Search and deploy: Using SEM to support banking success – The Martin Group
When First Merchants Bank came to The Martin Group in 2022, the community lender was looking for more than splashy ad copy or a social media audit.
The Midwest banking leader—serving customers in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio—was looking for assistance with their paid search efforts in personal banking due to the bank’s high average cost per acquisition (CPA) for new checking account customers. Our primary task was to increase the number of incremental personal checking accounts opened online in a competitive industry; and our secondary objective was to drive down the average cost to acquire new online personal checking accounts through search engine marketing (SEM).
Additionally, our team was tasked with creating a strong pipeline of new, qualified leads to add to the bank’s inbound primary relationship acquisition sales funnel, and meeting or exceeding audience performance benchmark data through continuous campaign optimization.
So, how’d it start and where has it gone since? Let’s review our developed strategies, how they’ve evolved, and how our work with First Merchants is going today.
Connecting with new customers
After much discussion on how to best position the campaign for success, and even more competitive research in the market, we landed on highlighting the bank’s brand differentiators—attentiveness and dependability, as well as the recognition of being a top bank in the Midwest by Forbes and Newsweek for outstanding customer service.
On top of leveraging social proof, this messaging strategy helped decrease low-intent prospects by focusing on value-based brand differentiators rather than sign-up bonuses (which historically attracted lower-value customers). By conducting thorough market and keyword research, The Martin Group was also able to identify opportunities within each key market to reach high-value customers while maintaining a low overall cost per acquisition.
We used a range of strategies to meet our campaign objectives, primarily focusing on paid SEM ads on Microsoft (Bing) and Google Ads, customized landing pages with interstitial pop-ups, and a series of automated emails to nudge and nurture leads. Initially, our team prioritized Microsoft Ads over Google Ads to reach qualified prospects in key markets while keeping search intent high and competition low.
As demand in markets shifted, we pivoted budget and focus as needed to stay on top of search trends. Keyword, ad messaging, bid, and budget optimizations were consistently made within markets to leverage ad budgets effectively.
Earning results—and extending our service
Our efforts made a huge impact on the bank’s acquisitions and associated costs, significantly improving upper funnel performance and reducing promo code-related fees. The initial “Best Checking” campaign was so successful that First Merchants has since engaged The Martin Group to test SEM for other departments within the bank.
The Martin Group continues to partner with First Merchants Bank today and has expanded to work with numerous teams across the organization to grow account acquisition, lead generation, and keep a steady pipeline of upper-funnel prospects. These teams range from Small Business Services to Private Wealth Investments to Community Lending Services, each with its own unique goals, challenges, and successes.
We have seen success in many different ways. Our Community Lending campaign has consistently outperformed the bank’s ability to follow up on the lead volume that it is generating. The small business services campaign drove an influx of checking account inquiries as well as lending services. And moving into 2025, the checking account acquisition campaign consistently saw incremental account opens attributed to the SEM efforts.
Tracking progress
Additionally, we have assisted with implementing end-to-end tracking for their online account software, enabling us to see the full user journey, including exactly which ad in Microsoft or Google led to conversion. The data that we are able to acquire through this tracking is immense and will be instrumental in the bank’s continued success.
Prior to our team’s involvement, paid media attribution was limited to button clicks on the landing page, providing no insight into what happened next. In close collaboration with the First Merchants team, we implemented advanced tracking across the full user journey—from the initial website interaction all the way through to their internal online account opening platform.
This end-to-end visibility now allows the team to track users from form submission through to completed account openings, with attribution down to the ad campaign level. As a result, we can clearly see the impact SEM is driving. What had been a long-standing attribution challenge for the First Merchants team has now been fully solved. This level of visibility in connecting ad campaigns to accounts is rarely achieved in the banking industry.
To say that out team is proud of what we’ve accomplished in our partnership with First Merchants Bank is an understatement, and we look forward to moving forward to even deeper opportunities in 2026. To learn more about The Martin Group’s extensive work with banks and financial organizations, click here.
