01
Finance Consumers are on the Open Web, Don't Miss them.
To create successful financial marketing campaigns, financial brands must leave the oversaturated worlds of search and social behind and explore the lucrative land of the open web.
Social media and search platforms place your ads beside user-generated content (UGC) that brands can’t regulate, are skipped by users when they’re shown before a video that the user wants to watch, and at worst, placed in an entirely irrelevant environment to be promptly ignored.
Advertising on premium publishers offers the opportunity to surround your campaigns with brand-adjacent editorial content from news sites, blogs, digital magazines, mobile devices, and so much more and delivers a 130% higher attention than on social media platforms.*
Taboola’s network of publishers saw 55.8B pageviews on financial topics in 2021. Readers are seeking out and engaging with financial articles, and that’s where you should be putting your money. It just makes cents.
In this guide, you’ll learn about the opportunities on the open web for financial brands, how to find the right people where they’re most-engaged online, and the ins-and-outs of campaign optimization to reach your KPIs.
We also dive into creative strategies to uncover what makes a good image or video ad, how to use trending keywords to boost CTR, and much, much more.
We can “insure” your “interest” in this guide won’t “depreciate.” (Insert more financial puns.)
Follow the money and see where it goes…
$27.63 Billion
2022 projections show that financial service advertisers will spend $27.63 billion on digital campaigns.
~13%
Financial service advertisers
will spend about 13% more than they did in 2021.*
*eMarketer, US banks and insurance companies slow down ad spending to compete with fintechs, Aug 4, 2021
**Data pulled May 8th, 2022
Investing
15,491,710,090
pageviews in 2021
2,142,930
pageviews over
the last 90 days
Ethereum
2,417,411,400
pageviews in 2021
2,761,700
pageviews over
the last 90 days
Loans
547,464,080
pageviews in 2021
1,027,870
pageviews over
the last 90 days
*eMarketer, US banks and insurance companies slow down ad spending to compete with fintechs, Aug 4, 2021
**Data pulled May 8th, 2022
And were not the only ones seeing the rise of interest in financial topics.
Think with Google’s 2021 Google Search Data Insights depicted a 60% YoY increase in searches containing ‘how to invest,’ and a 200% YoY increase in searches for ‘calculator for home loan‘ and ‘buy now pay later apps.’
Meanwhile social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have given rise to a niche community of “finfluencers” or finance influencers. As Insider reported, TikTok videos tagged #finance, #investing or #stocktok have generated billions of views. Gen Z also named social media influence as a key factor in their decision-making process.
The open web should be a vital part of each finance marketer’s media mix. That’s because it allows you to reach audiences through premium publisher properties — like news sites, magazines, and blogs — outside of just search and social. Marketing on the open web also gives you the control to share your message in the right context, such as through contextual targeting.
02
Who should
you target?
Marketers often believe they know their target audience based on the results from their search and social media ad campaigns. The truth is, people don’t behave the same way on the open web as they do on these platforms, so you shouldn’t copy and paste exactly who you’re targeting on Facebook and Google and expect the same results.
Nothing is more convincing or affirming than objective data, which Taboola can provide. What if the data revealed the most engaged audience has traits that were never considered or campaigns appearing alongside content that wasn’t thought of as contextually relevant performed the best?
For example, Mack Weldon, a Modern Menswear brand, turned to Taboola when looking for a channel to acquire new customers cost effectively. To their surprise, Taboola’s Data Marketplace revealed that targeting women and sites about women’s issues worked well. With Taboola Mack Weldon achieved a 39% increase in conversion rate and thousands of new customers per month.
Don’t assume you know who will respond to your campaigns and which sites those audiences are on; let our data do the talking. To truly understand which audiences and sites you should be targeting, start with broad targeting and optimize based on campaign data. On Taboola, you can target by demographics, behavioral interests, and past activity of certain groups of people, or you can select certain websites to run your ads on.
Here’s a targeting and optimization flow we recommend for a month-long campaign:
Once your campaign starts receiving clicks, you can retarget and re-engage users that have spent a significant amount of time on your website, but haven’t converted yet, using Taboola’s Attentive Audiences.
