Campaign recognized for strategic excellence in consumer lending marketing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Pittsburgh, PA — March 3, 2026 — Level Agency today announced that its campaign with Kiavi has tied in the Single Country, Consumer Lending category at the 2026 Gramercy Awards. The award recognizes outstanding strategic achievement in lead generation for financial services marketing.
As competition intensifies across consumer lending, acquisition costs continue to rise and efficiency pressures are mounting. Many financial services brands are reevaluating how marketing performance is measured, particularly as traditional lead volume metrics fail to reflect downstream revenue impact.
In this environment, lenders face increasing pressure to improve qualification quality, strengthen conversion performance, and ensure marketing investment directly supports funded loan growth.
Level’s award-winning campaign, Lowering CPL by Rebuilding Lead Qualification Strategy for a Real Estate Lending Brand, addressed this challenge by redesigning Kiavi’s lead qualification framework.
The initiative focused on aligning media investment with stronger intent signals, CRM-informed feedback loops, and full-funnel performance indicators. Rather than optimizing solely toward lead volume, the strategy prioritized qualified demand and downstream conversion impact.
Key differentiators of the approach included:
- Rebuilding qualification criteria using performance data
- Integrating CRM and media insights to refine targeting
- Shifting optimization toward deeper funnel metrics
- Creating tighter alignment between marketing spend and revenue contribution
The campaign was executed throughout 2025 and entered into the 2026 Gramercy Awards following sustained performance improvements. The optimization framework remains active and continues to inform Kiavi’s demand generation strategy.
The initiative delivered measurable business outcomes, including:
- Reduced cost per lead
- Increased qualified lead rates
- Improved conversion performance across the funnel
- Stronger alignment between marketing investment and funded loan results
The campaign’s performance and strategic rigor earned recognition among leading financial brands competing in the consumer lending category.
“We are proud to see this work recognized,” said Brad Stephenson, SVP, Marketing and Sales Enablement at Level. “This campaign reflects what happens when data, strategy, and execution work together to drive measurable results.”
Explore the full case study to see how we did it: How Kiavi lowered CPL with lead qualification optimization.
About Level Agency
Level is the customer lifecycle agency for complex, high-consideration brands. The agency helps organizations capture, convert, and retain customers by integrating performance marketing, creative, CRM, and AI into a connected growth system. As an embedded partner, Level focuses on accountability, clarity, and measurable growth.
Media Contact
Brad Stephenson
brad.stephenson@level.agency
412-897-2702
