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• SEO for Financial Services : The Ultimate Guide

  26 juin 2024, par Erin

  You know that having a digital marketing strategy is crucial for helping your financial services business capture the attention and trust of potential customers and thrive in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.

  The question is — what’s the best way to go about improving your ranking in SERPs and driving organic traffic to your website ? 

  That’s where SEO strategies for financial services come into play. 

  This article will cover everything your company needs to know about SEO for financial services — from the unique challenges you’ll face to the proven tips and strategies you can implement to boost your ranking in SERPs. 

  What is SEO for financial services ? 

  SEO — short for search engine optimisation — refers to optimising your content and website for search engines, particularly Google. 

  The main goal of an SEO strategy is to make your site search-engine-friendly, show that you’re a trusted source and increase the likelihood of appearing in SERPs when potential customers look up relevant keywords — ultimately driving organic visibility and traffic. 

  Now, when it comes to evaluating the success of your financial services SEO strategy, there are certain key performance indicators (KPIs) you should keep track of — including : 

  • SEO ranking, or the position your web pages show up in SERPs for specific search terms (the terms and phrases identified during keyword research) 
  • SEO Score, which shows a website’s overall SEO health and indicates how well it will rank in SERPs
  • Impressions, or the number of times users saw your pages when they looked up relevant search terms 
  • Organic traffic, or the number of people that visit your website via search engines
  • Engagement metrics, such as time on page, pages per session, and bounce rate 
  • Conversion rates from website traffic, including both “hard” conversions (lead generation and purchases) and “soft” conversions (such as newsletter subscriptions) 

  It’s important to note that the financial services industry is incredibly competitive — especially given the large-scale digital transformations in the financial sector and the rise of fintech companies. 

  According to a 2022 report, the global market for financial services was valued at $25.51 trillion. Moreover, it’s expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.7%, reaching $58.69 trillion by 2031.

  Importance and challenges of financial services SEO 

  The financial services industry is changing rapidly, mainly driven by globalisation, innovation, shifting economies, and compliance risks. It’s crucial for financial service companies to develop effective SEO strategies that align with the opportunities and challenges unique to this sector. 

  Certain benefits of a well-executed SEO strategy, namely, better search engine rankings, driving more search traffic, delivering a better user experience, and maximising ROI and promoting business growth, are “universal.” 

  

  Financial services SEO efforts can provide a number of benefits. It can help you : 

  • Improve lead generation and customer acquisition ; the more search traffic you get, the higher the chances of converting visitors into potential clients 
  • Build a strong online presence and brand awareness, which comes as a result of increased visibility in organic search results and reaching a wider audience 
  • Increase your credibility and authority within the industry, primarily through high-quality content that shows your expertise and backlinks from authoritative websites 
  • Gain a competitive edge by analysing and outranking your main competitors 

  That said, financial services companies face some unique challenges :

  High competition : The digital arena for financial services is highly competitive, with numerous companies vying for the same business.

  YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content : Google’s YMYL framework places higher scrutiny on financial content, demanding higher standards for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. We’ll cover this topic in greater detail shortly.

  Regulatory changes and compliance : The financial services sector is characterised by constant regulatory changes and new compliance requirements that businesses must navigate. Sometimes this makes it difficult to gather insights and market to your audience. 

  As a privacy-fist, compliant web analytics solution Matomo can provide valuable insights to support your SEO efforts. Matomo ensures compliance with privacy laws — including GDPR, CCPA and more — and provides 20-40% more comprehensive data than Google Analytics.

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  8 proven strategies for implementing SEO for financial services 

  SEO for financial services involves a wide range of strategies — including keyword optimisation, technical SEO, content marketing, link building and other off-page SEO activities — that can help your website rank higher in SERPs. 

  Of course, it’s not just about better search rankings. It’s about attracting the right search traffic to your website — potential clients interested in your financial services.

  Here are some proven financial services SEO strategies you should implement : 

  1. Build trust and topical authority 

  Financial services content typically covers more complex topics that could impact the reader’s financial stability and well-being — or, as Google calls them, “Your Money or Your Life” topics (YMYL). As such, it’s subject to much stricter quality standards. 

  To improve your YMYL content, you’ll need to apply the E-E-A-T framework — short for “Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust”. 

  This is a key part of Google’s search rater guidelines for evaluating a website’s quality and credibility. 

  The E-E-A-T standards become even more relevant to financial topics such as investment strategies, financial advice, taxes, and retirement planning. 

