It’s true, every industry can benefit from digital marketing, but financial services might just top the list. It’s a competitive business with strict regulations and decades of online noise. If you’re keen to stand out from the crowd, it’s worth building a personalized marketing strategy.
We took the liberty of compiling everything you should know about marketing for banks and financial institutions, from content marketing and lead generation to advertising and social media ads. We also cover compliance, target audiences, and metric tracking so you can feel more confident about putting your plan into motion.
Table of Contents
- Why All Financial Services Need Digital Marketing
- How to Design a Financial Marketing Strategy
- Measuring Financial Marketing Success
- The Bottom Line on Digital Marketing for Financial Services
Why All Financial Services Need Digital Marketing
As younger generations start stepping into the world of financial services, more and more providers are shifting their marketing focus online. Case in point: a whopping 84% of people find new products, services, and businesses on the internet. So if you don’t have a strong digital presence, you could be missing out on prospects, revenue, and potential referral opportunities.
The numbers speak for themselves:
- People engage with digital financial services content 70% of the time and tend to engage longer than with other pieces of content.
- Phone searches for financial services (like “financial planning and management”) have grown 70% in the last two years.
- 64% of calls to financial service providers have started with an organic search.
The short version? If you want to sustainably grow your financial services business, you’ll need to develop a digital marketing strategy.
The good news is, this might be easier than you think.
Here’s a closer look at the tools you’ll need.
How to Design a Financial Marketing Strategy
Building a financial marketing strategy can seem daunting at first, especially if you’re new to the principles of digital marketing. But keep in mind, ‘strategy’ is really just a different name for ‘planning.’ If you’re willing to experiment, it won’t take long to build a clear path forward.
We’ve broken the journey into five different sections: compliance, content marketing, lead generation, advertising, and social media. We also provide charts, strategies, and related resources so you can dive deeper into all of the above.
Let’s start with the first piece of the puzzle:
1. Building a Financial Services Marketing Foundation
TL;DR: Pick your channels, follow compliance guidelines, set a goal, then identify your target market.
Like any other financial strategy, your first course of action should be designing a road map. What do you want from your efforts? How can you create something sustainable?
This starts by laying the groundwork and setting yourself up for success.
Defining your financial brand’s digital presence
First things first: where do you want to show up online? This doesn’t have to be every trending platform or social media channel.
Most financial services have the following brand touchpoints:
- Website
- Social media
- Forums
- Podcasts
- Webinars
- Content creation
- YouTube
If you’re a local business, you might try your Local Chamber of Commerce. You could also try advisor directories like SmartAsset and WiserAdvisor, or industry associations such as the CFA Institute or FINRA directories.
If you’re truly brand new, you might start with a website and one social platform (typically LinkedIn). This will help establish an online presence and make it less overwhelming to keep up with the best industry practices.
Understanding compliance requirements in financial marketing
Financial services are subject to marketing compliance requirements that other industries simply don’t face. This heavily depends on your specific products, location, and target market, although there are a few rules of thumb worth considering here.
Do:
- Make accurate claims
- Observe GDPR and CCPA regulations
- Transparently list rates and changes (if applicable)
Do not:
- Make unrealistic promises (i.e., unbelievable returns)
- Write copy with the intent to deceive
- Target vulnerable populations
You can get more information by contacting a trained legal professional.
Setting measurable marketing objectives
What do you want out of your digital marketing campaign? If your answer is ‘a better business,’ it’s not specific enough.
That’s because a single marketing campaign can’t do it all, no matter how efficient or performative it might be. It’s a good idea to pick a single goal for each campaign, then choose a method of defining success.
It’s a good idea to set strong SMART goals: objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.
You’ve got a few options depending on your business:
- Brand awareness for making your brand top of mind
- Increased traffic for getting more eyeballs on your website
- Lead generation for putting more prospects in your inbox
- Product launch for placing a new item or service on display
- SEO ranking for pushing your website to the top of search engines
If you’re after more than one objective, set up separate campaigns for each one. This will make it easier to determine next steps, including identifying your target audience.
