Bank & Finance Advertising Agency Digital Marketing

An average banking and financial business should be spending between $8,490,000 and $16,980,000 a year on marketing and advertising expenses, or roughly 7.5% – 15% of annual gross revenue. The total amount may be higher if you are in a highly competitive industry, want accelerated growth or your business generates high amounts of revenue during the holiday shopping season. 

Banking and financial business owners are often heavily involved with the day to day operations of their business. Some of the most common challenges for a banking and financial business include: 

1. Regulatory Compliance: The financial industry is heavily regulated to ensure stability and protect consumers. Staying compliant with a complex web of domestic and international regulations (such as Basel III)) can be a significant challenge. Banks must allocate substantial resources to compliance efforts, including anti-money laundering (AML) measures, know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, and data protection laws like GDPR.
2. Cybersecurity Threats: As technology advances, so do the capabilities of cybercriminals. Banks and financial institutions are attractive targets for cyberattacks due to the sensitive nature of the data they hold. Protecting customer information and financial assets against data breaches, phishing, ransomware, and other cyber threats is an ongoing challenge.
3. Digital Disruption: The rise of fintech and digital banking has disrupted traditional banking models. Established banks must adapt quickly to remain competitive. This involves investing in digital infrastructure, enhancing online customer experiences, and integrating innovative financial technologies. Failing to keep pace with digital transformation can result in a loss of market share.
4. Low Interest Rates: Low-interest rates have become the new normal in many economies. While this may be beneficial for borrowers, it compresses the net interest margins for banks. Banks face challenges in generating sufficient interest income to cover their operating costs and remain profitable. They must explore alternative sources of revenue, such as fee-based services.
5. Customer Expectations: Customer expectations are continually evolving. Today’s customers demand seamless digital experiences, personalized services, and real-time access to their financial information. Meeting these expectations while ensuring security and regulatory compliance can be challenging. Failure to do so can lead to customer attrition.
6. Credit Risk Management: Banks face constant pressure to manage credit risk effectively. Assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers, monitoring loan portfolios, and managing non-performing loans are critical aspects of banking operations. Economic downturns can increase credit risk, making risk management a significant challenge.

Because banking and financial  businesses are so focused on these challenges, it often becomes very efficient to bring in outside experts to help manage and ensure specific tasks are done correctly. Marketing and advertising are two of the most commonly outsourced areas business use because they are so critical to the success of the business. 

Financial Lead Generation 

Many financial companies are focused on generating leads. This can include building an internal email list for marketing purposes or generating high value leads that can be quickly contacted to grow revenue. Lead generation typically involves creating a specific incentive, offer or informational guide, then driving prospects to a landing page to collect their information. You can also collect the prospects information on a lead form hosted by the ad platform. Both options can be connected with your CRM or email marketing system so that automatic calls, emails and sms messages are sent directly to your new prospect. If you are looking to help set up lead generation for your finance office, please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options. 

Increasing Financial Products Sales 

The most popular of all advertising objectives for financial companies is sales. Increasing revenue is essential for every financial company to succeed. Many of the ad platforms have new tools that allow you to pass through values for each customer, which means they associate more weight towards the customers spending the most. This allows them to find more customers like your top spenders. If you are looking to help grow your financial institution, please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options. 

Bank App Installs

Perfect for any bank business that has a mobile app. The mobile app objective allows you to run ads either for new app installs or for app events, which are specific events set up inside of your app such as account created, payment method added, or transaction complete. It can also be used to monitor usage inside the app or if users are reaching a certain area. This allows you to display highly targeted ads that are relevant towards each user who sees your ads. The most common types of apps are games, utilities or informational mobile apps. If you are looking to help grow sales or usage from your banking mobile app, please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options.  

Banking Local Traffic 

Many banking companies have locations they are looking to drive local foot traffic to. This can be for a special event, promotion, grand opening, or just daily usage. Local ads can be targeted down to a single zip code or a 1 mile radius around a spot on a map. This ensures you can reach the individuals that are located closely to your bank location and get your ads in front of them. If you are looking to increase foot traffic for your bank location,  please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options. 

Financial Institution Brand Awareness 

As your financial institution grows, it will become essential that you stay ahead of your competition. This is generally done by Brand Awareness campaigns which focus on reaching a wide number of targeted users consistently over a long period of time. This ensures that your financial institution stays at the top of mind for your consumers and they continue to purchase your products and services. If you are looking for ways to increase your Brand Awareness, please contact the team at AdvertiseMint to discuss your options. 

