Head of User Acquisition at NAGA (Fintech, Forex, CFD, Stocks, Crypto, BNPL, Prop)

If you're in fintech, you know that acquiring high-quality customers is tougher than ever. Regulation changes, rising ad costs, and saturated markets make it difficult to scale profitably. But these challenges are exactly what keeps me hooked. 

Over the past 8 years, I’ve worked with big fintech players, including NAGA Group, Zilch (a unicorn) and others, where I: 

▪️ Managed $3M+ ad budgets per month across multiple channels.
▪️ Ran campaigns in 120+ countries, adapting to different regulations and compliance restrictions.
▪️ Built 3 user acquisition teams from scratch, including one at Zilch, where the marketing team alone had 150+ people.

In addition to that, I’ve consulted or helped launch and optimize paid ads channels for 200+ companies across 6 sectors - fintech, forex, crypto, SaaS, B2B services, and eCommerce.

But beyond the numbers, what really matters to me are results and impact. Seeing a campaign take off, improving traffic quality, generating more (and better) leads - that’s what keeps me going.

If you're looking for strategic guidance on paid acquisition, need help troubleshooting performance issues, or want an expert to audit and refine your campaigns, let’s connect here or through an email – stanislav@galandzovsky.pro

🇺🇦 Stanislav Galandzovskyi, PhD

Still processing conversations from iFX Dubai last week.

The real insights didn't come from panels — they came from booth talks, coffee chats, and those random hallway conversations.

Here are 7 patterns I kept noticing:

1️⃣ Brokers launching prop firms as client acquisition funnels
2️⃣ Prop becoming the talent pool for CFD
3️⃣ Call centers still being the biggest bottleneck
4️⃣ Pure IB models getting squeezed without marketing engines
5️⃣ Need for both brand AND acquisition (not one or the other)
6️⃣ PSP issues often being infrastructure problems in disguise
7️⃣ Prop and CFD merging into one ecosystem

Swipe for details on each. Curious what landed differently for you.

Stanislav Galandzovskyi

Acquisition & Growth Expert in Fintech (Forex, Prop Firms, Crypto, SaaS, B2B Services) • Managed $3M+ monthly ad spend & ran paid ads in 120 countries

iFX 2026 Insights

Most people building for MENA are building for a market that doesn't exist. They treat it as one region. It isn't. There are 20 countries, and they are all different. 

Let’s take the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

Saudi Arabia skews a younger, more patriotic audience, increasingly shaped by Vision 2030. The market is ambitious, growth-hungry, and proud of its identity. Positioning through scale and innovation works here. But if your brand looks like another offshore project passing through, trust won't come. 

Egypt is price-sensitive with low card penetration. Coming in with a premium product expecting Western-style margins, Egypt will humble you fast. Friction at checkout is real, cash on delivery is still dominant, and people prefer to pay in installments over committing to the full amount upfront.

The UAE is a wealth hub, expat-heavy, with a high-net-worth buyer who has seen every pitch before. 
This audience googles, cross-checks, reads reviews. Crypto narratives and copy trading don't resonate the way they do in the West. Wealth in the UAE is traditionally preserved through gold and familiar equities – and some businesses coming in miss that completely. Above all, the UAE is about building long-term client relationships.

MENA is one of the most exciting regions to market in right now. You just need to invest more in the upfront research 😉


P.S. This photo is from sunny Dubai. And it reminds me that it’s Friday and it’s time to switch gears. So Happy Friday, everyone! Make it a good one.

There are 3 types of prop firm traders you need to know.

Know the difference and you can:

→ Create the right message for each type
→ Spread your budget based on who actually converts
→ Explain why CAC is climbing and point to the exact cause
→ Rescue a creative that "tests poorly" by showing it to the right person
→ Trace refunds, churn, and silent accounts back to a persona mismatch 

Here are the three personas in every prop firm's audience ↓

Fintech isn't Temu. You can't just push an ad and expect a sale. 


Most prop firms try anyway, and when volume slows, they spend more or add a promo. That's not the fix. Most people won't buy the first time they see an ad – so if there's nothing pulling them back, that traffic is just gone.

Promos don't solve that. They help in the short term, but they compress margin and train people to wait for discounts. So the cycle continues.

The fix is building the 360 marketing.

That means giving people more than one touchpoint before asking them to buy. Brand awareness content on FB and YouTube so people recognize you before the offer hits. 

Boosting content that already exists so it reaches more people. A learning funnel or email sequence for beginner traders, so they warm up before they see pricing. A look at whether the checkout flow itself is losing people, not just the ads.

The firms winning right now aren't necessarily spending more. They're showing up more often, in more places, before asking for the sale. Performance campaigns work better when awareness has already done some of the work.

The story of how a prop firm turned off its most effective creative.

Sounds strange?
More like insane.)

Here’s what happened.

A young prop firm was actively testing creatives.

Several videos showed strong performance:

— High CTR
— Low cost per view
— Solid engagement

They optimized their campaigns exclusively for challenge purchases.
The last step. Bottom of the funnel.
And the result?

The videos driving strong awareness and engagement but not converting immediately… were simply turned off! Because “they don’t sell.”

What’s the real problem?

Marketing isn’t one type of ad. And it’s not one metric.

There are at least four core objectives in advertising

1️⃣ Awareness — so people know you exist
2️⃣ Engagement — so they interact with you
3️⃣ Lead generation — so they move closer
4️⃣ Conversion — so they buy

When you optimize everything for conversions, you’re saying:

— We only care about the 1–2% of traders who’re ready to buy right now.
— And the other 98%?
— You hand them straight to your competitors.

Do you know what I love sharing?
Non-obvious tactics that can work for fintech companies. 


This time – native ads for prop firms. I know it can sound like a black box, but let’s try to unpack it and see what it can deliver? 

