Search Engine Marketing Archives - Page 2 of 3

Citibank Buys the Top Spot for Google "Checking Accounts"

By Jim Bruene Posted on April 2, 2007
Categories: Citibank, Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Search Engine Marketing

Citibank has the top spot this morning if you Google "checking accounts" from a Seattle IP address (see below). Wachovia and US Bank are the lucky recipients of the free advertising that goes with being in the top-two organic results. Two smaller institutions purchased well-placed ads with Alaska USA Federal Credit Union landing in the number four spot on the right-side column (#7 overall) and Viking Bank at #5 on the right (#8 overall).

Citibank's landing page emphasizes the rate on its savings account, with a passing mention of EZ Checking (see screenshot below). The landing page is gorgeous, but is it missing the point by soft-pedaling what the searcher was looking for? Only Citi and its analytics team knows for sure. My guess is that it does pretty well since the bank's been using this basic design for more than a year now (see previous coverage here).

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ING Direct’s Electric Orange Launched to General Public

By Jim Bruene Posted on March 8, 2007
Categories: Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, ING Direct, Search Engine Marketing

I don't know how I missed this yesterday. The Bank Deals blog, which routinely gets this stuff first, was the first to note that ING Direct's much-discussed new paperless checking account is now visible on its website (see below). The full launch follows a 4-month invitation-only period (see our previous coverage here).

However, the account is not currently running on the homepage, which tonight was rotating through three product offers:

4.5% Orange Savings
6.0% Orange Mortgage
Orange retirement accounts: Traditional and Roth IRAs

ING Direct, along with Everbank, are currently running ads on Google for "electric orange" and "electric orange ING Direct" (see inset). The landing page, shown below, includes a Jane Kim Wall Street Journal clipping. Interestingly, the ING Direct landing page still says you must first open a savings account to qualify for the checking account. The Website carries no such restriction.

We'll have more info on the account as we run it through its paces.

ING Direct product page

ING Direct landing page from Google AdWords ad

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Why Growth in Mobile Search is Good for Online Banking

By Jim Bruene Posted on January 8, 2007
Categories: Google, Mobile Banking, Search Engine Marketing, Yahoo

Today, The Wall Street Journal looks at Yahoo's latest efforts in mobile search where it holds a substantial lead over its online nemesis Google. According to figures from Telephia, Yahoo has a 7% penetration of U.S. mobile subscribers vs. 3% for Google. In addition, MSN has a 4% penetration and AOL 3% (see article here).

Yahoo will be encouraging users to download a search application to their phones, see <mobile.yahoo.com/search>. Advertising revenues will be shared with wireless carriers. Mobile search results are more "managed" than website results in attempt to better display a single answer to the search so phone users can avoid surfing to other websites for answers.

Why is this important for online banking? Most consumers, especially the 35-and-older crowd, will get their first taste of a mobile phone app through search. Once users begin to to get comfortable with Googling or Yahooing from their mobile, it won't be long before other ecommerce apps become popular, and mobile banking will be at the front of the next wave.

And early mobile banking users are likely to share one key attribute that sets them apart from online banking users, a willingness to pay fees for service. Most mobile applications such as sports scores, mapping services, or games currently carry small monthly fees. Whether or not banks choose to charge directly for mobile banking is yet to be seen, but we believe there is an excellent potential for profitable fees from at least a portion of the mobile user base (see previous post here).

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Remote Deposit Capture is Virtually Invisible at Google

By Jim Bruene Posted on January 5, 2007
Categories: Remote Deposit Capture, Search Engine Marketing, Small Business

Remote deposit capture is one of the most significant new technologies to hit online business banking since, well, online banking. According to Celent, 60 of the largest 100 banks, including 20 of the top 25, now offer it. In addition, hundreds of smaller community banks now offer it.

So why can't I find it through Google? (see note 1)

For two years I've been coveting the service and waiting for my bank to offer it to small businesses such as ours. I'm still waiting.

Today, I happened to see it mentioned on the homepage of a local community bank here, First Mutual Bank (see screenshot below).

Not wanting the hassle of moving my account relationship, especially to a bank on the other side of Lake Washington (a major traffic hassle), I tried a little Googling to see what other banks in the area might have it.

