The credit crunch has led to increased uncertainty amongst finance advertisers, but it has also opened up opportunities.
Finance Product Trends
As the general public becomes more concerned with their financial security, adCenter accounts in the banking sector have seen average YoY increases of over 200% in impressions and 190% in clicks (September ‘07 vs. September ’08). These increases have been steady since January ’07.
(Source: Microsoft adCenter Internal Data)
ISAs, which normally have a short-run seasonal flurry of activity in March and April in the lead up to the new financial year, have recently seen increased levels of traffic that do not conform to traditional seasonality.
Although searches for first time mortgages have dropped substantially, searches for remortgages have increased as many households are finding that their fixed-rate mortgage deals are coming to an end and they are looking to remortgage to find a better deal or equity release loan.
User Behaviour Trends
The credit crunch has had a direct impact not just on what users search for but also on how they search:
1. Users are searching more now than they did before the credit crunch, as they shop around for the cheapest deal. Live Search impressions for financial products have increased by 65% YoY, while clicks have increased 51%.
Using ad copy to prequalify traffic to your site (for example using such disclaimers as ‘homeowners only’ or ‘no tenants’) while attracting the maximum number of relevant customers has become a priority. The use of an extensive negative match list is also an essential way to reduce irrelevant traffic, especially with the increased number of searches for financial news stories in recent months (searches for ‘bankruptcy’, ‘crash’, ‘redundancies’ etc).
2. Users are becoming more sophisticated in their queries. Live Search data shows that the numbers of searches on top product keywords, such as ‘car insurance’, have been going down slightly while searches on the more targeted generics (middle-to-head terms) are maintaining or increasing their search volumes.
3. As price becomes the key factor in financial product purchases, top generic finance search results are increasingly dominated by comparison engines while performance on more targeted terms (middle-to-head) is stronger for direct insurance advertisers.
It may be more cost effective for direct insurance advertisers to adopt a bid strategy that aims to maintain a top 3 position for middle/top generic terms while maintaining a page 1 position on the top terms such as ‘car insurance’ or ‘home insurance’.
Chart: Difference in CTR Performance Between Comparison Sites and Direct Advertisers on Top Versus Top/Middle Insurance Keywords. Source: adCenter Internal Data
Becoming More Cost Effective – Exact Match and Demo Targeting
Relying less on Broad Match bidding and more on Exact Match will make it possible to improve the relevancy of your ads and CTR and help reduce CPCs. Exact Match bids should be at least 10-20% higher than your broad match bids to ensure that the most relevant ad shows.
adCenter’s unique demographic targeting capabilities can represent the most cost-effective way to increase bids as you can increase bids for just your target audience rather than applying a blanket approach of increased bids across all users, effectively minimising waste.
Top Tips to Prosper During the Credit Crunch
· Be aware of new micro trends and opportunities on different financial products, and optimise in a strategic way
· Prepare for and make the most of key seasonal periods
· Focus strongly on mid-tier finance keywords
· Use detailed and attractive ad copy to set yourself apart and prequalify traffic
· Use detailed and extensive negative match lists to avoid irrelevant traffic
· Use Exact Match bidding strategies to grow CTR and reduce your CPCs
· Use adCenter’s unique demographic targeting to up weight your bids to target your desired audience – increasing chances of conversions and improving ROI
If you have any questions or comments please visit the adCenter Forum.
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