Smarter Marketing Investment in Financial Services: How MMM Drives Better Returns

According to Gartner’s 2025 CMO Spend Survey, marketing budgets have flatlined at 7.7% of overall company revenue for the second consecutive year, a figure that remains below pre-pandemic levels and is widely regarded by CMOs as insufficient to meet strategic ambitions1. This stagnation is not merely a budgeting footnote; it is a strategic inflection point for marketing leaders.

The implications are profound. With 59% of CMOs reporting that their budgets are insufficient to execute their strategies, the pressure to deliver more with less has never been greater. Media price inflation further erodes purchasing power, and the rise of AI and automation is driving a relentless focus on productivity and efficiency. In this environment, the risk of underinvestment is real and quantifiable: companies that cut marketing too deeply often lose ground to competitors and struggle to recover lost brand equity and market share. To stay efficient, marketing teams need to adopt the right investment strategy to sustain growth and build brand equity while avoiding the common pitfalls. Banks and online banks across APAC are no exception. They operate in a regulated, highly competitive landscape where acquisition targets are high, product comparison is easy, and consumers expect more than low rates: they look for trust, prestige, benefits, and service experiences that reinforce the value of the brand.

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Common Pitfalls in Marketing Investment

Despite the availability of advanced measurement tools, many organizations fall into predictable traps that undermine marketing effectiveness and ROI. Some of the most prevalent pitfalls are:[JW4.1]

1. Over-Investing in Bottom-of-Funnel Tactics

In the quest for measurable, immediate ROI, many marketers over-index on performance channels (paid search, retargeting, affiliate marketing...) at the expense of brand-building and awareness initiatives. In banking, this often manifests as heavy spend on rate comparisons, cashback hooks, sign-up offers, and targeted digital acquisition at the expense of brand salience, trust, and preference.

While bottom-funnel tactics deliver quick wins, they are inherently limited by the size of the existing prospect pool. Without ongoing investment in top-of-funnel activities to replenish the pipeline, performance campaigns quickly hit saturation, and incremental returns diminish sharply. This creates a cycle of diminishing returns, rising customer acquisition costs, and stalled growth.

Studies show that brands shifting from a balanced strategy to a performance-only approach suffer a 40% ROI decrease, while those moving to a mixed approach enjoy a median ROI increase of 90%2. The “performance penalty” is real and quantifiable.

2. Misreading Which Channels Build Brands

The rapid growth of digital advertising, now over 72% of global ad spending3, has changed the way banks build brands. In Europe, TV often remains the default shorthand for upper-funnel investment. In APAC, except for Japan, TV is not always as dominant in the media mix. Brand-building is increasingly delivered through a broader set of high-reach channels: OTT, BVOD, social video, influencer partnerships, digital OOH and sponsorships.

The pitfall is therefore not simply "digital versus offline". It is assuming that only traditional offline media builds brand, or conversely that every digital impression should be judged as a performance touchpoint. Digital video, BVOD, and social video can play a powerful role in creating familiarity, aspirations, and trust when planned for reach and attention rather than immediate conversion. Digital OOH can also sit alongside static OOH as a credible visibility and prestige channel, particularly in dense urban markets.

The more useful question of financial services is whether each channel is being used for the right purpose. Brand-building channels should be evaluated on incremental reach, attention, memory, search uplift, consideration, and long-term contribution, not only on last-click acquisition.

3. Relying on the Wrong Metrics to Judge Investment

Many banks invest in marketing based on metrics that are easy to report (last-click attribution, channel ROAS, app downloads, account openings, or cost per acquisition) rather than metrics that reflect true incremental impact. This reinforces over-investment in performance and digital channels because they look good in dashboards, while brand-building channels are systematically undervalued. Without measurement that quantifies long-term effects, saturation, and cross-channel synergies, teams keep doubling down on what appears to "work" until growth plateaus and acquisition costs spike. Getting measurement right is therefore a prerequisite for escaping the other pitfalls and aligning spend with strategy.

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When performance channels hit saturation: How a leading fintech reignited growth

Ekimetrics worked with one of the leading fintech in Europe specialized in helping SMEs and freelancers managing their finances. The company adopted a digital first, performance-heavy marketing strategy, relying mostly on paid search, social ads, and targeted campaigns. They expanded rapidly but their growth began to plateau. Despite increasing spending, customer acquisition costs rose and incremental gains diminished. It was a classic case of performance marketing saturation, where the pool of high-intent prospects was exhausted and further investment delivered sharply diminishing returns.

