How Sahel Transfer recovered 18 points of KYC completion in 11 weeks
CRO
A worked example, not a client result. The organisation, the figures and the quotation below show how an engagement of this shape is structured and what it sets out to move. They are not outcomes achieved for a named client.
Marisol TransfersPaid GrowthCRO
Marisol Transfers rebuilt bidding around first send and cut cost a third
Cost per install rose. Cost per completed sender fell. The finance team stopped arguing about the media budget.
−34%cost per sender
+22ptskyc completion
−34%COST PER SENDER
+22ptsKYC COMPLETION
1.9xFIRST-SEND RATE
14 wksENGAGEMENT
Measured over 14 weeks against a matched prior period. Attribution and confidence notes available on request.
The situation
Marisol ran a large US to Mexico programme across Google, Meta and TikTok, and by install economics it was one of the better-run accounts we have audited. Structure was clean, creative was refreshed, and cost per install was genuinely competitive.
The problem was that install economics is the wrong lens. The board saw acquisition spend growing faster than transfer volume and reasonably asked why.
Three separate platform dashboards each reported strong performance. Added together, they claimed roughly forty percent more conversions than the business had actually recorded.
What we found
Install-to-KYC completion sat at thirty-eight percent, and nobody outside the product team knew that number. The paid team was optimising to an event that occurred two steps before the one that mattered.
Post-KYC events were not being sent back to any platform, so every algorithm was learning from installs alone and had become efficient at finding people who install readily and verify rarely.
The conversion overcounting came from three platforms each claiming credit for the same sender with no reconciliation layer above them, which is normal and which nobody had ever checked.
Funnel and diagnostic table
| Stage or area | Position | Cumulative or detail | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Impressions | 100% | Healthy | |
| Installs | Baseline | Competitive CPI | Optimised to here |
| Signup started | 71% of installs | Fine | |
| KYC completed | 38% of installs | The leak | |
| First transfer | 54% of verified | 20% of installs | The real number |
| Platform-claimed conversions | +40% vs actual | Unreconciled |
What changed
1. Built the MMP event chain through to first completed send, with SKAdNetwork conversion values designed so iOS cohorts still show whether they verify.
2. Fed post-KYC and first-send events back to all three platforms, then let each algorithm relearn for a full cycle before judging it.
3. Rebuilt campaign structure by corridor and sender segment rather than by creative theme.
4. Added a reconciliation layer above the platforms, reporting platform-claimed conversions against the business's own event data with the gap stated rather than absorbed.
5. Moved budget monthly against corridor margin instead of against the previous month's spend.
Cost per install rose nineteen percent almost immediately and stayed there. That is the expected and correct outcome of bidding toward a harder event, and it required a conversation with the board before the change rather than after it.
The reconciliation reporting was the change that altered how the company plans. Once three platforms could no longer each claim the same sender, the media budget discussion became a different and much shorter meeting.
Our cost per install went up and our cost per sender went down by a third. That took some explaining internally, but it was the right trade.
— Elena Duarte, Growth Lead, Marisol Transfers
How the work ran
MMP event chain from install to first send
Full chain instrumented, with SKAN conversion values designed around verification.
Post-KYC signals returned to platforms
All three platforms relearning against the event that actually matters.
Reconciliation reporting
Platform-claimed conversions reported against actual, with the gap named.
What moved
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per completed first send | Baseline | −34% | Improved |
| Cost per install | Baseline | +19% | Deliberate |
| Install-to-KYC completion | 38% | 60% | +22pts |
| First-send rate from install | 20% | 38% | 1.9x |
| Platform conversion overcount | +40% | +6% | Reconciled |
| Corridor budget reallocation | Annual | Monthly | Faster |
Mandatory line beneath: “Measured over 14 weeks against a matched prior period. Attribution and confidence notes available on request.”
The engagement in brief
Scope and shape
- Remittance app
- US → Mexico
- 14 weeks
- Paid Growth
- CRO
The reporting was the surprise. Three platforms claiming the same conversion had been quietly inflating everything.
— Elena Duarte, Growth Lead, Marisol Transfers
Same funnel, different corridor?
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