Identifying target audiences in financial services
Unlike ad targeting (which we’ll get into later), you need to pick an audience for each marketing campaign. The easiest way to do this is with a customer persona, which is a document designed to capture the demographics and behaviors of ideal clients.
You can create a customer persona in one of two ways:
- Generating an example of the ‘perfect’ target client
- Using an actual ‘perfect’ client and creating a profile based on their traits
You may need to create personas for each of your products or services, particularly if you target different types of people.
The good news is, there are plenty of templates online. You can even use AI to help with brainstorming a spec sheet.
How to Create Customer Personas in Minutes with AI
2. Financial Content Marketing Strategies
TL;DR: Start with simple content like emails and social posts. Then, work your way up to a business podcast so you can start nurturing long-term relationships.
Creating valuable financial content
There are all sorts of content formats that work for financial services:
- Educational blog posts
- Ebooks and whitepapers
- Case studies
- Explainer videos
- Podcasts
- Webinars
- Infographics
- Email newsletters
- Social media posts
- Interactive tools
- Checklists and templates
- Client testimonials and reviews
- FAQ pages
- Quizzes and assessments
- Guided email courses
All of these boil down to three different types: educational content, podcasting, and client testimonials.
Building trust through educational content
Financial content marketing helps to establish trust and credibility with your audience by breaking down financial concepts into practical, easily accessible resources.
You might consistently publish blogs, guides, and videos that position your brand as a thought leader people can rely on. You also don’t need to come up with new content constantly; repurposing existing content can help you stretch your dollar further.
Learn more about repurposing your content.
Podcast strategy for financial professionals
Starting a business podcast is an excellent way to move beyond surface-level content and build long-term relationships with your audience. Unlike short-form written content, which isn’t always evergreen, podcasts let you dive deeper into stories, showcase your expertise, and feature guest voices that add credibility.
Remember that your podcast is both a networking tool and a client nurturing system, so be sure to treat it as such. The ultimate goal is helping you stay top-of-mind while building trust with decision makers in your niche.
Client testimonials
Few things can build confidence in your business or services quite like a satisfied client. This may include:
- Testimonials, whether written, recorded, or shared in video form
- Case studies with documented outcomes or results
- Reviews written on social media, referral sites, or aggregates like Trustpilot
Each of these options can help provide social proof that encourages potential clients see themselves in your success stories. That way, you can incorporate testimonials across your website, podcast episodes, and marketing materials to add a touch of credibility in all possible touchpoints.
3. Lead Generation for Financial Advisors
TL;DR: Drive buyers to your financial service brand via landing pages, email, and webinars.
Content marketing brings more interest to your business. But lead generation attracts prospects who are ready to buy.
We cover the nuts and bolts of this in our guide to lead generation for financial advisors.
Once you’re familiar with the specifics, you can jump into these ground-zero strategies.
High-converting landing pages for financial services
Landing pages, sometimes called lead capture pages, are designed to route leads from a thought to a purchase decision. There are two different types commonly used by financial service brands: references (for freebies) and transactional (for purchases).
Here’s how to create a landing page lead generation strategy:
- Design a landing page with all best practices in mind (i.e., ending with a strong call to action to book a call or submit a form). For better results, you may wish to optimize your page for mobile phones.
- If desired, integrate with third-party tools for tracking, personalization, automations, and more.
- Next, create social media collateral, display ads, or emails that will drive online users to your landing page.
- Make your offer hyper-specific so it’s desirable to the target audience (like a free consultation or planning session).
- Keep your leads organized in a dedicated CRM so you can follow up appropriately and eventually seal the deal.
Email marketing for nurturing financial prospects
There’s a good reason why digital marketers refer to email lists as ‘gold mines.’ They’re a list of potential buyers who genuinely want to receive communications from your team.
