State of Play: Mid & Lower Funnel Digital Advertising for Financial Services in Canada

Purpose of This Research

Uncover the advertising strategies driving the top ads for Financial Services in Canada across lower funnel content by:

• Isolating ads from November 2021 to October 2023 
• Reviewing the top 2.4K ads by 27+ Financial Services in Canada
• Identifying Top of the Funnel (ToFu), Middle of the Funnel (MoFu) and Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu) ads

While identifying the behaviours of Canadians towards Financial Services to drive well-rounded insights for lower funnel opportunities.  

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How do we determine marketing funnel placement?

Top of Funnel (ToFu): 

• Creative: Discusses the brand message and their products’ high-level uses
• CTA: No CTA or “View More on Instagram”...
• Landing Page: Homepage, no landing page, social media account…

Middle of Funnel (MoFu): 

• Creative: Aims to educate viewers on brand and product benefits without selling
• CTA: “Learn More”, “Get Quote”...
• Landing Page: Content-rich educational pages, blog posts & indexes, resources…

Bottom of Funnel (BoFu): 

• Creative: Incentivizes the reader to click-through and purchase
• CTA: “Apply Now”, “Open Account”, “Switch”...
• Landing Page: Product landing page, product comparison page, offer landing page…

Note that across brand strategies, not all criteria are mutually exclusive. At least two out of three of the criteria must be a match to fit in a funnel.

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*Growth period is Nov. ‘22 - Oct. ‘23 over Nov. ‘21 - Oct. ‘22 | **Display Advertising

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Creative Best Practices

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Financial Service Audience Discussion White Space

(i) Prove you have the right product for every individual. 

• Use financial calculators and quizzes to help viewers with specific problems (i.e. anticipating inflation, or how to allocate money with a new income). 
• Offer different product options as results.

(ii) Explore the differences between autonomous or full financial management.

• Combine Customer Service messaging to identify that you can (i) help people control their financial future but that (ii) you also have options for self-management. 

(iii) Capture prospects who struggle with bad credit now. 

• Help them rebuild it and have them grow with your products over time. 

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Financial Services in Canada have spent $90M in the past year…

…On the top 1.2K ads from November 2022 to October 2023. That’s -49% less than last year ($177M).

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Brands spent 8% of the budget on Top Funnel advertising ($7M). 

ToFu ad spend saw a -67% YoY decrease in ad spend from $22M. 

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Brands spent 43% of the budget on Mid Funnel advertising ($39M). 

MoFu ad spend saw a -45% YoY decrease in ad spend from $71M. 

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Brands spent 49% of the budget on Low Funnel advertising ($44M). 

BoFu ad spend saw a -48% YoY decrease in ad spend from $85M. 

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YouTube represents 46% of the ToFu advertising spend.

Facebook represents 52% of the MoFu advertising spend.

Paid Search & Facebook represent 73% of the BoFu spend.

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TikTok, Instagram and YouTube saw high ToFu ad spend allocations.

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Facebook, Display and YouTube saw high MoFu ad spend allocations.

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Paid Search, Instagram & Facebook saw high BoFu ad spend allocations.

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TikTok and Instagram saw the largest increases in ToFu spend. 

Paid Search (-84%) saw the largest decrease in this funnel YoY. 

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TikTok and Instagram saw increases in MoFu spend. 

YouTube (-77%) saw the largest decrease in this funnel YoY. 

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TikTok, Instagram and Display saw BoFu spend increases.

YouTube (-68%) saw the largest decrease in this funnel in the second half of the period. 

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Image and Video ad formats see the highest ad spend for MoFu ads...

…But Carousels are the only format seeing increases YoY. 

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Top MoFu Ad Messaging Themes by Spend

October 2022 - September 2023

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Quick & Easy

Finances are stressful. People appreciate low effort and efficient solutions. 

Mid-funnel Quick & Easy ads are all about bringing your product to its bare-bone benefit—simplicity. 

Advertising Tactics

• ‍Keep CTAs simple. Brands experimented with “Get Quote” and “3 Min Quote” CTAs, spending +185% more on the former.
• ‍Create layered benefits. Use efficiency terminology (quick, easy, simple) as an umbrella for tangible benefits (i.e. no monthly fee).  
• ‍Static Image creatives represent 71% of these ads, followed by videos (19%). 

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How to Save Money

Show prospects how they can save with your financial products.

Show mid-funnel viewers that if they are looking for “X” product, they can save by working with you.

Advertising Tactics

• Leverage the idea that viewers could be using money they save in other ways (i.e. “put money back in your pocket”). 
• Follow with the idea of savings by presenting a quote calculator for your product to capture leads. 
• ‍Static Image creatives represent 69% of these ads, followed by videos (21%). 

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‍Rewards Education‍

Raise awareness about your reward programs and partners without selling.

People want to know what choices you as a brand are making when it comes to reward partners & interests.

