Consumers have largely embraced digital channels for their financial lives. Nearly three in four customers primarily bank online – with a record high (55%) of bank customers using mobile apps as their primary way to manage accounts. Unsurprisingly, that figure is even higher for Millennials and Gen Z (over 66%).
According to McKinsey, a majority of customers start researching their financial-services journey online, underscoring how critical search and digital discovery have become in product consideration. This creates both opportunity and risk: financial brands must appear in high-quality content environments during these research moments, while avoiding adjacency to misleading money advice, crypto scams, or predatory lending content that could damage trust.
Every year, millions of young adults entering the workforce may be opening their first individual account. And millions more may be considering moving their money to a new bank or adding an investment account, creating a huge growth opportunity. Unsurprisingly, the projected increase in ad spend in the Financial Services industry in 2025 (+19.2%), is the second highest of any industry, according to eMarketer.
As GenZ matures and Baby Boomers decline, Merrill Lynch estimates that Generation X and Millennials will inherit a staggering $6 trillion and $39 trillion, respectively, otherwise known as The Great Wealth Transfer. Understandably, this massive amount is a major focus for Finserve institutions aiming to increase their assets under management (AUM).
The tightening battle for new customers online means digital ad spend in this market is expected to grow even more in certain areas, such as 20% for banking and 23% for payments and money movement in 2025, according to eMarketer.
With so many consumers open to new providers, there is opportunity for challenger brands to acquire those customers efficiently, but it requires substantial ad presence (programmatic display, paid search, social, etc.) and optimization.
With prospects and customers comfortable using digital channels, it’s even more important for financial institutions to reach their customers across a multitude of channels such as in-app, CTV, app, web, and digital out of home (DOOH).
But as financial services brands scale their digital presence, they face a critical challenge: reaching the right audiences while maintaining brand safety and cost efficiency. That’s where supply-side curation is becoming essential.
How Supply-side Curation Creates a Custom Supply Path for Financial Services Advertisers
Financial brands that want the freedom and flexibility of the open web are still mindful of avoiding adjacency to any risky or misleading content. Supply-side curation helps financial services companies reach audiences across digital channels without third-party cookies while maintaining the brand safety and performance standards that financial marketers require.
Traditional open auctions risk your ads appearing on low-quality sites without appropriate inventory controls. With curation, supply-side partners pre-filter inventory using your brand safety requirements and audience criteria, packaging only high-quality impressions from vetted financial publishers. Moving decisioning to the supply-side allows buyers to identify and aggregate valuable inventory before it reaches the bidder, reducing workflows and media costs.
Here’s Why Financial Services Marketers are Adopting Curation:
Brand Safety Built In: Financial brands can’t afford to appear next to the wrong content. Curation applies brand safety filters and custom blocklists before you bid, blocking predatory lending sites, crypto scams, and improper content at the source.
Multi Supply-Side Data Signals: Reach high-intent audiences (mortgage researchers, retirement planners, active traders, and credit card shoppers) plus relevant contextual alignment and real-time engagement signals to enhance data performance.
Cost Efficiency at Scale: Bundling data and media on the supply-side removes demand-side data fees, increasing deal efficiency.
Premium Inventory Access: Curated PMPs bundle inventory from trusted financial publishers, such as, Bloomberg, Reuters, and NerdWallet, can be placed into single deal IDs for scaled reach across quality environments.
Use Cases:
- Premium Credit Card Acquisition: Target travel content enriched with “in-market for credit card” & “luxury traveller” and/or “business traveller” segments across mobile and CTV
- Wealth Management: Reach directly measured high-asset households on retirement planning articles and financial news environments
- Switching Banking: Overlay life event data and content (job seeking, marriage, moving) with promotions tied to wealth tiers
- Activate Equifax IXI Network Data: Bridge trusted offline data across CTV, premium open web, and app inventory with increased control, precision, and performance
Financial Services Marketing Needs a New Playbook
Winning in financial services means meeting customers in the moments they research, transact and seek advice. As budgets grow 20%+ year-over-year, supply-side curation offers financial services marketers a way to scale efficiently by combining brand safety, audience precision, and cost savings in one programmatic approach.
About 33Across
We help financial service marketers seamlessly connect data to media activation, simplifying programmatic targeting across digital channels to drive more efficiency and higher campaign performance.
Why it Matters to Financial Services Marketers
Financial service marketers have strict KPIs and face high data costs to reach fragmented audiences. Glossary’s intelligence solves this by enriching supply and pre-filtering inventory before reaching the demand-side platform (DSP).
Find out how to apply rich data signals and activate your campaign across digital channels using supply-side curation.
