Financial promotions produce a version of the same conversation every few months. A fintech or an investment platform has budget, a product, and a launch date. Somewhere in the first call we ask who is approving the financial promotions, and there is a pause.
If that question has not been answered, nothing else about the media plan matters yet.
What the financial promotions rule is
In the UK, inviting or inducing someone to engage in investment activity is a financial promotion, and it must be made or approved by a firm authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. This is a statutory restriction, not a platform guideline.
Since the introduction of a dedicated gateway, firms that approve promotions for others need specific permission to do so, which has narrowed the pool of approvers considerably. Cryptoasset promotions have been brought into the regime as well, with their own requirements including risk warnings and a cooling-off period for new customers.
How it shows up in an ad account
Meta and Google both require verification before financial services ads can run in the UK. You will be asked to demonstrate authorisation, or that you are exempt, or that your promotions are approved by an authorised firm. Until that clears, campaigns do not deliver.
The practical consequence is that verification sits on the critical path for a launch, and it takes weeks rather than days. We ask about it in the first conversation for exactly that reason.
It is not only the ad
The promotion is the whole communication. That includes:
- Ad copy and creative
- The landing page
- The email sequence after signup
- Influencer and affiliate content promoting the product
- In many cases, organic social posts
The affiliate and influencer part is where firms most often come unstuck, because the content is written by somebody outside the compliance process. If a creator describes returns in a way the approved copy does not, that is still your promotion.
A compliant advert pointing at a non-compliant landing page is not a compliant campaign.
What we can and cannot do
We can build the account, write to the approved claims, keep paid and organic consistent, structure the funnel so risk warnings appear where they need to, and brief creators properly.
We cannot approve a financial promotion, and we will not run creative that has not been signed off by whoever can. That is not caution for its own sake — the consequences of getting this wrong fall on you far harder than on us, and an agency that lets you run unapproved copy is not doing you a favour.
The planning version
If you are an authorised firm with an internal compliance function, this is a workflow question: build approval into the creative calendar so sign-off is not the thing holding up a launch, and keep a dated record of what was approved.
If you are not authorised, finding an approver is the first task and it should start months before the media plan. Budgeting for a launch date that assumes this resolves quickly is the most common planning mistake in UK fintech marketing.
And if the answer is no
Sometimes a product cannot be promoted the way the business hoped. That is better discovered in a first conversation than after a quarter of retainers. We would rather say it early and keep the relationship than take the money and discover it together in month three.
The UK page covers the rest of what differs about running accounts here.
Questions people ask
What counts as a financial promotion?
An invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity, communicated in the course of business. In practice that covers the ad, the landing page, the email sequence and often the social post, not just the paid creative.
Who can approve one?
An FCA-authorised firm with the specific permission to approve financial promotions for unauthorised persons, or the authorised firm itself for its own promotions. Since the gateway was introduced, far fewer firms hold that permission than people assume.
Does this apply to crypto?
Yes. Qualifying cryptoasset promotions to UK consumers were brought into the regime, with their own rules on risk warnings and cooling-off. The platforms enforce it too, which is why crypto ad accounts get restricted without explanation.
What if we are not authorised?
Then an authorised firm has to approve the promotion before it runs, or the promotion cannot be made to UK consumers at all. Building the campaign first and finding an approver later is the sequence that wastes the most money.