The version of this brokers get wrong is not too little friction. It is treating all friction as the same thing, and adding the kinds that cost merchants without removing anyone you would not have called.
Good friction
| Step | What it removes | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile one-time passcode, at the end | Fakes, mistyped numbers, VoIP, landlines, company lines | Some completion — only from people who could not receive a code |
| Email verifier | Dead and made-up addresses, via a third-party check that the address is live | Almost nothing |
| Revenue and amount bands | Merchants below the floor, before they become a record | Volume you did not want |
The passcode goes at the end: the merchant completes the application, a six-digit code goes to the number they gave, and until it is entered the application does not submit and no record exists. On our funnel and most of our clients’, that plus the email check holds spam to one to three percent of submissions, across hundreds of thousands of leads.
It is also the only pickup problem that cannot be fixed on the phone, which is why it belongs on the form: a floor can dial faster, but it cannot call a number that belongs to nobody. Buying rather than building, the same point becomes a vendor question — whether the numbers are OTP-verified or merely validated, and whether the vendor can prove it on every lead.
Bad friction
- Slow page speed. There is no quality argument for it; it is just a page nobody finished building.
- Document upload, including bank statements. Merchants were watched reaching the upload step and leaving, so it came off our own form: cost per lead fell and quality went up. Plaid is the least bad version, because it is a login rather than a document hunt, but it is a narrow exception rather than a default.
- Captcha. Removes nobody worth removing and adds a step for everyone. The passcode already does the job.
- Desktop-first layout. Eighty to ninety percent of the traffic is a phone. A form built for a desktop and squeezed onto a screen loses conversions it never sees.
How you find out which is which
Not by arguing about it. Microsoft Clarity records every session on the page, submitted or abandoned, and shows where people stop. A step that loses forty percent of real merchants at the same point every time is bad friction whatever the theory says.
Questions brokers ask
Should an MCA application form have phone verification?
Yes, as the last step: a six-digit code to the number given, entered before the application submits. It removes fakes, mistyped numbers, VoIP and landlines, and on our funnel it holds spam to one to three percent.
Is a captcha good friction on a funding form?
No. It removes nobody worth removing and adds a step for everyone. The one-time passcode already stops the fakes, without asking a real merchant to identify traffic lights.
Should I ask for bank statements on the application?
No. On our own funnel the upload step lost merchants who had already cleared every qualifying question, and removing it lowered cost per lead while quality went up. Collect statements on the call instead. Plaid is the least bad version if you must, because it is a login rather than a document hunt.
Does an email verifier reduce conversions?
Barely. It is a third-party check that the address is real and active, and the only people it stops are the ones typing abcdefg@gmail.com — who were never going to answer a phone either.
How much of MCA ad traffic is mobile?
Eighty to ninety percent on our account. A form that is not built for a phone first is losing conversions it will never see in the data.
Alex Makowski
Founder, Infinite Bookings
Runs the lead generation operation behind Infinite Bookings — paid traffic, the funding application, and the delivery pipeline that puts records into brokers’ CRMs.
Reachable directly at alex@infinitebookings.com or 732-609-7182.