PPC for Banks

There are hundreds of marketing channels in today’s world, all with their pros and cons.

It’s easy to get lost with so many options, but it’s also necessary to choose the right combination for your bank.

Let’s explore exactly why pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is a great addition to your bank’s marketing strategy!

What is PPC?

When using a search engine, have you ever seen those search results that are marked with the “Ad” tag? They usually appear at the very top of the search results page, or down along the right-hand side. Those are PPC ads in action.

An ad only shows up when a user searches for certain keywords and meets certain parameters, all of which are established by the advertiser.

In other words, PPC marketing is a form of advertising in which you pay a search engine for visits to your website. You set up an advertising campaign to display ads alongside search results, and you’re only charged when a user clicks on one of your ads.

PPC gives you a lot of control over your campaigns. When everything is properly configured, PPC can result in high-quality leads with a much higher rate of conversion than other marketing channels.

The most common platform for PPC marketing is Google Ads, although each search engine has its own similarly-structured version.

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How does PPC work?

Basically, PPC gives you complete control over when, where, and to whom your ads are being shown. When running your campaign, you bid how much money you’re willing to pay (per click) to have your ad show up for certain keywords. You also establish a daily campaign budget (the maximum amount you’re willing to spend in one day), and Google will never charge you more than your maximum.

While Google has a slightly more nuanced formula for divvying up ad space to multiple bidders, the basic principle is that the highest bidder will get the most prominent ad spot, followed by the second-highest bidder, and so on.

Again, your ad will only show up when someone searches the keyword you set. You can also limit or increase its exposure based on factors like users’ geographical locations, what device they’re using, and several other specific parameters.

You only pay for actual clicks on your ad. Even if it’s seen by 1 million users, you won’t pay a penny if they click elsewhere on the page.

Even after your ad is clicked, you may end up paying much less per click than your initial bid. That’s because the top bidder will only ever pay one cent more than the second-highest bidder. It depends entirely on the other bidders for your keywords.

Your ad will continue to run until your daily campaign budget is exhausted, or you manually stop it. Your ad will then not be displayed until you adjust your budget, you restart it, or it automatically resets the next day.

Why PPC is great for banks

PPC is perfectly suited to the finance industry. Here’s why:

It’s an answer to the organic search dominance of bigger banks

In the finance industry, ranking organically on the first page of search results (through search engine optimization) is fiercely competitive.

It’s very unlikely you’ll be able to beat bigger banks, since they have bigger marketing teams and budgets. The top search results for valuable keywords are usually dominated by big bank chains with endless resources, meaning you’ll miss out on most of the organic traffic.

This is where PPC comes in! You see results from a solid PPC marketing campaign immediately, in real time. As soon as your ads go live, they’ll begin to appear on users’ Google searches.

Beyond that, they’ll also show up above the organic listings for the bigger banks. That means you can still attract potential customers to your website, even if you’re just getting started with SEO.

PPC allows for hyper-specific targeting and customization

You can set up individual campaigns for every banking service you offer, allowing you to tailor your ad copy perfectly to all situations.

For example, one Google user may search for “auto loans,” while another searches for “student checking accounts.” Instead of having one general ad addressing both queries, you can have two ads set up to deal with each specific search.

You can take it a step further and have each ad point to a different landing page as well. This lets you tailor each page to a specific query, so you can be sure user intent is properly addressed. It also means site visitors will start off deeper into your sales funnel, pushing your conversion rates even higher.

Creative keyword targeting means affordable, high-quality leads

There are two general types of keywords you can target: broad and long-tail. A broad keyword is something like “loans,” while a long-tail keyword would be “low APR auto loan in Chelsea, NY.”

PPC advertising allows you to easily target those long-tail keywords. This means less competition, as most other banks won’t bother targeting such a specific search term. The result is more qualified traffic to your site without spending lots of money on ads.

While these keywords may not individually get you a high volume of leads, they do reflect a user’s intent to become a customer. In this way, you can get more leads (and customers) by targeting lots of relevant, specific keywords. For example, the search “low APR auto loan in Chelsea, NY” implies clear intent, while “loans” could be anything from a purely informational query to an accidental search.

Setting up various campaigns to target different long-tail keywords can result in a steady stream of ready-to-buy traffic!

Our digital marketing campaigns impact the metrics that improve your bottom line.

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WebFX has driven the following results for clients:

$10 billion

in client revenue

24 million

leads for our clients

7.14 million

client phone calls

Ready to boost your traffic and see real-time results?

Like we said before, it’s extremely important to utilize the marketing channels that best suit your needs. Three of the finance industry’s broadest marketing needs happen to be immediate results, highly customizable targeting options, and access to high-quality leads. PPC addresses all three of these issues and then some, making it an invaluable marketing channel for your bank.

Are you too busy to work out PPC on your own? WebFX has a veteran team of Internet marketers ready and waiting to knock your PPC campaign out of the park! Contact us today to speak with a strategist!

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