How an Options Research Team Halves Its Cost per Lead with Compliant Ads and a Connected Funnel

Rejected ads, leads waiting hours for a reply, and payments matched by hand from screenshots. This is the six-month ads and funnel playbook we run for research teams: compliant campaigns, a landing page for each plan and a funnel from lead to KYC, payment and channel access.

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Last updated: 2 November 2026

A note on confidentiality: we never publish client names or identifying details. Research firms trust us with their growth, and discretion is part of that. This case study is a composite: the firm, timeline and figures represent how our ads and funnel engagements run, rather than one named client's results.

At a glance

Measure	Before	After six months
Monthly ad spend	₹1.5 lakh	₹1.5 lakh
Cost per lead	₹1,400	₹620
Leads a month	About 110	About 240
Lead to paying client	4%	9%
New subscribers a month from ads	4 to 5	About 21
Payment to channel access	Several hours	Minutes, automatically

Firm: a SEBI-registered research analyst firm of four people publishing options and index research, with a paid Telegram channel and about 350 subscribers. Service: Full funnel (SEO + AEO, ads and funnels), with the Finuro platform for onboarding and billing. Length: six months.

The situation before

Ads that kept getting rejected

A general agency ran the firm's Meta ads. Creatives that hinted at returns were rejected again and again, the ad account was flagged, and the copy that did run sat uncomfortably with SEBI's advertisement code for research analysts. Every rejection meant days without leads. This is the most common problem we inherit from agencies that don't specialise in SEBI-regulated businesses.

Leads arriving as WhatsApp messages

Every ad sent people to a WhatsApp chat. Leads arrived at all hours, the team replied when it could, and only about a third heard back the same day. Nothing recorded which ad a lead came from, so nobody knew which campaigns were worth the money.

Manual payments and channel access

Clients paid by UPI and sent a screenshot. Someone matched the payment, collected KYC documents over WhatsApp and only then added the client to the Telegram channel, often hours later. Interested leads were dropping out partway through.

What we did

Month 1: compliant ads and tracking

Rewrote every ad around the SEBI advertisement code: no assured or past returns, registration details where required, and the firm's approval on every ad before it ran.
Moved most of the budget to Google Search campaigns on high-intent searches, and kept Meta for a free webinar.
Set up GA4 conversion tracking for booked calls and plan purchases, so every campaign was judged on paying clients, not clicks.

Months 2 to 3: landing pages and the funnel

Built a landing page for each plan and one for the webinar, each with the plan's terms, fees and registration details.
Sent every lead straight into the Finuro CRM, assigned to a named team member with a follow-up task.
Moved sign-up to e-KYC and e-sign onboarding and gateway payment, with the Telegram invite sent automatically the moment payment succeeds.

Months 4 to 6: optimisation

Cut every keyword and audience that brought leads but no paying clients.
Tested landing page headlines and forms every month.
Started SEO on the firm's site, so search traffic would build alongside the ads.

The results, month by month

Month	Cost per lead	Leads	Lead to paying client	New subscribers
0	₹1,400	110	4%	4 to 5
2	₹980	150	6%	9
4	₹720	205	8%	16
6	₹620	240	9%	21

Two levers did the work. The cost per lead fell because budget moved to search, where people are already looking for a research analyst, and because we cut campaigns that never produced a paying client. The conversion rate rose because of the funnel: every lead got a fast reply from a named person, and a client ready to pay could finish KYC, sign, pay and join the channel in one sitting.

Why it worked

Compliance as a growth lever. Ads written to the advertisement code stop getting rejected, so the account runs every day instead of in fits and starts.
Measured on paying clients. Optimising for clicks or form fills rewards the wrong campaigns. We track every rupee to a subscription.
No gaps in the funnel. Each manual step between interest and payment loses clients. Removing them is often worth more than any ad change.

What we cut, and why

YouTube video campaigns delivered cheap views and very few leads, so we paused them in month three. Broad Meta audiences produced plenty of form fills from people looking for free tips. We narrowed them to webinar attendees and lookalikes of paying clients: volume fell and quality rose sharply.

What it meant for the firm

On the same ad spend, the firm went from four or five new subscribers a month from ads to about twenty. With every ad inside the advertisement code, rejections stopped, and the team got its time back for research and client questions instead of chasing payment screenshots.

Is this the right playbook for you?

It is, if you already have plans clients want and need new clients sooner than SEO can deliver. Ads stop when the budget stops, so we run SEO alongside them for lasting growth; see the SEO and AEO case study.

Frequently asked questions

Answers to common questions on this topic.

Why don't you name the client?

We never publish client names or details that could identify them. This case study is a composite that shows how our ads and funnel engagements run and the figures they are built to move. On a growth call we can walk you through the approach for your own firm in detail.

Can SEBI research analysts run Google and Meta ads?

Yes, within SEBI's advertisement rules for research analysts: no assured returns, no misleading claims and registration details where required. We write every ad to the current code and you approve it before it runs; see the advertisement code guide.

How soon do ads bring leads?

Within the first few weeks. The cost per lead then falls month by month as we cut the campaigns that don't produce paying clients.

Do I need the Finuro platform to use the growth service?

No. Finuro Growth works with or without the platform, but connecting the funnel to Finuro's onboarding, billing and paid channels removes every manual step between a lead and a paying client.

Who owns the ad accounts?

You do. Campaigns run in your own ad accounts, and the landing pages and content are yours.

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