Search engine marketing (SEM) has been a cornerstone of digital media strategies for financial brands for more than a decade. But the landscape is shifting. Rising costs, shrinking organic reach, and the dominance of AI-generated answers are reshaping how consumers find and engage with financial services online.

Forward-looking marketers are asking: if SEM is no longer enough, what comes next?

The SEM squeeze

The cost of search ads continues to climb. Wordstream reports that the average cost-per-click for financial services is $3.44, one of the highest of any sector. Competition for key terms like “home loan” or “financial adviser” is intense, but even the top paid placements no longer guarantee meaningful traffic.

AI-powered search experiences are accelerating the shift. A Semrush study predicts that 75% of search traffic will be powered by generative AI by 2028. Zero-click results and summaries mean fewer people are clicking through to brand websites.

Smarter paid media: what’s working now

Financial marketers are diversifying budgets into channels that deliver stronger visibility, better targeting, and more measurable outcomes:

• Contextual advertising: Instead of relying on third-party cookies, brands are aligning with trusted financial content where audiences are already engaged. ReportLinker notes contextual targeting is expected to grow 13.3% from 2020- 2027.

• Native and sponsored content: Dianomi and other finance-specific networks report click-through rates up to 5x higher than display because ads blend with premium publisher environments.

• Paid social with creator partnerships: Fidelity research shows nearly 50% of UK investors now look to social media for financial insights. Paid amplification of influencer content can extend reach beyond organic followings.

• Programmatic guaranteed buys: For financial brands concerned about compliance, programmatic direct deals on premium inventory provide brand safety while still leveraging automation.

Lily Ray, Senior Director of SEO and Head of Organic Research at Amsive Digital says

Trends to watch

• AI-driven media optimisation: Platforms are increasingly automating bidding and placement, but financial brands need to balance efficiency with governance and compliance.

• Retail media networks: Banks and fintechs with owned ecosystems are beginning to explore retail media, offering advertisers access to highly segmented financial audiences.

• Video-first campaigns: Paid video, especially short-form on LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok, is outperforming static display in engagement for financial education and brand storytelling.

The bottom line

SEM is still part of the mix, but it can no longer carry the weight of a financial brand’s paid media strategy. Success now requires a broader, smarter approach that blends context, credibility, and creativity across channels.

For financial marketers, the next chapter in paid media isn’t about chasing clicks. It’s about being discoverable in the right places, with the right message, at the right moment.

If you liked this article and want to know more contact The Dubs Agency we’d love to help.

[For full disclosure: The author used Perplexity to research this article and the podcast was created using ElevenLabs] 

The post Beyond SEM: smarter paid media for financial brands appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Understanding the local search landscape

Local search optimisation involves enhancing your visibility in search engine results for geographically related queries. This is crucial for wealth management firms as potential clients often seek personalised, face-to-face financial guidance within their locality. The aim is to ensure you appear prominently when someone searches for “wealth management firms near me” or “financial advisors in [city]”.

Speaking to Andrew Frith, Media Strategist at finance marketing specialists The Dubs Agency, he shares, “As a wealth management business, understanding and leveraging local SEO is crucial for enhancing an online presence and connecting with potential clients in the local community.”

“By implementing targeted strategies and focusing on local search optimisation, we can ensure that the business stands out in search results, driving both traffic and trust.” Frith said.

Best practice for local search

At the top of the marketing funnel, the awareness stage, your potential clients are beginning their search for financial advice and wealth management services. Therefore, it’s critical to establish a solid foundation with comprehensive on-page SEO:

• Keyword research and optimisation: Identify and include relevant local keywords in your website content. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner can help pinpoint terms such as “wealth management [city]” or “financial advisors [city].”
• Google My Business (GMB) profile: Claim and optimise your GMB listing. Ensure all information—address, phone number, website, and hours of operation—is accurate and consistent. Regularly update your GMB profile with posts about events, blog articles, or market insights.
• Local citations: Ensure your firm’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistently listed across all local directories and citation sites. Discrepancies can undermine search engine trust in your business location.

