You may have used Google Ads before in your financial services marketing. Perhaps you’ve seen some success. Or, like many firms, it’s likely you’ve encountered a lot of frustrations in the results you’ve seen.
There are many reasons why a Google Ads campaign can struggle to draw clicks and conversions. Maybe you are not targeting the right keywords. It could be that the copy in your ad headline or description is not up to standard, or perhaps your landing page is not delivering the experience users want.
Yet in our experience here at ClientsPlus, quite often the “weak link” in a financial Google Ads campaign is how content features in the user journey. After all, without great content to offer your audience, it will be very difficult to build the trust needed to encourage them towards the actions you want.
In this article, our team shares four ideas showing how financial content marketing can be used to deliver results in Google Ads campaigns. We hope you find this article helpful and invite you to download a free piece of content from our library.
#1 Using display to showcase lead magnets
If you’ve not heard of display ads before, this is one way to show your graphical Google Ads on other websites which your audience visits. You can be quite specific in defining where these ads appear – perhaps based on users’ interests (e.g. investment websites and certain media/news outlets).
Some financial planners and advisers do run display ads but fall down when it comes to the advert itself. Perhaps they simply advertise the name of their business (e.g. X Financial Planning) and expect that to be enough to attract large numbers of first-time viewers. Sorry to say, this is unlikely to happen unless your brand is particularly well-known and has a good reputation.
However, display ads are likely to produce better results with first-time viewers if you lead with something of value. For instance, perhaps you could advertise an industry report on an area of pensions (or investing) which is particularly timely.
For instance, if you’re looking to target “millennial investors” (“wealth builders”), could you advertise a guide on “Investing for 20-somethings” – complete with your logo and contact info? With the right pitch to the right audience, this type of financial content is likely to be much more effective for your marketing than simply showing your logo and business name to them – with no clear benefit.
#2 Remarketing and content marketing
Remarketing works on a similar principle to display ads – i.e. graphical ads are shown to users visiting other websites. Yet the key difference is that remarketing ads show specifically to previous visitors of your financial website.
Since these people have seen your brand and financial content marketing before, it’s likely that they’re already somewhat familiar with you. Perhaps they’ve shown a degree of interest already – spending a few minutes on your website during their first visit – but something drew them away from taking further action (e.g. a distraction at home).
This can be a good opportunity to be a bit more “pushy” with the financial content in your Google Ads campaigns. Perhaps you can offer an invite to book a place on your upcoming pensions webinar, offering a guide on the subject for them to read in the meantime.
#3 Leveraging video on YouTube
Does your audience use YouTube? Since it’s the world’s second-largest search engine, it’s quite likely that they do! Yet very few financial advisers and planners are advertising on there. This is a great opportunity for you to jump into the empty, waiting space with your financial content marketing strategy.
Here at ClientsPlus, for instance, you can access videos on a wide range of topics – e.g. pensions, protection and investments – which you can even brand up with your logo. These types of videos can sit nicely on your homepage, services pages and other areas of your website (e.g. a blog post), yet why not try them out on a YouTube campaign?
Google Ads allows you to create dedicated campaigns which show video ads on YouTube. The set up can be a bit tricky, but with the right campaign, you could see some nice results – drawing in new traffic and possibly generating some enquiries.
#4 Promoting directly in search results
Of course, another option would be to take certain content marketing assets (e.g. an article, guide or video) and offer these to users in Google search. Here, you need to be a bit careful. Take into careful consideration what it is that people are looking for.
If they’re looking for “pension advice in Lincoln”, for instance, then a guide on pension advice might work. Yet it may be better to simply offer your business information to them in the Google Search Ad, together with a description of how they can help. This is because the user is more likely to have higher “search intent” – i.e. they have a problem and they’re looking for someone to fix it soon.
Someone with lower search intent, however, may benefit more from financial content marketing in the search engine results. For instance, suppose someone searches “can I access my pension at age 55?” Here, a useful guide shown to them in a Google Ad may be more suitable than simply presenting them with your company information. This is because these users are more likely looking to educate themselves on a subject rather than solve a pressing problem.