Our Marketing Mix Modeling analysis, including nested modeling of upper and bottom funnel related metrics, revealed that performance channels had reached saturation, while brand-building and awareness campaigns were systematically undervalued. MMM also highlighted long-term effects: upper-funnel investments such as TV, influencer partnerships, and content marketing drove indirect revenue through branded search, organic traffic, and word-of-mouth. Scenario planning showed that reallocating part of the budget toward awareness campaigns would not only reignite growth but also reduce acquisition costs and strengthen long-term brand equity.

The same dynamics play out in banking markets worldwide.

The pattern above is not unique to European fintech — it plays out across geographies and business models wherever performance marketing reaches maturity. APAC banking markets offer a particularly instructive lens, precisely because digital challenger banks have scaled rapidly and are now confronting these limits in real time.

In Hong Kong, digital banks such as Mox and ZA Bank have achieved impressive growth — Mox already serves more than 10% of the bankable population — with marketing strategies that emphasise aggressive customer acquisition and performance-driven campaigns.

In Singapore, digital banks and online banking propositions such as Trust Bank, GXS Bank, and MariBank show how customer acquisition is often linked to ecosystems, rewards, merchant partnerships, and convenience rather than rates alone.

These benefits can support brand preference when they ladder up to a distinctive proposition, but they can also become expensive acquisition mechanics if not measured against incremental value and long-term retention.Without clear alignment to long-term goals such as market penetration, segment development, or diversification, aggressive acquisition approaches risk the same saturation and diminishing returns, underscoring why the right measurement framework and investment strategy matter across every market.

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Why the right measurement unlocks smarter investment decisions

The pitfalls above share a common thread: they are often reinforced when investment is judged by the wrong metrics. Short-term attribution, last-click models, and channel-level reporting can make performance-heavy or digital-heavy mixes look strong while obscuring saturation and the hidden value of brand-building. To escape these traps, leaders need measurement that quantifies true incremental impact, captures long-term effects, and supports strategic reallocation. Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) is built for exactly that.

MMM is far more than a measurement tool; it is a strategic engine that helps CMOs make smarter, more effective investment decisions. By quantifying the true impact of each channel, MMM exposes imbalances in the mix, such as over-investment in performance marketing or under-investment in brand-building. It enables marketers to optimize budget allocation, avoid saturation points, and align spending with broader bank objectives like market penetration, priority segment development, share of wallet, deposits, card usage, lending growth, or customer lifetime value. In times of budget pressure or market volatility, MMM provides the clarity needed to plan proactively rather than reactively.

One of MMM’s most powerful contributions is its ability to reveal the hidden value of upper funnel tactics. By modeling long term effects such as adstock, decay, and halo, MMM demonstrates how awareness campaigns can drive sustainable growth, reduce acquisition costs, and amplify the effectiveness of lower funnel activities. (See our article on Measuring Long-Term Media Impact with Data Science)

It also empowers scenario planning, allowing marketers to simulate different investment strategies, forecast outcomes, and identify the optimal mix of channels before committing resources. In short, MMM quantifies the incremental impact of both brand and performance investments, ensuring decisions are based on actual performance rather than attribution bias. For financial services brands, this means separating rate-led promotion from benefits-led brand building, and understanding how acquisition, prestige, tiering, and customer experience work together to create durable growth.

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From Measurement to Aligned Decisions with Eki.Decisions

Measurement alone does not drive change, it is the quality of the decisions that follow that determines outcomes. This is the gap that Eki.Decisions is designed to close. By embedding MMM scenario planning into a shared decision environment, Eki.Decisions allows marketing, finance, and commercial leadership to evaluate trade-offs — across channels, segments, and time horizons — before budgets are committed.

For financial services organizations managing complex product portfolios, regulated acquisition environments, and competing growth objectives, this kind of aligned decision infrastructure is not a luxury — it is a competitive necessity.

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Ready to unlock the full potential of your marketing investment?

Contact our consulting team to learn how Marketing Mix Modeling can transform your strategy, optimize your spend, and deliver measurable business results.

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References:

• Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey - Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey Reveals Marketing Budgets Have Flatlined at 7.7% of Overall Company Revenue
• The Multiplier Effect: A CMO’s guide to brand-building in the performance era https://page.warc.com/the-multiplier-effect-report
• Digital 2025: global advertising trends. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2025-sub-section-global-advertising-trends