PPC for Financial Services: A 2025 Playbook

A comprehensive online marketing strategy will include more than developing a quality website, managing social media engagement, and distributing emails. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has become a critical component of digital marketing, with paid search taking up 39% of marketing budgets.

With an average 200% return on investment (ROI) rate, PPC ads can be effective across a marketing funnel. While the goal is to engage with consumers searching for specific keywords or viewing topic-specific content, users do not need to click on an ad for it to have an impact. PPC can also underscore brand recognition and provide key insights into market trends by considering impressions and search volume alongside click throughs.

Ultimately, the goal of any PPC campaign is to increase website traffic and generate new business leads, and financial services PPC is no different. This is done through the development and distribution of engaging advertising copy and images that relate directly to the interests of specific user sets. On social media platforms, PPC can take the form of displaying multi-media ads targeting users in a specific location or who fit key demographic attributes. In search engine result pages (SERPs), users are presented with both ads and organic content based on the keywords entered into the search. Network advertising platforms, such as Google Display Network, place ads across partner websites and mobile apps based on keyword and content relevance.

As the name suggests, PPC campaigns typically only cost an advertiser if a user engages with, or clicks on, the ad. The pricing established for each click is often based on a number of factors including the competition for keywords (the more demand, the higher the price), the quality of the ad copy and landing pages, and search intent.

Why PPC is Critical for Financial Services

In PPC for financial services, the marketing tool demonstrates more promise than in other industries. Average conversion rates for PPC in the finance industry is 6%, with 24% of web traffic coming from paid search. However, the banking sector also pays the most per click with an average of $3.56 for search ads. This is likely due to the fierce competition that financial institutions (FIs) of all types, sizes, and locations face as they bid against one another for general industry terms.

Financial PPC campaigns offer several benefits that can help FIs looking to increase their sales pipeline activity. While big banks may have the advantage of budget and content volume when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) tactics, regional and community FIs (RCFIs) can place their brand, and their products, near the top of search results through targeted PPC. The key is using longtail keywords, or phrases generally including three to five words, that are specific to user search concerns. These tend to produce more qualified leads while also costing less due to reduced competition.

In addition to bidding on longer keywords, FIs can benefit from precision targeting. Most platforms, such as Google Ads, allow marketers to strictly define the users who should see their ads. This includes demographic and behavioral information in combination with keyword search terms.

Putting together effective PPC ad management for financial brands can help increase overall quality lead generation and ROI. Through precision targeting, FIs can limit impressions, or how many times content is shown to a user, to a subset of consumers who are more likely to be interested in the information presented. Since these leads are typically more qualified, they can be easier to convert. All of this can be tracked back with measurable ROI through the advertiser’s reporting platform along with using unique landing pages and UTM parameters.

PPC has another strong advantage within financial services: the generation of high-value leads. These are leads that not only fit established buyer personas but also have a larger spending potential or customer lifetime value (CLV). CLV tends to be higher for businesses such as banks or insurance companies that can generate long-term or recurring revenue through individual customer accounts. For example, a bank may acquire a customer through a PPC campaign targeting low APR credit cards, then grow the account to include checking and investment management accounts over time.

Understanding Google Ads Restrictions for Financial Services

While PPC presents a clear opportunity for financial services companies to advertise and generate new business, the nature of the industry is one of regulatory hurdles that also apply to online ads. Marketers will need to work with their legal and compliance teams to ensure that the messaging included in PPC ads adheres to guidelines for factual information, transparency, and data security, among others.

Google Ads also works to protect users from fraudulent or misleading advertising. Finance PPC on the Google platform is required to include disclosures, documentation, certification, physical addresses, and links to third parties where relevant. Some high-risk financial products are simply prohibited from advertising altogether such as credit repair services or speculative trading tips for which misleading or inaccurate information could be significantly damaging to consumers.