You can use email marketing to continuously engage warm prospects and invite them to partner with your business. A great example of this is the TPC Newsletter, which serves thousands of subscribers with relevant news, updates, and free resources.
With this in mind, here’s how to create an email lead generation strategy:
- Sign up for an email marketing platform like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign.
- Create a series of educational and trust-building emails like market updates, savings tips, or case studies.
- Build or segment an email list based on where people are in their decision-making journey (like a new prospect versus a warm lead).
- Design a mobile-friendly email template with clear calls to action.
- Set up automated workflows to send emails based on user behavior, like downloading a guide or attending a webinar.
- Regularly test and refine subject lines, send times, and offers to maximize your open and click-through rates.
- Track recipient responses, engagement, and conversion metrics through your CRM or email marketing platform.
Webinar strategies for financial advisors
Webinars are resources-in-a-box where attendees can learn from a group of live people. In the financial sector, topics are usually niche and complex. The more they speak to your target audience, the more it shows prospects you’re serious about solving their problems.
Worried about small attendance rates? Fear not: Smaller webinars have higher attendance rates and engagement compared to larger ones.
They’re also easy to record and repurpose as lead magnets. You can check out TPC’s webinars for a good idea of what this looks like.
Now, here’s how to create a webinar lead generation strategy of your own:
- Pick a relevant topic that solves a real problem or answers a big question for your target audience (like retirement planning or investment strategies). You can even run polls or use your customer personas to weigh potential options.
- Create a registration landing page using the best practices outlined above.
- Promote your webinar through email campaigns, social media, paid ads, and your website. We also explored some best practices earlier in the guide.
- Offer valuable resources during your webinar, like downloadable guides, a free consultation offer, or an exclusive discount for attending the session.
- Record the session for on-demand access, then follow up with attendees and no-shows through an email marketing sequence.
- Analyze your attendance rates, engagement during the webinar, and post-event follow-ups to optimize future events.
4. Financial Services Advertising
TL;DR: Start small with a low-cost ad strategy, then gather data about what’s working (and what isn’t). That way, you can invest more money into the ads with the best results.
You can think of advertising as a smaller slice of the marketing ‘pizza.’ It isn’t required to grow your business, but it certainly helps if you have the skill, time, and budget.
You have lots of different options depending on your digital presence. Let’s take a look at this comprehensive chart:
| Ad Type | Use Case | Average Cost | Recommended Budget |
| Google Search Ads | Capture intent-based leads and applications | $2 – $8 CPC | $100 – $1,000+ per month |
| Google Display Network Ads | Retarget website visitors; brand awareness | $0.50 – $2 CPC | $500 – $2,000 per month |
| YouTube Video Ads | Build brand trust; educate; retarget | $0.10 – $0.30 CPV | $100 – $1,000+ per month |
| LinkedIn Sponsored Content | B2B leads; high-net-worth audience targeting | $5 – $15 CPC | $2,000 – $5,000 per month |
| LinkedIn InMail Ads | Direct outreach to business prospects | $0.80 – $1.20 per send | $1,500+ per month |
| Facebook/Instagram Feed Ads | Lead gen, awareness, retargeting | $0.80 – $3 CPC | $500 – $2,500 per month |
| Facebook/Instagram Story Ads | Quick engagement and retargeting | $0.50 – $2 CPC | $500 – $1,500 per month |
| Programmatic Display Ads | Automated broad reach, retargeting | $0.50 – $3 CPM | $2,000 – $10,000 per month |
| Native Ads | Content promotion on publisher sites | $0.10 – $0.50 CPC | $1,000 – $5,000 per month |
| Podcast Ads | Brand building; HNW audience | $18 – $50 CPM | $2,000 – $10,000+ per campaign |
| Connected TV (CTV) Ads | Reach cord-cutters with premium video | $35 – $65 CPM | $5,000 – $50,000 per campaign |
| Influencer Partnerships | Credibility and social proof | $1,000 – $5,000 per partnership | $1,000 – $10,000+ per project |
| Retargeting Ads | Nurture prospects who didn’t convert | $0.50 – $2 CPC | Varies |
| Sponsored Content (Articles) | Thought leadership and brand trust | $2,000 – $10,000 per article | Varies |
| Email Sponsorships | Direct access to niche financial audiences | $25 – $75 CPM | $1,000 – $5,000+ per sponsorship, depending on list size |
| Twitter (X) Promoted Tweets | Awareness, event promotion | $0.50 – $2 CPC | $500 – $2,000 per month |
| TikTok Video Ads | Younger investor audience | $1 – $2 CPC | $500 – $2,500 per month |
The methods you choose depend on the channels where your business gets the most traffic. You should also opt for strategies that scale with your budget, like boosted Facebook posts, so you can experiment with ad targeting and make sure your message resonates.