It fails to show up in the organic results, and only two banks, Wells Fargo and Main Street Bank <mstreetbank.com> are advertising on "remote deposit capture" and the shorter "remote deposits." Main Street Bank is located out of state and Wells Fargo, while just up the street from my office, appears to target its remote capture to larger businesses. I'd be willing to pay $20 to $30 a month for it, but I'm guessing that's not even close to the Wells Fargo commercial customer price.

Action items (see note 2)

If you offer remote deposit capture, make sure you have a dedicated page touting the features and benefits.
On the dedicated page, make sure you use the term "remote deposit capture" in addition to any cute name you've branded it with. That will help users find it on search results.
Market it through Google and other search engines. At this point, it doesn't appear that there's much competition for ads, meaning your cost per click should be low.
Create a landing page that captures leads for your business banking officers. Check out Wells Fargo's approach at https://www.wellsfargo.com/com/boc_campaign
(see screenshot below)

Notes:

I am searching from a Seattle IP address. In other markets, there may be financial institutions using Google to market remote deposit services.
We will post an additional article on remote deposit marketing later today

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E*Trade Bank and Flushing’s iGoBanking Join the 5% Online Savings Account Club

By Jim Bruene Posted on November 29, 2006
Categories: Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Direct Banking, E-Loan, E*Trade, Search Engine Marketing

<Updated 12/1/06 with more details>

Two new entrants in the so-called high-yield savings market launched this week:

E*Trade Bank <etradebank.com>: Its new 5.05% Complete Savings Account was advertised in the Wall Street Journal today and took next-to-top honors in Google search results for "best savings accounts" (see end note 1, screenshot below).
iGoBanking <igobanking.com>: The new online brand from Flushing Financial launched Monday with a 5.3% rate on an online savings account (see end note 2, screenshot below).

iGoBanking (click to enlarge)

As previously reported, Flushing Financial launched its entry into the online savings market. The 5.3% APY no-minimum account ranks as the fourth highest in the nation according to the Bank Deals blog (see list here). The rate leader continues to be E-Loan's at 5.5% (see our coverage here).

However, iGo can claim the highest no-minimum rate in the nation since E-Loan and the others require at least $5,000 to qualify for the higher rate.

The bank will focus on deposits, CDs, and savings in 2007 and may expand to home equity and mortgage lending in the future.

Analysis
The website is attractive and relatively well designed. The online application is hosted by CashEdge (see related post here). Unfortunately, the outsourced application fails to maintain the look and feel of the main website and may cause a few applicants to second guess their decision to sign up (click here for a more thorough analysis of its application design).

E*Trade Bank (click to enlarge)

E*Trade's Complete Savings account builds on the direct bank's lineup of award-winning products (see previous coverage here). The bank flat-out understands the market and the medium.

The landing page for the new savings offering is brilliantly laid out with Google-like simplicity using just 25 words of copy (other than the table and the below-the-fold fine print). Notice how they show specific competitive prices, including high-yield market leader ING Direct. But what most consumers will remember from the chart is the "6X national average" rate.

Finally, the "Open an Account in Minutes" and "Free, one-click transfers to and from any institution" address user concerns on both those issues. And the small padlock with E*Trade's protection guarantee helps users understand security issues.

End notes:

Search conducted at noon PST, Nov. 29 from Seattle IP address (see screenshot below).
Source: American Banker, 29 Nov. 2006 (article here)

Google search results for "best savings account"

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Bank of America Uses Radio to Drive Website Credit Card Applications

By Jim Bruene Posted on November 7, 2006
Categories: Bank of America, Credit/Debit Cards, Search Engine Marketing, What NOT to Do!

At 8:30 AM today, we heard an unusual advertisement on classic rock radio for the Bank of America Alaska Airlines affinity card.

It wasn't the ad itself that was so spectacular, although it's not every day that you hear credit cards being pitched on radio. And it wasn't the offer that made the ad stand out, although 20,000 bonus miles is a pretty good perk.

What made it memorable was the call to action, "visit myalaskacard.com." They didn't even bother to throw an 800 number into the spot.

It's hard to say whether a radio spot will prove cost effective, but using a memorable URL should help. It's far easier to remember than a telephone number, and prospective applicants can be immediately greeted with an effective sales pitch reinforcing the product benefits and bonus offer.

Analysis
However, once again BofA stumbles with its search engine support (see previous article). Searching on Google for "my Alaska card" brings up a single ad for a Web-based portal site, CreditStep.com (click on inset for closeup).

