Banno Launches Data-Analytics Marketing Feature

Banno is launching a marketing service for banks that lets them automatically tailor online ads.

The Cedar Falls, Iowa, startup said its Kernel service measures a user's internet interactions with a bank and then targets advertising to that person. At the same time, the service uses responsive design to make digital changes to the ad so that it displays properly on different devices (desktop, tablet or smartphone). Banno sells web hosting and design services to financial services companies.

The company made the announcement during a demo on Tuesday, the first day of FinovateSpring this week in San Francisco.

"I think the cool thing about it is that it's as easy to integrate into a site as Google Analytics," says Banno Chief Executive Wade Arnold, adding that the service is as simple as dropping a few lines of JavaScript into a webpage. "There are really three tiny things that you add to your website and bam, it works."

Currently eight community banks — ranging in asset size from half a billion dollars to $8 billion — are doing "deep case studies" on the technology in order to determine what the service is worth.

Right now, however, Arnold says Banno would charge a typical community bank about $500 a month to use Kernel.

Follow Sean Sposito (@SeanSposito) this week as he covers FinovateSpring 2013 (@Finovate) in San Francisco.