Google AdWords Costs For Banks And Credit Unions

Here’s The Financial Brand’s annual breakdown of who’s paying for what, how much it costs, how many keywords they use and how many clicks they get.

Every time someone types a financial related term into Google, there are banks and credit unions paying to have their ads placed atop the search results. The neat thing about Google AdWords is that you don’t pay until someone clicks. Some search terms only costs a few cents per click, while other more valuable and popular terms can run you a few bucks. With the Google AdWords interface, you can control how much you’re willing to pay per click, and how much you’re willing to spend every day. If you hit your spending limit, Google simply stops showing your ads. It’s a pretty slick system… if you have someone responsible for tightly managing and massaging your campaigns. A "set-it-and-forget-it" strategy probably isn’t going to pay off.

Earlier this year, The Financial Brand published results of its annual scan of the bank and credit union marketing industry. In that study, 57% of respondents said they were currently using "search engine marketing" (SEM), while 28% said no and 15% said they weren’t yet but were planning on it. But these numbers don’t seem to reflect what’s really going on. The Financial Brand has also extensively studied actual use of SEM, and it is highly improbable that even 5% of financial institutions currently invest any money in this area. What’s more likely is that financial marketers have SEM confused with SEO. SEM is most commonly associated with paid ads on a search engine (namely Google AdWords) — also called "paid search." SEO, on the other hand, involves a set of strategies and tactics designed to organically boost your web pages up in search results.

( Read More: 50 Essential SEO Terms Financial Marketers Should Know )

Common AdWords Search Terms in Retail Banking

In today’s market where financial institutions struggle to lend out the deposits they bring in, it’s hard to imagine there are dozens of banks and credit unions willing to shell out $9.34 per click for the search term "checking account." Remember, this is just a single click, so it costs nearly $10 just to get a consumer to your website… you still have to get a high percentage to convert and open an account.

Other expensive search terms include "business checking" ($10.76 per click), "credit score" ($9.84), "reverse mortgage" ($9.84), "business loan" ($9.00) and "refinance" ($8.68).

( Read More: 5 Tips to Maximize Google Adwords For Small Banks & Credit Union )

Comparing Search Terms Across Major Metro Markets

There is a big difference between what it costs per click to buy "mortgage rates" in Atlanta ($2.66) vs. Los Angeles ($8.16). You’ll also notice that even the slightest change to your search terms can have a radical impact on cost. In Houston, buying the term "auto loan Houston" only costs $3.43, but add the plural "s" to "auto loan" and it will run you $9.03 per click — nearly 3x more. Similarly, "auto loan Los Angeles" costs $9.81 while "auto loans Los Angeles" comes in at an unbelievable $18.13 per click.

Retail Banks’ AdWord Budgets

Those financial institutions without a heavy retail presence in the brick-and-mortar channel have to invest more heavily in online marketing like AdWords. You’ll notice firms like Quicken, LendingTree, USAA and Bankrate.com are all atop the list of big spenders. While BofA is spending around $4 million annually on AdWords (about 2% of its overall marketing budget), there are other big banks like Citi who are hardly spending any: around $1 million, or 0.05% of its marketing budget.

( Read More: Spy on Your AdWords Competitors with SpyFu )

Credit Unions’ AdWord Budgets

The Financial Brand estimates that only about 10% of the biggest credit unions in the U.S. invest in a Google AdWords strategy. Assuming Navy FCU is spending around $2 or $3 million on AdWords annually, they would be allocating less than 3% of their overall marketing budget. OnPoint’s budget would work out to less than $500,000, or less than 7.5% of their overall marketing budget. But the reality is that most credit unions using Google AdWords are only dabbling, allocating less than 1% of their marketing budgets.

Vendors Targeting Banks & Credit Unions

Common Search Terms Used to Target Banks & Credit Unions