Other topics are viable if they comply with the criteria established by Google Ads. For example, debt services advertising is possible but only in select locations, where the ad is demonstrated to comply with local laws, and where the target location is eligible for certification.

Google’s strict adherence policies are also extremely important to consider. For many violations, warnings are issued to the advertising account holder, who is given seven days before the account is suspended due to noncompliance. Each violation is considered a strike, and receiving a certain number of strikes can also result in a suspension. As such, marketers should collaborate with their legal counsel to ensure all of the policies are thoroughly understood and complied with while accounting for other important industry regulations.

Building a Successful PPC Campaign for Financial Institutions

With the legal hurdles accounted for, marketing teams can create financial services Google ads and other PPC for finance industry-specific products. A comprehensive PPC plan may account for keywords and goals across a variety of products or services. However, keep in mind that each campaign, typically aligned per keyword or keyword group, will require its own strategy, creative assets, monitoring, and adjustment along the way.

Step 1: Define Campaign Goals

Every instance of a marketing plan should start with a clear understanding of the activity’s objectives. In PPC for finance, this can look different depending on the size, location, and goals of the business. Many of these may correlate with overarching business objectives tied to revenue figures such as sales and recurring revenue. Others may intend to boost impact in other business areas such as customer satisfaction.

Examples of measurable PPC financial services goals usually reflect the marketing funnel and can include:

Brand Awareness: Some PPC campaigns are effective by appearing in related search results to underscore brand recall even if the search volume on a particular keyword significantly outperforms actual click-through rates.
Traffic Generation: Tentative consumers may click an ad to learn more about a company’s offerings without submitting any contact information. This can lead to an uptick in website traffic and can be measured through tools like Google Analytics showing time on site, pages visited, and bounce rates.
Lead Generation: Compelling messaging or offers can entice search users to provide their contact information, creating them as a lead interested in receiving more details or outreach with the potential to become a customer.
Sales Conversions: For many organizations, net new sales is a driving indicator of growth that, with the right tracking in place across ads and landing pages, can be directly attributed to a specific PPC campaign.
Account Expansion: FIs can deepen customer relationships by advertising additional products or services that may be of interest to a specific buyer persona.
Customer Retention: Forty percent of financial services revenue is recurring, making it a priority to create PPC campaigns that keep a FI brand’s products and services top of mind with existing customers who may be searching for other solutions.

Step 2: Conduct Tailored Keyword Research

As noted above, the more specific a keyword or keyword phrase is, the more likely it is to be affordable to bid on while also targeting preferred consumers. Marketers should conduct keyword research to understand not only how the terms vital to their business are trending but also to uncover additional keywords based on user search intent.

Search volume is also important to consider. A long-tail keyword may target the exact buyer persona marketing has in mind, but the number of qualified leads coming in may also be a lot lower. Analyzing search volume can give marketers a sense of how frequently a term is searched compared to different iterations of the same phrase.

In PPC for financial services, marketers also need to target compliance safe keywords. While the ad copy and landing page relevance are restricted by platforms like Google Ads, marketers should steer clear of bidding on misleading keywords to generate interest.

Step 3: Craft Compelling Ad Copy

The ad copy itself should be enticing while remaining compliant. This can be frustrating for copywriters who are accustomed to working with space. While the characters allowed in a Google Ad will depend on the placement, most include headlines up to just 30 characters and description boxes for up to 90 characters. This forces marketers to be concise, engaging, and factually accurate in a very small amount of digital space.

An effective ad will include more than just the targeted keyword. With so little space to work with, the job of the ad is to compel the viewer to click for more information. This means that the call to action (CTA) should be clear and concise while demonstrating value to the consumer. Financial services Google Ads can also include:

Unique Selling Propositions (USP): List key differentiators to help the brand stand out.
Emotional Triggers: Generate a response such as trust or fear of missing out.
Social Proof: Highlight customer reviews or third-party facts to establish credibility.

