How the Finance Industry Uses Content Amplification for the Win

According to J.D. Power, customers shopping for a finance industry provider (insurance, banking, online investment advice, etc.) mostly go online to do so, as 74% of shoppers use websites or aggregators for quotes and research. While almost half of customers obtain a quote from websites, only 25% purchase online; 50% close through an agent and 22% use a call center. This is due in part to the underperformance of agency writer websites—agency writers quote nearly as many consumers on their website as they do through their agency channel (38% vs. 40%, respectively), yet just 10% of agency writers’ new business is closed on the website.

According to Insights Lab, 67% of Gen X’rs worry about having enough money to retire comfortably, while 58% believe that they need to learn about investing in order to be financially secure. eMedia shares that 77.6% of Millennials are already using digital banking.

Finance Stat Pack

  1. Financial markets in the United States are the largest and most liquid in the world. In 2018, finance and insurance represented 7.4 percent (or $1.5 trillion) of U.S. gross domestic product. (source: SelectUSA.gov).
  2. Customers know data’s value and will trade it—for a return. In banking and investment advisory, 67% are willing to exchange personal data for new, customized benefits. In insurance, it’s 57%. Providers offering real value for data can earn increased trust and loyalty. (source: Accenture).
  3. Generic product advice and services support will not do for today’s financial services customers. They expect their data to be leveraged into personalized advice and benefits, tailored to their life stage, financial goals and personal needs. In banking, 63% want online personalized advice and in insurance it’s 64%. A full 73% want personalized online investment advice using data. (source: Accenture).
  4. Native advertising now accounts for more than half of all digital display spending by US marketers. Last year, they allocated $32.90 billion to native digital display ads, up 31.0% over 2017. (source: eMarketer).
  5. Financial services brands spent just over $13 billion on digital ads in 2018 and will spend $15 billion in 2019. (source: eMarketer).
  6. 69% of internet users will access their bank, credit union, credit card, or brokerage account online via any device this year. (source: InsightLab.com).

The Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Content Amplification

AI helps augment human capabilities and knowledge. When it comes to large volumes of data, AI can manage it more efficiently, better, faster and stronger than people. The finance industry is at the forefront of adoption in the advertising space. Below shows some stark contrasts with and without AI.

With-and-without-AI

How Does the Finance Industry Perform Using AI with Content Amplification?

The data below represents millions of dollars in ad spend from the finance industry over the course of 18 months. These benchmarks are good to compare with other programmatic programs in the finance industry.

Finance-Content-Marketing-Stats

 

Content-Distribution-Stats

Which Type of Finance Industry Headlines Drive the Most Content Engagement Post-Click?

The data below was gathered from the top 200 native and social ad unit headlines from 2018. Over 40 networks were included in this study. It juxtaposes the average engagement rate and the average engaged time (in seconds) by category. Post-click, an engagement is only counted if the user spends 15 or more seconds in the active window with the content.

The five categories defined below are a variation of BuzzSumo’s methodology for organizing articles. The below categories are for native and social ad unit headlines and not the actual title of an article. However, often they can be the same.

  1. Article – the catch-all category for native ad unit headlines that don’t fit into any other category
  2. Brand Mention – any category of headline that includes a brand mention, which supersedes the other categories
  3. How-To – any headline communicating the content will show how to do something
  4. What Post – any headline starting with the word what
  5. Why Post – any headline communicating the content will explain “why” to do something
  Avg. Engagement Rate by Category Avg. Engaged Time by Category
Article: 74% 53%
Brand Mention: 71% 51%
How-To: 76% 51%
List: 74% 50%
What Post: 75% 60%
Why Post: 74% 66%

The finance industry is now using AI to optimize in an engagement-based economy. It’s content engagement that advertisers and consumers want. With no correlation between clicks and engagement why do we still have click and impression-based pricing schemes? AI can eliminate CPMs and CPCs. It’s the use of AI, as described above, that can help eliminate waste in paid media and deliver the greatest efficiency.

 

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