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.

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 hub and spoke model

Like the name suggests, if you take a look at the diagram below a hub and spoke model looks similar to a bike wheel. On your website, you will have the main page (the hub) with branching sections that relate to sub-topics (the spokes). This method can help you rank higher in the search engine results as you aren’t trying to rank individual pages with keywords. Instead, you have a central hub that can improve your relevance and authority on a variety of different financial topics.

At the core of it, a hub and spoke content model targets an entire topic rather than just individual keywords. This not only benefits your SEO strategy but also your target audience as they gain more enriching content helping to strengthen customer and brand relationships and brand perception. Here are three more ways a hub and spoke model can benefit your finance brand:

• It offers a better site structure and UX design that’s intuitive and easy to use
• It ensures you cover a topic extensively enabling your finance brand to be seen as an authority
• It can enable your brand to generate more backlinks and nurture meaningful leads

How to approach a hub and spoke SEO model

You don’t need to redo all of your content on your website to create a hub and spoke model strategy. Instead, you need to create pathways that diverge from your hub page. This will look different for every finance brand.

Once you decide what your hub topic will be, let’s say investing, for example, you then need to plan out your spokes. If your main topic has less than 10 sub-topics it’s recommended you find a more comprehensive content idea.

So, your main page is about investing. Here you will explain investing generally and within your page have links to other content on your site which explains sub-topics such as asset classes, responsible investing and asset allocation.

In this example, your page on investing will live at the domain level, so it may read similar to this www.thefinancialmarketer.com/investing. Your sub-topics will branch off of this, helping with SEO, and may read like, www.thefinancialmarketer.com/investing/ETFs.

Structuring your SEO around a clear goal

To decide how to scope out your hub and spoke model it’s important you decide what the aim of your website is. Ask yourself:

• Am I looking to collate new leads? – If this is your finance brand you may instead give the important information about a topic before redirecting them to purchasing.
• Am I aiming to become an authoritative voice in this area? – If this is your finance brand then creating more dense and sophisticated content will benefit you.
• Am I aiming to improve brand awareness and image? – If this is your finance brand then you may look to inform your audience about what they need to know while proving how you can help them.

NerdWallet nailing the hub and spoke model

A hub and spoke model can sometimes be tricky to visualise. To demonstrate just how significant the SEO benefits are, we take a look at NerdWallet.

NerdWallet utilises subfolders as a part of their site architecture which helps create keyword rich URLs and web pages. This strengthens their SEO strategy and sees them rank number 1 across a range of finance topics. As an example, NerdWallet’s credit card hub is split into a variety of spokes such as ‘best credit cards for 2021’ which they rank on the first page of google for.

Their UX design aids their site architecture as it’s easy to use, offers a basic summary at the forefront for users, and creates meaningful lead pathways to purchase products. While it’s important your finance brand is on the first page of Google if your website then doesn’t support the user and direct them to purchase it becomes futile.

NerdWallet’s engagement speaks for how successful a hub and spoke model is for SEO and ranking on the first page, achieving 22.03 million visitors a month, 86.81% of which came from search engine results.

What you can do to strengthen your SEO

While your finance brand web design may not look the exact same as NerdWallet, what you need to identify are key topics you can become an authority on. These should align with your target audience and reflect your content marketing goals. While the content you produce may be high quality and keyword dense, you still may not be maximising it through a traditional web page structure. A hub and spoke model can amplify your SEO marketing strategy and ensure you generate meaningful leads that can be nurtured into loyal and trusting customers.

The post NerdWallet: Nailing SEO for finance brands appeared first on Financial Marketer.

Anyone who has been following the story in Australia about Google search and The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) proposed News Media Bargaining Code will soon realise that this is a story about big tech vs big media and money. 

Both sides of the argument

Big tech, in the form of Google and Facebook, are making loads of it. Big media wants more of the action, and with friends in the right places big media has managed to get something they have been kicking and screaming about for several years onto the table. The proposed law will effectively force big tech to pay for something that has never been paid for before anywhere in the world – organic links on a search engine results page. 

Like this…

or this…

The gist of big media’s argument is that the prestige of their news content – which requires a lot of infrastructure, expertise and investment to create – adds value when listed on a search engine and therefore the owners of that search engine should pay for the privilege of having it listed there.

On the flip side, big tech’s argument is that those search engine links are sending traffic to the news sites free of charge where they can become valuable subscribers and viewers of advertising on big media’s websites.

As an example, 9news.com.au would have received an estimated 6,457,720 website visits from free organic Google search links in the month of January. 

Source: SEMRush

From Google’s perspective, as voiced by Mel Silva, Managing Director for Google Australia in an open letter and video on Google’s website, “paying for links breaks the way search works and undermines how the web works too.” Describing the proposed law as a slippery slope, Silva used the open letter to question why one type of business should get paid and not others, instead offering up Google News Showcase as a fairer alternative solution. 