Let’s start with Taboola that can add 20-30% in revenue (in case of proper value tracking and content-first funnels)

👇

Taboola for prop firms

NAGA

Head of LATAM

Compass Trading Solutions

El 95% de las personas pierde todo su dinero haciendo trading. Entonces, ¿Cómo puede un trader novato ser rentable en el trading? La respuesta es simple: Copy Trading!
Compass se especializa en conectar a Traders Exitosos y rentables con personas que buscan obtener ganancias por sobre el mercado tradicional de inversiones. De esta manera, generamos una relación ganar-ganar donde el foco es, literalmente, ganar. 
¿Ganar que? Tiempo y dinero.

Fundador

Libertex Group

Libertex Americas Regional Manager 

Country Manager

Partnership Manager Chile

ThinkMarkets

Como Head of Sales Iberoamerica, fui responsable de proporcionar liderazgo y dirección operativa, financiera, estratégica y funcional el negocio regional, asegurarme de que sea una operación eficiente, bien administrada, totalmente integrada con el Grupo, que cumpla con las reglas y regulaciones establecidas, ademas de tener éxito en atraer y retener personal y clientes. Mis responsabilidades incluían:

• El establecimiento y crecimiento de los negocios de ThinkMarkets en LATAM y España;
• Asistir en el reclutamiento de otros empleados clave relevantes para las operaciones del negocio local;
• Dirigir y liderar el equipo para garantizar que todos estén al tanto de la dirección estratégica de la empresa y su departamento;
• Mantener relaciones sólidas con la gerencia global de ThinkMarkets y los accionistas y actuar de acuerdo con la estrategia del Grupo;
• Mantener la norma y el estado regulatorio de la compañía;
• Establecer objetivos claros para lograr un crecimiento sólido y rentable, en línea con los objetivos de los accionistas;
• Crear y administre presupuestos y resultados para garantizar que todos los números sean alcanzados y excedidos;
• Asistir en el desarrollo y mantenimiento de una estrategia efectiva de marketing y relaciones públicas para promover los productos, servicios e imagen de la empresa;
• Identificar y resolver desafíos regionales;
• Establecer soluciones de sistemas de pago para la región.
• Asumir toda la responsabilidad de Operaciones (entrega, rendimiento, calidad y el equipo) en LATAM y España.

Head of Sales - Iberoamerica

Admiral Markets Group

Como Director de la región de LATAM para Admiral Markets, mis responsabilidades incluyeron:

•	Desarrollar el negocio en la región de LATAM
•	Personalizar y adaptar la estrategia corporativa para que coincida con las necesidades de la región
•	Crear relaciones comerciales con socios estratégicos en países clave
•	Supervisar la generación de prospectos, las campañas de marketing y el presupuesto de marketing para cada país
•	Establecer objetivos y KPI para los equipos en cada país
•	Medir las oportunidades de negocios en nuevos mercados dentro de la región
•	Mejorar el proceso de KYC para países clave dentro de la región
•	Revisar los informes socioeconómicos de los países en los que tenemos presencia local
•	Monitorear constantemente a nuestros competidores con sucursales en la región
•	Entrenar y empoderar a los gerentes y equipos de ventas

Director of LATAM

Como Country Manager, mis responsabilidades incluían:

•	Desarrollar el negocio en Chile
•	Representación legal de la sucursal chilena
•	Implementación del programa de partners
•	Mantener comunicaciones efectivas con casa matriz y mejorar la comunicación regional entre sucursales
•	Coaching y empoderamiento para el equipo de ventas en técnicas de ventas, inversiones, forex y habilidades blandas
•	Planificación y supervisión de actividades de Marketing
•	Presupuesto anual
•	Presentar informes de ventas, gastos e ingresos a casa matriz
•	Reclutar, fijar metas y supervisar el rendimiento de los representantes de ventas
•	Relación directa con auditores y abogados, tanto locales como internacionales
•	Búsqueda e implementación de sistemas de pago local
•	Crear un nuevo curso de aprendizaje en línea sobre divisas e inversiones
•	Nueva estandarización de canales de YouTube para la empresa
•	Compartir nuestra experiencia local y el éxito con las oficinas internacionales del holding

Country Business Manager

Asumí el cargo de Gerente de Ventas y tuve la misión de crear una nueva fuerza de ventas, más capaz que la anterior. Como tal, mis responsabilidades incluyeron:

•	Establecer los KPI de ventas
•	Crear un programa de entrenamiento para el equipo de ventas
•	Identificar puntos clave de venta para el servicio en Chile
•	Reclutamiento y entrenamiento
•	Identificar clientes potenciales y abordarlos
•	Organizar y presentar eventos educativos relacionados con nuestro negocio principal, como seminarios web, seminarios en línea y seminarios en vivo
•	Planificación y supervisión de actividades de ventas
•	Adaptar campañas de marketing globales
•	Planificación, ejecución y supervisión de actividades de marketing
•	Crear materiales de ventas y educación para clientes potenciales

Sales Manager

10+ years of experience as Business Developer of FinTechs relate to FX, CFDs and Cryptos in the LATAM region. I posses vast knowledge in all the areas of the business: Sales, Analysis, IBs/Affiliates, Payment Gateways, Marketing, Brand Awareness, Education, Legal, HR, Accounting, Back-End, etc...
Trader with over 12 years of experience, crypto and DeFi investor, NFT owner, blockchain enthusiast and more.
In my experience I have learned that anything is achievable within an organization, through leadership. This leadership must be a solid combination of skills that make up a tripod - which needs all 3 legs to stand. These skills are: Communication, Motivation and Empowerment. 
My skills allow me to effectively manage a work team and guide it to achieve the goals and overcome the challenges that arise along the way.

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