Digital Marketing for Banking – A Multi-Faceted Approach

Driving digital marketing results has become essential for community banks, credit unions and financial institutions within todays competitive and unpredictable economy. Programmatic advertising can be a powerful and measured way to drive direct visits to banking locations as well as digital results on banking websites. Many banks and financial institutions have become multi-faceted and require digital performance and physical, in-store results. In many ways, it is not enough to just focus on one area while developing your marketing and sales plan. 

What can be especially powerful is creating a marketing plan that will:

1. Drive customers to banking locations and be able to measure results 
2. Drive digital performance on the banking websites 
3. Use marketing budget to drive results in multiple points of conversions

Above The Fold has had significant success in helping banks and financial institutions to achieve these complex but necessary goals. We would love to share an example of what success can look like for a community bank when using programmatic marketing. 

COVID’s impacts on financial institutions

From 2020-2022 COVID restrictions had a significant impact on all industries across the globe, but the financial industry may have been one of the industries that most people would not have thought about but was incredibly strained.  Many community banks and financial institutions relied upon foot traffic to drive meaningful revenue. Consumers go into a local bank branch, learn about additional ways they can work with their financial institution, and opportunities increase for the bank. When COVID struck, foot traffic to financial institutions ground to a halt as locations closed and needed to offer more services virtually. Those financial institutions that were more digital-first had a leg up to competitors as they had an easier time to connect to new and current customers online and digitally. 

A recent study concluded:

• Banking operations averaged 80% of pre-crisis levels
• Loan disbursements decreased to 80% of pre-pandemic levels
• Digital transformation gained priority in 62% of all respondents

As the effects of the pandemic decreased, there were unique opportunities for financial institutions to seize the moment if they were willing to invest marketing dollars. 

Driving vehicle loan applications with programmatic advertising

One of the effects of the pandemic was that vehicle prices increased and stayed at heightened levels. Vehicle prices increased by $10,000 during the pandemic, on average. That took the average vehicle price to a new record of $47,000, nearly a 30% increase from pre-pandemic. While this was bad news for consumers, it presented an opportunity for credit unions. 

In the post-pandemic world, a credit union with more than 20 locations wanted to seize this moment to capture this appealing loan market. Their goals were to:

1. Increase the number of consumers using their financial services
2. Generate appointment sign-ups, online loan applications, and in-person visits to the branch

Strategies and Tactics to Build Awareness for Car Loan Services

Programmatic marketing offers the most dynamic and progressive ways to target consumers in digital marketing today. The banking industry is able to serve diverse ad formats to their ideal customers based on their location, demographics and behaviors. For a specific loan like an auto loan, this type of customer would be any body in their local area that is in market for a car – so how can they find these users? Ad formats can include display, native, video, audio and connected TV and served with an integrated budget and strategy. There are many options that programmatic can offer the financial industry.

These four approaches are some of the best approaches to help banks and credit unions specifically with the goal of targeting customers in-market for auto loans.

1. Geo-fence car dealerships to reach consumers that enter the location, showing that they are actively auto shopping
2. Target users as they visited websites specific to vehicle and auto loans
3. Retarget consumers that were searching for relevant auto-shopping keywords
4. Target consumers that are reading about purchasing cars or financial services

How did geofencing work to find in-market car loan customers?

While all four strategies are compelling, advanced targeting approaches, there is one approach that stands out for many local banks and credit unions that we work with. 

In this case study, the credit union selected 17 popular dealerships in a particular metro that was geographically relevant to the credit union. Geofences were drawn around the 17 locations to not include surrounding roads, so users had to actually enter the dealership. As users entered the dealerships if they used location settings on their phone, we were able to identify the device and serve ads to users on their phone. They would see the ad up to two weeks after visiting the dealership, with ads on sites they were visiting. The ads were informative of auto loans from the credit union and helped drive phone calls and web form fills.

Is Geofencing Technology different between providers?

Many geofencing technologies do not produce sufficient targeting fences and could include people driving by, so we ensure the fence is exact. These other technologies get you reasonably close to the desired locations, but our unique technology allows you only to target the exact areas of interest while avoiding catching nearby streets, freeways, or other unwanted traffic. Ensuring you use the most precise technology is the difference between failure and success.

Not all geofencing technology is created equal. Above The Fold’s unique geofencing technology is unmatched, targeting precisely where your targets are located

Credit Union Advertising Results

A combination of native and display ads was used to target the consumers.

• 1,314 physical visits were driven to the credit union branches and ATMs
  • The Cost Per Visit was $1.24 over the four-month campaign
• 533 online applications, appointments, and website visits were driven
  • The Cost Per Action was $4.91
• Native saw a Cost Per View of $.77
• Native saw a Cost Per Acquisition of $2.30

Check out the complete programmatic case study.

If you are interested in taking the next step in your digital marketing approach through programmatic, Above The Fold would love to partner with you on programmatic marketing; drop a note.