Pouring Money Into Google Ads

While banks frequently tout the "multi-channel" experience, consumer behavior tends to fall into predictable digital banking patterns: Smartphones are used for fast transactions, branches are used to process very complex products like loans, and the web is for looking up product information and shopping for rates.

A peek into the numbers behind the web shopping part of the equation reveals a vast revenue stream, a search and display advertising market that's grown to billions of dollars each quarter. Google, in particular, is reaping benefits, as financial services leads the way toward a substantial book of business for the search engine giant.

"Despite the financial meltdown, five years later, Google search for financial information is still the king," says Larry Kim, founder and chief technology officer of WordStream, a search marketing firm that just finished a study of the Google Adwords and display advertising platforms.

To use Google Adwords, advertisers choose keywords or phrases related to their business. When a consumer uses those keywords as part of a search, the ad comes up. While the rates vary, the advertiser is typically charged when people click on the ad, with daily budgets part of the service. The Google Display Network enables retailers such as banks and other businesses to create web advertising.

The study found that finance services is the top advertising category on Google, and the one that pays the highest cost per click. "Financial Services has a higher conversion rate (about 6.1 percent compared to about 5.6 percent overall), which goes into to the cost per click," Kim says.

Finance was the top vertical for all Google related advertising, with State Farm, Geico, Quicken Loans, Capital One and Bank of America coming in as the top financial services advertisers.

Travel, such as Expedia, Hotels.com and Priceline.com, came in second; shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay were third; jobs and education sites such as University of Phoenix and Monster.com were fourth; Internet and Telecom firms such as AT&T and Sprint were fifth; followed by categories such as computer and electronics, business and industrial, home and garden, autos and beauty and fitness.

The mix of quick information on financial products that can be used by consumers for basic research on a series of banks makes it a good fit for Google ads, Kim says.

"A lot of people do their rate comparisons and that kind of stuff on Google...and information about credit cards, loans and other financial services. It's really the place where they go," says Kim.

The study found that beyond the $10.8 billion in advertising revenue generated by Google in the third quarter, Google search ads had 5.5 billion impressions per day and the Google Display Network had 25.6 billion impressions per day. The cost per click overall was $ 0.53 for search and $0.35 for display.

Kim says the cost per click is decreasing, but is offset by the growth in impressions - allowing for an overall increase in revenue. Google's ad revenue is up 16 percent from last year. For financial services, the cost per click is about $3 for search and $1 for display.

Web advertising is in obvious competition with other media, such as television and display, and Karsten Weide, vice president of media and entertainment for Google, contends the ability of consumers to directly engage ads, or to move from information on screen to the bank's site or customer service department, is what makes web search advertising appealing.

"You can close the loop online when you are shopping. If you are looking for insurance or a bank account, you can find information on line, click and it takes you to a page where you can get more information," he says, adding the click-through rates are easy to measure and apply to other performance stats. "You can calculate the ROI (return on investment) for your advertising. You have very good stats."