Bank Digital Marketing Is Obsessed with Leads. That’s Only Half the Goal
By Alex Jimenez, Lead Principal Consultant, Backbase
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Executive Summary
- Digital marketing programs at banks and credit unions aren’t getting the results they used to. A continuing focus on customer acquisition blinds most marketers to the fact that many new accountholders never engage after opening accounts.
- Beyond this disconnect, increasingly institutions are relying on yesterday’s playbook, which ignores changes among customers and in technology.
- The greatest challenge lies in AI’s usurping the internet search process. Banks and credit unions that don’t figure out how to work with AI will be rendered invisible.
Digital marketing in banking has reached a crisis point.
After years of riding the performance marketing wave, banks are discovering that the old playbook isn’t working anymore. Cost per acquisition keeps climbing. Yet too many new accounts sit empty after 90 days.
The problem isn’t just that digital ads cost more now. It’s that the entire foundation of how banks should think about marketing is shifting under their feet.
And most institutions haven’t noticed yet.
Performance Marketing Has Hit a Dead End
I’ve been tracking digital marketing costs in financial services for the past few years. The numbers tell a stark story.
Google Search ads in financial services average about $3.44 per click with a 2.91% click-through rate, according to WordStream’s latest benchmarks. On Facebook, banks pay around $3.77 per click for a 0.56% click-through rate. These numbers have grown worse, not better, over the past three years.
But here’s what the data doesn’t capture: Even when these campaigns generate leads, too many banks stop there. They’ve built sophisticated funnels to drive account openings, but they haven’t invested nearly as much in what happens after someone signs up.
I’ve seen banks celebrate hitting their new account targets while ignoring that 40%, or more, of those accounts never see a second transaction.
The funnel approach worked when digital advertising was cheaper and less competitive. Now it’s like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom while water grows more expensive every month.
Privacy Changes Are Accelerating, Not Slowing Down
In April 2025, Google announced it was scrapping plans to fully deprecate third-party cookies in Chrome. Some marketers breathed a sigh of relief, as if they’d been given a reprieve.
But they have missed the bigger picture. Safari and Firefox already block third-party cookies. Consumer expectations around privacy aren’t reversing course. Neither are global regulations.
Many banks are still building campaigns around detailed third-party targeting without a clear strategy for first-party data — information they gather directly from their own customers. The banks that are getting ahead of this shift are investing in customer data platforms and authenticated user experiences. They’re not just collecting data. They’re building systems that can act on it in real time.
The lesson isn’t complicated: If you don’t own the data, you don’t own the relationship.
The Real Cost of Chasing New Accounts
The most interesting shift I’ve seen this year is marketing leaders questioning the entire acquisition-focused model. After years of chasing new accounts, they’re starting to ask a different question:
What good is a new “customer” who doesn’t actually use your services?
Here’s an example: I recently met with a mid-sized bank that had been cheering consistent growth in new checking accounts. When they dug into the data, they made a horrifying discovery —35% of these accounts had less than $100 in them after six months. The bank was spending $150 to acquire customers who weren’t profitable and weren’t engaged.
This led to a fundamental shift in how this bank allocated marketing spend. Instead of putting 80% of their budget toward acquisition, they moved to a 60%/40% split, with 40% focused on onboarding and activation. The results were immediate: New account profitability increased by 23%, and customer lifetime value improved significantly.
The insight here isn’t revolutionary, but it’s often overlooked: Acquiring a customer is just the first step. The real value comes from what happens next.
Why Gen Z Isn’t Responding to Your Digital Marketing
Banks are struggling to reach Gen Z, and most are missing the mark entirely.
Gen Zers are digitally native, but they’re also digitally cynical. They’ve grown up with targeted advertising — and they’re remarkably good at ignoring it.
Recent Vericast data shows that 38% of Gen Z feel minimal loyalty to their banks, while 25% say they’re impressed by institutions with superior technology.
But what I hear from this age group is different. They don’t just want better apps. They want transparency, authenticity and institutions that align with their values.
Traditional bank marketing speaks to Gen Z like they’re Millennials, but they’re not. They don’t respond to polished slogans or financial platitudes. They expect brands to be useful, not just promotional.
Some banks are experimenting with community-driven channels like Reddit and Discord. They are partnering with creators on financial education rather than traditional advertising. These efforts are small, but they’re earning engagement rates that traditional campaigns can’t match.
The key insight: If your marketing feels like marketing, you’ve already lost this audience.
Read more about Gen Z:
- Close the Gen Z ‘Relevancy Gap’ Now or Watch Them Leave
- Generation Z Wants It All and Wants It Now. But They Also Need Help
- Why Gen Z Hates Your Loan Payment Options — and 6 Ways to Fix Them
Moving Beyond Demographics to Behavior
One of the most promising developments I’ve seen is banks moving away from broad demographic targeting toward behavioral triggers.
Instead of targeting “People aged 25-35,” they’re targeting “People who just made their first rent payment above $2,000” or “Customers who abandoned the account opening process at the identity verification step.”
