How ‘NOT’ to do financial services digital marketing in 2025

‘Don’t’ – keep pouring budget into SEM as your primary tactic

If “coming top of the Google search rankings” is still your number one goal, it’s time to rethink. AI-powered summaries, knowledge panels, and zero-click answers are reducing organic and paid click-throughs. In many cases, even the top ad placement no longer guarantees meaningful engagement.

In 2025, the real battle is for visibility inside AI-generated responses, and that means your digital strategy has to evolve beyond search listings.

‘Don’t’ – target as narrowly as possible using third-party cookie

Relying on cookies from multiple sources to micro-target might look clever on paper, but in practice it’s increasingly risky and less effective. Between privacy regulations, browser restrictions, and consumer pushback, the cookie’s lifespan is nearly over.
Getting “more granular” doesn’t automatically deliver better results. What’s working now is contextual targeting – aligning your brand with relevant, trusted content where your audience is already engaged. It’s privacy-safe, brand-safe, and performs better for financial services in particular.

‘Don’t’ – chase scale at all costs, and measure success in impressions

A scattergun approach to “owning the open web” might deliver big impression numbers – but impressions alone don’t translate into new clients or assets under management.
Much of the open web is plagued by MFAs (Made-for-Advertising sites) that inflate reach without delivering quality engagement. Financial brands should focus on premium publisher environments where context, audience quality, and brand safety are built in.

‘Don’t’- gate all your content behind a PDF download

Yes, content is critical. But hiding it all behind a registration wall or offering only static PDFs is a fast track to user drop-off. Audiences in 2025 expect multi-format content, articles, videos and infographics, delivered through frictionless, intelligent user journeys.
The most effective approach? Surface key insights within the environment where your audience is already consuming media, for example, embedding core messages directly into a relevant article page on a trusted publisher site. This boosts visibility, improves time-on-content, and encourages deeper engagement.

The takeaway

The digital landscape for financial services has shifted. AI is reshaping search behaviour, cookies are disappearing, and audiences demand value upfront. Winning brands in 2025 will:

• Focus on AI-era discoverability over search rank obsession.
• Replace cookie-driven micro-targeting with smart contextual placement.
• Prioritise quality environments over sheer scale.
• Deliver engaging, multi-format content where the audience already is.

In short: stop chasing outdated metrics, and start building strategies that work in the world as it is, not as it was.

If you liked this article and want to know more contact The Dubs Agency we’d love to help.

[**Full disclosure: The views and opinion expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not reflect the views or opinions of any organisation or entity.]