Financial products are rarely impulse buys. Whether it’s a loan, credit card or savings account, the decision is shaped by life events, personal financial pain points, and the external prompts that push people to act. This creates a buying journey that is mostly online, but far from straightforward when it comes to tracking and attribution.
The buying trigger
The process usually starts with a need. For some customers it’s consolidating high-interest debt, for others it might be financing a major purchase or finding a savings product with a stronger return. Triggers tend to fall into three categories: major life changes, existing financial pressures, or external shifts like rising interest rates.
Unlike consumer goods, these aren’t purchases people make lightly. They’re often prompted by a careful weighing of options and a drive to reduce costs or increase financial security.
Customer research
Once the need is established, research starts in earnest. Friends, family and social media influencers may play a role, but comparison sites dominate in this space. They offer an instant view of what’s available and have become a standard part of the process. Customers will also check search engines, visit provider websites, and consult familiar sources of authority like financial advisors or consumer advocates.
Existing banking relationships matter too. Many people will first see what their current provider can offer before looking elsewhere, making retention as important as acquisition.
The customer journey
Although most of the research is online, it doesn’t take place in one sitting. A customer might move between comparison sites, review platforms and bank websites over several weeks before making a decision. When they reach the point of applying, there’s often a fork in the road: go directly to the provider or complete the process through a broker or comparison site.
The application stage itself has its own steps. Customers submit forms online, sometimes moving between devices if they need to upload documents or complete identity checks. Providers may call or email during the process, adding offline elements that can break attribution. Only once documents are verified and approval granted is the customer able to accept the final offer.
Reconciling revenue back to ads
Compared to life sciences, the finance sector has a far stronger link between digital marketing and revenue. Because applications usually involve personal data capture early in the process, it’s possible to reconcile a high proportion of conversions back to the original source, often upwards of 75%.
However, the picture isn’t perfect. Device switching, long research cycles, and the heavy involvement of comparison sites all introduce gaps. More importantly, ad platforms typically track submitted applications, not approved ones. Without closing this loop, campaigns risk being optimised towards volume rather than value.
Why tracking is difficult
The core challenges include:
- Customers moving between mobile and desktop
- Extended research windows that strain cookie-based tracking
- Intermediaries such as comparison sites sitting between the ad click and the final application
- Offline touchpoints, from phone calls to branch visits
- The fact that only approved applications create revenue, while platforms count all submissions
- The long-term nature of financial products, where customer lifetime value is spread across years, not weeks
A more suitable approach
To get meaningful tracking in finance, providers need to rely less on default platform metrics and more on first-party data. Capturing identifiers such as email or phone numbers as early as possible, for example, at the point of an eligibility check, makes it easier to connect the dots later. Feeding that data back into platforms through Enhanced Conversions or CAPI improves match rates and strengthens optimisation.
It’s also critical to go beyond “application submitted” as the core conversion event. Micro-conversions like calculator use or terms and conditions downloads provide intent signals, while CRM integration ensures only approved applications are treated as revenue-driving. Predictive modelling adds another layer by estimating approval likelihood and long-term value at the point of application, helping campaigns optimise not just for acquisition but for profitability.
Finally, running tracking through a server-side GTM setup gives banks greater control over what is shared, ensuring measurement remains resilient to browser restrictions and aligned with compliance requirements.
Why it matters
Accurate tracking in finance supports better decision-making on two levels. For account managers, richer data creates a clearer view of which campaigns and products are genuinely driving profitable customers. For the algorithms that power bidding and targeting, cleaner signals mean budgets are funnelled towards higher-value outcomes rather than wasted on unqualified applications.
When approached correctly, financial providers can achieve attribution levels that are far higher than most other sectors. The key is recognising where standard tracking falls short and putting the right systems in place to bridge the gaps. That way, marketing spend goes further, acquisition costs fall, and lifetime value increases.