As prospects move to the consideration stage, they evaluate different firms based on credibility and the depth of engagement. Content and reviews play a critical role at this point:

• Content marketing: Publish high-quality, locally relevant content on your blog or resource centre. Topics could include regional economic forecasts, investment opportunities, or case studies of successful client strategies within your locality. Local information accounts for 46% of all Google searches.
• Google reviews: Encourage satisfied clients to leave positive reviews on your GMB profile. Reviews significantly influence local search rankings and client trust. Respond to all reviews—positive and negative—to demonstrate your firm’s commitment to client satisfaction and engagement. According to SEO platform BrightLocal, its Local Consumer Review found 91% of consumers say local branch reviews affect their views on brands.
• Local backlinks: Build backlinks from reputable local websites. Collaborate with local business groups or contribute articles to local news outlets. High-quality backlinks signal to search engines that your business is an authoritative source in your area.

In the decision stage, potential clients are ready to choose a wealth management firm. Here, the focus shifts to turning leads into clients through optimised conversion paths and trust-building measures:

• Conversion rate optimisation (CRO): Ensure your website is optimised for conversions. Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs). Use localised landing pages to cater to specific geographic segments, improving relevancy and engagement.
• Client testimonials and case studies: Showcase detailed testimonials and case studies from local clients. These serve as powerful social proof, reassuring prospects of your firm’s effectiveness and reliability.
• Localised ad campaigns: Run targeted local ad campaigns using Google Ads and social media platforms. Geotargeting allows you to reach users in specific locations, enhancing the relevancy and impact of your advertising efforts.

The role of analytics and continuous improvement

As optimisation is an ongoing process, use analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your local search performance. Track metrics like organic traffic, click-through rates (CTRs), and conversion rates. Analyse which keywords and content pieces are driving traffic and adjust your strategies accordingly.

Optimising local search presence for wealth management firms is a sophisticated, multi-faceted endeavour that integrates various elements of digital marketing. By focusing on each stage of the marketing funnel—awareness, consideration, and decision—you can enhance your firm’s visibility, credibility, and conversion rates.

The post How to optimise local search for wealth managers appeared first on Financial Marketer.

AI recommendation Optimisation (AIRO)

A significant shift in search marketing is the move from traditional SEO to AI recommendation optimisation (AIRO). It’s no longer just about getting onto Google’s first page; it’s about ensuring AI engines include your firm as a reference in their answers to queries.

AIRO involves optimising content so it aligns with the algorithms of AI-powered recommendation systems. This means creating high-quality, authoritative content that AI engines deem valuable. For wealth management firms, this could involve producing in-depth analyses, whitepapers, and expert commentary on financial trends and strategies.

Additionally, leveraging structured data and schema markup can help AI engines better understand and index your content. This can improve the chances of your firm being recommended in AI-driven search results.

Voice search: The new frontier in search marketing

Voice search is becoming a significant player in the search marketing arena. As devices like Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple’s Siri become ubiquitous, the way people search for information is changing. For wealth management firms this means optimising content for voice search is important.

Voice search queries tend to be longer and more conversational than text searches. Therefore, structure content t answers specific, nuanced questions. For example, instead of focusing on keywords like “investment strategies,” wealth management firms can target natural language phrases such as “What are the best investment strategies for retirement?”

The rise of voice search also highlights the importance of local SEO. Many voice searches are location-specific, such as “financial advisor near me.” Ensuring your firm’s local listings are accurate and optimised can significantly enhance visibility in voice search results.

AI-powered chatbots: Revolutionising client interaction

AI-powered chatbots are another transformative trend in search marketing. These chatbots leverage artificial intelligence to provide real-time, personalised responses to client queries. For wealth management firms, AI chatbots can serve multiple purposes, from answering basic inquiries to providing complex financial advice.

