The Top Always-On Savings Account Campaigns for Banks in Q4 2023

Purpose of This Research

Track competitor ad spend for Always On Savings Account campaigns to see what’s performing, and understand what changes have been made over time since October 2020 to September 2023.

• ‍Identify non-promotional Always On campaigns for each competitor.
• Identify changes in spend, platforms and ad formats over time.
• Analyze top tactics that have evolved as brands test and optimize their creatives.

‍

Advertising Content Definitions

• ‍Link Post: Features a link and an assigned image as its creative.
• ‍Image Post: Features a single image as the creative but doesn’t link to any external landing pages—it keeps viewers on-site by directing to an owned account, for example. 
• ‍Video Post: Features video media as the creative with a landing page of the advertiser’s choosing attached.
• ‍Carousel Post: Features a series of media as the creative with a landing page of the advertiser’s choosing attached.
• ‍Status Post*: Features the landing page link directly in the text, the ad creative becomes the SEO-assigned imagery for the landing page.

*This form of ad is outdated as of 2023 and stopped running for competitors by September 2021.

‍

‍

Key Takeaways

Savings Account campaigns don’t have any seasonal trends, but brands run these ads for an average of a year at a time.

• Recommendations
  (i) Test seasonal messaging around Always On Savings Account campaigns since no other competitors are.
  (ii) Experiment by running high-performing campaigns for upwards of a year.

All brands except Neo Financial have heavily reduced their spending for Always On Savings Account ads into 2023.

• Recommendations
  Leverage this whitespace by putting your Savings Accounts’ benefits in the forefront.
  Competitors are not heavily focusing on Always On Savings ads and are reducing spending.

Photo Post ads (+130%) and Display channels (+77%) are the only ad format and platform seeing growth into 2023.

• Recommendations
  (i) Experiment by shifting the budget towards Photo ads and Display channels…
  (ii) …While maintaining a presence on the overall top channel of Facebook with Link ad formats.

TD Bank is focusing on 3 out of 7 savings account campaigns in 2023, here are the top learnings:

• Recommendations
  (i) Feature accessibility messaging to show people they don’t need to come into a bank to make an account.
  (ii) Use campaigns that feature your product variety for Savings Accounts that can be tailored to prospects.
  (iii) Mid-funnel Always On content should educate prospects on Savings-adjacent concepts like interest rates.

Scotiabank is focusing on 2 out of 6 savings account campaigns in 2023, here are the top learnings:

• Recommendations
  (i) Educate prospects by featuring cross-product content that helps them learn about their overall options.
  (ii) Take an emotional approach to savings by addressing how a Savings Account can have an impact on growing money while studying, raising a family or working towards a career.

Neo is focusing on 2 out of 9 savings account campaigns in 2023, here are the top learnings:

• Recommendations
  (i) Define your Savings Accounts’ unique selling points and combine them into a tagline.
  (ii) Prioritize the benefit of a Savings Account growing money for prospects in a low-effort way.

Competitors Analyzed

‍

‍

Savings Account ad campaigns don’t have any seasonal trends.

Spikes and reductions in spend haven’t seen any trends from October 2020 to September 2023.

‍

The average campaign run time across banks is 1 year.

This is skewed by TD Bank’s longer than average run time of 2 years.

‍

Brands are reducing spend into 2023, except for Neo Financial. 

All of RBC’s Savings Accounts ads are promotion-driven.

Years are represented in increments such as October 2020 - September 2021 and so on.

‍

TD Bank is the leader in spend for Always On Savings Account ads.

‍

Focus on Link Post campaigns but experiment with Photo Post ads, they’ve seen the most overall growth since 2020.

‍

Focus placements on Facebook and experiment on Display, it’s the only channel that has seen overall growth.

‍

‍

TD Bank’s campaigns don’t follow any seasonal trends. 

They have stopped Always On Savings Account advertising as of May 2023. 

‍

Facebook is the top platform for TD Bank, with a focus on Link posts. 

‍

TD Bank has experimented with 7 Savings Account campaigns.

Find the Right Savings Account, What You’re Looking For and Learn About Interest Rates are still spending in 2023.

‍

TD Bank runs Always On Campaigns for an average of 2 years.