  In that sense, the overarching goal of your content strategy should be to build customer trust by demonstrating real expertise and topical authority through in-depth educational content. 

  2. Earn reputable external links through link-building 

  You also need to monitor your off-page SEO—factors outside your website that can’t be directly controlled but can still build trust and contribute to better ranking in SERPs. 

  These include everything from social media engagement and unlinked brand mentions in blog posts, news articles, user reviews and social media discussions — to inbound links from other reputable websites in the finance industry.

  That brings us to high-quality backlinks as a significant factor for YMYL content that can improve your financial services website’s SEO performance : 

  Earning external links can improve your domain authority and reinforce your brand’s position as a reliable source in the financial services niche — which, in turn, can contribute to better search engine rankings and drive more website traffic. 

  Here are a few link-building strategies you can try : 

  • Use tools like Ahrefs and Semrush to look for reputable websites and then request for them to link to your site
  • Demonstrate your expertise and get backlinks from reputable media outlets through Help a Reporter Out (HARO) 
  • Reach out to authoritative websites that mention your company without linking to you directly and ask them to include a link to your websit

  3. Conduct an SEO audit 

  An SEO audit is a key step in developing and implementing a successful financial SEO strategy. It sets the foundation for all your future efforts — and allows you to measure progress further down the line. 

  You’ll need to perform a comprehensive SEO audit, covering both the existing content and technical aspects of your website — including : 

  • Indexing issues
  • Internal linking and site architecture 
  • Duplicate content 
  • Backlink profile 
  • Broken links 
  • Page titles and metadata 

  It’s possible to do this manually, third-party tools will allow you to dig deeper and speed up the process. Ahrefs and Screaming Frog — to name a few — can help you evaluate your website’s overall health and structure. And, with a web analytics platform like Matomo you can easily measure the success of your SEO efforts.

  But this shouldn’t be a one-time thing ; be sure to perform audits regularly — ideally every six months. 

  4. Understand your target audience

  You can’t create helpful content without learning about your customers’ needs, pain points and preferences. 

  For example, a financial service provider focusing on individuals nearing retirement would prioritise content that educates on retirement planning strategies, investment options for seniors, and tax-efficient withdrawal strategies, aiming to guide clients through the transition from saving to managing retirement funds effectively.

  In contrast, a provider targeting small business owners would emphasise content related to small business loans, funding options, and financial management advice tailored to entrepreneurs seeking to expand their businesses and navigate financial challenges effectively.

  So, before you dive into keyword research and content creation, ensure you have a deep understanding of your target audience. 

  Identifying different audience categories and developing detailed customer personas for each segment is crucial for creating content that resonates with them and aligns with their search intent. 

  Matomo’s Segmentation tool can be of huge help here. It allows you to divide your audience into smaller groups based on factors like demographics and website interactions : 

  

  In addition to that, you can : 

  • Engage with your frontline teams that interact directly with clients to gain deeper insights into prospects’ needs and concerns
  • Track social media channels and other online discussions related to the financial world and your audience
  • Gather qualitative insights from your site visitors through the Matomo Surveys plugin (questions like “What financial services are you most interested in ?” or “Are there any specific financial topics you would like us to cover in more detail ?” will help you understand your visitors better)
  • Watch out for financial trends and developments that could directly impact your audience’s needs and preferences 

  5. Identify new opportunities through keyword research 

  Comprehensive keyword research can help you identify key search terms — specific phrases that potential customers may use when looking up things related to their finances. 

  It’s best to start with a brainstorming session and assemble a list of relevant topics and core keywords. Once you have an initial list, use tools like Ahrefs and Semrush to get more keyword ideas based on your seed keywords, including : 

  • More specific long-tail keywords — and often less competitive — indicate a clearer intent to convert. For example :

  • • “low-risk investment options for retirees”
    • “financial planning for freelancers”
    • “small business loan requirements”

  • Keywords that your competitors already rank for. For instance :

  • • If a competing investment firm ranks for “best investment strategies for beginners,” targeting similar keywords can attract novice investors.
    • A competitor’s high ranking for “life insurance quotes online” suggests potential to optimise your own content around similar terms.
  • Location-specific keywords (if you have physical store locations)

  Google Search Console can provide information about the search terms you’re already ranking for — including underperforming content that may benefit from further optimisation. If you want deeper SEO insights, you can import your search keywords into Matomo. 

  While you’re at it, try Matomo’s Site Search feature, too. It will show you the exact terms and phrases visitors enter when using your website’s search bar — and you can use that information to find more content opportunities.