The key to a successful chatbot is the integration of advanced natural language processing (NLP) capabilities. This allows the chatbot to understand and respond to nuanced financial questions effectively. Furthermore, chatbots can gather valuable data on client preferences and behaviours, which can be used to refine marketing strategies and improve service delivery.

For instance, if a chatbot frequently receives questions about retirement planning, this insight can inform content creation and SEO strategies, ensuring your firm’s website ranks highly for related search terms.

Integrate search with other digital channels

Search marketing is no longer a standalone effort. Integrating search with other digital channels, such as social media, email marketing, and content marketing, makes for a cohesive strategy. This holistic approach ensures all channels work together to enhance visibility and engagement.

For wealth management firms, this means creating a unified message across all platforms. For example, search-optimised blog posts can be promoted on social media and included in email newsletters. This drives web traffic and reinforces your firm’s expertise and thought leadership.

The further integration of search with digital advertising, particularly with platforms like Google Ads and LinkedIn, allows for highly targeted campaigns. These platforms provide sophisticated targeting options based on demographics, interests, and behaviours, helping firms reach high-net-worth individuals more effectively.

Staying ahead of the curve in search marketing

To stay ahead in this evolving landscape, wealth management firms can use a proactive approach to search marketing. This involves continuous learning and adopting emerging trends and technologies. Here are a few steps you can take:

Invest in advanced SEO and content strategies: Focus on long-tail keywords and natural language phrases that align with voice search queries. Produce high-quality, authoritative content that AI engines value.

Implement and optimise AI chatbots: Ensure your chatbots have advanced NLP capabilities and can provide personalised, real-time responses to client queries.

Integrate digital channels: Create a unified marketing strategy leveraging search, social media, email, and digital advertising to maximise visibility and engagement.

Adopt AIRO techniques: Optimise content for AI engines by using structured data and schema markup. Focus on creating content AI systems recognise as authoritative and valuable.

By embracing these trends, you can not only enhance your search marketing efforts but also deliver a superior client experience in an increasingly digital world.

The post Future trends in search marketing appeared first on Financial Marketer.

It’s no secret creating content with experts is valuable for financial brands. But too often, the SEO advantage is missed.

A Backlinko study found expert-led content tends to rank higher in search results. Google is increasingly placing importance on credible and relevant content sources when ranking search results.

The search giant’s addition of ‘Experience’ to its ‘E-A-T’ search quality guidelines, plus a number of other author-first introductions last year, are further proof points of the value of incorporating expertise into content.

Building an author’s reputation, authority and credibility may not be a direct ranking factor, but it has an important role to play in SEO best practice.

Competition heats up amid AI

The need for finance marketers to be responsive to changes in SEO is arguably more important than ever. Contentsquare’s 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report found brands have suffered slumps in website traffic and engagement across the board.

55% of all sites saw lower traffic, while 58% saw session engagement fall in 2023. Reading through the numbers: there’s fewer eyeballs amid fiercer competition, largely due to search generative AI.

Analysing the impact of your drive to showcase expertise isn’t easy. But the efforts behind it need to become commonplace: it’s an important cornerstone of an always-on SEO strategy, alongside relevant backlinks, high-quality research, and more.

Make author profiles stand out

Speak with your webmaster or agency about creating an author landing page for your internal experts – complete with concise biographies. Each author’s social media presence should be up-to-date, and linked to from their author profiles.

If you already have author pages, look to fill any gaps in existing biographies.

Finder’s author page does this effectively. The same goes for its individual experts.

Audit your experts’ professional social media profiles. It’s okay if your top asset manager isn’t yet active on LinkedIn, X, Link.Tree or other relevant platforms.

But their experience or qualifications need to be up-to-date.

Add profile-building to your strategy

When looking at your overall marketing strategy, build expert-led content into your planning.

Marketing expert Olaf Kopp has identified the SEO wins behind “co-occurrences” of experts (or “authors”) across a range of content formats – such as podcasts, videos and on blogs.

Your content mix should include touch points that underpin your goal of building an expert’s profile.

