With the banking industry so focused on expense control, how do marketers continue to make a case for their budgets? And how are they prioritizing which types of advertising to invest in?
We posed these questions — and a few more — to several bank marketers who are solving for challenges like deepening customer engagement and raising deposits.
They stressed the importance of documenting results.
“Remember, you are making a case for your budget all year long,” says Courtney O’Regan, the director of marketing at Middlesex Savings Bank in Natick, Mass. “Provide regular reporting on campaigns and tactics throughout the year.”
That means sharing details with the executive team about the flops, too. “While the wins are important, you must also communicate what didn’t work — and how you plan to change strategy as a result,” O’Regan says. “This builds trust. And if you’re looking for the executives to hand you a decent budget to work with, you have to establish trust.”
Natalie Boike, the director of marketing at Frandsen Bank & Trust in Lonsdale, Minn., echoes this advice, adding that she tries to bolster her reporting with secondary metrics as much as she can.
“Even when exploring traditional marketing channels, you should be having conversations about the value of an impression,” Boike says. “It’s hard to make a case for any type of budget if you can’t articulate what you’ll get for those dollars.”
Seattle Bank is a bit of an anomaly for its willingness to really ramp up marketing. Its goal is specifically to attract deposits — and its efforts are paying off. It had 29% retail deposit growth in 2023 and about 19% growth in the first half of 2024, says Mary Grace Roske, the senior vice president of marketing communications and community relations for the bank and its online marketplace CD Valet.
The bank has tapped specialized external partners to help its in-house team execute on the growth mission, and Roske believes this approach adds both strength and flexibility. It will allow Seattle Bank “to dial up or down when circumstances or budgets require,” she says.
An analysis of data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shows that, generally speaking, growth in marketing budgets across banks of all asset sizes has slowed, though not contracted.
While all asset tiers grew marketing spending by at least 4% in 2023, the annual increase was much lower than in 2022, according to Capital Performance Group, the consulting firm that conducts this annual study for The Financial Brand.
Here’s what marketers from different parts of the country — Middlesex Savings Bank in the Northeast, Seattle Bank in the Northwest, and Frandsen Bank & Trust in the Midwest — are doing to advocate for their budgets and deliver persuasive results.
Digital Marketing Strategies Dominate at Middlesex Savings Bank
Courtney O’Regan
SVP, Director of Marketing
Middlesex Savings Bank (Natick, Mass.)
Asset size: $6 billion
How would you characterize the change in Middlesex Savings Bank’s marketing budget in recent years?
Our budget has remained relatively consistent from 2022 to 2024, with small increases meant to keep up with inflation.
What strategies have been effective at helping stretch the marketing budget? Have you tweaked the marketing mix at all based on costs?
Our media mix has changed pretty substantially over the past few years. We’ve had to be ruthless about asking ourselves “at what cost?” each time we’re presented with an advertising opportunity. As a result, we’ve mostly done away with traditional print advertising in the papers and have doubled down on digital strategies that reach in-market audiences, like remarketing and paid search.
At the same time, you can’t forget about reaching upper-funnel audiences. Fortunately, digital TV buys allow us to zero in on our geography, eliminating the waste that comes with traditional broadcast television buys. Through a combination of connected TV, video on demand, and streaming services, we’re able to more efficiently reach our desired audiences.
Cost per impression (CPI) used to be something I just looked at with our media planner. Now, I use it in discussions with our executive team to explain the strategy behind our decisions. You must demonstrate that you’re spending the bank’s money wisely.
What is getting the largest share of your budget this year? Why?
Digital strategies, as discussed in more detail above.
How do you typically make a case for your marketing budget?
I provide regular reporting on campaigns and tactics throughout the year. By communicating wins in terms that your executive audience understands, you are planting the seed and building the appetite to do it again. While the wins are important, you must also communicate what didn’t work — and how you plan to change strategy as a result. This builds trust. And if you’re looking for the executives to hand you a decent budget to work with, you have to establish trust.