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  Of course, not all keywords are equal — and it would be impossible to target them all. Instead, prioritise keywords based on two factors : 

  • Search volume, which indicates the “popularity” of a particular query
  • Keyword difficulty, which indicates how hard it’ll be to rank for a specific term, depending on domain authority, search volume and competition 

  

  6. Find your main organic competitors 

  Besides performing an SEO audit, finding your core keywords, and researching your target market, competitor analysis is another crucial aspect of SEO for finance companies. 

  Before you start, it’s important to differentiate between your main organic search competitors and your direct industry competitors : 

  You’ll always have direct competitors — other financial services brands offering similar products and services and targeting the same audience as you.

  However, regarding search results, your financial services business won’t be in a “bubble” specifically reserved for the financial industry. Depending on the specific search queries — and the search intent behind them — SERPs could feature a wider range of online content, from niche finance blogs to news websites, and huge financial publications.

  Even if another company doesn’t offer the same services, they’re an organic competitor if you’re both ranking for the same keywords. 

  Once you determine who your main organic competitors are, you can analyse their websites to : 

  • Check how they’re getting search traffic 
  • See which types of content they’re publishing 
  • Find and fill in any potential content gaps 
  • Assess the quality of their backlink profile 
  • See if they currently have any featured snippets

  7. Consider local SEO

  According to a 2023 survey, 21% of US-based consumers report using the internet to look up local businesses daily, while another 32% do so multiple times a week. 

  Local SEO is worth investing in as a financial service provider, especially with physical locations. Prospective clients will typically look up nearby financial services when they need additional information or are ready to engage in financial planning, investment, or other financial activities.

  Here are a few suggestions on how to optimise your site for local searches : 

  • Create listings on online business directories, like Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business)
  • If your financial service company operates in more than one physical location, be sure to create a separate Google Business Profile for each one 
  • Identify location-specific keywords that will help you rank in local SERPs
  • Make sure that your name, address, and phone number (NAP) citations are correct and consistent 
  • Leverage positive customer reviews and testimonials as social proof

  8. Optimise technical aspects of your website 

  Technical SEO — which primarily deals with the website’s underlying structure — is another crucial factor that financial services brands must monitor. 

  It’s an umbrella term that covers a wide range of elements, including : 

  • Site speed 
  • Indexing issues 
  • Broken links, orphaned pages, improper redirects 
  • On-page optimisation 
  • Mobile responsiveness

  In 2020, Google introduced Core Web Vitals, a set of metrics that measure web page performance in three key areas — loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability. 

  Given that they’re now a part of Google’s core ranking systems, you should consider using Matomo’s SEO Web Vitals feature to monitor these crucial metrics. Here’s why :

  When technical aspects of your website — namely, site speed and mobile responsiveness — are properly optimised, you can deliver a better user experience. That’s what Google seeks to reward. 

  Plus, it can be a critical brand differentiator for your business. 

  Conclusion 

  Investing in SEO for financial services is crucial for boosting online visibility and driving organic traffic and business growth. However, one thing to keep in mind is that SEO efforts shouldn’t be a one-time thing : 

  SEO is an ongoing process, and it will take time to establish your company as a trustworthy source and see real results. 

  You can start building that trust by using a web analytics platform that offers crucial insights for improving your website’s ranking in SERPs and maintains full compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations. 

  That’s why Matomo is trusted by more than 1 million websites around the globe. As an ethical alternative to Google Analytics that doesn’t rely on data sampling, Matomo is not only easy to use but more accurate, too — providing 20-40% more data compared to GA4. 

  Sign up for a 21-day free trial and see how Matomo can support your financial services SEO strategy. No credit card required.

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• 7 Fintech Marketing Strategies to Maximise Profits in 2024

  24 juillet 2024, par Erin

  Fintech investment skyrocketed in 2021, but funding tanked in the following two years. A -63% decline in fintech investment in 2023 saw the worst year in funding since 2017. Luckily, the correction quickly floored, and the fintech industry will recover in 2024, but companies will have to work much harder to secure funds.

  F-Prime’s The 2024 State of Fintech Report called 2023 the year of “regulation on, risk off” amid market pressures and regulatory scrutiny. Funding is rising again, but investors want regulatory compliance and stronger growth performance from fintech ventures.

  Here are seven fintech marketing strategies to generate the growth investors seek in 2024.

  Top fintech marketing challenges in 2024

  Following the worst global investment run since 2017 in 2023, fintech marketers need to readjust their goals to adapt to the current market challenges. The fintech honeymoon is over for Wall Street with regulator scrutiny, closures, and a distinct lack of profitability giving investors cold feet.