Content marketing involves creating and sharing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and engage a target audience. In the banking and finance sector, this approach can yield significant benefits.

Addressing Customer Pain Points: Content marketing allows bank and finance companies to address common pain points and challenges faced by their customers. Whether it’s explaining complex financial concepts in simple terms or offering guidance on managing debt, content can provide solutions to real problems. This not only helps customers but also positions the company as a helpful partner.

 Establishing Trust and Credibility: The bank and finance industry heavily relies on trust. People need to have confidence that their financial institutions are reliable and have their best interests at heart. Content marketing provides an avenue to showcase expertise and educate customers. By publishing informative articles, blog posts, and guides on financial planning, investment strategies, and economic trends, these companies can establish themselves as trustworthy sources of information.

Building Brand Awareness

Content marketing allows banks and financial companies to enhance their brand awareness. Through consistent content creation and distribution, they can increase their online presence and reach a broader audience. When consumers consistently encounter valuable content from a specific institution, it strengthens brand recognition and loyalty.

Targeted Messaging

Content marketing enables banks to tailor their messaging to specific customer segments. By creating content that addresses the unique financial needs and interests of different demographics, institutions can connect with customers on a more personal level. For instance, a bank might create content specifically designed for first-time homebuyers, retirees, or small business owners.

Lead Generation

Content marketing is an effective tool for lead generation in the financial sector. By offering valuable resources such as ebooks, webinars, or financial calculators, banks can entice website visitors to provide their contact information. These leads can then be nurtured through targeted email campaigns and other marketing efforts.

Compliance and Transparency

The financial industry operates under strict regulations, and consumers often seek transparency from their banking and financial institutions. Content marketing can help banks address these concerns by providing clear, informative content about their products, services, and compliance practices. This transparency can build trust and reassure customers.

Adapting to Digital Trends

In today’s digital age, consumers expect easy access to information and services online. Content marketing aligns with this trend by providing valuable content through digital channels such as websites, social media, and email. Banks that embrace content marketing can meet customers where they are and deliver relevant information when it matters most.

The world has changed for financial and banking looking to increase their marketing and advertising efforts using AI. A variety of new tools now enable automation and AI to be used in areas like sales, graphic design, video production, content creation, voiceovers, spokesperson, video creation, blog writing and more. 

The current average cost per click (CPC) on Google ads for the term “banking and finance” is $1.87 and is expected to increase over time. SEO generates you these same clicks from targeted keywords for free. There is tremendous value from SEO as you are able to generate a high volume of traffic for your key business segments, however SEO is a long term investment. Our recommendation is that banking companies should be willing to plan for 6-12 months of SEO services before expecting to see an increase in results from these efforts. Please know that with SEO, the work is foundational, which means each task builds on top of each other. Each action ads more credibility to your website in the eyes of Google and other search engines. AdvertiseMint only believes in high quality SEO, or long game efforts, when working on building SEO. Most SEO tricks or gimmicks often work for a bit, but later end up hurting your banking company when updates are made to the search engines. The only way to move forward regarding SEO is by doing a lot of the right things, and doing them faster than your competitors. Financial and Banking SEO involves three main areas. The first is onsite optimization, which means the pages of your website contain content and are optimized for the search engines. The second step is to build more topical authority around your business to help Google understand that you are an expert in the financial area. This is done by writing consistent blogs between 500-2000 words on core topics relating to your business. The final area is off site linking, which means other websites on the internet are linking back to your site and using specific anchor text. This can be achieved by public relations, outreach and building relationships with other websites. When these three are done together, the result is that your banking and finance SEO will improve and your organic ranking will start to increase, thus sending more traffic to your website. If you are looking to improve your SEO, please contact AdvertiseMint. 

Yes. Every banking and financial institution should have email marketing and SMS marketing for their company. Email marketing has continually been proven to be one of the most profitable marketing channels for financial companies. Email marketing gives you the ability to reach your prospects and customers with specific messaging based on where they are located in your customer journey. These “flows” can be set up so that every person experiences the same informational process regardless of when they join. This ensures your company is communicating 24/7 with the people who are most interested in your finacial] services and products. SMS messaging is also becoming a highly profitable way to break through all the noise and reach your most valuable prospects via text message. There are many rules regarding SMS marketing and how to add and remove people from your financial SMS marketing. If you are interested in learning more about how to optimize your Email marketing and SMS marketing for your banking company, AdvertiseMint is here and ready to help. 