“The Code’s rules would dismantle a free and open service that’s been built to serve everyone, and replace it with one where links come at a price, and where the Government would give a handful of news businesses an advantage over everybody else. That puts Google’s business in Australia—and the services we provide more than 19 million Australians—at enormous risk,” explained Silva. “We’re not against a new law but we need it to be a fair one. Google has an alternative solution that supports journalism. It’s called Google news showcase.”

Arguments can be made both for and against the introduction of this code and everyone can draw their own conclusions about who is right and who is wrong, but at the end of the day there will only be one of two outcomes – Google search in Australia stays or Google search in Australia goes.

Can Australia live without Google Search?

So what happens if Australia joins a very exclusive club where Google search doesn’t exist? A club where the only members in the world would be Australia and China. Sounds like quite a frosty party doesn’t it.

If Google search goes, I think there are really two ways of looking at it – what it means for the average consumer in Australia and what it means for businesses in Australia.

For the consumer, almost every journey on the internet starts with a search and this isn’t going to change just because Google is gone. The main contender to fill the search engine hole will most likely be Microsoft-owned Bing (and that presumably would only be if Microsoft agrees to buy into the ACCC code as well). Bing is the 2nd ranked search engine in most countries, although a distant 2nd it must be said. Would this be a big deal for most Australian consumers? I suspect probably not if they are just looking for a good doughnut in Sydney, after all, it’s just a doughnut.

Google:

The Best Doughnut Shops in Sydney – Concrete Playground 

So, here’s our list of the city’s best and most extravagant doughnuts … at the Redfern eatery (or you can order via UberEats or Deliveroo).

Bing:

Dr. Dough Donuts – Delivered Across Sydney For Every Occasion

Donuts delivered across Sydney for every occasion. Order now for next day delivery. Delivering 7 days a week. Birthdays, Thank You, Congrats, I Love You, Get Well Soon, Thinking of You, New Born, Anniversary. Select from Classic range or choose a bespoke design.

But what if it’s a $750,000 home loan?

Google:

Compare $750,000 Home Loans | Rates from 1.75% | RateCity

www.ratecity.com.au › Home Loans

Approved for $750000 and thinking of taking the full amount? Compare rates as low as 1.75% in February 2021 to find the $750K home loan for your needs

Bing:

$750,000 House — Mortgage Payment Calculator

https://www.mortgagecalculatorplus.com › 750000-mortgage

Assuming you have a 20% down payment ($150,000), your total mortgage on a $750,000 home would be $600,000. For a 30-year fixed mortgage with a 3.5% interest rate, you would be looking at a $2,694 monthly payment. Please keep in mind that the exact cost and monthly payment for your mortgage will vary, depending its length and terms.

Now I don’t know if Google’s number one ranked RateCity is a better option than Bing’s number one ranked mortgagecalculatorplus.com, but the important thing is that they are different and in this instance, that difference could lead to considerably different financial outcomes for the consumer. The question is, who is more trustworthy in terms of internet search?

The answer is whichever search engine has access to better or more complete data and the largest dataset of user activity for its algorithm to interpret, along with the better-trained AI. The answer is pretty clear I think – Google is a data company at the forefront of AI research, Microsoft is at its heart a software company.

Even for a consumer, search accuracy and relevancy are important, so regardless of what they’re searching for, life without Google isn’t a win for consumers. 

The impact for Australian businesses

For Australian businesses, unfortunately, the impact is potentially even greater. Organic search traffic accounts for more than  30% of most inbound website traffic and more than 90% of that organic search traffic comes from Google search. Google search is the largest channel of inbound website traffic for many, if not most Australian businesses.

Australian businesses that rely on website traffic for new business often put considerable effort into trying to rank well in Google search. This is no easy task, requiring constant tweaking to technical aspects of their website and time spent creating the right kind of website content that indexes well on Google search. A Google page one result for important keyword searches relevant to a business is an enormous advantage over its competitors.

If Google search leaves Australia, a lot of this effort will be lost and will have to largely be redone to adhere to the specific best ranking criterias and parameters for whichever search engine takes Google’s place. Not a win for Australian business.

Any Australian business that relies on international exposure on the internet for their products and services may suffer if Google search leaves Australia. International audiences will still be searching on Google even if Australian businesses are not being indexed and kept relevant in the Google search engine. Not a win for Australian business.

Google search also includes Google map search as a component and presumably this too will be impacted, not only in browser search but also in apps that integrate with Google map search. 

The impact of Google leaving Australia is a no-win situation for Australian consumers and businesses alike, and something we’ll be watching intently here at The Dubs. Sign up to the Financial Marketer newsletter to stay abreast of the latest content marketing news and insights relevant for finance brands. 

The post The Google Search showdown down under appeared first on Financial Marketer.