You’re rich in data!
Now test these Taboola segments to zero in on the right people.
Try testing some of these segments in your next campaign:
- Interest > Finance
- Interest > Investing
- Interest > Finance > Investments > Personal > Investments
- Behavior > Shopping > Loans
- Finance & Money > Loans
- Finance & Money > Insurance
- Finance & Money > Financial Services
- Financial > Credit Card Holder
03
Are your campaigns creative enough to cash in on consumers?
Creating educational pieces of text-based content might be your go-to strategy for reaching financial consumers, but there may be a better way to captivate your audience.
Video, for example, is a more interactive and visually engaging format that’s built to grab consumers’ attention and tell a dynamic story. As eMarketer reported, digital video viewership passed 3 billion people worldwide in 2020, outpacing pre-pandemic expectations, and it’s expected to reach nearly 3.5 billion by 2023.
Food bloggers and beauty retailers aren’t the only ones who can embrace the power of video, either. Finance advertisers can use video, too, such as to illustrate market trends and break down key features of their products and services.
A/B test multiple creatives with Taboola’s expedited learning, which lets our algorithm predict your highest-performing creative assets in less than 24 hours.
Taboola’s Creative Shop, advertiser campaign data, and trends data merged together provide all the intel you’ll need to design a winning financial campaign. Don’t believe us? We’ll put our money where our mouths are…
You’re rich in data!
Now test these Taboola segments to zero in on the right people.
Motion Ads use short looped videos or GIFs to help your campaigns stand out in Taboola Feeds. They perform exceptionally well for consideration or conversion goals and offer improved clickthrough rates (CTRs) and conversion rates (CVRs), and lower cost per sales (CPSs) and cost per actions (CPAs.)
Our US-based data* shows that video content outperforms photo and text content, making it the ideal format to gain customer attention.
- Video Length: Less than 30 seconds. Keep it short with a clear message.
- Optimize for Sound Off: Include subtitles for a non-intrusive experience.
- Logo: Add your brand logo on the top left corner.
- Call to Action (CTA) Button: Either place it on the bottom right corner, showing it 3-5 sec after the video starts, or add an End Card with more info and a CTA.
- Optimize by Platform: Use a 16:9 ratio for desktop and a 1:1 ratio for mobile.
- Added Value: Include a title and description below your video to provide additional context and info to the user.
- A/B Test: When possible, we always recommend testing 2 versions of your ad to optimize for a better result.
In addition to those best practices, including specific video characteristics, like people in action or winter scenes, can increase your video viewability and completion rates.
Taboola’s US data* across all verticals reveals the following video trends:
ALL
DURATIONS
No Animals
+119%
Viewability Rate
STRETCHING
+95%
Viewability Rate
NO TEXT
+214%
Viewability Rate
Tablet, All Durations, Viewability: To increase the viewability of tablet campaigns, choose videography over illustrations.
NO ILLUSTRATION
+100%
Viewability Rate
Sports
+14%
Completion Rate
EATING
+44%
Completion Rate
Marriage
+108%
Completion Rate
Tablet, All Durations, Completion: Improve tablet campaigns by including people in the video.
PERSON
+110%
Completion Rate
6-second
Videos
All Platforms, 6-second, Viewability: For these short videos, using colorful video content has a higher viewability rate.
COLOR
+301%
Viewability Rate
All Platforms, 6-second, Completion: Using winter scenes can increase completion rates.
WINTER
+100%
Completion Rate
15-second
Videos
FOOD
+59%
Viewability Rate
All Platforms, 15-second, Completion: Increase completion rates by showing someone reaching new heights.
CLIMBING
+623%
Completion Rate
30-second
Videos
All Platforms, 30-second, Viewability: For your 30-second videos, increase viewability by including scenes with air travel.
AIR TRAVEL
+230%
Viewability Rate
All Platforms, 30-second, Completion: Improve video completion rates for these campaigns by featuring cars in motion.
DRIVING
+9%
Completion Rate
04
Bet your bottom dollar these image ad formats will capture the right attention.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, make your images count! You’ll have the best chances of increasing the CTR of your lead generation campaigns by including images with specific characteristics.
Taboola Image Trends data* shows US-based financial campaigns can benefit from the following:
CTR Impact for Finance Images
Targeting Lead Generation
All Platforms
Across all platforms, increase the CTR of your article and photo gallery campaigns by using colorful images instead of black and white.

