Investment leads: get more, gain more

There’s one particular strategy that is especially potent for gaining investment leads. This is an article about getting the best from it.

As an investment firm, you know all too well. It takes money to make money.

It’s true of the services you offer. And it’s the same when it comes to marketing those services.
Maximising your revenue is a numbers game. You need a steady flow of new clients to make sure your business is sustainable and profitable.

So it pays – literally – to know the most effective platforms for investment lead generation, and how best you can maximise them.

For us that’s pay per click advertising. This is a listicle that meanders through the things you need to know to find success and drive revenue.

1,400% increase in lead volume? Right this way…

One quick thing before we start. Getting the really big returns from pay per click takes time, tenacity and technical skill. We know because it’s what we do – day in, day out. 

We get huge results for our clients – such as a 1,400% increase in lead volume for Alesco Investment Property without increasing cost per lead. 

Ask us for a free proposal and we will lay out the returns you could expect within three months of working with us.

“Since working with Adbetter, our digital paid media channels have grown to be one of our most consistent generators of high-quality leads. Our lead volumes from paid media channels have increased over 1,400% whilst maintaining a low cost per lead.”

Matthew Fawl, Director, Alesco Investment Property

Why we advocate pay per click for investment leads

• It’s accountable. As the name suggests, with pay per click you only pay when someone clicks your investment leads ad. And why would someone click unless they were at least partially interested in your services?
  
• Capture demand, nurture demand. The breadth of pay per click gives you many options as a marketer. You can use Google Ads to capture leads with high conversion intent at the precise moment they are searching for services that you provide. And you can use Facebook, Instagram and other social platforms to raise awareness of your services to a more passive, but carefully curated audience.
  
• You build proprietary data. With pay per click you build a new relationship with every lead. Yours to nurture towards conversion. Quite the contrast from the antiquated days of buying the same database of ‘leads’ that your competitors are targeting.
  
• It’s easy to control your spend. With pay per click it’s easy to control your ad spend. Expect options to automate daily, weekly, monthly or maximum budgets per campaign. You can hit the pause button at any time. And every penny is accounted for in the performance data.

Pay per click investment leads: 15 quick tips for success

1. Watch out for the regulations

You don’t need us to tell you that financial services are tightly regulated. The red tape that pervades your daily working life extends to your investment lead generation activities too. And as you might expect, there’s a lot to read. Like the two documents from the FCA here and here.  

It’s important not to create false expectations with your investment lead ads. Your copy and creative should be fair, clear and not misleading – with a fair explanation of any risks associated with the product or service you are promoting.

You should also include your FCA registration details in your social media ads – either as an overlay on the creative or in the ad wording/image description.

When you’re excited about generating more investment leads, reading about regulations isn’t fun. But you don’t want to spend time and money on getting your ads ready only to run into approval issues from Google or Meta or any of the other pay per click giants.

So be sure to do your research. Or ask us. It’s our job to stay on top of ever-evolving regulations.

2. Get your mindset right

Success with investment lead generation isn’t about smoke and mirrors or trying to trick people into a decision. It’s about showcasing your expertise and establishing credibility with people who are likely to be interested in your services. 

Put yourself in your reader’s position. Consider the messages that would resonate with you. 

Imagine yourself having a one-to-one conversation with the person on the other end of your marketing messages – just as you would if one of your clients had called you for advice.

3. Finding the right audience

Facebook’s audience targeting tools give you the power to reach the people who are most likely to be interested in your services.

Audience variables you can work into your targeting include:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Hobbies and interests
• Job title
• Relationship status
• Education
• Online browsing activity

…and an awful lot more.

Think about the attributes that your target audience may share. Do they visit certain websites or have a particular job title? Do they have particular education qualifications? Do they live in a certain area? It’s up to you to set the boundaries. Or not.

Because with pay per click platforms you can feed your existing first-party customer data into the algorithm and let it identify the common denominators before recommending a new audience to target that shares those common identifiers.

4. Go granular

If you have a range of investment services or different opportunities to promote, run a separate campaign for each.

When you are targeted with your messaging and focus, it’s easier to create ads that resonate with the right audience.

Specificity usually trumps generality.

5. Promote in-person visits (if you want in-person visits)

We are long past the age of realising that your reach as a financial expert extends beyond geographical limitations. But if you have bricks-and-mortar premises, then utilising geographic targeting is a no-brainer.

6. Consider lead quality v lead quantity

What would you rather have: lots of half interested leads, or a handful of leads who are extremely likely to convert? There’s no global right answer.

