Financial services marketing
Digital marketing for financial services firms that want their own leads
Stop renting shared leads. Build a pipeline you own from search, email and social, nurture clients through long decisions, and keep every promotion approved and on record.
- Leads you own outright
- Measured by completed cases
- Approval trail on every promotion
Quick answer
ProntX provides digital marketing for UK financial advisers, planners, mortgage brokers, insurance brokers and specialist lenders. We build owned lead flow through search, paid ads, email and social, nurture prospects through long decisions, and measure cost per completed case. Every promotion goes through your approval process. Plans start from £595 a month on rolling contracts.
Many advisers and brokers rely on two sources of business: referrals and bought leads. Referrals are excellent but hard to scale. Bought leads are easy to scale but often shared, cold and expensive per completed case. Digital marketing for financial services should give you a third source you own: enquiries from people who found you, checked you out and chose you. ProntX builds that pipeline, and keeps every promotion approved and on record.
Who this is for
Independent financial advisers and planners, mortgage brokers, protection and general insurance brokers, later life lending specialists, commercial finance brokers and smaller lenders. Directly authorised firms and appointed representatives both fit; for ARs, your network’s approval process becomes part of our workflow.
What makes financial marketing different
Decisions are slow, high stakes and personal. A remortgage might be planned months ahead, a pension decision can take a year, and protection is often put off until a life event forces it. Marketing has to stay helpful over that whole period without pushing, and every message must stay clear, fair and not misleading.
Lead quality
Why do bought leads convert so poorly for brokers?
Because they are usually cold, often shared with other firms, and include people who cannot be placed. The headline cost per lead hides the real cost per completed case.
Brokers commonly describe the same pattern: a lead costs a manageable amount, but only a fraction answer the phone, fewer reach a fact-find, and fewer still complete. Leads from credit-impaired or deposit-light campaigns can be especially hard to place. Owned channels change the maths because the enquirer has already read about you, chosen you and asked to be contacted.
| Lead source | Typical strengths | Typical weaknesses |
|---|---|---|
| Bought or shared leads | Fast volume, easy to switch on | Cold, shared with competitors, variable consent quality |
| Referrals and past clients | Highest trust and conversion | Hard to scale, depends on staying in touch |
| Your own website and search | Warm, exclusive, compounding over time | Takes months to build, needs approved content |
| Paid search on specific needs | Quick, high intent, controllable | High click costs, needs careful targeting and verification |
The plan
What does digital marketing for a financial services firm include?
A joined-up plan across acquisition, nurture and measurement, built around how your clients actually decide.
Acquire
Search and paid
Niche and local financial services SEO, plus paid search on specific needs such as contractor mortgages, equity release or business protection.
Convert
Website and forms
Clear service pages, adviser profiles, fee explanations and short enquiry forms that do not ask for a full fact-find up front.
Nurture
Email and content
Educational sequences for people not ready yet, rate-change alerts for past clients, and remortgage reminders timed to product expiry.
Trust
Reviews and social
A steady review process, LinkedIn content from advisers, and social posts that meet the FCA’s standalone compliance expectations.
Referrals
Introducer support
Pages and materials that accountants, solicitors and estate agents can send to clients, with tracked links so you see which introducers send business.
Measure
CRM-linked reporting
Enquiries tracked from source to completion, so each channel is judged by cases written rather than form fills.
Nurture
How do you market to clients who are not ready to decide yet?
With consented, useful email and content that keeps you front of mind until the moment arrives. Most financial decisions are triggered by life events, not adverts.
A first-time buyer reading about deposits may be a year away from applying. A business owner researching exit planning may not act for three. Our email marketing programmes give these people a reason to stay subscribed: plain-English explainers, checklists before key dates, and updates after Budgets or rate changes, all approved before sending.
Past clients are the most valuable list you have. Product expiry reminders for mortgage clients, annual review invitations for advice clients and protection check-ins after a house move or new baby all produce repeat business at very low cost. Every sign-up follows PECR consent rules, with clear opt-in wording and simple unsubscribe links.
Compliance
How do you keep financial marketing compliant across channels?
With one approval workflow for every channel, a record of what was approved, and campaign rules that reflect the FCA’s financial promotion regime and the Consumer Duty.
- Every ad, email, landing page and social post routed to your compliance function or network before going live
- Approval log with versions, dates and approvers, kept outside the ad platforms
- Required risk warnings and fee information built into templates so they are not forgotten
- Consumer understanding in mind: plain words, balanced benefits and risks, no buried costs
- Rates and offers withdrawn promptly when products change, so nothing out of date stays live
- Google financial services verification handled for paid search accounts
We draft and build; your compliance lead approves. That split keeps responsibility where the FCA expects it and keeps campaigns moving.
Measurement
How do you track a financial enquiry from first click to completion?
By connecting your website, call tracking and CRM so each case carries its original source through to completion or policy start.
Capture
Source recorded
Forms and tracked phone numbers pass the channel, campaign and landing page into your CRM with each new enquiry.
Qualify
Stage updates
Your team marks enquiries as contacted, fact-find booked, recommendation made or not suitable, using stages you already work with.
Complete
Value attached
Completed cases carry procuration fees, advice fees or commission values, so revenue by channel is visible.