BW

COLOR
+30%
CTR
Desktop

ILLUSTRATION

PHOTO

+25%
CTR
Tablet

DISTANCE

CLOSE UP

+23%
CTR
Mobile

OUTDOOR

INDOOR

+13%
CTR
All Platforms
Across all platforms, increase the CTR of your article and photo gallery campaigns by using colorful images instead of black and white.
BW
COLOR
+100%
CTR
Desktop
ILLUSTRATION
PHOTO
+25%
CTR
Tablet
DISTANCE
CLOSE UP
+23%
CTR
Mobile
OUTDOOR
INDOOR
+13%
CTR
* Data Pulled March 11, 2022, representing a 30-day period
05
Take these valuable headline insights straight to the bank.
Headlines are crucial for successful native ad campaigns, and every word you choose matters. The below charts from Taboola Keyword Trends show trending keywords pulled from Taboola’s US financial advertiser campaigns.*
CTR Impact for Finance Keywords
Strong Engagement Keywords (Keyword correlated with high CTR)
Adults | +116% | CTR |
Large | +108% | CTR |
Month | +89% | CTR |
Check | +87% | CTR |
Born | +63% | CTR |
Discounts | +63% | CTR |
Seniors | +57% | CTR |
Warns | +57% | CTR |
Legend | +57 | CTR |
Quality | +55% | CTR |
Strong Competition Keywords (Keywords correlated with low CTR)
Cards | -61% | CTR |
Discover | -51% | CTR |
Lenders | -50% | CTR |
Small | -42% | CTR |
Live | -39% | CTR |
Financial | -38% | CTR |
Personal | -38% | CTR |
Year | -38% | CTR |
Compare | -34% | CTR |
Residents | -32% | CTR |
Opportunity Keywords (Keywords correlated with High CTR at a low volume)
Merchant | +25% | CTR |
Space | +25% | CTR |
Trains | +25% | CTR |
Airlines | +25% | CTR |
Open | +25% | CTR |
It´s | +24% | CTR |
Warren | +24% | CTR |
Buffet | +24% | CTR |
Richest | +24% | CTR |
World´s | +24% | CTR |
Include Experts and Authority Figures
Including the names of a well-known expert increases reader confidence and CTRs, so don’t be afraid to include them in your title (with their permission, of course.)
Use Numbers
Consumers love to read lists or listicles. Including a number in the title tells readers how many concrete tips or suggestions they can expect.
Call Out Your Audience
Adding one of your target audiences’ demographic traits to the title can help them see themselves in your content before they even click.
Mention Relatable Topics
Many people struggle with the same things, so mentioning advice about tax filings, for example, will apply to a broad audience.
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Now it’s your turn! Try the Taboola Title Analyzer right here, right now. Test your headlines today.
Six Sample
Campaigns

Take This Financial Advice from Warren Buffet
FINANCE WEBSITE

Expert Warns About Using these Tax Deductions
FINANCE WEBSITE

How Do the Richest People Spend their Money?
FINANCE WEBSITE

Which Checking Accounts are Best for Seniors?
FINANCE WEBSITE

10 Stocks to Invest in this Month
FINANCE WEBSITE

What Warren Buffet Would do with his Tax Refund
FINANCE WEBSITE

Take This Financial Advice from Warren Buffet
FINANCE WEBSITE

Expert Warns About Using these Tax Deductions
FINANCE WEBSITE

How Do the Richest People Spend their Money?
FINANCE WEBSITE

Which Checking Accounts are Best for Seniors?
FINANCE WEBSITE

10 Stocks to Invest in this Month
FINANCE WEBSITE

What Warren Buffet Would do with his Tax Refund
FINANCE WEBSITE
06
Are the financially-savvy on desktop, mobile or tablet?
Performance
by Platform
Purchases
Leads
Brand Awareness
07
Implement these essential optimization recommendations to take your campaigns to the next level.
Taboola Pixel:
Install the Taboola Pixel to boost ad performance by illuminating audience behaviors and your ads’ impact.
SmartBid:
Automate Bidding with SmartBid to maximize your conversions.
Fixed Bid:
Fixed Bid enables you to manually adjust your bids. We recommend only using Fixed Bid if you must.
Target CPA:
Set a target CPA to maximize conversions at your desired cost.