  Here are the biggest challenges fintech marketers face in 2024 :

  • Market correction : With fewer rounds and longer times between them, securing funds is a major challenge for fintech businesses. F-Prime’s The 2024 State of Fintech Report warns of “a high probability of significant shutdowns in 2024 and 2025,” highlighting the importance of allocating resources and budgets effectively.
  • Contraction : Aside from VC funding decreasing by 64% in 2023, the payments category now attracts a large majority of fintech investment, meaning there’s a smaller share from a smaller pot to go around for everyone else.
  • Competition : The biggest names in finance have navigated heavy disruption from startups and, for the most part, emerged stronger than ever. Meanwhile, fintech is no longer Wall Street’s hottest commodity as investors turn their attention to AI.
  • Regulations : Regulatory scrutiny of fintech intensified in 2023 – particularly in the US – contributing to the “regulation on, risk off” summary of F-Prime’s report.
  • Investor scrutiny : With market and industry challenges intensifying, investors are putting their money behind “safer” ventures that demonstrate real, sustainable profitability, not short-term growth.
  • Customer loyalty : Even in traditional baking and finance, switching is surging as customers seek providers who better meet their needs. To achieve the sustainable growth investors are looking for, fintech startups need to know their ideal customer profile (ICP), tailor their products/services and fintech marketing campaigns to them, and retain them throughout the customer lifecycle.

  

  The good news for fintech marketers is that the market correction is leveling out in 2024. In The 2024 State of Fintech Report, F-Prime says that “heading into 2024, we see the fintech market amid a rebound,” while McKinsey expects fintech revenue to grow “almost three times faster than those in the traditional banking sector between 2023 and 2028.”

  Winning back investor confidence won’t be easy, though. F-Prime acknowledges that investors are prioritising high-performance fintech ventures, particularly those with high gross margins. Fintech marketers need to abandon the growth-at-all-costs mindset and switch to a data-driven optimisation, growth and revenue system.

  7 fintech marketing strategies

  Given the current state of the fintech industry and relatively low levels of investor confidence, fintech marketers’ priority is building a new culture of sustainable profit. This starts with rethinking priorities and switching up the marketing goals to reflect longer-term ambitions.

  So, here are the fintech marketing strategies that matter most in 2024.

  1. Optimise for profitability over growth at all costs

  To progress from the growth-at-all-cost mindset, fintech marketers need to optimise for different KPIs. Instead of flexing metrics like customer growth rate, fintech companies need to take a more balanced approach to measuring sustainable profitability.

  This means holding on to existing customers – and maximising their value – while they acquire new customers. It also means that, instead of trying to make everyone a target customer, you concentrate on targeting the most valuable prospects, even if it results in a smaller overall user base.

  Optimising for profitability starts with putting vanity metrics in their place and pinpointing the KPIs that represent valuable business growth :

  • Gross profit margin
  • Revenue growth rate
  • Cash flow
  • Monthly active user growth (qualify “active” as completing a transaction)
  • Customer acquisition cost
  • Customer retention rate
  • Customer lifetime value
  • Avg. revenue per user
  • Avg. transactions per month
  • Avg. transaction value

  With a more focused acquisition strategy, you can feed these insights into every company level. For example, you can prioritise customer engagement, revenue, retention, and customer service in product development and customer experience (CX).

  To ensure all marketing efforts are pulling towards these KPIs, you need an attribution system that accurately measures the contribution of each channel.

  Marketing attribution (aka multi-touch attribution) should be used to measure every touchpoint in the customer journey and accurately credit them for driving revenue. This helps you allocate the correct budget to the channels and campaigns, adding real value to the business (e.g., social media marketing vs content marketing).

  Example : Mastercard helps a digital bank acquire 10 million high-value customers

  For example, Mastercard helped a digital bank in Latin America achieve sustainable growth beyond customer acquisition. The fintech company wanted to increase revenue through targeted acquisition and profitable engagement metrics.

  Strategies included :

  • A more targeted acquisition strategy for high-value customers
  • Increasing avg. spend per customer
  • Reducing acquisition cost
  • Customer retention

  As a result, Mastercard’s advisors helped this fintech company acquire 10 million new customers in two years. More importantly, they increased customer spending by 28% while reducing acquisition costs by 13%, creating a more sustainable and profitable growth model.

