Financial companies are realizing that just as online banking needs support from other channels, search-engine marketing works best with help from other kinds, online and off.
"Search-engine marketing is a very effective channel, there's no doubt about that, but it doesn't operate in a silo," said Imran Kahn, the director of marketing for the Pleasanton, Calif., Internet lender E-Loan Inc., at a New York conference this month.
Many banks pay search-engine companies to display bank advertisements alongside the results of searches for such phrases as "mortgage" or "free checking." Banks pay only when the user clicks on the ads; typically, the more the bank agrees to pay, the higher those ads appear next to the search results.
E-Loan pays for its ads to appear with searches for more than 200,000 terms on several search sites, Mr. Kahn said in a panel discussion. But banks should not divert advertising funds from other channels for this purpose, he said.
"That would be a suboptimal decision," he said. Less-targeted advertising - on television, in print, and even on other Web sites - also creates brand awareness and drives potential customers to search for you on the Internet, he pointed out.
Yahoo Inc. presented research at the conference that illustrated the effect. A Yahoo survey found that people who view an online ad for a financial company are 61% more likely than others to search for its name or products when using a search engine, said Richard Kosinski, Yahoo's business and finance development officer.
Graphical ads online "can drive brand-related searches and clicks," Mr. Kosinski said.
He and Mr. Kahn spoke in a panel discussion at the Finance Forum conference in New York, hosted by Forrester Research Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.
So did Justin Merickel, the finance category manager for Overture Services Inc., Yahoo's search marketing subsidiary. Mr. Merickel said that 80% of Web searches on a bank's brand are by customers of a competing bank, and that many of them are responding to advertising.
Cathy Graeber, a principal analyst at Forrester, moderated the panel discussion. She said online ads do more than any brochure or other kind of sales pitch to get consumers to apply for accounts online. Those who do not research online "are not going to apply online," she said.
In an interview last week, an executive at Wachovia Corp. described the multipronged media strategy it used for expanding into Texas. The Charlotte banking company announced in February 2004 that it would be branching into the state. It launched a Texas Web site, Wachovia.com/Texas, shortly before the Dec. 6 opening of its first Texas branch, in Dallas.
It had considered launching the site much earlier but decided against it, said David Grove, its Texas marketing director for Texas.
Wachovia.com/Texas features several promotions, such as cash incentives for Texas residents to open accounts, Mr. Grove said. It is mentioned in print advertisements and in banner ads on the Web sites of several Texas newspapers, he said. Branch employees also mention it to customers.
Wachovia has paid for its search-engine ads to appear with searches for "Texas checking" and "Texas free checking," among others phrases. The Texas site now gets 1,200 visits a month, the company said; it said Wachovia.com gets 500,000 to 700,000 visitors on a weekday and 275,000 on weekend days.
