Financial services

What Financial Services Marketers Need to Know About Audience Quality, Mindset, and Value

It’s estimated that digital ad spending on financial services in the United States alone grew to almost $20 billion dollars last year. That’s an almost 10% increase over 2019, according to Insider Intelligence, a research firm that tracks digital advertising across a range of industries. Only retail marketers spent more on digital advertising in the topsy-turvy, roller-coaster year of 2020. 

Financial services marketers are on track to spend even more this year. With more than $20 billion in ad spending vying for the attention of a fragmented and distracted consumer audience, it’s critical that financial services marketers invest in platforms that deliver the best returns. 

That starts with reaching an audience of consumers who are not only actively seeking information about financial services, but have the resources and intention to buy the products financial services marketers are selling.

The Audience Financial Services Marketers Need to Succeed 

Insights from recent global research examining digital mindsets paired with financial and social media insights from Business Insider and Forrester Research shows that LinkedIn members are different than members of other platforms and represent a unique audience for financial services marketers. With the aim of better understanding how mindset influences the ways consumers engage and use digital platforms, we conducted thousands of 15-minute online surveys with digital platform users across the world. 

We found that LinkedIn members are a high-value, receptive audience with the ideal mindset for financial services marketing. 

The Medium is the Mindset

We all know that we visit different digital platforms for different reasons. Those reasons range from entertainment to education, from social connection to professional development. Sometimes we want to lean in and learn, sometimes we want to lean back and laugh. LinkedIn members approach the platform with an intent-driven mindset, one that fosters trust and receptivity to messages about some of life’s most important decisions, including finances. 

Not only is LinkedIn the most trusted social platform, with 73% of respondents agreeing with the statement “I trust this platform to protect my privacy and data,” compared to 66% for Pinterest and 53% for Facebook, but 47% of LinkedIn members say the platform is a strong fit for savings and investment product information compared to a 22% average for other social media platforms. 

That explains why 68% of LinkedIn members find content about “ways to improve my finances” valuable compared to 45% for members on other platforms. 

Here’s the important thing about trust: When you ask a consumer what causes them to engage with ads on social media, 92% say protection of privacy and data is what matters most. —Mike Katz, Sr. Manager, Enterprise Financial Services Vertical at LinkedIn

After members visit LinkedIn they feel more...

… than they do after visiting other platforms.

A High-Value Membership for High-Value Products

Not only are LinkedIn members in the right frame of mind to engage with messages and information about financial services, but they have more money to spend on investment, banking, and insurance products as well. 

LinkedIn members who are planning to make a purchase expect to spend more than consumers on other platforms.  

When financial services marketers speak authentically about their respective products and services, and provide their brand philosophies to investing and financial planning, they will find a unique audience that delivers returns. In a time when billions of dollars are chasing the limited attention of high-value consumers, the digital platforms where financial services marketers make their investments have never been more important. 

Create an ad to start reaching the right people in a professional mindset.