High-performing ad headlines clearly answer key search terms to align with user intent while also inviting the consumer to take action. For example, for the long-tail keyword search “how to open a checking account,” Wells Fargo comes up with an ad that is both informative and to the point. The headline immediately answers the search by clearly stating “Checking Account Requirements” as the topic users will uncover when clicking the link provided. The descriptive text underneath provides an offer, in this case $300 with a qualifying deposit, while also listing the bank’s Member FDIC status. In just a small space, the ad provides answers, tells the user what to do, offers incentive, and complies with required disclaimers.

Step 4: Set Up Effective Landing Pages

While the ad copy does the initial work of catching a user’s attention among a list of paid and organic search results, this is just the start of the work of a successful PPC for financial services campaign. Depending on the goals established at the onset, marketers will need to take the next step of creating a dedicated landing page to engage with the user.

PPC ads are meant to provide an enticement for users to want to interact with a brand’s product or service further. By clicking on the ad, they are taking an action demonstrating interest. Landing pages are designed to provide additional information about the topic of interest and convert the consumer into a lead or customer.

Effective landing pages are directly related to the originating ad copy. Switching topics or offers will undermine trust with consumers and, while click-through rates may be high, conversions on the landing page and corresponding form will be much lower. Instead, marketers should use landing page copy to provide details on the search topic. Typical inclusions are:

Headline: This often repeats or underscores the headline from the original PPC ad.
Copy: This should expand on the topic of interest and address the reader’s pain points while providing solutions.
Trust Factors: Reiterate the brand’s credibility by including reviews, testimonials, and partner or affiliation logos.
Call to Action: Landing pages should have a CTA that tells the reader what steps to take next to solve their problem or find out more information.
Form: The CTA usually involves the reader entering their contact information to gain access to resources, schedule a demo, or sign up for a product or service.

For financial services PPC, marketers should also consult with their legal teams to make sure that all required disclaimers and links to privacy policy or other critical information are included for compliance.

Going back to the example of Well Fargo’s checking account add, users who click the link are taken to a dedicated landing page specifically for that ad campaign. This is a strong instance of effective PPC for finance because:

The headline immediately reiterates the offer from the ad, “Get a $300 new checking customer bonus*.”
The call to action is presented next with options to open an account online with just a few clicks.
The CTA is strong, clear, and appears above the fold of the website, or before the user has to scroll to read more.
Readers looking for more details are provided with the terms of the offer in concise language.
The page also emphasizes consumer confidence in the brand by repeating USPs and trust factors.
The landing page is also compliant with offer terms included and links to additional resources.

Best Practices for Optimizing Financial PPC Campaigns

Establishing a strong financial services PPC campaign can help marketers maximize their reach online with targeted, more qualified consumers. However, paid advertising is a consistently changing channel with bidding costs, search intent, and search volume changing on a daily basis, if not more frequently. This means that PPC ad management for financial brands should also include plans to optimize existing campaigns, and create new ones, based on performance and other key metrics.

Here are some best practices for optimizing financial services Google ads or similar PPC campaigns:

Monitor click-through rates compared to landing page conversions. If there is a significant drop off, marketers can explore refining the page content to boost engagement. Another option is to further narrow down the precision targeting to present ads to a more specific list of search engine users.
Use negative keywords to reduce ad spend waste. This feature enables marketers to prevent their PPC ads from appearing in search results for specific terms that may not be relevant or high converting for a brand.
Conduct A/B testing with PPC ads. Also known as split testing, this technique lets marketers create two versions of an ad that are shown randomly to a target audience. This can help teams identify the messaging, headlines, or CTAs that work best with the consumers they want to attract.
Watch more than cost-per-click (CPC) metrics. Budget may be a priority, but comparing CPC performance to other key measures such as conversion rate, quality score, and average position can help determine if the return on ad spend (ROAS) is worthwhile in the end.
Keep a current toolkit. PPC platforms like Google Ads will be mainstays for marketers to track performance, but third-party tools can provide extra insights. Marketers can consider budget management platforms designed for PPC such as Optmyzr or Semrush that also support keyword research, and tools like iSpionage can provide insight into competitor campaigns.