But you need to know what’s right for your brand.

Otherwise you could waste a lot of time and money trying to convert prospects that have low purchase intent.

7. Take care over your branding

If you want to be perceived as a credible investment expert, your branding should look careful – in the most literal etymological sense of that word. Full of care.

Your target audience must have faith that you are a legitimate, well-considered business before they start taking advice from you about anything – let alone something as important as money.

Stay away from hackneyed stock photography and create something that’s recognisably yours – across all channels.

8. Educate your audience

Financial services can be intimidating. Not for you perhaps. But maybe for your audience – either because they feel inadequate in terms of knowledge or they worry they will be manipulated into doing something they feel uncertain about. 

Money is a very personal thing. 

Don’t be too flippant in your tone and maintain a measured professionalism with both your visual and verbal branding.

A good way to drive awareness of your services and engagement with your brand is simply to educate people. Openness and honesty can break down a lot of barriers between your brand and your audience. 

All while building your reputation as a credible expert. Knowledge is for sharing.

9. Remember the result and watch your words

People engage with an investment expert because they have certain ambitions. They are looking for a specific result – whether that’s a high-yield, short-term investment or help generating a plan for consistent income during retirement. 

Too many financial services marketers lose sight of the end result that their customers are looking to achieve. 

Be open about how you can help.

10. Embrace social proof

The people who are best placed to comment on the quality of your services are your previous and existing clients.

Don’t underestimate the power of a good set of testimonials when it comes to convincing investment leads to pick up the phone.

Try to source reviews from verifiable consumer ratings platforms such as Trustpilot.

11. Test, test, test

Your pay per click platform will give you the option to submit multiple variants for the constituent elements of your ad. This is an opportunity you should take.

The algorithm will test the various combinations of copy and – if applicable – imagery and preferentially serve the ad combinations that are statistically likely to give you the best returns.

12. Think beyond the click: An intro to landing pages

When you are paying for every click, it’s worth considering where you’re sending your leads. For most campaigns, that’s a designated landing page. Landing pages are a major topic in their own right. But here’s a rapid run through of best practice.

• Design and copywriting. Your landing page should feel like a continuation of your ad. Optimise for mobile and make sure the messaging that matters most is visible above the fold.  
• Create a closed journey. Single-mindedness is a strength when it comes to landing pages. Limit navigation options and stay focused on one clear call to action.
• Utilise social proof and trust signals. Customer testimonials are a great way to build credibility and establish trust in your company. Again, try to source reviews from a verifiable platform such as Trustpilot or Google Reviews. If applicable, utilise trust signals such as industry accreditations, qualifications or awards.
• Gather data. The main aim of a landing page is to gather information on your lead. Create a form that allows you to start the marketing conversation.
• Remember your GDPR obligations. For your forms that means having a tick box that gets people to actively opt in to your comms, the name of the business that will be contacting them and the method that they will be contacted by. Include a link to your privacy policy too.

13. Utilise retargeting to nurture your audience

Once you have an email address you can create an automated email nurture campaign that gives your prospect more information about your services and nudges them towards becoming a customer. 

And if you are using Facebook or Instagram (or both) for your investment lead generation, you can echo this nurture activity with a new set of ads – creating new campaigns that serve only to people who have clicked your original ads or visited one of your landing pages.

14. Track performance meticulously

Your pay per click platform(s) of choice will give you plenty of actionable data on campaign performance that you can use to optimise your campaigns. But to get the insight that will help you really shift the needle for your business, you need more visibility.

You need the ability to see what happens beyond the first click, right up to the moment your lead becomes a customer. 

Setting up tracking for visibility into onward KPIs is difficult. It takes time. It takes technical skills. That’s why many businesses don’t bother.

But it will give you invaluable data that you can use to transform revenue – optimising not just your pay per click ads, but your entire marketing strategy.

>> Why Facebook Conversions API (CAPI) is so crucial for advertisers

Let us take care of it

We are a paid media expert that specialises in investment lead generation. And we only agree to work with a new client when we have total confidence that we can generate significant returns for them.

Your leads are out there. Ask us for a free proposal and we will outline a three-month paid media strategy for your brand. That’s yours to keep. Then it’s your choice to work with us or walk away. Let’s get started.

You may also be interested in:

>> A complete guide to Facebook ads for financial advisers
>> Google ads for financial advisers: essential tips for success
>> A smarter way to supercharge your property investment leads
>> Is TikTok good for lead generation?