Yes, there are several advertising restrictions and regulations that apply to the bank and finance industry in the United States. These regulations are primarily aimed at ensuring fair and transparent practices, protecting consumers, and maintaining the financial system’s integrity. Here are some key advertising restrictions for bank and finance businesses:

1. Truth in Savings Act (TISA): TISA requires financial institutions to provide accurate and clear information about interest rates, fees, and terms associated with deposit accounts, such as savings and checking accounts. It also regulates how these products can be advertised to consumers.
2. Truth in Lending Act (TILA): TILA is designed to protect consumers when they apply for credit. It requires lenders to disclose the terms and costs of credit, including the annual percentage rate (APR). Advertising for credit products must be accurate and include the required disclosures.
3. Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA): ECOA prohibits lenders from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, or receipt of public assistance. This applies to advertising practices as well.
4. Fair Housing Act (FHA): The FHA prohibits discrimination in housing and housing-related advertising on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, or national origin. This can impact mortgage advertising.
5. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulations: Financial institutions involved in securities and investment products must adhere to SEC advertising regulations, including using performance data and testimonials in advertisements.
6. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Regulations: The CFPB oversees many aspects of consumer financial products and services, including advertising. They have specific regulations related to mortgage advertising, credit reporting, debt collection, and more.
7. State Regulations: In addition to federal regulations, banks and financial institutions must also comply with state-specific regulations, which can vary widely. Some states have additional consumer protection laws and requirements.
8. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Laws: Financial institutions must be cautious when advertising international or high-value transactions to ensure compliance with AML laws, which aim to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
9. Privacy Laws: Financial institutions must also comply with privacy laws, such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), which governs the collection and use of customer information in advertising.

There are several places where you can find examples of banking and finance competitor ads online. Here are the instructions for how to view competitor ads running on Facebook, Google and TikTok ad platforms. 

View financial Competitor Facebook Ads 

1. Go to Facebook Ad Library 
2. Select the country where the ad appeared. 
3. Select ad category (All, Politics, Housing, Employment, Credit).
4. Search by keyword or advertiser.
5. Review Facebook ads.

View banking Competitor Google Ads 

1. Go to Google Ads Keyword Planner
2. Sign into Google Ads.
3. Click ‘Tools and settings’ in the top nav.
4. Click ‘Keyword Planner’ under the ‘Planning’ heading.
5. Click ‘Discover new keywords’
6. Type a relevant keyword into the box.
7. Click ‘Get Results’
8. Review Top of page bid and Google ads. 

View community banking Competitor TikTok Ads 

1. Go go TikTok Ad Library 
2. Select ad target country 
3. Select ad type.
4. Select ad published date.
5. Enter in the desired keyword or advertiser.
6. Hit search. 
7. Review TikTok ads. 

For most companies, revenue is the KPI (key performance indicator) we monitor when determining if the marketing and advertising efforts are successful. The revenue can be used to determine the ROI or ROAS for your campaigns over a set period of time. ROI (Return on Investment) is calculated by subtracting the initial cost of the investment from the final value, then dividing this new number by the cost of the investment, and finally, multiplying it by 100. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is determined by dividing the total revenue by total ad spend for a specific period of time. 

In addition to revenue, other companies may use metrics such as CPL (Cost Per Lead), CPA (Cost per Acquisition) or CPI (Cost per Installs) for mobile apps. Monitoring these costs over time can help understand factors that are increasing or decreasing these numbers. They can be affected by a variety of factors such as landing page optimization, time of the year and competitors. 

For companies interested in branding and spending over $100,000 on advertising, many of the digital ad platforms offer a tool called the brand lift study. This study is used to measure the impact on the perception of your brand when running ads. A brand lift study takes a specific audience and splits it into two groups. The first group is shown your ads over a specific period of time, the second group sees none of your ads. At the end of the study, users who were in both groups are shown a survey by the ad platform. The difference between the first group and the second group is called the brand lift, or the increase of consumer awareness of your brand due to running advertising.