Search ads for microfinance organisations: hot loan demand turned into signed contracts.

Search ads are the main paid channel for MFOs: queries like "loan to card", "car title loan" and "money against car documents" signal urgent need. They are also the most competitive: a click here costs several times more than in most niches, and the buyers of this traffic include large MFOs and aggregators. Precision wins: the right negative keywords, products and cities separated, ads with terms, a fast form and optimisation for disbursed loans rather than applications.

In Kazakhstan most search happens on Google, so we start with Google Ads: search by product, local campaigns for pawnshop branches, remarketing to unfinished applications. Yandex Direct comes second for Russian-language traffic in Almaty, Astana and the north.

Both platforms require confirmation of financial-organisation status and disclosure of loan terms. We complete the documents and verification before launch so campaigns don't sit idle.

In a number of countries Google requires financial-services advertiser verification and disclosure of loan terms on the website: minimum and maximum term, rate, an example of the total cost. Google does not allow loans with a very short repayment period at all, so payday products are advertised cautiously and only in a permitted form. Yandex requires a licence and disclosure of terms in the ad. Kazakhstan's Advertising Law requires the effective rate to be stated and the consumer not to be misled.

Before launch we check the current rules for Kazakhstan for each product, collect documents and complete verification — usually 3–10 days.

In our experience and according to market data in Kazakhstan: a click on online-loan queries costs ₸300–1,000, on car and property-secured loans ₸400–1,500, on pawnshop queries ₸100–400. An application costs ₸2,000–8,000 depending on the product. 15–40% of applications reach disbursement, so the real cost of a disbursed loan is 3–6 times the cost of an application.

Payback depends on response speed, form conversion and the share of repeat loans: a customer who returns without ads recoups the first expensive click. That's why our report shows not only the cost of disbursement but also the share of repeat loans for each source.

Managing one platform for an MFO or pawnshop costs ₸150,000–250,000 per month; Google and Yandex together, several cities or two languages — ₸250,000–400,000. The ad budget is separate, at least ₸200,000 per month, and from ₸400,000 for online loans and car title loans in Almaty. Setup is included in the first month; one-off setup without management costs ₸150,000.

Product landing pages are quoted separately as landing pages. General terms are on the search advertising page.