  2. Use web and app analytics to remotivate users before they disengage

  Engagement is the key to customer retention and lifetime value. To prevent valuable customers from disengaging, you need to intervene when they show early signs of losing interest, but they’re still receptive to your incentivisation tactics (promotions, rewards, milestones, etc.).

  By integrating web and app analytics, you can identify churn patterns and pinpoint the sequences of actions that lead to disengaging. For example, you might determine that customers who only log in once a month, engage with one dashboard, or drop below a certain transaction rate are at high risk for churn.

  Using a tool like Matomo for web and app analytics, you can detect these early signs of disengagement. Once you identify your churn risks, you can create triggers to automatically fire re-engagement campaigns. You can also use CRM and session data to personalize campaigns to directly address the cause of disengagement, e.g., valuable content or incentives to increase transaction rates.

  Example : Dynamic Yield fintech re-engagement case study

  In this Dynamic Yield case study, one leading fintech company uses customer spending patterns to identify those most likely to disengage. The company set up automated campaigns with personalised in-app messaging, offering time-bound incentives to increase transaction rates.

  

  With fully automated re-engagement campaigns, this fintech company increased customer retention through valuable engagement and revenue-driving actions.

  3. Identify the path your most valuable customers take

  Why optimise web experiences for everyone when you can tailor the online journey for your most valuable customers ? Use customer segmentation to identify the shared interests and habits of your most valuable customers. You can learn a lot about customers based on where the pages they visit and the content they engage with before taking action.

  Use these insights to optimise funnels that motivate prospects displaying the same customer behaviours as your most valuable customers.

  Get 20-40% more data with Matomo

  One of the biggest issues with Google Analytics and many similar tools is that they produce inaccurate data due to data sampling. Once you collect a certain amount of data, Google reports estimates instead of giving you complete, accurate insights.

  This means you could be basing important business decisions on inaccurate data. Furthermore, when investors are nervous about the uncertainty surrounding fintech, the last thing they want is inaccurate data.

  Matomo is the reliable, accurate alternative to Google Analytics that uses no data sampling whatsoever. You get 100% access to your web analytics data, so you can base every decision on reliable insights. With Matomo, you can access between 20% and 40% more data compared to Google Analytics.

  

  With Matomo, you can confidently unlock the full picture of your marketing efforts and give potential investors insights they can trust.

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  4. Reduce onboarding dropouts with marketing automation

  Onboarding dropouts kill your chance of getting any return on your customer acquisition cost. You also miss out on developing a long-term relationship with users who fail to complete the onboarding process – a hit on immediate ROI and, potentially, long-term profits.

  The onboarding process also defines the first impression for customers and sets a precedent for their ongoing experience.

  An engaging onboarding experience converts more potential customers into active users and sets them up for repeat engagement and valuable actions.

  Example : Maxio reduces onboarding time by 30% with GUIDEcx

  Onboarding optimisation specialists, GUIDEcx helped Maxio cut six weeks off their onboarding times – a 30% reduction.

  

  With a shorter onboarding schedule, more customers are committing to close the deal during kick-off calls. Meanwhile, by increasing automated tasks by 20%, the company has unlocked a 40% increase in capacity, allowing it to handle more customers at any given time and multiplying its capacity to generate revenue.

  5. Increase the value in TTFV with personalisation

  Time to first value (TTFV) is a key metric for onboarding optimisation, but some actions are more valuable than others. By personalising the experience for new users, you can increase the value of their first action, increasing motivation to continue using your fintech product/service.

  The onboarding process is an opportunity to learn more about new customers and deliver the most rewarding user experience for their particular needs.

  Example : Betterment helps users put their money to work right away

  Betterment has implemented a quick, personalised onboarding system instead of the typical email signup process. The app wants to help new customers put their money to work right away, optimising for the first transaction during onboarding itself.

  

  It personalises the experience by prompting new users to choose their goals, set up the right account for them, and select the best portfolio to achieve their goals. They can complete their first investment within a matter of minutes and professional financial advice is only ever a click away.

  Optimise account signups with Matomo

  If you want to create and optimise a signup process like Betterment, you need an analytics system with a complete conversion rate optimisation (CRO) toolkit. 

  

  Matomo includes all the CRO features you need to optimise user experience and increase signups. With heatmaps, session recordings, form analytics, and A/B testing, you can make data-driven decisions with confidence.

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  6. Use gamification to drive product engagement

  Gamification can create a more engaging experience and increase motivation for customers to continue using a product. The key is to reward valuable actions, engagement time, goal completions, and the small objectives that build up to bigger achievements.