In fact, we tested every variation of "my" + "alaska" + "airlines" + "credit" + "card" and BofA was nowhere to be seen UNLESS we dropped "my" from the search query. Interestingly, Chase was an aggressive advertiser on several of the search terms offering a competing airline card with 15,000 bonus miles. BofA showed up as an advertiser only when we dropped the "my" from the search query.

The lack of advertising against "my alaska card" is especially damaging because the first few organic search results do not link to BofA or Alaska Airlines. Also, if you type a similar URL, such as www.alaskacard.com or www.alaskaairlinescard.com you either end up at a generic link site or an error page. At this point, potential prospects will either apply at the wrong place or give up on the search.

If you correctly input the exact URL, you end up at the following landing page. It's OK, but should reinforce the impressive benefits of applying now, a free ticket right away and a $50 companion ticket every year on renewal (see screenshot below).

Action Items
Here's what you should do to ensure better search-engine support for your offline advertising:

Advertise at search engines on likely search terms that would be used by consumers responding to your advertising
Create a memorable URL that is not easily mistyped
Register or purchase domains similar to the advertised URL (including common misspellings), or pay the owner to refer traffic to your landing page
Design a landing page that boldly supports the benefits in your advertising and includes a prominent "Apply" button

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Prosper Markets to Savers at Google

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 27, 2006
Categories: Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Direct Banking, Prosper, Search Engine Marketing

If you thought it was tough competing with the direct banks and their 5% savings products, now you have a legitimate company advertising rates of 8% or more. Of course, this is no FDIC-insured product; it's the interest rate paid to lenders at Prosper's person-to-person loan marketplace.

The person-to-person lender was bidding aggressively today at Google on both "high yield savings" and "online banking." The ads typically made the fourth position in the right-hand column, putting them "above the fold" (see inset).

The company is testing three different ads, all focused on rate levels substantially higher than the 5% to 5.5% advertised by the competition. Prosper is testing a straight up "8%" ad, an "8% to 12%" ad, and an "8% to 29%" one (see below).

The ads lead to one of two landing pages. Here's the slick one that looks more "bankerish":

Or the more "Web 2.0" version that no one will confuse with a bank ad. There is even a small eBay logo visible in the screenshot (used by one of the participants seeking to bankroll an eBay store), a smart touch for a company that is positioning itself as "the eBay of lending."

All-in-all, it's a good effort put forth by Prosper, which can only succeed if it attracts enough money into the marketplace.

For more information on Prosper, Zopa, and the entire person-to-person market, see Online Banking Report #127.

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Bank of America’s Multimedia No-Fee Mortgage Promo Omits Key Search Term

By Jim Bruene Posted on October 20, 2006
Categories: Bank of America, Mortgage, Refi & Home Equity, Search Engine Marketing

When Bank of America launches a new product, you might as well try to ride on their coattails rather than fight it. One obscure loan-referral website is doing just that.

Bank of America's product-du-jour, at least in our Seattle market (UPDATE 10 Jan 2007: Confirmed as a market test in this article here), is a unique no-fee mortgage that comes with a built-in "refi" option. The refi feature allows users to lower their underlying mortgage annually if rates drop. It's a product that makes a ton of sense for today's savvy mortgage holders, who know when to hold 'em and also when to fold 'em into lower-rate loans.

The bank has been blitzing the market with branch, Web (see End Notes), and radio advertising for the product. Today's mid-day radio spot included a URL in the call to action, <bankofamerica.com/nofeemortgage>. Typing that URL directly into the browser leads to the correct Bank of America landing page (see screenshot in End Notes).

However, for a good portion of listeners that navigate with Google, typing "bank of america no fee mortgage" brought search results that did NOT include the bank as an advertiser although they were the second organic result listed (see screenshot below).

Google search results for "bank of america no fee mortgage"

Surprisingly, the top advertiser, YourQuoteOnline, was running an ad that was rather deceptive (see screenshot above). It fooled me into thinking it was a BofA ad.

A similar search for "Bank of America mortgage no fee" did bring up the bank's Google ad (see below), although it linked to a "$2,000 savings" landing page (see End Notes) instead of the no-fee promotional page. Evidently, Bank of America has not properly coded their search-word criteria to include the more obvious search term or to send searchers to the current no-fee campaign page. The bank is leaving money on the table by allowing some of the traffic generated by its advertising to be funneled off to other companies.

