How Abound grows

Context: on Meta, credit/fintech ads can't use lookalikes, age, gender, ZIP or specific interests. Funnel was install -> sign-up -> KYC -> bank link -> first transfer (revenue event). Sign-up was too loose (people gaming cashback/referral rewards); first transfer was too deep (three high-friction steps). At sign-up, data was routed to the internal database and the first and last name run through a name-origin API; anyone with 70%+ probability of being from South Asia (the Indian expat target) triggered a synthetic 'HQ' event sent back to the ad network. No financial data or PII was sent. The event met the three criteria: enough volume (Facebook 50/7 days, Google 10/campaign/day), recency (within 24-48h) and a good proxy for first transfer. Guest notes such scoring could now be vibe-coded instead of using an API.