  Gamification is most effective when used to help individuals achieve goals they’ve set for themselves, rather than the goals of others (e.g., an employer). This helps explain why it’s so valuable to fintech experience and how to implement effective gamification into products and services.

  Example : Credit Karma gamifies personal finance

  Credit Karma helps users improve their credit and build their net worth, subtly gamifying the entire experience.

  

  Users can set their financial goals and link all of their accounts to keep track of their assets in one place. The app helps users “see your wealth grow” with assets, debts, and investments all contributing to their next wealth as one easy-to-track figure.

  

  7. Personalise loyalty programs for retention and CLV

  Loyalty programs tap into similar psychology as gamification to motivate and reward engagement. Typically, the key difference is that – rather than earning rewards for themselves – you directly reward customers for their long-term loyalty.

  That being said, you can implement elements of gamification and personalisation into loyalty programs, too. 

  Example : Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards

  Bank of America’s Preferred Rewards program implements a tiered rewards system that rewards customers for their combined spending, saving, and borrowing activity.

  

  The program incentivises all customer activity with the bank and amplifies the rewards for its most active customers. Customers can also set personal finance goals (e.g., saving for retirement) to see which rewards benefit them the most.

  Conclusion

  Fintech marketing needs to catch up with the new priorities of investors in 2024. The pre-pandemic buzz is over, and investors remain cautious as regulatory scrutiny intensifies, security breaches mount up, and the market limps back into recovery.

  To win investor and consumer trust, fintech companies need to drop the growth-at-all-costs mindset and switch to a marketing philosophy of long-term profitability. This is what investors want in an unstable market, and it’s certainly what customers want from a company that handles their money.

  Unlock the full picture of your marketing efforts with Matomo’s robust features and accurate reporting. Trusted by over 1 million websites, Matomo is chosen for its compliance, accuracy, and powerful features that drive actionable insights and improve decision-making.

   Start your free 21-day trial now. No credit card required.

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• Strategies for Reducing Bank Customer Acquisition Cost [2024]

  24 septembre 2024, par Daniel Crough — Banking and Financial Services

  Acquiring new customers is no small feat — regardless of the size of your team. The expenses of various marketing efforts tend to pile up fast, even more so when your business operates in a highly competitive industry like banking. At the same time, marketing budgets continue to decrease — dropping from an average of 9.1% of total company revenue in 2023 down to 7.7% in 2024 — prompting businesses in the financial services industry to figure out how they can do more with less.

  That brings us to bank customer acquisition cost (CAC) — a key business metric that can reveal quite a bit about your bank’s long-term profitability and potential for achieving sustainable growth. 

  This article will cover the ins and outs of bank customer acquisition costs and share actionable tips and strategies you can implement to reduce CAC.

  What is customer acquisition cost in banking ? 

  

  The global market volume of neobanks — fintech companies and digital banking platforms, often referred to as “challenger banks” — was estimated at $4.96 trillion in 2023. It’s expected to continue growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.15% in the coming years, potentially reaching $10.44 trillion by 2028.

  That’s enough of an indicator that the financial services industry is now a highly competitive landscape where companies are often competing for the attention of a relatively limited audience. 

  Plus, several app-only banks based in Europe have made significant progress in attracting new customers to their financial products : 

  

  Unsurprisingly, this flurry of competition is putting upward pressure on customer acquisition and retention costs across the banking sector.

  Customer acquisition cost (CAC) — the sum of all costs and resources related to acquiring an additional customer — is one of the key business metrics to keep an eye on when trying to maximise your return on investment (ROI) and profitability, especially if your company operates in the banking industry.

  Here’s the basic formula you can use to calculate the cost of acquisition in banking : 

  Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) = Total Amount Spent (TS) / Total New Customers Acquired (TNC)

  In essence, it requires you to divide the total cost of acquiring consumers — including sales and marketing expenses — by the total number of new customers your company has gained within a specific timeframe.

  There’s one thing you need to keep in mind : 

  The customer acquisition process involves more than just your marketing and sales departments. 

  While marketing and sales channels play a crucial role in this process, the list of expenses that may contribute to customer acquisition costs in banking goes well beyond that. 

  Here’s a quick breakdown of the customer acquisition cost formula to show you which costs make up the total amount spent : 

  • All advertising and marketing costs, including traditional (direct mail, billboards, TV and print advertising) and digital channels (email, Google ads, social media and influencer marketing)
  • Cost of outsourced marketing services, including any independent contractors involved in the process 
  • Salaries and commissions for the marketing team and sales representatives
  • Software subscriptions, including marketing software and web analytics tools 
  • Other overhead and operational costs 

  And until you’ve taken all these expenses into account, you won’t be able to accurately estimate how much it actually costs you to attract potential customers.