‍

Promote online accessibility. People want to avoid bank lines.

• ‍This campaign is about finding an account that suits people’s needs. Address that you have multiple offerings that can meet people where they are in their financial journey.
• Reassure viewers that they can make an account online, easily.‍
• Ad creative should demonstrate the different ways you can access banking (mobile and desktop). 
• ‍Keep ad copy in one sentence. TD ran a similar version of this campaign with an “It’s That Easy” tagline which was their second highest campaign spend ($320K), though it didn’t get extended into 2023. 

‍

Run a campaign that focuses on your Savings Account variety. 

• Use a carousel to dedicate each image card to a different savings account you offer and its unique selling points. TD Bank promotes:
  (i) Earn interest on every dollar
  (ii) Pay no monthly fee

• The name of each Savings Account should be in the ad creative instead of the headline space.
• Leverage headlines for the biggest takeaway viewers should have about each account. 
• ‍Keep colours and graphics simple. TD Bank never veers beyond Yellow, Green and White in their ad creatives.

‍

Be a part of your audience’s financial literacy journey.

• Show prospects you care by keeping them informed and up to date about interest rates and how they impact Savings accounts. 
• Leverage this educational content as a mid-funnel campaign to:
  (i) Create lookalike audiences based on people who view and engage with the post on Instagram & Facebook. 
  (ii) Run ads like this or this to those lookalike audiences. 

‍

‍

‍

Scotiabank pushed Always On Savings Account campaigns the most from March - October 2022.

‍

Video content and Display Video & YouTube platforms have seen top spend from Scotiabank.

‍

Scotiabank has experimented with 6 Savings Account campaigns.

High Interest Savings Account and Save as You Wait are the only campaigns running into 2023. 

‍

Scotiabank runs Always On campaigns for an average of 4 months.

‍

Pose questions with educational content that has prospects considering what is right for them.

• Raise the idea that different financial goals may have different products associated with them. 
• ‍Venture into cross-product offering education. Scotiabank’s ad touches on both GICs and HISAs to:
  (i) Make people aware that they have options when it comes to Savings.
  (ii) Give people who are already thinking about Savings the chance to make a decision on their own or talk to someone who knows more about it. 

‍

Take an emotional approach. Scotiabank is the only competitor touching on the relationship between money and life. 

• Take the core concept of a Savings Account and apply it to how it impacts the everyday person’s life. 
• Take a community approach with Savings Account messaging—”while you live your life, having kids, studying, figuring out your career, we’ll be here growing your money in the meantime”.
• ‍Build out various messaging propositions (one for family, career, and education) under broad audience targeting and see what your audience resonates with the most. 
  (i) If the campaign is optimized for people who are having families (for example), build more messaging around Savings Accounts and family life.

‍

‍

Neo Financial tends to spike spends from March - May.

‍

In 2023, Neo Financial is focusing on Instagram with an increase in spend on Video and Photo ad creatives.

‍

Neo Financial has experimented with 9 Savings Account campaigns.

At Neo You Can and Money Growth are the only campaigns carried out into 2023.

‍

Neo Financial runs Always On campaigns for an average of 7 months.

‍

Define a single key differentiator between each Savings Account you offer and leverage it as a tagline.

• Neo Financial has been pushing its Savings Account as an all-in-one platform that allows you to pay bills and earn interest at the same time. 
• ‍“At Neo you can” is their way of saying, we have something other banks don’t. 
• ‍Merge key selling points and identify the one common factor they share when compared to competitor offerings. 
  (i) Use that in bold text on your ad creative with the subtext of your main offering.

‍

Focus on financial growth as a key concept. 

• Talk about the benefits of your product like the interest rate before you talk about other benefits like no fees.
  (i) Neo Financial ran two versions of the copy. They spent $7K on “Guarantee your money growth with 2.25% saving interest…” and only $560 on “Guarantee your money growth with no monthly or annual fees…”
• ‍People want a lazy option. Leverage the concept of growth from the perspective that the end-user doesn’t need to work hard to accomplish financial growth. Neo’s top ad says “Get your money to work harder”. 

‍

*Digital Advertising Data Source Caveat