Expertise can be shared through:

• Thought leadership statements on whitepapers
• Expert quotes in blog posts
• Ghostwritten op-eds
• First-person articles.

Social posts can also be used – carve up longer interviews with bite-sized insights. These would naturally have a home as reels on Tiktok or Instagram. But they could also be shared in a regular newsletter.

Bigger picture, have experts present webinars, masterclasses and other speaking events.

The way experts contribute to compelling content is important too. Make sure they address the real pain points and interests of your audiences.

Support your experts

There are likely barriers to entry when it comes to promoting your in-house experts.

Of course, not everyone will want to be featured, but there are ways around this – be it through training or having the marketing team take ownership of a C-suite’s profile.

The wider goal is to drive greater confidence in your experts, and even simple activities can help support this and ensure quality of content.

This could include:

• Guide to capturing images and tweeting at an event
• Templates to help authors expert articles
• Exercises to help build confidence presenting to camera
• Best practice guidelines for building a top LinkedIn profile
• Guidelines for filming opinion pieces via Zoom or a phone to create a lower-pressure environment.

In addition to the SEO benefits, you can score wider benefits of positive brand perception and more trust from your customers.

Given the increasing impacts of generative AI, a human touch, through the showcasing of experts, is an essential component of your wider digital marketing strategy to drive success.

The post The SEO benefits of showcasing your in-house experts appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Learn why it’s something financial marketers need to be across, including the risks and opportunities.

What is Google’s Search Generative Experience?

Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is a tool that uses generative AI to give users quick and clear overviews of search topics, without having to click through to individual website pages.

With SGE, Google offers a list of suggestions at the top of SERP results drawn from multiple sources.

SGE has been rolling out in America. A recent study looked at exactly what SGE will show searchers.

It found AI-generated answers didn’t match any links from the top 10 Google organic search results 93.8% of the time.

SGE is expected to “reduce organic traffic significantly” to websites for many keywords, according to Search Engine Land.  Searchers could get their answers directly from AI-driven responses.

Should financial marketers be concerned?

The recent study was based on commercial keywords. So, understandably, it piqued the interest (and worries) of financial marketers who may be over-leveraged in search marketing.

A lot goes on behind the scenes in an SEO strategy. The analysis required can be very time-consuming. This may not deliver a strong ROI if the top organic listings in search get pushed down the SERP in favour of AI-led results.

That said, there’s an opportunity for websites outside the top 10 of Google’s organic results to appear as links within SGE.

What steps can be taken?

SEOs have dealt with lots of challenges in the past. Not least staying ahead of – or just getting their heads around – the ever-changing beast of Google’s search algorithm.

Here are three steps to take to shore up your marketing strategy in light of SGE:

1. Keep up with industry trends

Stay across the latest happenings in search marketing. Search Engine Land, Semrush’s blog and SEO influencers like Lily Ray are worth following.

Also, sign up to any relevant industry newsletters including Financial Marketer.

Understand ‘Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)’. Essentially, AEO aims to directly answer user queries, making it easily crawlable by AI assistants. New research shows prioritising long-tail keyword content may be valuable.

Practically, this could mean amending the Q&A content on your website.

2. Review your content strategy

The question of which content types finance marketers should aim for in the brave new world of AI is ongoing.

For our money, as users continue to look for snappier answers to their searches, bite-sized content – such as short, animation-led videos and explainers – is an area to explore.

Take a broader look at the balance of your overall content types. Diversification is a good thing. Marketers should still consider longer-from articles where appropriate.

3. Increase your brand’s strength

Brands who put effort into staying close to their key audiences will always be well-placed to drive organic growth.

By positioning your brand strategically on social media, you can increase trust and have a new way to get reach. Paid search also needs to be considered in this mix.

The good news with SGE? Marketers have some breathing space (for now). SGE has to be enabled by a user for it to influence their search results.

But much like someone who’s considering SGE, now’s the time to get switched on.

