for attracting a new one, but for keeping an old one. The growth of competition, Alla Khripunova believes, will lead to the development of various programs and services that increase consumer loyalty.

Polina Trifonova