Executive Summary
A leading fintech company specializing in online short-term loans partnered with CMAX.ai to revitalize their stagnant SEO strategy. Through a progressive deployment starting in January 2023 and completing in May 2023, the client experienced a sixfold increase in both SEO traffic and loan applications, while halving their cost per acquisition compared to their PPC program.
Introduction and Background
The client, a prominent player in the online short-term loan industry, had a strong SEO foundation but faced growth challenges. Their digital marketing strategy relied heavily on costly Google Ads, with average CPCs exceeding $18 and inflating by 15-30% annually. Despite ranking in the top 10 for several popular terms, their SEO performance had plateaued for over two years.
Challenges
Before implementing CMAX.ai, the client faced:
- Unsustainable Ad Costs: Multiple six-figure monthly spending on Google Ads with rapidly increasing CPCs.
- Stagnant SEO Growth: No improvement in SEO performance for over two years despite high rankings for popular terms.
- Limited Keyword Coverage: Inability to effectively target long-tail and location-specific keywords at scale.
These challenges were impacting the client’s profitability and hindering their ability to expand market share in a competitive industry.
Solution
To address these issues, the client implemented CMAX.ai in a phased approach starting in January 2023. The solution included:
- Strategic Expansion: Initial deployment began with 1,000 pages in January 2023, progressively expanding to over 15,000 pages by May 2023.
- Targeted Keyword Approach: Focus on suburb-based searches (e.g., “Personal Loans [Suburb]”) and long-tail terms like “instant pay advance.”
- Automated Optimization: Continuous, AI-driven analysis and adjustments to content and cross-linking.
Results
After full deployment of CMAX, the client saw significant improvements:
- Keyword Rankings: Over 1,400 new rankings within just six weeks.
- Traffic Growth: 6X increase in SEO traffic within 12 months.
- Loan Applications: 6X increase in loan applications within 12 months.
- Cost Efficiency: The effective CPA of funded loan applications was 51% that of the PPC program.
- Scalability: Potential to scale 17 times based on keyword research, promising even more cost-effective loan applications than paid media channels.
Conclusion
By leveraging CMAX.ai, the client transformed their SEO strategy, achieving exponential growth in traffic and loan applications while significantly reducing their cost per acquisition. Even for a relatively mature SEO program, CMAX uncovered significant opportunities for expansion and growth.
The client continues to benefit from ongoing improvements and plans to further scale their SEO efforts using CMAX’s capabilities, aiming to capture an even larger market share in the competitive online lending space.
