When a fintech founder says CAC is "too high," the platform is rarely the actual problem. In Kenya's fintech space — lending apps, savings products, payments tools — CAC creep usually comes from three places, and only one has anything to do with the algorithm.
Financial products need a beat of trust before a sign-up feels safe, especially given the noise around predatory lending apps in Kenya. If your ad jumps straight to "download now" without addressing reasonable skepticism, you pay for clicks that bounce at the sign-up screen. Ads that briefly address legitimacy — licensing, data protection, who's behind the product — convert better further down the funnel, even at a slightly lower click-through rate.
Every screen between the ad and the "aha" moment — the first transaction, the first loan offer, the first savings goal — is where CAC quietly climbs. Map your funnel and count the steps. Kenyan mobile users are patient with M-Pesa prompts because that pattern is familiar; they are not patient with generic multi-step onboarding borrowed from a global template.
Many fintech sign-ups don't convert on the first visit — people think it over or get interrupted. Fintechs that push budget too heavily toward cold prospecting, and not enough toward retargeting people who started sign-up but didn't finish, leave some of the cheapest conversions in the account on the table.
Fixing the funnel and the trust signal usually moves CAC more than any bid-strategy change.