Financial services companies span a wide range of specialties, from banking and credit cards to insurance and home loans. Some of these businesses are digital-first, founded recently, while others are legacy companies modernizing their operations. Financial services users span all age ranges and demographics.
Across all these varieties of financial services, there are some common goals: Building and keeping customer trust, incorporating new and emerging technology, and offering users real-time, easy, comprehensive service.
3 Strategies That Will Make Your Financial Advertising a Hit
Financial services advertising has brought us some of the most memorable campaigns of the past 30 years. Remember when the Aflac Duck burst onto the scene with its TV commercials?
Financial advertising in a digital era still requires that type of eye-catching creative, brand memorability, and authentic connection with audiences. Here are a few areas to focus on as you’re building your own successful financial services ad campaigns.
1. Build Brand Trust
Brand trust and authority is perhaps most important in financial services. In display ads and landing pages, make sure your creative and copy reflect the trust you want users to have as they’re investing, borrowing, or saving with you. This might include using experts and insider knowledge in your messaging to show that you bring authority to the topic.
To make your ads stand out and stay on top of current trends, illustrate your unique offerings and benefits through sharp imagery and copy that will connect on a human level. Consider how video, audio, and animation can help connect to audiences and show off your expertise and trustworthiness in modern, interesting ways. Show relatable scenarios and clear benefits with human elements and the offer of support in all of your advertising tactics. Always reiterate the regulations your business follows, as well.
2. Add Interactivity
Financial services firms have to stand out in a crowded digital marketplace like any other industry, as general marketing trends show user fatigue and diminishing returns on search and social channels. Spend time brainstorming how you can add interactive elements to your ads and otherwise draw in your target audience.
Taboola data found that 6 in 10 financial services ads use CTA buttons, resulting in a 3% increase in CVR. Some common ones include “Read More” or “Sign Up.” Consider gamifying CTAs, too, or making them more personal or specific, such as “Choose your monthly bill” or “Calculate your payment now.”
Download the Creative Playbook for Finance Advertisers 2025
3. Personalize Everywhere
As with most industries, financial services firms have the opportunity to segment their audiences carefully to do targeted, personalized outreach. With lots of online competition, this personalization can help you break through to gain new prospects and leads.
An insurance company, for example, might use its imagery to highlight different life events that come up, targeted based on demographic or other data to particular segments. Think about Progressive’s “Don’t Turn Into Your Parents” ad campaign, aimed at newer homeowners, that’s broken through the noise. How might you connect with humor and humanity in your ads? Emphasize how you can help improve users’ lives as you’re building customer relationships.
4 Creative Examples of the Best Financial Services Ads in 2025
Financial services firms have shown lots of creativity in their display and TV ads to break through user fatigue. Here are some creative examples to use for inspiration.
1. Credit Cards
Prospective credit card users are likely looking for cost-cutting or other savings, like a zero interest rate offer or better points programs. Consider using split screens to show your card alongside a rewards category, and highlight the unique benefits or particular angle of your card. You might highlight tips and tricks as well, to position your brand’s authority.
The emotional component matters, too. Mastercard’s “Priceless” campaign has been running since 1997, connecting its brand strongly to life experiences, exploration, and cherishing time with family and friends.
2. Home Loans
Home loan advertisers should consider building tailored landing pages to reach lower-funnel leads and prospects, helping to break down the benefits and details of loans. This area of financial services is competitive, so offering educational materials like e-books is a good option. You can use these on landing pages to generate and track leads, and build trust at the same time.
High-quality images and crisp copy for home loan ads matter, too, such as this ad:
3. Banking
Banking advertisements come from both legacy and newer, digital-first or digital-only banks. Whatever the case, banks have to show their trustworthiness to prospects and clearly offer benefits to attract new users, or keep existing users happy. Many banking ads also show office locations or branches to reinforce their steadiness and the option to visit in person.
This banking ad captures how it can be challenging to understand finance terms, appealing to less-informed or newer users and helping to build trust with a clear ad and copy:
4. Insurance
This segment of financial services focuses its advertising on showing how they’ll protect users during unpredictability. The other key area for insurance companies’ ads is that they can save you money versus their competitors. Insurance companies have stepped up their advertising game in the past 20 years or so with brand building around characters and storytelling. Consider Progressive’s Flo or the GEICO Gecko. Allstate’s “Mayhem” ad campaign is another standout, building a familiar character with recurring storylines and a clear message.
For your own insurance ad campaigns, make sure you’re building a strong, trusted brand with visual components that align with your brand identity. Use high-res images, the right colors and fonts, and keep testing to see what’s breaking through.
Key Takeaways
Financial services is a busy and saturated advertising market, and firms should get really creative with their copy and images to target new prospects, grow existing audiences, and increase conversions.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a finance advertisement?
Any promotional tactic that markets financial services is a financial advertisement. This large industry includes traditional banks, digital banks, insurance companies, investment firms, home loan businesses, and many more. Finance ads span a range including social posts and ads, search ads, display ads, video, TV ads, and more.
What are the 4 Ps of marketing in financial services?
The four Ps of marketing are Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, and they apply broadly in marketing as well as specifically to marketing in financial services. Each of these pillars helps to define the product or service being advertised. Product is what’s being advertised, Price is how much it costs, Place is which channels are being used, and Promotion is every marketing tactic in use through the funnel to get to a sale.
What are the most successful financial services advertisements?
Over the years, there have been lots of successful financial services advertisements, particularly in the credit card vertical. American Express’s “Don’t Leave Home Without It” and Mastercard’s “Priceless” campaigns remain memorable. More recent financial services ads are online and on social media, along with display ads, to show off newer technology features, such as banking mobile apps or how to use crypto.
