Financial Services Marketing

The financial services sector accounts for roughly 20% of the global economy — yet choosing a financial partner, whether a bank, fund, fintech, or insurer, ultimately depends on something rarer than capital: trust. As financial products become increasingly global, brands must communicate that trust seamlessly across touchpoints and borders. Our full-spectrum financial services advertising practice delivers expert media strategy and buying for ambitious, growth-focused financial brands.

Criterion Global has helped banks, private wealth firms, insurers, asset managers, and consumer finance companies build brand equity and influence decision-making — among both consumers and institutions — in markets worldwide.

In finance — where complex quant strategies meet risk management — branding can seem secondary. Yet this is exactly where digital marketing for financial services proves essential.

Banks, funds, and advisory firms embrace digital channels for their clear measurability and low-funnel ROI. Fintech platforms take this further, driven by data and performance. Still, marketers often undervalue the manifold benefits the power of non-digital media. In finance, branding remains pivotal to credibility and long-term success. It’s not about a logo or color palette — it’s about a consistent, trusted identity that resonates with investors, clients, and the broader market.

Consider how Fisher Investments’ all-text ads use fear-based messaging to underscore cost-consciousness, while our client PURE Insurance sponsors the PURE Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach, pairing First Tee youth golfers with PGA Champions. Both reflect brand strategy: each signals why and how they earn client trust.

So can digital marketing reinforce brand in financial services? Absolutely — but not alone. Relying solely on performance marketing misses the point. In a sector built on intangible assets and complex transactions, brand is stability. It creates confidence amid volatility. In short, financial services advertising doesn’t just support trust — it’s the architecture of it.

Our wide-ranging work in media planning and buying for financial services spans consumer banking, investment banking, commercial lending, consumer finance products, international property marketing, private wealth management, and projects as disparate as:

Financial services media buying and marketing presents specific challenges and opportunities, from understanding consumer motivations, to ensuring media planning complies with financial marketing regulations local to each market and product.

Criterion Global prides itself in guiding clients through new terrain: new markets, new products, new strategies. We see rife opportunity in media buying for financial and development brands to position emerging asset classes as new stores of wealth.