Which leads into our first point:
Ad targeting for financial audiences
It’s possible to create the greatest ad copy in the world and still see no conversions if you’re handing it out to the wrong audience.
A great way to avoid this is by “knowing thy audience”. Having a customer persona will go a long way here, as will testing your hunches with small incremental changes.
Here’s an easy workflow for ad targeting:
- Set up an ad campaign based on known demographics, including gender, income, and age. Yearly income could also be a factor, although keep in mind that not all advertising platforms offer this information. Remember: the more specific and detailed you get, the easier it will be to narrow down a responsive audience.
- Refine your demographics with psychographics. For example, let’s say you offer investment advice and are targeting men in their 30s who make $100,000+ per year. You want to look for individuals with higher income levels who are interested in seeking out new investment opportunities, like people who have recently shown interest in cryptocurrency or those who have recently opened a business.
- Split test your audience or run mini-campaigns to look for potential optimization opportunities. For example, let’s say you know you’re targeting retirees, but you’re not sure exactly who will best respond to your ads. You can tweak keywords, age brackets, and even ad copy to find which ones perform better (and which ones bring in the most money).
Remember: you don’t need to jump into advertising feet-first. Starting with smaller campaigns and gathering data can help you make better decisions and invest more optimally in the future.
Performance tracking and optimization
Last but not least is performance tracking, which is gathering data on what went right for your brand. You can use third-party tools or existing software to help do this, but your KPIs are what matter most.
You’re welcome to jump down to our section on Measuring Financial Marketing Success to get a fuller picture of how to do this.
5. Social Media Strategies for Financial Professionals
TL;DR: Create two posts per week on preferred social media channels, specifically LinkedIn, for financial service brands.
With nearly 14% of people looking at social media for financial information, it’s easier than ever to leverage social media platforms for marketing.
Below are suggestions for creating an organic attraction funnel that helps prospects, customers, and leads better understand your brand.
P.S., this section covers organic marketing tactics for social media platforms. If you’re curious about running ads on social media, please refer to the section above.
Content calendar development
The first step is deciding what you want to say.
Are you a solopreneur? You might want to write individual content posts with hot takes, advice, opinions, and industry news. Are you a larger brand with a less personal voice? You can use social media to promote new blog posts, share podcast episodes, and otherwise get your products seen.
You might also want to consider content ‘buckets’ to help plan ideas or content for a certain period.
You also have a few different options for building a calendar:
- Use an Excel sheet
- Try a social media scheduler like Buffer
- Create a repository of ideas on a Google Doc and post as needed
Either way, aim for at least two posts per week. Studies show posting 2x per week provides an optimal level of exposure and user engagement for financial brands.
Which leads to our next point…
Engagement strategies that build trust
The more engaged your audience is, the more you’ll stay top of mind when looking for financial services. They might refer a friend, download your freebies, or listen to your podcast to start learning more about what you do.
