PowerFunds, a Track client, cut its cost per trial from £565 to £24 in nine weeks, on Meta, in the UK and Sweden. It is one client's result, not a benchmark. The first change was to judge every ad on the paid trials it produced, and to tell Meta to optimise for accounts created instead of clicks.
PowerFunds is a fund-rating app. It rates every fund on the UK and Swedish markets against the best alternatives of its type, fees included, and its Premium tier watches every fund a subscriber holds for £10 a month. In June 2026 it switched on billing and started buying traffic in both markets. From then on, paid media had to find people who would pay, for less than each one is worth to the business.
Financial services ads on Meta run under rules that strip out age, interest and lookalike targeting, so the creative has to find the audience on its own. Every claim also has to stand up to financial promotion rules. In the first week of paid media, a single trial cost £565. At that price, a £10-a-month subscription would take years to earn back the cost of one trial, before counting the trials that never convert.
PowerFunds ran on Track. Track by Outfly is a six-month, fixed-price growth programme from Outfly, a London strategy, brand and marketing company founded in 2010. The work started with the buyers. A Brandscape workshop with the founding team defined the investors PowerFunds should win in each market, and every paid campaign was built around one of them, sending people to a landing page written for that investor.
Next came measurement. Every step from ad to app visit, fund check, account and paid trial was tracked through Google Tag Manager, GA4 and the Meta pixel, so each ad could be priced against the paid trials it produced. With that in place, Meta was switched from optimising for clicks and visits to optimising for accounts created.
The creative did the targeting the rules no longer allow. Every fortnight the ads were replaced in English and Swedish and ranked on what each account and trial cost. The weakest were paused and their budget moved to the strongest. Ads that led with something concrete, a ranking, a fee or a rating, beat the more abstract ones, and that finding became a repeatable content system for paid and organic posts in both markets.
The campaigns land on a marketing site Outfly designed and built for PowerFunds in Webflow, with UK and Swedish versions on one domain. The brand came from the same Brandscape: a frank, watchful voice, a core value of financial justice and a Pointer, the dog that tracks and points, drawn as the PowerFunds logo and carried into the homepage illustration. A design system synced between Figma and Webflow keeps every new landing page consistent. Every statistic on the site carries its source, because each claim has to survive compliance review.
In the first week of paid media, a trial cost £565. It spiked again to £530 in week four. Then, as the tracking, the switch to optimising for accounts and the fortnightly creative swaps took hold, the cost fell week by week to £230, £185, £162 and £135. Nine weeks later, in week ten, a trial cost £24, 96% less than at the start, and £33 the week after.
| Point in the campaign | Cost per trial |
|---|---|
| Week one of paid media | £565 |
| Week four | £530 |
| The weeks that followed, in order | £230, £185, £162, £135 |
| Week ten (nine weeks after the first week) | £24 |
| Week eleven | £33 |
| Measure | Cost per trial | Organic impressions |
|---|---|---|
| Before | £565 (week one) | Start of the period |
| After | £24 (week ten) | Up 116% |
| Period | Nine weeks of paid media, 2026 | Same period |
| Market and channel | UK and Sweden, Meta, under financial promotion rules | UK and Sweden |
Organic impressions rose 116% over the same period, and PowerFunds launched in both markets with seed backing from Symvan Capital and press coverage in the UK and Sweden.
For the founders, the cost of a trial became a number they could see every week and plan around, with budget going only to the ads that produced trials. If your own paid media costs more than it returns, start with where to look first. See what Track costs.
This is one client's result, and results vary.
Outfly has been a tremendous partner to PowerFunds. The team has helped us enormously, bringing thoughtful ideas, strong execution and a genuine commitment to our success. They listen, understand what we are trying to build and are always willing to go the extra mile. Working with them has felt like having an extension of our own team. I’m very happy to recommend them.
Fabulous team that I can recommend for anyone seeking world class advice in branding, growth marketing, analytics or performance marketing.
Outfly has been a tremendous partner to PowerFunds. The team has helped us enormously, bringing thoughtful ideas, strong execution and a genuine commitment to our success. They listen, understand what we are trying to build and are always willing to go the extra mile. Working with them has felt like having an extension of our own team. I’m very happy to recommend them.
Track judged every ad on the paid trials it produced, then let that number steer the spend. Every step from ad to paid trial was tracked, Meta was switched from optimising for visits to optimising for accounts created, the creative was replaced every fortnight and budget moved to the strongest ads. Cost per trial fell from £565 in the first week of paid media to £24 nine weeks later.
Let the creative do the targeting. Financial services ads on Meta can’t use age, interest or lookalike targeting, and every claim has to pass financial promotion rules. For PowerFunds, ads that led with something concrete, a ranking, a fee or a rating, found the right investors at a lower cost than more abstract ones, and the fortnightly reviews moved budget to them.
It fell steadily after a bumpy first month. A trial cost £565 in the first week of paid media and spiked again to £530 in week four, then fell week by week to £230, £185, £162 and £135 as weaker ads were paused and budget moved to the strongest. Nine weeks later, in week ten, a trial cost £24, and £33 the week after.
Price every ad against the paid trials it produces, and optimise for the step closest to revenue. At PowerFunds, that meant telling Meta to optimise for accounts created, then using the fortnightly creative reviews to cut ads that looked busy but didn’t convert. Ads that led with a concrete ranking, fee or rating beat the more abstract ones.
£24 is what PowerFunds paid in week ten, and it says nothing about what your trials should cost. A good cost per trial depends on what a paying customer is worth to you and how many trials turn into paying customers, so the useful test is whether a trial costs less than the margin a new customer brings in. PowerFunds’ subscription is £10 a month, which is why £565 a trial could not last. This is one client's result, and results vary.
Cost per trial counts what you spend to get someone to start a trial. Customer acquisition cost counts what you spend to win a paying customer, so it is the higher figure whenever some trials don’t convert. PowerFunds priced each ad against paid trials, the last step its tracking measured, which kept the spend tied to the step nearest revenue.
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