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This is a question that every financial institution will, at some point, need to address prior to dipping their toes into the wide realm of online advertising. In fact, with “budget season” on the horizon, the chances are great that many of you are already having this discussion. Should we test display advertising? Is it too expensive? Does it align with our marketing goals?

At LKCS, we welcome this conversation, and in most cases we will encourage our customers to test different forms of display advertising. This is especially true for those financial institutions wishing to remain top-of-mind in their already oversaturated markets, while also wanting to improve upon their brand messaging. In fact, there are many ways that display advertising can help you to achieve your marketing goals.

For those of you that are new to display advertising, let’s start with the basics.

What is display advertising?

Display advertising is a form of broadcast marketing in which messages are traditionally displayed to various audiences with the goal of creating top-of-mind awareness. If it helps, think of display advertising as “billboard” marketing for the web, but with better targeting and measurement capabilities. Through various partnership agreements and distribution networks, ad spots are located throughout the web – on websites, blogs, online marketplaces, social media sites, etc. – and can be purchased via ongoing auctions.

Display advertising comes in several forms, including banner ads, rich media and more. Unlike traditional search-based ads that many financial institutions are likely already using, display advertising relies on elements such as images, audio and video to communicate an advertising message.

Here is an example of a display ad:

The benefits of display advertising.

As with most things advertising related, there are pros and cons to the strategies that we invest in. Display advertising is no different. While some financial institutions will choose to forgo display advertising simply because ads aren’t guaranteed to be relevant to everyone that sees them, we feel that the following benefits certainly make it worth your investment.

• Faster brand building.

  Display ads build brand awareness very quickly, since people are more likely to remember what they see than what they read or hear. We suggest creating ads that encompass your core branding and targeting individuals in your service areas.

• Benefit from Geo-targeting.

  Display ads allow financial institutions to zero in on their target markets by geographic location. Does your bank or credit union have multiple branches throughout several cities, or a specific field of membership? Use display ads to connect with those in your communities.

• Benefit from Remarketing/Retargeting.

  Remarketing is a form of display advertising that allows financial institutions to reach those people that have already visited their website. We suggest creating custom retargeting campaigns around each of your product and service landing pages.

• Real time performance tracking.

  Display advertising makes it easy to track the performance of an online ad campaign to see how many clicks, impressions, and conversions the campaign has received on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. With this information, campaigns can be tweaked regularly for improvement.

• Enjoy lower advertising costs.

  Display advertising is relatively inexpensive and, in most cases, less expensive than say print, TV, radio, and billboard advertising. Financial institutions are able to determine how much they are willing to spend and the ad marketplace will accommodate accordingly.

In Closing…

Display advertising is an effective way to build brand awareness while driving traffic from the places online where your target audiences spend time. At LKCS, we feel that display advertising is worth the investment and should be made part of your financial institution’s overall online advertising strategy.
Interested in getting started? The digital experts at LKCS can help. Contact your dedicated sales representative to get the conversation started. Don’t yet have a sales rep? No worries. Contact us.