Google search results for "bank of america mortgage no fee"

End Notes (click continuation link for footnotes)

Banner advertising at About.com's banking blog <bank.about.com>

Landing page for direct navigation to <bankofamerica.com/nofeemortgage>

Landing page from bank's Google ad on "bank of america mortgage no fee"

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Financial Keyword Frequency from AOL Search Data

By Jim Bruene Posted on August 14, 2006
Categories: Metrics & Market Research, Search Engine Marketing

The privacy furor that erupted August 6 over the 20-million Web queries posted by AOL has distracted from the useful information contained in the database. While AOL removed it a week ago, numerous search-engine researchers had already downloaded the file and have reposted it with front-ends for research purposes.

SEO Sleuth <seosleuth.com> has posted the top-2000 search terms from the AOL sample. Click the continuation link below to see a list of all banking terms that made the top 2000 list. Here's the first 10 with their overall rank among all search terms:

40. bank of america
86. bankofamerica
114. fidelity
159. bankofamerica.com
170. paypal
174. www.bankofamerica.com
202. free credit report
215. american express
259. wachovia
264. wells fargo

What's striking about the AOL search data is the overwhelming preference to search on brand names rather than product categories. Also, that Bank of America has an extraordinary share of mind with searchers, with its various forms accounting for four of the top six most-searched financial services terms.

—JB

Rank/Search Term/Number of Searches/% of Searches that Ended in a Click (to ANY website)
Note: Click on the search term for a list of the websites visited after entering this search term

bank of america

5,920

70%

bankofamerica

3,450

71%

114

fidelity.com

2,862

77%

159

bankofamerica.com

2,280

53%

170

paypal

2,197

24%

174

www.bankofamerica.com

2,174

45%

202

free credit report

2,007

61%

215

american express

1,931

70%

259

wachovia

1,715

68%

264

wells fargo

1,691

76%

283

capital one

1,620

44%

284

zillow.com

1,616

36%

313

chase.com

1,525

57%

327

wellsfargo.com

1,460

50%

333

chase

1,454

64%

343

mortgage calculator

1,420

62%

382

www.capitalone.com

1,290

18%

391

washington mutual

1,266

78%

448

citibank

1,155

79%

457

wachovia.com

1,135

52%

488

www.wellsfargo.com

1,089

47%

509

capitalone.com

1,041

24%

525

wellsfargo

1,017

62%

528

credit report

1,014

62%

555

capitalone

985

41%

558

wamu.com

983

67%

667

checks

850

75%

674

chase bank

846

72%

689

credit cards

835

42%

708

www.bankofamerica

817

20%

731

mbna

795

78%

732

bank of america.com

795

54%

756

personal loans

775

78%

782

www.wachovia.com

761

39%

807

paypal.com

745

19%

813

zillow

739

50%

819

commerce bank

735

83%

901

wamu

685

71%

910

freecreditreport.com

682

34%

922

fidelity

675

70%

961

usbank

656

77%

984

loans

644

33%

985

providian

644

86%

1058

mypay

612

90%

1085

hsbc

601

51%

1145

usaa

570

75%

1171

americanexpress.com

563

53%

1195

us bank

553

80%

1232

ameritrade

541

60%

1249

discover card

536

65%

1251

etrade

535

65%

1309

auto insurance

518

51%

1319

aetna

516

78%

1333

www.wamu.com

512

71%

1371

www.zillow.com

501

25%

1388

usbank.com

496

63%

1396

orchard bank

493

50%

1425

wells fargo bank

484

75%

1446

payday loans

479

72%

1449

citizens bank

478

74%

1488

bank one

469

73%

1494

suntrust

467

82%

1502

wwwbankofamerica.com

464

21%

1529

www.providian.com

458

76%

1548

www.citicards.com

452

35%

1582

wachovia bank

444

52%

1630

experian

435

57%

1648

americanexpress

431

59%

1655

www.bank of america.com

430

44%

1663

national city bank

427

77%

1693

www.chase.com creditcards

420

52%

1714

bad credit loans

416

1715

providian.com

416

79%

1801

credit reports

403

63%

1823

usaa.com

400

62%

1833

citicards.com

397

48%

1873

www.americanexpress.com

392

38%

1879

american express.com

391

30%

1883

annualcreditreport.com

391

62%

1912

bankone

386

75%

1927

life insurance

385

60%

1964

zillo.com

380

17%

1978

countrywide

376

50%

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Tracking Your Competitors’ Search Marketing Efforts

By Jim Bruene Posted on June 5, 2006
Categories: Key Bank, KeyCompete, Search Engine Marketing

Are you tracking the search marketing efforts of your competitors? If not, you should be. If you are, consider using KeyCompete <keycompete.com>, a $199/yr tool that identifies keywords used by your competition and the competition for your keywords.