This shift requires better data infrastructure, but it also requires a different way of thinking about marketing. Instead of broadcasting messages to large audiences, banks can deliver relevant content at the moment it’s most useful, and most often it is directly through their mobile apps. These nudges are possible when AI engines can leverage the bank’s data.
Banks implementing this approach with targeted messaging are seeing engagement rates three to four times higher than their previous campaigns.
The principle is simple: Relevance beats volume every time.
Read more: Consumers Are Suffering Marketing Fatigue. How to Earn Back Their Attention
Brand Matters More Than Ever
Branding is making a comeback in bank marketing. After years of focusing almost exclusively on performance metrics, banks are rediscovering that brand clarity isn’t a “soft” asset. It’s a competitive advantage.
With AI-generated content flooding every channel, genuine brand voice stands out more than ever. The banks that are winning aren’t just optimizing for clicks. They’re building recognition and trust.
A friend recently worked with a credit union that had been struggling with member acquisition despite competitive rates and good service. When the credit union analyzed their marketing, they found that their messaging was indistinguishable from competitors. Everything was about features and benefits. They told nothing about who they are or why they exist.
The credit union spent three months rebuilding their brand narrative around their community focus and member-first philosophy.
The shift wasn’t just in their advertising. The credit union change the way they talked about themselves everywhere.
Six months later, this organization’s member acquisition costs had dropped by 18%, and member satisfaction scores greatly improved.
You can’t optimize your way into relevance, but you can build your way into it.
Read more: How Bank of Oklahoma’s ‘Brand Journalism’ Nurtures Customer Needs Instead of Selling Things
The SEO Era Is Fading. Evolve Before You Fade Too
Beyond how the more traditional levers of digital banking are changing, financial marketers must also think about how people find and interact with content.
Traditional search engine optimization (SEO) is losing ground fast. AI-powered features like Google’s AI Overviews and large language models like ChatGPT are cutting users off from the traditional click-through path, especially for informational queries.
That means even top-ranking content may no longer drive traffic if AI bots answer the question before users visit the site.
In March 2025, 13.1% of all Google searches triggered AI Overviews, up from just 6.5% in January. Most of those searches are informational queries, FAQs, definitions, research prompts —the types of content banking SEO teams rely on.
A recent study by Bain & Co. found that 80% of users now resolve 40% of searches without clicking any links, and 42% of AI users rely on generative tools for shopping recommendations.
That means SEO is no longer just about ranking. Brands need to be authored into the answer engine, not just ranked toward it.
How You Can Change the Way Google Sees You
Enter three new methods designed to shape how AI tools source and cite content:
• Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). This means optimizing content so search engines like Google can use it to answer queries. If so, the search engines will usually provide a link in the answer so the user can see the source.
Try searching Google for “What is the best credit card” and see what results — and which links — the Google AI Overview provides.
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). This is a strategy to enhance the visibility of content so that a ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or other large language model will use it in their answers, perhaps giving a link to look at the source.
Try the same search for the best card and see what you obtain.
• AI SEO is a broader term that encompasses optimizing content for AI, as well as using AI to enhance traditional SEO.
The goal of using these tools is simple — not just to rank, but to be included in the answer itself. If your content isn’t cited in the AI answer, it effectively never existed.
Banks can’t abandon SEO, but relying on old playbooks is risky. Leading teams are rethinking content as a trust asset, not a traffic lever.
What Forward-Thinking Financial Institutions Are Actually Doing
Based on what I see at banks and credit unions across the country, here’s what the leaders are doing differently:
• Building first-party data strategies that go beyond email lists. This means customer data platforms, digital banking experiences, and marketing automation that can act on real-time behavioral triggers.
• Shifting budget from acquisition to activation, investing much more in onboarding and engagement.
• Treating marketing as part of the customer experience, not separate from it. This means closer collaboration between marketing, product and digital teams.
• Investing in brand building alongside performance marketing. They understand that long-term growth requires both immediate conversions and sustained recognition.
• Preparing for an AI-first discovery model. They’re moving beyond traditional SEO to focus on Answer Engine Optimization and ensuring the brand shows up when AI systems generate responses.
• Treating content as a trust signal, not just a traffic driver. They focus on expertise, transparency and clarity over keyword stuffing or volume playbooks.
Most importantly, they’re measuring success differently. Instead of just counting new accounts, they’re tracking activation rates, engagement scores, and customer lifetime value.
Read more: The Growth Secret of Fast Growing Small and Midsize Banks: Marketing Matters
The Real Opportunity in Rebooted Digital Marketing
The banks that will thrive in the next few years won’t be the ones that figure out how to buy more clicks. They’ll be the ones that use digital tools to build deeper relationships with the customers they already have, while attracting new ones through genuine value and authentic communication.
This isn’t about abandoning digital marketing, it’s about evolving it. The future belongs to banks that can combine the precision of performance marketing with the staying power of brand building, all while treating customers like people, not just acquisition targets.
The shift is already happening. The question is whether your institution will lead it or be left behind by it.
Read more: How to Get Your Financial Services Content Indexed by AI Engines