Categorize your budget into fixed vs. discretionary expenses. My marketing department absorbs a lot of costs that are fixed, such as website maintenance and regulatory mailings. This isn’t obvious to everyone — call it out.
Also, get your hands on any competitive spend data. Banks like to know what their peers are up to.
(For an analysis of marketing spending data for banks in your asset size range nationwide, see the reports listed at the end of this article.)
Read more:
- Digital Marketing Tactics, Trends and Tips to Know About
- Why — and How — Some CMOs Are Reinventing Their Roles
Paid Search Advertising Nationally Pays Off for Seattle Bank
Mary Grace Roske
SVP, Marketing Communications & Community Relations
Seattle Bank and its online marketplace CD Valet (Seattle, Wash.)
Asset size: $897 million
How would you characterize the change in Seattle Bank’s marketing budget in recent years?
Seattle Bank’s marketing priorities have centered on deposits, primarily CDs. We’ve long been a leader in offering highly competitive CDs and we implemented a fully digital account opening platform in late 2023 so that savers nationwide could easily open and fund their accounts with us.
This led to an increase in Seattle Bank’s paid search advertising nationally and a decline in our more traditional print and local digital advertising. There are three main levers in attracting deposits through digital channels — an attractive interest rate, a robust digital account opening platform and targeted digital advertising. We’ve invested in all three and, as a result, we’ve had 29% retail deposit growth in 2023 and 19% year-to-date growth in 2024.
Can you provide any color on the changes?
Seattle Bank’s major initiative in 2023-24 has been the launch of CD Valet, a nationwide online marketplace for CD shoppers, which we have supported with ongoing investment in growth marketing.
When it comes to CDs and deposits in general, the digital marketplace has been dominated by a handful of pay-to-play platforms and large internet banks both with sophisticated digital advertising capabilities and big budgets. The majority of community financial institutions — those offering the highest rates — struggle to be visible in this digital world. This creates a skewed perception of the market and hurts consumers who are not able to find the best returns. In addition, it stifles the growth and competitiveness of local and regional financial institutions that are so vital to communities across the country.
Seattle Bank President and Chief Executive Officer John Blizzard created CD Valet to disrupt these dynamics with a platform that better serves consumers and supports financial institutions (as The Financial Brand reported here).
Today, CD Valet provides consumers with over 31,000 CD products from more than 4,000 federally insured banks and credit unions. CD Valet also offers digital account opening services, data analytics, and lead generation services to support financial institutions offering CDs. We’ve supported the launch of CD Valet with investments in paid search and paid social, as well as internal resources devoted to content and event marketing.
What strategies have been effective at helping stretch the marketing budget? Have you tweaked the marketing mix at all based on costs?
At a high level, we’ve been effective in knowing what we do best with our in-house team and recognizing when hiring specialized external partners will deliver the strongest results. Our success in finding the right players, regardless of whether they are employees or contractors or consultants, is enabling us to build a strong team to support both Seattle Bank and CD Valet. This approach will also allow us to dial up or down when circumstances or budgets require.
What is getting the largest share of your budget this year? Why?
Paid search is a priority marketing expenditure because it aligns with our strategy for Seattle Bank (to attract deposits nationwide) and for CD Valet (to drive savers to the platform to shop for CDs and complement our efforts to increase organic traffic).
We are also stepping into affiliate marketing and finding opportunities to grow brand awareness of CD Valet through those partners.
How do you typically make a case for your marketing budget?
Our marketing spend is a direct reflection of our strategic priorities. We also are aware of the product readiness and the importance of making sure the product and user experience are where we want them before we turn up the marketing dial. Dollars are a factor in our planning, but so is timing and operational readiness.
Read more:
- Pay for Performance Is Saving Marketing Budgets
- See all of our latest coverage of bank marketing strategies
What Advertising ‘Local’ Means for Fransden Bank
Natalie Boike
SVP, Director of Marketing
Frandsen Bank & Trust (Lonsdale, Minn.)