Advertising Tactics

• Combine your ad creative with graphics like text to communicate benefits. 
• ‍Reach people for their core interests. BMO doesn’t talk about a specific product but references an Air Miles partnership that will interest current customers and travellers. 
• ‍Video creatives represent 51% of these ads with an average duration of 10 seconds.

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Customer Service

Demonstrate your team’s dedication to improving the financial lives of prospects.

Mid-funnel advertising has seen messaging about Financial Advisors and their commitment to clients.

Advertising Tactics

• Indicate that your advisors are driven to tailor services to the needs of the individual. 
• ‍Match landing page copy and imagery to the ad creative to keep the narrative consistent.
• ‍Static Image creatives represent 43% of these ads, followed by Videos at 29%.

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Financial Wellness

Demonstrate how you are giving back to prospects through financial education.

Brands are making an effort to provide resources that educate, support and inform their communities.

Advertising Tactics

• Help viewers assess their financial wellness through interactive forms or blog posts that capture their information and provide resourceful steps. 
• Let prospects know what your values are by sharing your contributions. 
• ‍Static Image creatives represent 73% of these ads, followed by Videos at 24%.

This is from a Grant Application ad for small businesses.

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Create index pages about product categories. 

Product Index Page Spend $7.1M

• Use index pages to communicate options across a product range (ie. bank accounts, credit cards, loans). 
• These pages are heavily segmented. They often feature off-page links to learn or engage more with any educational content about offerings.
• Pages can be longer compared to Information Landing Pages with a range of FAQs and testimonials under the main content. 

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Educate your audience with charts and context. 

Information Landing Page Spend $4.8M

• Information landing pages feature a hero banner with more information about the technicalities of an advertised product.  
• Aim to contextualize offerings through graphics like tables or multi-column information panels. 
• End the landing page with a collapsible FAQ or Contact section. 

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Give viewers insight into their financial positions.

Calculator Page Spend $3.1M

• Give people the option to learn more about their financial position and what that means for them. 
• People in Canada want financial tools. Google searches for calculators, generated over 1.3M in volume from October ‘22 to September ’23.  
• ‍Educate before starting or dive right in. Brands use a short landing page approach with a quote CTA or they dive into the tool from their ads.

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Paid Search and Image formats see the highest ad spend for BoFu ads...

…But Carousels saw the lowest spend decrease YoY. 

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Top BoFu Ad Messaging Themes by Spend

October 2022 - September 2023

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Promotions

What can you give prospects in return for choosing you?

Naturally, company promotions for bank accounts and credit cards have a top spend for low-funnel ads.

Advertising Tactics

• ‍Keep it tangible. Offers tend to fluctuate between cash or gift card amounts of up to $500 and Apple products like AirPods or iPads. 
• Talk about the benefits of your product in combination with the opportunity of gaining a promotional offer. 
• ‍Paid Search creatives represent 35% of these ads, followed by Static Image ads at 33%.

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Rewards Program

Extend your educational rewards ads from MoFu to the lower funnel.

These are not as transactional as promotions—the reward continues to grow as the user makes purchases.

Advertising Tactics

• Use the idea of how prospects “could be a reward member” after previously learning about the benefits of rewards from MoFu.
• Brands experimented with tangible reward ads (i.e. “earn 80K points, that’s $800”) but general Rewards ads saw 7x more spend.
• ‍Paid Search creatives represent 48% of these ads, followed by Video ads at 33%.

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Made for You

Speak to prospects. Reassure them that the product is perfect “for them”. 

Move MoFu ads about Financial Wellness to a lower funnel concept of how it is best for you.

Advertising Tactics

• Keep Search headlines simple and branded (i.e. “AmericanExpress.com - Official Site”).
• Use product comparison landing pages to let viewers know they have options. This allows them to start the process of finding the best product for their needs. 
• ‍Paid Search creatives represent 97% of these ads, followed by Static Image ads at 3%.

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Low Barrier to Entry

Make your product offering so simple that it’s hard to find a reason not to engage.

Where applicable, Financial Services are advertising the low barriers to entry in relation to their products. 

Advertising Tactics

• Meet prospects in different walks of life. New credit card holders or people looking for basic financial products will be enticed by:
  (i) No minimum fees
  (ii) No monthly or yearly fees
  (iii) No credit checks
  Canadians generated 112K in search volume for products that accept bad credit in the past year.

• ‍Paid Search creatives represent 100% of Low Barrier to Entry BoFu ads.

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Quick & Easy

Continue the Quick & Easy concept through to the bottom of the funnel.

MoFu content discussed the ease of financial concepts. BoFu shows the ease of working with a company.

Advertising Tactics

• Convince viewers that applying for a product with your company won’t affect their day. 
• ‍Quantify ease and efficiency where you can (i.e. “It takes 10 minutes or less” or “Sign Up Online in Minutes”).
• ‍Paid Search creatives represent 47% of these ads, followed by Static Image ads at 43%.

We like this ad because it shows a standard problem people have (that wastes time) and their solution to it (that saves time).

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Emphasize promotional value with strong LPs.

