Why is Streaming the Hottest New Marketing Platform for Community Banks?

If your community bank has written off television advertising as too inaccessible or expensive, it’s time to take a fresh look. Streaming services—which media audience measurement firm Nielsen says account for about 43% of time spent watching TV—are changing the game for advertisers of all sizes. 

Today, most major streamers, including Disney+, Netflix and Max, offer subscribers the option of paying less if they’re willing to receive ads. These ad-supported tiers are growing, and so are the numbers of free, ad-supported television (FAST) channels like Tubi and Pluto TV.

This digital slice of TV is making it easier, and potentially cheaper, for marketers to reach target audiences on a home’s biggest screen.

Automated advertising

With streaming TV advertising, a term some use interchangeably with connected TV advertising, banks can gain access to a large number of viewers while choosing to only reach a segment of them.

One way to do this is through automated, data-driven auctions that happen in milliseconds. In a nutshell, you feed parameters into ad-buying platforms such as your budget, campaign dates and desired streaming channels. You also select audience groups, such as people who are located near branches and are in the market for a car.

When a viewer who matches the campaign criteria appears on a channel, your platform will “bid” for the chance to serve an ad. If it wins, your ad is displayed.

“Bidding across all of those various platforms is going to give you a lot more flexibility in what your cost is,” says Kailyn Gallagher-LaRoche, a media manager at Pannos Marketing in Manchester, N.H. “[For streaming advertising,] it can be more of a dynamic cost than a set [cost].” 

Factors that can influence the starting price of an ad in an auction include the popularity of the content and the time of day.

Home in on your ideal customers

Targeting with more granularity can increase the amount you pay for an impression, which is each time an ad is displayed. However, the precision brings added value: Your bank doesn’t waste money, and the viewer sees a more relevant ad.

“You might be focused on first-time homebuyers,” says Abby Fitzgerald, another media manager at Pannos Marketing. For this kind of campaign, Fitzgerald suggests to strategically choose channels geared toward a younger audience to use budgets effectively.

Live Oak Bank in Wilmington, N.C., targets its YouTube TV ads to small‑business owners. 

“We don’t do consumer checking, for example, so having people visit our website to open a [consumer] checking account is a waste of their time, it’s a waste of my time,” says Micah Davis, chief marketing and communications officer for the $12 billion-asset community bank. “The ability to add that extra layer of targeting is helpful.”

You can use streaming TV ads for any number of objectives, from building awareness of your bank to “retargeting” website visitors.

Honing performance

With streaming TV advertising, you can learn how your campaign is performing in real time and continually improve it. You can experiment with variables like the platforms you’re using, ad formats and targeting radius.

You can also include your ads in multichannel campaigns. Live Oak Bank, for example, has run ads featuring a business owner begging for attention from a “typical bank” on streamers as well as in channels like digital, print and social media. “Layering on the tactics is always very valuable,” Fitzgerald says. 

An interesting aspect of streaming’s targeting prowess is that bank executives may never see their own ads if they aren’t in the intended audience. That’s OK, says Derek Baker, executive vice president of growth and innovation for Mills Marketing in Storm Lake, Iowa. “I get the pride of seeing [an ad] out there, but what you really want is your phone to ring or your email inbox to fill up,” he says. “If you’re seeing that, you should feel satisfied.”