Finance and banking marketing operates under RBI and SEBI advertising guidelines restricting specific return or performance claims, with required risk disclosures on every page. Paid search runs within Google's financial-services certification requirements. Measured against qualified applications or account openings, not raw traffic.
What matters most for finance & banking?
- RBI/SEBI-compliant creative with required risk disclosures
- Google financial-services ad certification, needed before campaigns can run
- Trust signals (security, regulation, licensing) carrying more weight than in most categories
Which channels work for finance & banking?
| Channel | Role |
|---|---|
| SEO | Compliant product and comparison pages |
| Performance Marketing | Certified financial-services ad campaigns |
| Content Marketing | Educational content that builds regulatory-safe trust |
Compliance is the brief, not a hurdle
Financial marketing is regulated everywhere we work. In the UK, the FCA's March 2024 guidance on financial promotions on social media makes clear that promotions must be fair, clear and not misleading on every channel, and that unauthorised influencers promoting regulated products may commit a criminal offence (FCA FG24/1). In India, RBI rules govern lending and banking communication, and SEBI barred regulated entities from associating with unregistered finfluencers from August 2024 (Business Today, Aug 2024). We build campaigns inside those rules from the first draft.
What converts in financial services
- Clear product pages with representative examples, fees and eligibility stated plainly
- Calculators and tools that help people understand cost and affordability
- Educational content that answers real questions without promising returns
- Application journeys that are short, save progress and explain what happens next
- Reviews and trust signals from recognised platforms, never fabricated
Education can be a growth engine. Zerodha's co-founder has said the company had no money for advertising at the start and relied on word of mouth (Nithin Kamath on X). It became India's largest retail broker by active clients by 2019, supported by its free Varsity education platform (Zerodha, Wikipedia).
Why UK Consumer Duty changes the marketing
Since the FCA's Consumer Duty took effect in 2023, firms have to show their communications support good customer outcomes. In practice that means testing whether customers understand what they are signing up for, not just whether they click. We build comprehension testing into landing page work for regulated products.
How we measure it
Completed applications, approval rate, cost per funded account or loan, and early retention. Lead volume alone is misleading in finance, because unqualified applications cost money to process.