Optimise
Budget moved
Completions are fed back to Google and Meta, and spend shifts towards the searches and audiences that produce cases.
This loop is what separates financial services digital marketing that grows a firm from campaigns that just generate activity. It also gives you evidence for compliance and Consumer Duty reviews, because you can show which messages reached which customers and what happened next.
By firm type
Which channels suit advisers, brokers and insurers?
It depends on how your clients search and decide. Here is where we usually start for each type of firm.
Advisers, planners and mortgage brokers
Local search and reviews for “near me” demand, niche pages for specialisms such as self-employed or later life borrowers, and long-term email for past clients. LinkedIn works well for advisers who serve business owners and professionals. Paid search is used selectively for specific, high-value needs.
Insurance brokers and specialist lenders
Commercial insurance brokers do well with trade-specific pages and paid search on niche risks. Personal lines face comparison sites on broad terms, so the focus moves to renewals, cross-selling to existing clients and niche covers. Lenders lean on search, content hubs and partner or introducer marketing.
Why ProntX
Why work with ProntX on financial services marketing?
One senior team across every channel, an approval process built in from day one, and reporting that ends at completed cases.
Specialists in one team
Our finance PPC and financial services social media specialists share one plan and one report.
You own the pipeline
Ad accounts, email lists, analytics and website stay in your firm’s name, on rolling monthly terms.
Honest forecasts
We tell you which channels are unlikely to beat your current lead costs before you spend on them.
Pricing
How much does financial services digital marketing cost?
From £595 a month on a rolling contract. Ad spend is separate and paid directly to the platforms from your own accounts.
| Plan | Typical monthly fee | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Owned pipeline starter | From £595 | CRM-linked tracking, email nurture, one acquisition channel |
| Multi-channel growth | Typically £1,200 to £2,000 | SEO, paid search, email and social with combined reporting |
| Network or multi-office firm | Typically £2,500 and up | Several offices or advisers, introducer programmes, approval at scale |
See our pricing page for every service, or start with a free audit: we review your lead sources, tracking and website, and send a personal video within two working days.
How it works
What happens after you get in touch
- 01Free audit
We review your site, search visibility, ads and competitors, then send a short video walkthrough with the quickest wins.
Request audit - 02Plan and price
A one-page plan with goals, channels, timeline and a fixed monthly price. No surprises later.
See prices - 03Launch in weeks
Tracking first, then quick wins, then the bigger builds. You see progress in the first month.
See our work - 04Report and grow
Monthly report in plain English: leads, sales, cost per result and what we do next.
Talk to us
Same industry
More for financial services
FAQ
Financial services marketing questions, answered
Still unsure? Ask us anything. We reply within one working day.
Are bought leads worth it for mortgage and insurance brokers?
Sometimes, but brokers often report low conversion because the leads are cold and may be sold to several firms at once. A cheap lead can cost far more per completed case than an expensive one that converts. If you buy leads, test vendors on small volumes and measure cost per completion. Long term, leads from your own website, referrals and past clients usually convert better.
What digital marketing works best for financial advisers?
For most advisers, the strongest channels are the ones that build trust before a first meeting: a credible website, local search, reviews, educational email and a consistent LinkedIn presence. Paid search adds faster enquiries for specific needs such as pension transfers or later life lending. Referrals remain central, so digital work should make it easy for referred prospects to check you out.
How do you measure ROI on financial services marketing?
By cost per completed case or policy, not cost per lead. We track enquiries from each channel into your CRM, record which became fact-finds, recommendations and completions, and feed that back into the reporting. A channel that produces fewer but better enquiries often wins once completions are counted, especially in mortgages and protection.
Does the Consumer Duty affect marketing?
Yes. The FCA's Consumer Duty asks firms to act to deliver good outcomes for retail customers, and the consumer understanding outcome applies directly to marketing. Promotions must be clear, fair and not misleading, and communications should help people make informed decisions. In practice that means plain language, balanced benefits and risks, and testing whether messages are understood.
Can we email prospects who downloaded a guide?
Under UK PECR rules you need consent to send marketing emails to individuals, unless the soft opt-in applies to existing customers who bought similar services. A guide download form should include a clear, unticked opt-in for marketing. Business email addresses at corporate subscribers follow different rules but still need an easy opt-out. We set this up correctly from the start.
How much does digital marketing for financial services cost?
ProntX digital marketing for financial services starts from £595 a month on a rolling contract, usually covering tracking, a nurture programme and one acquisition channel. Multi-channel plans with SEO, paid search and social typically cost more, and ad spend is paid directly to Google, Meta or LinkedIn from your own accounts. You get a written scope before starting.
Who approves our financial promotions if we work with an agency?
Your firm does. An agency can draft and build promotions, but approval stays with your compliance function or, for appointed representatives, your network. Since February 2024 authorised firms approving promotions for unauthorised businesses have needed FCA permission to do so. We keep an approval log and never publish or change a promotion without sign-off.
How long does it take to build an owned lead pipeline?
Paid search and email nurture can produce enquiries within weeks. Organic search, reviews and content usually take several months to contribute meaningfully. Most firms we speak to plan a gradual shift: keep existing lead sources running while owned channels build, then reduce bought leads once cost per completion from your own channels is lower.
Works well with
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