Offer Page Spend $15M

• Use the landing page to segment how you communicate the same product benefits multiple times.
  (i) Start with the offer hero banner
  (ii) Build one large benefit bullet list
  (iii) Reiterate the promotion and how it works to claim it
  (iv) Repurpose a shorter list of the point (ii) benefits with an example of the product

We like how this landing page recognizes that the product may not be a direct fit and offers a smaller promotion for a simpler product as a backup. 

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Let viewers see all their options before they commit.

Product Comparison Page Spend $3.5M

• ‍Alleviate decision fatigue by offering three main suggestions by interest. If the viewer continues scrolling, you can open up the product offering beyond an initial set.
• ‍Give psychographic options. Let viewers browse by where they are in their lives (i.e. student, personal, business). 

Here American Express gives three options: one for travel, one for everyday purchases and one for the U.S. As the viewer continues scrolling, then they open up the offerings broadly.

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Financial PDPs* should be very information heavy.

Product Page Spend $2.5M

• ‍No brands are linking directly to a sign-up form from their ads. Unlike retail industries where brands can link creative directly to add-to-cart pages, Financial products require more impactful decision-making for consumers. 
• ‍PDPs should focus only on one specific product. Sprinkle CTA buttons throughout the page as the viewer decides whether they like the product benefits on their journey.

*PDP = Product Display Pages

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Top Canadian Financial Query Themes by Search Volume

October 2022 - September 2023

A web crawler that searches queries made in Canada about various financial topics was used to pull and categorize 770 queries by theme.

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Calculators

Build timely resources for many scenarios.

127 queries from October ‘22 to September ‘23 generated a search volume of 1.3M in Canada. 

Behaviour Insights

• ‍People want to know how to allocate their money out of school. Create forms to help build an allocation plan that directs the viewer to call an advisor or suggest specific products.     
• Create resources that anticipate inflation and recommend ways to manage the increases. 

Top Queries by Search Volume

• “mortgage payment calculator td”
• “mortgage calculator rbc”
• “mortgage payment calculator”
• “loan calculator”
• “mortgage calculator canada”
• “mortgage loan calculator canada” 

Mortgage likely represents a high share of mentions for these calculators due to rising interest rates from the Bank of Canada over the past few years.

For more Financial Calculator Discussion in Canada, see the full thread here.

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Branded Searches

Create broad content with your brand name.

102 queries from October ‘22 to September ‘23 generated a search volume of 655K in Canada. 

Behaviour Insights

• ‍Build pro and con content for all your products. Cons should be predominantly centred on being applicable to people in different positions as opposed to actual cons. 
• Ensure keywords always combine at least one product name and then your brand name. 

‍Top Queries by Search Volume

• “credit card scotiabank” 
• “investing edge” 
• “Insurance wawanesa” 
• “mortgage first national” 
• “insurance td” 
• "insurance desjardins” 
• "credit card rbc” 
• “credit card td” 
• “credit card cibc” 
• “credit card bmo” 

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The State of Rates

Use mid-funnel ads to educate prospects.

70 queries from October ‘22 to September ‘23 generated a search volume of 429K in Canada. 

Behaviour Insights

• Be a place for frequent financial updates. 
• ‍Educate people on basic financial interest rate concepts; there’s still a major gap in knowledge.   
• ‍Acknowledge when times are hard. Create content that meets people in the middle.

Top Queries by Search Volume

• “mortgage rates” 
• “mortgage rates canada” 
• “mortgage interest rates ontario”
• “credit card low interest” 
• “line of credit interest rates”
• “mortgage interest rates alberta”

For more Rates Discussion in Canada, see the full thread here.

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Financial Management

People want help managing money.

44 queries from October ‘22 to September ‘23 generated a search volume of 214K in Canada. 

Behaviour Insights

• ‍Differentiate your management services. People want external help and good customer service but often don’t know who to go to.
• ‍Continue to leverage Customer Service MoFu and BoFu creatives while filling a gap by addressing the ways you actually help prospects.  

Top Queries by Search Volume

• “investing groups” 
• “insurance broker” 
• “mortgage broker” 
• “insurance companies” 
• “mortgage investment corporation”
• “insurance council of bc”

For more Management Discussion in Canada, see the full thread here.

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For Bad Credit

Offer solutions for people in tough spots.

26 queries from October ‘22 to September ‘23 generated a search volume of 113K in Canada. 

Behaviour Insights

• Give people advice on how to manage bad debt but also what they can do in the meantime with applicable products.      
• If you have products that don’t affect credit scores, leverage them for this audience.

‍Top Queries by Search Volume

• “loan with bad credit” 
• “loan bad credit canada” 
• “credit card bad credit canada” 
• “loan for bad credit ontario” 
• “credit card bad credit”
• “personal loan to bad credit” 

For more Bad Credit Discussion in Canada, see the full thread here.

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Digital Advertising Data Source Caveat

*Includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Display, TikTok and Paid Search

*Landing Page not available.

Discussion examples pulled from the Personal Finance Canada Reddit community, with 1.3M members.