7 steps to financial services digital glory

You say financial services – we say yawn.  What makes the $5bn global financial digital ad space engaging and clickable to the average consumer?

A recent study, from Rocket Fuel, looked into the combining factors that lead to the success of financial service digital campaigns, highlighting seven key trends that equal clickable victory.

The study analysed 2,300 distinct ads from over 200 credit card and financial services campaigns  run with Rocket Fuel during October and November last year.

By looking at the sample of creatives from credit card and financial services campaigns a number of trends were revealed:

1. Consumers convert on weekends, late at night
Consumers are significantly more likely to convert on financial services campaigns on Saturdays (+16%) and Sundays (+30%), and are most likely to convert late at night, with conversion rates peaking between midnight and 6 a.m.

2. Offers are more compelling than pricing
Consumers are 10x more likely to convert on financial services ads featuring a special offer than those that don’t. Similarly, they are significantly less likely to convert on ads featuring regular pricing. 

3. Green backgrounds, animation draw interest
Animated ads tend to draw lower click-through rates but significantly higher conversion rates, while ads with a green, white or yellow background tend to generate higher conversion rates than ads of other colours.

4. Human faces drive more conversions
Consumers are slightly more likely (+8%) to click on credit card ads with a human face and are 2x more likely to convert on ads with human faces in the creative.

5. Credit card images need not apply
Ads featuring an image of the credit card itself performed considerably worse than ads without an image of the card, regardless of whether or not those ads featured a human face. Consumers were nearly twice as likely to convert on campaigns for a credit card after exposure to ads that did not feature an image of the card compare to ads with an image of the card. 

6. “Learn more” is a more effective call-to-action
Among calls to action for credit-card and financial-services ads, “Learn More” drives the highest conversion rates by a considerable margin, as does content mentioning a special or limited-time offer, regardless of the benefit.

7. Points are more rewarding
Consumers are 1.5x more likely to click or convert on ads showcasing reward points (eg, frequent flyer points) over any other type of incentive.