How to launch constantly updating ads for banks and brokerage services: Aitarget and BCS Broker test on Dynamic Ads analogue that does not need a catalog
Dynamic Ads on Facebook are an easy-to-understand and popular tool for e-commerce, retail, real estate, and travel. Any company that has a systematic catalog of offers and products with prices and other parameters can use the feature to automatically update this information in their advertisements.
But brokers and fintech companies also have metrics to update: quotes, exchange rates, and securities. People count on having different currency exchange options so they can find the most profitable rate on the market. Some are even ready to drive several miles just to save some money. And since exchange rates and stock markets are constantly changing, it’s always better to directly show the current rate/price in your ads.
But how can this be done given that brokers and fintech companies usually have no catalogs?
To solve this problem, Aitarget and BCS Broker, the long-standing leader of the Russian securities market, joined forces to test updating ads containing financial metrics that were not part of any catalog.
Here are the results.
How it worked
To implement Dynamic Ads, you must have a data source for your updates. We used Alpha Vintage – an open source that gives you real-time information about currency exchange rates.
Using Aitarget’s technology, a feed (structured data) was created from the data received from Alpha Vintage. Then, the feed followed the usual e-commerce format ― it was loaded onto Facebook, a catalog was created, and an ad was launched. The products? Currency pairs with a display of the exchange rates. The feed was constantly refreshed to include the latest numbers from Alpha Vintage.
BCS Broker only needed to decide which currency pairs would be displayed in the advertisement, indicate the exchange, and determine the design of the advertisement. The rest was done automatically.
This is how we got a creative with real exchange data. The prices updated every hour until the exchange closed. On weekends the latest update from Friday was shown. As a result, a functional creative with relevant data 24/7 could be made without the client having to attract designers or developers.
● Margarita Beskhodarnaya, account manager at Aitarget:
Audiences react better to ads that contain as much honest information about the service as possible, sparing them the need to click any links. The user appreciates informative advertisements: this affects their response speed and increases conversion rates. When promoting currency exchange, we and BCS Broker orientated towards presenting accurate information in the advertisement – the creative displays rates per unit at the time the advertisement is shown, and additionally displays the time and date. We automatically updated the advertisement every hour to make it show the correct prices for the currency pairs. This allows the potential buyer to evaluate the exchange rate at a glance and decide to make a transaction.
Banks and brokers need just TWO things to create updating ads:
- Determine the type of data the user is interested in;
- and indicate a data source to create a catalog. Aside from open sources, the Aitarget tool allows you to collect data from the site of the broker or bank itself, or wherever there is numerical information (number of clients, amount of money collected).
The outcome
We tested the effectiveness of the updating creatives against traditional static ads and compared their results over an equal time period and within one audience.
BCS Broker sought to increase the number of leads and improve their quality and cost, so we launched a lead generation campaign with automatic placements and broad targeting to a lookalike-audience.
First, we posted a series of advertisements with static creatives. 22 days later we swapped out this series for the updating creatives from Aitarget.
Ultimately, the test showed that the updating ads brought in 2.3 times more leads while CPL dropped 28.5%.
BCS Broker has since made the complete switch to dynamic for promoting its currency exchange services.
● Head of the contextual advertising department at BCS Broker:
After static banners stopped producing visible improvements in the amount and size of the transactions, we decided to try using dynamic on Facebook and Instagram. Aitarget staff was in charge of the technical and visual implementation of the advertisements. They quickly provided multiple variants for creatives and launched the campaign. Aitarget’s technology turned out to be stable. There were no disruptions or delays during the work process. Their professional support at every stage of preparing and running the campaign is of particular note.
● BCS Broker marketing director:
Our experience implementing updating ads with the help of Aitarget allowed BCS Broker’s potential clients to receive accurate information about the most profitable exchange rate on the market and make lucrative transactions. It is interesting that the tool had never been used for brokerage campaigns, but we decided to take the risk and developed the functionality for our needs, using our experience in e-commerce. As a result, the project was a success, and we saw increased interest from our audience. Thus, it turned out to be a highly valuable case study we plan to use in our further work.