  Another thing to keep in mind is that there’s no universal definition of “good CAC.” 

  The average customer acquisition cost varies across different industries and business models. That said, you can generally expect a higher-than-average CAC in highly competitive sectors — namely, the financial, manufacturing and real estate industries. 

  Importance of tracking customer acquisition cost in banking 

  

  Customer acquisition costs are an important indicator of a banking business’s potential growth and profitability. Monitoring this fundamental business metric can provide data-driven insights about your current bank customer acquisition strategy — and offers a few notable benefits : 

  • Measuring the performance and effectiveness of different channels and campaigns and making data-driven decisions regarding future marketing efforts
  • Improving return on investment (ROI) by determining the most effective strategies for acquiring new customers 
  • Improving profitability by assessing the value per customer and improving profit margins 
  • Benchmarking against industry competitors to see where your business’s CAC stands compared to the banking industry average

  At the risk of stating the obvious, acquiring new customers isn’t always easy. That’s true for many highly competitive industries — especially the banking sector, which is currently witnessing the rapid rise of digital disruptors. 

  Case in point, the fintech market alone is currently valued at $312.98 billion and is expected to reach $556.70 billion by 2030, following a CAGR of 14%.

  

  However, strong competition is only one of the challenges banks face throughout the process of attracting potential customers. 

  Here are a few other things to keep in mind : 

  • Ethical business practices and strict compliance requirements when it comes to the privacy and security of customer data, including meeting data protection standards and ensuring regulatory compliance
  • Lack of personalisation throughout the customer journey, which today’s customers view as a lack of understanding of — and even interest in — their needs and preferences 
  • Limited mobile banking capabilities, which further points to a failure to innovate and adapt — one of the leading risks that financial services may face 

  7 strategies for reducing bank customer acquisition costs 

  

  When working on optimising your banking customer acquisition strategy, the key thing to keep in mind is that there are two sides to improving CAC : 

  On the one hand, you have efforts to decrease the costs associated with acquiring a new customer — and on the other, you have the importance of attracting high-value customers. 

  1. Eliminate friction points in the customer onboarding process

  One of the first things financial institutions should do is examine their existing digital onboarding process and look for friction points that might cause potential customers to drop off. After all, a streamlined onboarding process will minimise barriers to conversion, increasing the number of new customers acquired and improving overall customer satisfaction. 

  Keep in mind that, at the 30-day mark, finance mobile apps have an average user retention rate of 3% : 

  

  That says a lot about the importance of providing a frictionless onboarding experience as a retail bank or any other financial institution. 

  Granted, a single point of friction is rarely enough to cause customers to churn. It’s typically a combination of several factors — a lengthy sign-up process with complicated password requirements and time-consuming customer identification or poor customer service, for example — that occur during the key moments of the customer journey.

  In order to keep tabs on customer experiences across different touchpoints and spot potential barriers in their journey, you’ll need a reliable source of data. Matomo’s Funnels report can show you exactly where your website visitors are dropping off. 

  2. Get more personalised with your marketing efforts 

  Generic experiences are rarely the way to go — especially when you’re contending for the attention of prospective customers in such a competitive sector. 

  Besides, 62% of people who made an online purchase within the last six months have said that brands would lose their loyalty following a non-personalised experience. 

  What’s more shocking is that only a year earlier, that number stood at 45%.

  

  When it comes to improving marketing efficiency and sales strategies, 94% of marketers agree that personalisation is key : 

  

  It’s evident that personalised marketing supported by behavioural segmentation can significantly improve conversion rates — and, most importantly, reduce acquisition costs. 

  Of course, it’s virtually impossible to deliver targeted, personalised marketing messaging without creating audience segments and detailed buyer personas. Matomo’s Segmentation feature can help by allowing you to split website visitors into smaller groups and get much-needed insights for behavioural segmentation. 

  3. Build an omnichannel marketing strategy 

  Customer expectations, behaviours and preferences are constantly evolving, making it crucial for financial services to adapt their customer acquisition strategies accordingly. Meeting prospective customers on their preferred channels is a big part of that. 

  The issue is that modern banking customers tend to move across different channels. That’s one of the reasons why it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to deliver a unified experience throughout the entire customer journey and close the gap between digital and in-person customer interactions. 