Cost Management in PPC Campaigns

Adhering to a budget when it comes to financial services PPC can be a bit more challenging than with other marketing channels. Marketers and finance teams can set a limit on the amount of funds allocated to a PPC campaign, but managing those dollars often requires a hands-on approach, especially when getting started.

Rather than simply purchasing advertising space and having an ad appear, like it would in a print publication or email newsletter, PPC ad visibility, placement, and frequency are dependent on keyword bid prices. These rates change, often daily, depending on factors such as competition, search volume, and quality score. For instance, the more demand there is for a financial services term such as “checking account,” the more it will cost to have an ad appear in a preferred position.

One method for working with this is to explore using low bid keywords through the use of long-tail terms and phrases. The goal is to capture a higher position on the SERP without paying extremes in pricing for more competitive terms. While search activity may be lower for these terms, the chances are higher that consumer search intent will be more qualified, leading to higher conversions across fewer leads and lower PPC costs.

Another option is to leverage smart bidding rather than manual bidding. While the manual approach can give marketers more refined control over the exact terms, precision targeting, and pricing per keyword or phrase, smart bidding offers a few advantages. For the Google Ads platform in particular, smart bidding uses machine learning and automation to help marketers achieve specific goals. The software considers selected keywords and automatically sets bids based on strategies such as maximizing clicks, increasing impressions, or achieving a specific cost per acquisition (CPA).

Case Studies: Successful Financial Services PPC Campaigns

Determining strong PPC performance is a per-brand exercise depending on the scale, budget, and goals of the organization. However, even smaller financial brands can experience successes in PPC when incorporating best practices into their strategies.

Highly specialized companies can take advantage of targeted keyword searches that focus on regional or geographic terms. IPX1031, a Qualified Intermediary specializing in 1031 Tax Deferred Exchanges, optimized its online presence to match its industry expertise with its exposure on PPC platforms. Rather than bidding on broad keywords, the company developed a large negative keyword list to limit the type of prospects that would come into their pipeline. In addition, they used precision targeting with geographically aligned campaigns to further qualify leads before they hit a landing page. As a result, the company experienced a 38% increase in engagement through their PPC efforts.

Fintech company Chime has also experienced success with PPC. The company, which was founded in 2012, is now considered the largest digital bank in the United States. Part of this success is due to a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that maximizes the use of highly targeted advertising that emphasizes specific keywords. For example, a search for “online savings account” turns up a Chime PPC ad that repeatedly uses the words savings and account while also making a clear USP and CTA. The landing page for the campaign reduces barriers to conversion by making the form multi-step, encouraging user action without overwhelming them with a large number of fields. Chime now has 11 million customers who use the brand as their primary bank.

Kicking Off a Successful Financial Services PPC Campaign

No matter the subset, competition is fierce for new customers across financial services. PPC offers an avenue for brands of all sizes to market their products and services in a highly targeted manner that can produce quality leads that produce net new revenue. Key to this success is the company’s marketing team to understand how user search intent ties into their corporate marketing strategy. Bidding on long-tail keywords and phrases while leveraging geographical targeting and other demographic filters can help marketers narrow down the prospect pool from those with general interest to those more likely to convert. Developing engaging landing pages that complement the ad copy without overcomplicating the subject are also a critical component of a successful PPC campaign.

All of this may seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Vested is a trusted partner for helping brands manage their financial PPC campaigns. Our team is comprised of experts who not only have the know-how and tools to navigate the competitive PPC landscape but who also understand the requirements and regulations governing advertising in the financial services sector. Whether you have a PPC campaign in place that needs optimization or you’re looking to get started, contact Vested today.

PPC for Financial Services: A 2025 Playbook