What Are Banks’ and Fintechs’ Real Customer Acquisition Costs?

Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The metric that keeps CMOs awake at night, CFOs grumbling about marketing spend, and CEOs demanding “more growth, faster!” Few metrics in the banking and fintech arena are as hard to reliably quantify as this one.

Luckily, a new study from Fintel Connect, 2025 Cost Per Acquisition Benchmarking Guide for Financial Services,provides some much-needed reality checks. Let’s get real about why your acquisition costs might be too high – and how to fix them before your CEO starts asking uncomfortable questions.

The Drivers of Customer Acquisition Cost

Here’s what the benchmarking data makes painfully clear: Your CAC isn’t about how much you’re willing to spend. It’s about how smart you are about five key factors:

1. Product. Spoiler: It costs more to acquire mortgage customers than checking account customers. Simpler, transactional products? Lower CAC. Complex, high-consideration products (loans, investments)? Get ready to open your wallet.
2. Brand. If you’re Chase, Wells, or BofA, your CAC will be lower. People trust you (even if they complain about fees). Unknown brands have to pay more to build credibility and get customers over the finish line.
3. Channels. Paid search and social? Competitive and pricey, but they deliver intent. Email, SEO, and organic? Cheap, but usually lower volume. Affiliate marketing? Performance-based, scalable, and CAC-efficient – if you do it right.
4. Conversion events. What are you measuring as a conversion? Click? Application? Funded account? A deeper funnel could mean higher CAC but better customer quality.
5. Market forces. Rising rates, competitors (i.e., fintechs) dumping venture capital money, and regulatory changes are all external forces marketers can’t control but still impact the cost of acquisition.

Customer Acquisition Cost Benchmarks

Are you overpaying for new customers? Fintel Connect gives banks and fintechs some solid, reliable customer acquisition cost benchmarks for the U.S.:

Banking Cost Per Acquisition
Source: Fintel Connect

Three Trends Impacting Customer Acquisition Costs

Speaking of unpredictability, there are three wildcards impacting banks’ and fintechs’ CAC:

1. AI-driven targeting, which could lower CAC if used right or raise it if everyone else is using AI better
2.  Data privacy regulations impacting third-party cookies, which could result in first-party data collection headaches
3. Incentive inflation, which will drive richer offers – i.e., cash bonuses, better rates – to attract customers. The impact will be higher CAC but potentially paying off in the long term

Can Affiliate Marketing Improve Customer Acquisition Cost?

Affiliate marketing is the under-appreciated workhorse of acquisition because it’s: 1) performance-based – you only pay for actual results; 2) scalable – you control volume by tweaking partner incentives; and 3) predictable – unlike bidding wars in search ads.

But success depends on 1) partnering with quality affiliates, not coupon sites scraping leads; 2) sharing real conversion data, not just shallow clicks; and 3) structuring commissions to reward funded, high-lifetime value accounts, not window shoppers.

Getting Customer Acquisition Costs Under Control

Fintel Connect suggests some short-term tactics to get customer acquisition costs in line:

1.  Clean up conversion paths. Fewer clicks = fewer drop-offs
2.  Use dynamic payouts. Reward partners that bring funded, qualified customers
3.  Capitalize on seasonality. Mortgages in spring, credit cards before the holidays
4.  Test different affiliate mixes. Big-name partners are fine, but niche, long-tail partners can deliver better ROI

On a longer-term horizon, banks and fintechs need to:

1.  Improve marketing analytics. Attribution models, funnel metrics, and partner dashboards aren’t optional anymore
2.  Invest in product cross-sell strategies. Marketers can reduce CAC over time by boosting customer lifetime value
3.  Be agile. Market swings, new privacy rules, tech changes require marketers to pivot fast. Those who can’t (or don’t) will see a rising CAC

Customer Acquisition Cost: It’s About Spending Smarter

CAC isn’t a mystical, unchangeable number. It’s a reflection of how well you align your products, channels, partners, and conversion strategies to actual customer behavior.

The brands that win in 2025 and beyond won’t have to be the ones with the biggest budgets. They’ll be the ones who stop throwing money at the wall and start treating customer acquisition cost like the strategic weapon it should be. You can find Fintel Connect’s report here.

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Ron Shevlin is chief research officer at Cornerstone Advisors. Tune in to Ron’s What’s Going On In Banking podcast and follow him on LinkedIn and X.