Grounding a bank's marketing, brand to measurement

This community bank started working with us on its brand strategy, which it approved in the spring. It was about to step into digital advertising for the first time, in a category with more rules than most.

The harder question was what the bank could see. Accounts open on a platform hosted by its core banking provider rather than on its own website, so nothing placed on the site could see an account being opened. Both sides went in knowing the first campaign would report what the ad platforms could see, and that measurement had to be built to see further.

Brand came first, and the advertising followed from it. We proposed a focused first campaign to test the market: one month, a few static ads, on social with an optional search layer. The bank approved it within two days.

From the start we separated what could be claimed from what would have to wait. The first campaign would report platform metrics only. The larger pilot that followed was set up awareness first, with its early numbers treated as a baseline and conversion as something to optimize toward once measurement was standing.

We also defined what would count as a conversion before any existed: intent we could actually observe, like a loan application started, a deposit call tapped or a lead form reached. Anything not yet measured would be reported as missing, not as zero.

Everything ran inside the rules banks advertise under. Financial services sit in a special ad category that removes narrow targeting and lookalike audiences, so every market was drawn as a wide radius. The FDIC mark went into the frame of every ad at every size, at the bank's own request, and fee messaging carried the disclaimers compliance required. The pilot ran in English and Spanish, the bank's first paid advertising in Spanish.

Underneath it, we built the measurement with the bank's IT team. Its site sits with the core banking provider, so we engineered the server-side tracking and consent setup, the bank's IT team placed it through the provider, and we published once they confirmed. The bank's technology leadership set the terms before any of it started.

The first campaign ran about two months, extended twice by the bank, and its cost per visit fell over the flight. When it was due to end, we recommended keeping it running into its first full month of post-click data, and the bank agreed.

What now runs is a program the bank can grow on: a brand strategy it approved, advertising built inside its rules, and measurement that reports what it can see and names what it can't yet. Connecting the advertising to accounts opened is the next read, and the program is built to make it once the data can stand behind it.

We'd keep defining a conversion before one exists, and reporting what's missing as missing. A program that starts honest about what it can see earns the right to claim more when it can.

And we'd keep letting the client set a report's altitude. Asked for something to share with its board, the bank wanted a bird's-eye view of what had been done and what the goals were, which was the right call for data that new.