  Omnichannel marketing gives you a way to keep up with customers’ ever-evolving expectations :

  Adopting this marketing strategy will allow you to meet customers where they are and deliver a seamless experience across a wide range of digital channels and touchpoints, leading to more exposure — and, ultimately, increasing the number of acquired customers.

  Matomo can support your omnichannel efforts by providing accurate, unsampled data needed for cross-channel analytics and marketing attribution. 

  4. Work on your social media presence 

  Social networks are among the most popular — and successful — digital marketing channels, with millions (even billions, depending on the platform) of active users. 

  In fact, 89% of marketers report using Facebook as their main platform for social media marketing, while another 80% use Instagram to reach their target audience and promote their business. 

  

  And according to The State of Social Media in Banking 2023 report, nine out of ten banks (89%) consider social media is important, while another 88% are active on their social media accounts. 

  That is to say, even traditionally conservative industries — like banking and finance — realise the crucial role of social media in promoting their services and engaging with customers on their preferred channels : 

  It’s an excellent way for businesses in the financial sector to gain exposure, drive traffic to their website and acquire new customers. 

  If you’re ready to improve social media visibility as part of your multichannel efforts, Matomo can help you track social media activity across 70 different platforms. 

  5. Shift the focus on customer loyalty and retention 

  Up until this point, the focus has mainly been on building new business relationships. However, one thing to keep in mind is that retaining existing customers is generally cheaper than investing in customer acquisition activities to attract new ones. 

  Of course, customer retention won’t directly impact your CAC. But what it can do is increase customer lifetime value, contributing to your company’s revenue and profits — which, in turn, can “balance out” your acquisition costs in the long run.

  That’s not to say that you should stop trying to bring in new clients ; far from it. 

  However, focusing on increasing customer loyalty — namely, delivering excellent customer service and building lasting business relationships — could motivate satisfied customers to become brand advocates. 

  As this survey of customer satisfaction for leading banks in the UK has shown, when clients are satisfied with a bank’s products and services, they’re more likely to recommend it. 

  

  Positive word-of-mouth recommendations can be a powerful way to drive customer acquisition. You can leverage that by launching a customer referral program and incentivising loyal customers to refer new ones to your business. 

  6. A/B test different elements to find ones that work 

  We’ve already underlined the importance of understanding your audience ; it’s the foundation for optimising the customer journey and delivering targeted marketing efforts that will attract more customers. 

  Another proven method that can be used to refine your customer acquisition strategy is A/B or split testing. 

  It involves testing different versions of specific elements of your marketing content — such as language, CTAs and visuals — to determine the most effective combinations that resonate with your target audience. 

  Besides your marketing campaigns, you can also split test different variants of your website or mobile app to see which version gets them to convert. 

  Matomo’s A/B Testing feature can be of huge help here : 

  

  7. Track other relevant customer acquisition metrics 

  To better assess your company’s profitability, you’ll have to go beyond CAC and factor in other critical metrics — namely, customer lifetime value (CLTV), churn rate and return on investment (ROI). 

  Here are the most important KPIs you should monitor in addition to CAC : 

  • Customer lifetime value (CLTV), which represents the revenue generated by a single customer throughout the duration of their relationship with your company and is another crucial indicator of customer profitability 
  • Churn rate — the rate at which your company loses clients within a given timeframe — can indicate how well you’re retaining customers 
  • Return on investment (ROI) — the revenue generated by new clients compared to the initial costs of acquiring them — can help you identify the most effective customer acquisition channels 

  These metrics work hand in hand. There needs to be a balance between the revenue the customer generates over their lifetime and the costs related to attracting them.

  Ideally, you should be aiming for lower CAC and customer churn and higher CLTV ; that’s usually a solid indicator of financial health and sustainable growth. 

  Lower bank customer acquisition costs with Matomo 

  Acquiring new customers will require a lot of time and resources, regardless of the industry you’re working in — but can be even more challenging in the financial sector, where you have to adapt to the ever-changing customer expectations and demands. 

  The strategies outlined above — combined with a thorough understanding of your customer’s behaviours and preferences — can help you lower the cost of bank customer acquisition.

  On that note, you can learn a lot about your customers through web analytics — and use those insights to support your customer acquisition process and ensure you’re delivering a seamless online banking experience. 

  If you need an alternative to Google Analytics that doesn’t rely on data sampling and ensures compliance with the strictest privacy regulations, all while being easy to use, choose Matomo — the go-to web analytics platform for more than 1 million websites around the globe. 

  CTA : Start your 21-day free trial today to see how Matomo’s all-in-one solution can help you understand and attract new customers — all while respecting their privacy.