The post Are you ready for Google’s Search Generative Experience? appeared first on Financial Marketer.

The importance of SEO

In today’s fast-paced digital world, SEO is more than just a trendy buzzword—it’s a critical component for any finance brand looking to stand out in the competitive online landscape. According to research by First Page Sage the number one SEO agency in the USA, after 3 years of effective SEO, financial services can expect to see a 1031% ROI.

So, why is SEO crucial for financial marketers? Let’s explain.

• Enhancing visibility – By incorporating relevant keywords, excellent content, and solid backlinks into your SEO plan, you raise your chances of ranking well in search engine results. You can draw potential customers’ attention by increasing your visibility to people looking for financial services.
  Build trust and credibility – An effective SEO strategy can help you establish and enhance clients’ trust by improving your online reputation. Potential customers view your finance brand as credible and reliable when your website consistently ranks in the top search results.
• Improve traffic and leads – SEO acts as a magnet, attracting visitors who are actively seeking financial information or solutions. By strengthening your SEO strategy you can draw in a targeted audience more likely to convert into clients or leads.
• Expand market reach – SEO opens doors to a wider audience, allowing your finance brand to expand its reach beyond geographical limitations. By targeting specific keywords and incorporating local SEO techniques, you can tap into regional markets and reach potential clients who are searching for financial solutions in their area.
• Increase brand awareness – By staying up-to-date with the latest SEO best practices, algorithm updates, and user preferences, you can adapt your online presence to meet evolving client expectations. This agility ensures your finance brand remains relevant, competitive, and visible amidst the ever-changing tides of the digital world.

What not to do

Not repurposing content

Your finance brand’s overall marketing strategy may suffer if you ignore the importance of content repurposing in the world of search engine optimisation. In addition to limiting your audience, failing to reuse content reduces your chances of achieving higher search engine ranks.

By transforming current content into new formats, such as infographics, videos, or podcasts, you can give it new life while taking into account the preferences and platforms of a variety of audiences. By repurposing material, you raise awareness of it, draw in new audiences, and promote engagement across media. Repurposing material can also result in beneficial backlinks, social media shares, and an increase in website traffic, all of which help to establish a stronger SEO presence.

Over-optimising your keyword strategy

Despite the fact that keywords are essential to a successful SEO strategy for finance brands, it’s necessary to prevent over-optimisation. It might be detrimental to your search engine optimisation strategy to overstuff your website with keywords or to target the same ones repeatedly.

The ability of search engines to identify genuine and valuable material has grown, and they now penalise websites that use keyword stuffing or other unnatural keyword usages. Instead, concentrate on producing engaging and informative content with important keywords woven throughout. Finding the appropriate mix will help you increase website visibility, boost user experience, and achieve long-term SEO success.

Not creating a mobile-friendly website

In an increasingly mobile-oriented world (in 2021, there were 7.1 billion mobile users), failing to optimise your finance brand’s website for mobile devices is a grave oversight. In fact, Adobe’s 2021 Digital Trends: Financial Services & Insurance in Focus report found 54% of financial services and insurance firms surveyed had reported unusual growth in mobile visitors in the six months prior to the survey. At the end of the day, search engines penalise websites that provide a poor mobile experience.

To ensure a smooth user experience across all devices, your finance brand must prioritise responsive design, fast loading times, and intuitive navigation. By embracing mobile optimisation, brands can maintain their relevance and navigate the SEO landscape more effectively.

Improving your SEO strategy

To thrive in the competitive digital landscape, your finance brand must learn from common mistakes and implement effective SEO strategies. By avoiding these pitfalls, your brand can enhance its search engine rankings, increase online visibility, and strengthen its digital presence.

Your financial brand may maximise the effectiveness of its online marketing initiatives and find lasting success in connecting with its target market by using a strategic approach to SEO.

The post The SEO strategies holding your finance brand back appeared first on Financial Marketer.