Enter a URL and the Web-based service returns a list of keywords used by that company in its search engine marketing efforts. You can also do the opposite, enter a keyword or phrase, and see who's using it in their marketing efforts. Results are seen instantly on screen and can be downloaded into an Excel file.

It's a simple way to uncover new keyword opportunities. For example, we looked at Key Bank's current keyword buying (click on inset for details). The majority of their marketing is for boat loans and student loans. But without the KeyCompete tool we'd never know that the bank is advertising its K-12 private school tuition program, AchieverLoan, under obscure search terms such as "Massachusetts preparatory school" and "Addison private school" (see screenshot below).

Cost
The basic plan, which costs just $199/year, includes a personalized watchlist for URLs or keywords to make competitive monitoring that much easier. For an extra, undisclosed fee, the KeyCompete will provide more detailed reporting on your competition including:

approximate clicks per competitor's keyword
approximate cost per competitor's keyword
estimated overall keyword marketing expense

Overall, some good information to have in your back pocket for next year's budget request.

–JB

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Wachovia’s “Free Checking” Marketing

By Jim Bruene Posted on April 17, 2006
Categories: Deposits, Checking, Savings, CDs, Search Engine Marketing, Wachovia

Everyone wants free checking. So it's no surprise to see Wachovia the top bidder on the term at Google (click on screenshot right). The bank also managed to snag the top organic listing (directly below the paid ads), a coup for its search-engine-optimization consultant.

As much as Internet users love a good deal, they are skeptical when they see "free," especially when a company is spending money to advertise on the term. Wachovia wisely meets the skepticism head-on with a landing page entitled (click on inset for closeup):

Free checking. No catch.

The page also includes six bullet points, three of which relate to online banking. And there are two "Apply Now" buttons, at the bottom of the bank and the upper right.

Analysis
While this landing page won't win any Webbys, it's fundamentally sound. The first three bullet points meet the likely customer objections by affirming that there is no minimum balance, no monthly fee, and no direct deposit requirement.

Clicking on the Apply Now button leads to a page explaining the process and what's needed to apply. Unfortunately, the user is forced through three screens of disclosures, the last one a record-setting 69-screen monster before the application begins. With such a tedious first phase, the bank is losing most of its prospects before they've even entered so much as an email address.

To avoid massive application abandonment, you must get customers engaged in the application before the trip down disclosure lane. Wachovia also stumbles by offering too much product choice. The customer that started at Google looking for free checking is forced to choose from 12 checking account options on that same 69-screen testament to the power of a large bank's compliance department.

Grades:
A for search-engine marketing
B for landing page design
C- for application design

—JB

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Wasting your Advertising Budget on Google

By Jim Bruene Posted on April 6, 2006
Categories: Advertising & Promotion, Search Engine Marketing

We've been poking around on the search engines to see what banks are doing to attract new customers moving into their area. In a search today for "Seattle banks," we were impressed to see a local community bank, Viking Bank, with the top spot on Google AdWords (upper right in inset). Viking was the only area bank with a paid listing. The other seven listings making the first page of Google results were from various information aggregators, such as MapQuest, or lead generators such as 100BestLenders.com.

However, clicking on the ad sent us to one of the worst landing pages we've ever seen. For some reason, the bank is paying big money to drop Google searchers onto its log-in page, which has not a single benefit listed. In fact, the item that draws the most attention, especially since it loads first, is a warning about a service problem for Mac users (click on screenshot below for a closeup). To make matters worse, the Viking Bank logo isn't even clickable, so prospective customers have to search the navigation to find a way off the log-in page.

Analysis
Viking Bank's search-engine buy is smart. You want to be seen when users search on "yourcity" and "banks." But you must spend some time to build a landing page that quickly communicates user benefits (see NetBanker April 5).

—JB

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