Asset size: $3.5 billion
How would you characterize the change in Fransden Bank & Trust’s marketing budget in recent years?
There was a slight decrease in the 2024 budget, compared with the previous year. The 2023 budget was about the same as 2022.
Can you provide any color on the changes?
We decreased our investment in corporate marketing spending by a small amount, mostly in the areas of content creation. We also identified efficiencies in our paid media program. Rather than a decrease or increase, we’ve been focused on finding places where our corporate marketing can work collaboratively with local marketing from our branches.
What strategies have been effective at helping stretch the marketing budget? Have you tweaked the marketing mix at all based on costs?
We have a relatively unique approach as a bank serving 30-plus communities throughout Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Our market is varied across the three-state region, spanning rural communities, larger cities like Duluth, and the Twin Cities metro area.
As such, I’m strategically looking to find the right balance between “corporate” marketing — pooling resources for bargaining power spend efficiency — with the regional and local focus of our market leaders. We truly want to serve as a community bank in our marketing, just as we do for our products and services.
Each community is different. We want to show up and sustain local marketing investments in the right ways for each of our communities. For some, that means supporting local newspaper or radio outlets. For others, it means helping fund a school’s new scoreboard in exchange for a logo at the bottom of the sign. These efforts will always be part of our mix.
The marketing department looks at these local opportunities and plans engagement that adds even greater impact across our footprint.
What is getting the largest share of your budget this year? Why?
Since our footprint is so varied it’s been important to seek out unique campaigns that will be relevant in most markets.
For example, we are the proud founding sponsor of the Minnesota Star Tribune Youth Sports section. Our customers seek out coverage of their local student athletes and, through the sponsorship, you can easily see that Frandsen Bank & Trust has a shared passion for supporting young adults. When you have strategic partnerships versus paid placements, it’s easy to know what to prioritize.
Frandsen Bank & Trust and the Frandsen Foundation have also expanded the Frandsen Foundation Scholarship to five new communities this year. The scholarship covers two years of college, and includes a $1,000 stipend for fees, books, and supplies, for students attending a technical-ready program at an approved college.
Since its inception in Luck, Wisconsin, the foundation has awarded scholarships to 491 students. With the addition of these five new communities, the scholarship is now available to 10 school districts. Programs like these provide us a local connection, and excellent brand perception, on a topic with broad appeal to our communities.
How do you typically make a case for your marketing budget?
Reporting is so important in today’s marketing landscape.
There are many tools available to help prove the effectiveness and ROI of marketing. Even when exploring traditional marketing channels, you should be having conversations about the value of an impression for your organization to help evaluate the success of your program, but also get buy-in for spending more or trying new things. It’s hard to make a case for any type of budget if you can’t articulate what you’ll get for those dollars.
I would say there’s room to grow in our reporting program. Right now, we do lean on our partners to articulate the value of their offerings. They’re probably sick of me asking about secondary metrics because the impressions and CPM numbers are fine, but I do think the value of an impression is declining and we need to be ready to engage after that first touch. What you do after the impression is what provides value – the retargeting, the clickthrough, etc.
Our Annual Analysis of Bank Marketing Spending
The Financial Brand has partnered with Capital Performance Group on a project that offers insight into the level of marketing spending across banks of all sizes nationwide. The analysis draws on data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., with the annual “advertising and marketing expenses” item in call reports being key. A bank is required to submit information for this line item in the yearend call report when its advertising and marketing expenditures hit a certain threshold.
For the analysis of bank marketing spending based on 2023 data, see What Bang Do Financial Marketers Get for Their Bucks?
Our 2022 bank marketing spending analysis is a two-part feature.
The first part — Do Banks That Outspend Their Peers on Marketing Grow Faster? — is a deep dive on banks with $2 billion to $10 billion of assets, examining their investment in marketing against growth in loans, deposits and revenue.
The second part — Marketing Boosts Deposit & Loan Growth for Community Banks — focuses on banks with less than $2 billion of assets.