What Google’s changing

Rather than rewarding content that’s overly SEO purpose-driven, Google’s new update will benefit content that’s human-first and provides a satisfying user experience. This means your financial marketing content needs to be created for people, rather than search engines.

This update should start rolling out at the beginning of September and will identify content that’s unhelpful for web users. If your site has a large amount of unhelpful content, then it will be pushed further down search engine rankings. Currently, this update will only affect English-speaking content and countries, with it being planned to expand in the coming months.

So, what does a people-first approach mean? And how can you make sure your financial marketing content isn’t penalised by Google?

How financial marketers can respond to Google’s update

While Google may be changing the algorithm of how sites can get to the top spot in search engine rankings, your content shouldn’t need to alter drastically. If your finance brand has been creating value-driven content that’s tailored to your target market (which it should be!), this content will remain beneficial, despite the changes taking place.

To ensure your finance brand remains high in search engine rankings, you need to remove all unhelpful content as this is less likely to perform well. If you’re not sure what content is deemed unhelpful, ask yourself:

• Is this content created for search engines or for people to find relevant information?
• Is this content duplicated across your site with the hopes of it performing well in search?
• Is your content adding value or repeating what others have said on a topic?
• Does your content answer people’s questions?
• Do people need to continue searching for further information after reading your content?

Key takeaways for financial marketers

At the end of the day, this algorithm change will only affect content that’s unhelpful or has only been created for SEO purposes. What your finance brand needs to do is to create content that’s tailored to your target audience and adds value. This can be achieved by:

• Presenting timely information in an easy-to-understand way
• Answering people’s search queries
• Creating content with the end-user in mind
• Creating value-driven content that includes useful data and research
• Having a purpose (content can’t just be created to hopefully rank on Google, it needs to be targeted and helpful)
• Presenting educational content that will improve user’s financial skills and knowledge

By ensuring your content has been designed to benefit end-users and written in a personable and ‘human’ way, you can maintain or improve your spot in search engine rankings. If your finance brand isn’t yet creating helpful content for people, it’s time to change your marketing content strategy.

The post Make way for Google’s new people-first SEO update appeared first on Financial Marketer.

What is organic search traffic?

Organic search traffic is the number of visitors that visit your website through search engine results. With 90.63% of pages getting no organic traffic on Google, gaining organic traffic isn’t a given – your finance brand must have a strategy in place.

Focusing on improving your organic traffic is pertinent as it’s the only type of channel that can produce long-term results. In other words, there’s no end date to the results you can gain from organic traffic as people are always searching, unlike a paid media campaign for example.

With the average organic click through rate (CTR) for web pages on the first page of Google’s results being 32%, it pays to have a good marketing strategy. Content marketing is the best way finance brands can improve their search engine rankings and organic search traffic.

What benchmarks should finance brands be aiming for?

According to Conductor, a benchmark for finance brands’ organic traffic should be around 33%. Most finance brands aren’t hitting these benchmarks for organic traffic.

Below are the current average organic search traffic results for specific finance industries and indicate a need for improvement across the board:

• Insurance 32.8%
• Banking 27%
• Asset managers 25.9%

So how can finance brands improve their organic search traffic?

How content can drive your organic traffic

Content marketing is your finance brand’s secret weapon for improving organic traffic. This is because content marketing can strengthen your SEO strategy by providing you with the opportunity to include more keywords, gain backlinks and enable reshares of your content.

With every keyword, backlink and reshare, your content becomes more valuable and improves your position in search engine rankings, improving your ability to gain organic search traffic.

When it comes to perfecting your content marketing strategy to improve organic traffic, it’s critical your finance brand’s content matches what your target audience is searching for. The number one way to create content that drives organic traffic is by keeping the end user front of mind at all stages of content development.