Some options:
- Make sure you’re creating social media posts that are perfectly suited to your audience. Do your best to avoid overgeneralizing content by creating customer personas and regularly asking for feedback. You can also go the extra mile by creating a poll or survey for more insights. For example, maybe you learn your audience wants more ‘story time’ content, or maybe they’re curious to talk about unique industry statistics.
- Create interactive content that involves the reader in some way. This could be a call to action asking them to comment or share, a Q&A, or a call for user-generated content (like shared images).
- Focus on quality over quantity. In other words, don’t force yourself to make that second post of the week if you don’t resonate with the content or care about what you’re putting out. Your audience would rather see you interested and engaged, which will ultimately make them interested and engaged as well.
💡Related: Grow Your Podcast Community With Engaged Listeners
Leveraging LinkedIn for financial professionals
As we’ve covered multiple times, LinkedIn is a social media hotspot for financial service brands. Members are 2x more likely to seek financial advice and 1.7x more receptive to financial brand messages compared to other industries.
The first and most apparent strategy to consider is leaning into networking. This is especially helpful for B2B brands, since lead generation on LinkedIn is around 2x the rate of the next-highest channel.
You can set up targeted InMail messages, use a Sales Navigator search to pinpoint targets in your industry, or collaborate with other financial services as influencers or referral partners.
There’s frankly far too much to cover about all three of these topics here. If you want to learn more about any of these LinkedIn marketing strategies, refer to our guide covering How To Promote a Podcast on LinkedIn.
Measuring Financial Marketing Success
It’s not enough to simply go through the motions of digital marketing; you also want to measure your overall impact. The last thing you want is to invest in strategies that don’t move the needle or have a negative return on investment (ROI).
Here are a few ways to prevent that from happening:
Key performance indicators for financial marketing
For the unfamiliar, a key performance indicator (or KPI) is a number that demonstrates the effectiveness of a project.
But not all KPIs make sense for every project. For example, if your marketing campaign is focused on lead generation, you’ll care more about form submissions than watch rates on ads.
Here’s a quick look at popular KPIs you can use to measure the success of your campaigns:
| KPI | Description | Benchmark |
| Click-Through Rate (CTR) | Measures how often people click on your ads or links. High CTR indicates strong messaging and targeting. | 1.1% for paid ads and 39.4% for being first on Google |
| Conversion Rate | Tracks the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (form fill, sign-up, application). | ~3.1% for financial services |
| Cost per Lead (CPL) | Shows how much you pay to acquire a new lead. Lower CPL means more efficient ad spend. | $555 – $761 depending on service complexity |
| Download / Listen Rates | Estimates how many people are engaging with your podcast. May also indicate potential revenue opportunities. | 30 downloads in the first seven days to be in the top 50% of podcasters |
| Engagement Rate | Reflects likes, comments, and shares on social media or content. | 3.8% on Instagram, 3.2% on LinkedIn, and 2.1% on X (Twitter) |
| Bounce Rate | Shows the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing one page. A low rate suggests a more engaging website. | ~50% for financial services |
| Email Open Rate | Measures how many recipients open marketing emails. Important for nurturing leads and relationships. | 35.90% for financial services |
| Email Click-Through Rate | Tracks clicks within marketing emails, showing engagement beyond the subject line. | 1.91% for financial services |
| Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) | Calculates revenue generated for every dollar spent on advertising. Essential for financial performance tracking. | $11.10 for every $1 spent on SEO and $1.05 for every $1 spent on PPC |
| Organic Traffic | Tracks non-paid website visitors. Growth indicates effective SEO and brand awareness. | ~27% organic traffic for financial services |
Just make sure you’re only choosing three to five KPIs: too many metrics can be frustrating and overwhelming.
And don’t worry if your numbers don’t exactly fit the benchmarks. Not all financial services are designed alike, and some are inherently more expensive and complex than others. The goal should be to gather as much data as possible so you can make informed decisions for how to optimize your marketing in the future (more on this later).
