Evlo
Over £54m in revenue generated across the engagement, scaling digital revenue from around £150k a year to around £25m a year while significantly improving acquisition efficiency, powered by Smart Bidding, multi-channel search, and granular attribution.
Headline Results
The Client
Evlo is a leading UK consumer lender specialising in unsecured personal loans. Founded in 2006 and acquired by Secure Trust Bank in 2012, the business operates in a highly competitive and heavily regulated market.
They engaged Digiconomy to scale online loan acquisition profitably while maintaining strict compliance across all marketing activity.
We delivered a multi-channel inbound strategy combining Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and SEO, supported by Smart Bidding and server-side attribution. This approach scaled digital-generated revenue from around £150k in the year before we started to £6m in our first year, and on to around £25m a year by 2026 - more than £54m in total across the engagement, while significantly improving acquisition efficiency.
To support sustainable growth, we implemented granular server-side tracking and multi-touch attribution, enabling revenue to be analysed at keyword, ad, and landing-page level for continuous optimisation. This same data infrastructure fed the Smart Bidding models that drove performance gains throughout the engagement.
The Objectives
Clear goals that tied every decision back to commercial outcomes and regulatory responsibility.
Profitable Online Growth
- Scale online loan applications while maintaining strong cost efficiency and predictable returns.
- Ensure acquisition activity could be increased without sacrificing profitability.
Regulatory Compliance & Transparency
- Deliver measurable growth while operating fully within FCA guidelines and platform policies.
- Implement clear attribution to understand true performance across channels and campaigns.
The Strategy
A data-led acquisition strategy designed to capture high-intent demand, support assisted conversions, and scale performance in a controlled, compliant manner.
Full-Funnel Acquisition
Capture high-intent users through search while supporting consideration and return visits across the funnel. Audience signals and intent modelling ensured budget flowed to the highest-value touchpoints at every stage.
Data-Led Optimisation
Optimise bids, budgets, and creative using revenue and profitability signals rather than lead volume. Smart Bidding was trained on back-end conversion data, enabling the platform to prioritise applicants most likely to complete, not just click.
Scalable Frameworks
Build campaign structures capable of handling high budgets, large keyword volumes, and rapid iteration. Automated rules and Smart Bidding strategies allowed the campaigns to scale without manual bottlenecks or diminishing returns.
The Campaign
Multi-channel execution combining organic authority, Smart Bidding, intelligent remarketing, and full-funnel attribution.
SEO & Content Authority
Organic search activity focused on improving visibility for high-intent lending terms, building topical authority, and strengthening entity signals. Structured data and content architecture were optimised for traditional rankings, supporting long-term demand generation and brand authority.
PPC Campaign Management
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads campaigns were built on a compliance-first framework, with highly structured ad groups, granular keyword segmentation, and revenue-based bidding. Smart Bidding strategies were calibrated against actual loan completion data rather than front-end lead metrics, optimising for real business outcomes. Continuous creative testing and landing page experimentation compounded performance gains over time.
Remarketing & Recovery
Remarketing across search, display, and social re-engaged users who had not converted on their first visit, recovering a significant volume of otherwise lost revenue. Sequential messaging adapted based on where users had dropped off, using intent-based audience segmentation to personalise the return path and maximise conversion probability.
Advanced Tracking & Attribution
All activity was supported by server-side tracking and multi-touch attribution, providing clear insight from first click through to revenue. This granular data layer enabled continuous performance optimisation, informed budget allocation across channels, and gave Smart Bidding the high-quality signals needed to improve over time.
The AI Search Channel (AEO & GEO)
As AI assistants and Google's AI Overviews became a meaningful discovery surface for borrowers, the engagement extended into answer engine optimisation: entity and schema architecture, content structured for AI extraction, crawler access management, and digital PR to earn the citations AI systems rely on.
Because every lead already flowed through the revenue attribution system, the new channel was measured the same way as the paid activity - in written business, not visibility screenshots. As of 2026, AI-search surfaces generate an average of £100k a month in written loans, tracked from first AI-referred visit through the CRM to completion.
Average written business from AI search, measured through CRM revenue attribution (2026)
The Outcome
Revenue generated across the engagement
Increase in annual digital revenue
Reduction in acquisition costs
Return on investment
The combined strategy took digital revenue from around £150k a year to £6m in our first year and around £25m a year by 2026, generating more than £54m across the engagement. Smart Bidding calibrated to revenue data, rigorous campaign structure, and server-side attribution created a compounding engine where every data point improved the next decision.
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