Tips and tricks

Content marketing can help gain you the top spot in search engine rankings. But how can you optimise your content to ensure this happens? Here are our top tips to ensuring your finance brand creates content that improves your organic search traffic:

• Utilise longtail keywords
• Find and remove non-performing content
• Maximise your social media content and have a strong presence
• Create engaging video content
• Don’t forget about metadata
• Optimise website performance such as improving the speed of your site and useability
• Create regular blog content
• Always use internal links and try to gain backlinks

At the end of the day, organic traffic should be a priority for finance brands. By improving your organic traffic, your finance brand can generate more visitors, nurture leads and convert clients.

The post The financial marketer’s guide to organic search traffic appeared first on Financial Marketer.

The nuts and bolts of SEO for finance brands

Put simply, search engine optimisation, or SEO, is about getting your finance brand to appear at the top of search engine results. Ranking on the first page is critical to generating meaningful leads, with the first five results of searches accounting for 67.06% of all clicks.

While paid advertising has a time limit, SEO doesn’t. Improving your search engine optimisation strategy can ensure your finance brand continues to generate leads, build brand awareness and strengthen your credibility for years to come. This strategy is known as evergreen content, as it’s timeless and will capture the attention of interested consumers even once your paid advertising is over.

Improving your SEO strategy is simple

Improving your SEO strategy may seem daunting, but it can be as easy as:

• Repurposing old content to maintain the top spot in search engine rankings, by updating the information to keep it fresh and relevant
• Producing high-quality and informative research
• Gaining backlinks
• Creating an always-on content marketing strategy that aligns to target audience search queries

By applying these four key strategies, combined with utilising keywords and phrases, your search engine optimisation strategy can be improved significantly.

Still don’t believe the importance of search engine optimisation? Here are some key statistics to highlight just how game-changing SEO can be for your finance brand.

The post Benefits of SEO for finance brands appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Everything you need to know about Google MUM

Powered by AI technology, MUM is here to help users with complex search queries. Today, users have to provide thoughtful search queries to find the right answers. For example, a user looking into investing for the first time will have to individually search each question like ‘the difference between ETFs and a mutual fund’ and ‘the best asset manager in the UK’. In real life, a person looking into investing could ask an expert ‘what do I need to know as a first-time investor?’ and be provided with a thoughtful and illuminating response that takes every question into account. This is what Google MUM is recreating.

The entire premise is Google wants it to take less time and effort for users to get the answers they need. Using the T5 text-to-text framework, MUM is trained across 75 different languages and tasks enabling it to provide a more comprehensive understanding of information and global knowledge. To add to this, it’s also multimodal, meaning it can understand the information in images, with the aim of it being to also understand audio and videos too.

But what does this mean?

While it’s a complex technology to understand unless you’re a tech guru, there are a number of things MUM will change in regard to search engine mechanics. Now, Google will be able to provide more accurate and complex answers to your questions by identifying keywords. In the above example, Google MUM will identify the words ‘ first-time investor’ and understand the many different questions somebody like that will have and provide a pool of answers.

Secondly, MUM will have access to even more information with the ability to translate over 75 languages. This means if there’s key information about investing written in German, Google will provide this as an answer to an English-based query.

At the heart of it, Google’s new update will be able to better understand language to provide clearer results to more complex search queries.

What does this mean for your financial marketing strategy?

The good news is Google MUM won’t mean you have to suddenly reinvent your marketing strategy. However, there are some important things to note:

• There will be less reliance on written information – Which means your finance brand should expand its content strategy to include images, videos, and audio. Taking a multimodal approach to your content strategy will be vital to remain relevant and competitive.
• More competition for search engine rankings – It will be more important than ever to develop and strengthen your SEO as well as provide valuable content across your website.
• Must keep end-users at the forefront of content – As MUM is set to benefit the end-users search results, to continue to appear high on search engine rankings your content needs to be designed with them in mind. As exact responses are beginning to be scrapped in favour of users’ intent, it’s important your content reflects this shift.

At the end of the day, your finance brand will remain competitive after MUM launches if you continue to provide value-driven content. With no date in sight for MUM’s launch as of now, there’s no time like the present to begin creating exceptional, multimodal content that will give you a competitive edge in the future.

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