Analytics tools for financial marketers
Now that you have your KPIs, it’s time to track them effectively using analytics software. These are usually built into the tools you’re already using for marketing. However, it’s a good idea to stick with just one or two to avoid overcomplicating your system, not to mention bloating your already dense tech stack.
You have several options:
- Most social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn display analytics, revenue, and engagement inside your admin dashboard.
- Third-party tools like Google Ads or Mixpanel can help you keep an eye on specific campaigns (think display ads or event-based marketing).
- SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush can help keep an eye on rankings, content performance, and keywords. You can also use on-site tools like Hotjar to track how prospects prefer to engage with your web presence.
Need something a little more robust? You could always opt for data visualization tools like Tableau to generate reports for stakeholders. This could make it easier to collect and interpret information, although keep in mind it’s not for every business (and could be overkill for smaller brands just getting started online).
💡Related: How To Analyze and Improve Your Podcast Performance
Continuous optimization strategies
You now have set KPIs and a tech suite to match. Now all that’s left is to report your findings and interpret the data to help make more informed decisions in the future.
The first step is making sure your data is clean. If you’re not getting accurate numbers, you won’t be able to make many accurate decisions.
Next is troubleshooting to see if/where things went wrong. What could you add, subtract, or reconfigure to get better numbers going forward?
You can troubleshoot in one of three ways: by yourself, with an on-staff marketing professional, or with a third-party financial marketing agency. In all cases, it’s worth getting a second opinion for major discrepancies. Two heads are better than one, as they say.
Just want a quick jumpstart guide? Here’s another table to get you going, based on the chart we detailed above:
| KPI | Symptoms | How to Diagnose | Possible Solutions |
| Click-Through Rate (CTR) | Low click rates on ads or links | Check ad relevance scores, keyword targeting, creative alignment | Test new creatives, refine targeting |
| Conversion Rate | High traffic but low form submissions | Audit landing page UX, A/B test CTAs, review lead sources | Simplify landing page, improve CTAs, speed up site |
| Cost per Lead (CPL) | High spend for few quality leads | Review ad spend distribution, lead qualification process | Refine targeting, improve ad creatives, adjust bids |
| Download / Listen Rates | Low podcast engagement numbers | Reassess promotion strategy, focus on audience quality | Promote more aggressively, collaborate with guests |
| Engagement Rate | Few likes, comments, or shares | Review audience targeting, inspect platform analytics | Refresh content strategy, use more interactive posts |
| Bounce Rate | High exit rates after one page | Audit website UX, validate Google Analytics configuration | Improve load speed, align content to user intent |
| Email Open Rate | Few email opens compared to sends | Check deliverability scores, list hygiene, subject line tests | Refine subject lines, segment lists, test send times |
| Email Click-Through Rate | Opens but few link clicks | A/B test email layouts, verify link accuracy and CTAs | Strengthen CTA, personalize offers, enhance design |
| Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) | High spend with low returns | Analyze campaign-level ROAS, diversify channel investments | Optimize campaigns, refine targeting, pause weak ads |
| Organic Traffic | Flat or declining web visitor numbers | Review SEO strategy, validate search intent, update meta descriptions | Improve SEO, update content, build backlinks |
The Bottom Line on Digital Marketing for Financial Services
There’s much you can do to market financial services online; far more than we could cover in this single marketing roundup. That’s why there’s also no such thing as a ‘single trick’ or approach to marketing. If you’re willing to learn new things and test variations and modifications, you’ll be well on your way to building a marketing strategy that specifically serves your business.
If you’re looking for ways to lean into recurring revenue opportunities, The Podcast Consultant could be a possible partner. We specialize in podcast marketing for financial companies with services such as production support, video editing, social media, and beyond. We’ve helped hundreds of clients produce thousands of episodes and create revenue streams that go far beyond downloads.
No need to take our word for it, though.
Schedule a no-obligation discovery call and see how The Podcast Consultant can support your digital marketing efforts.