An in-depth analysis measuring how the top 50 brands within "Online Consumer Finance" are performing against the key search terms driving market visibility. This report also uncovers who the market leaders are, and how brands are using different online marketing channels as part of their engagement and customer acquisition strategy, producing over 100 individual pieces of strategic insight.

1. Online CONSUMER FINANCE
Intelligence Report
December 2011 to May 2012

2. 2
What will you get from this What questions do we answer?
report?
• A who’s who in online consumer finance. • Who are the market leaders?
• In-depth market analysis covering December 2011 to May • Which keywords are driving market visibility?
2012.
• What are brands doing to achieve maximum market share?
• Over 100 individual pieces of key insights.
• Over 50 individual pieces of statistical interpretation. • How are brands using social media to acquire customers?
• Analysis of the top 50 brands across the top 100 keywords.
• An interpretation of the top brands search and social
media strategies.
Top Insights
• Price-comparison operators dominate both search marketing and social media.
• Money Supermarket is the only operator that is visible in the top 10 for all the primary keyword product markets.
• Despite the economic downturn following the financial crisis in 2008, recent trend analysis shows a gradual increase in search impres-
sion volume for keyword markets such as current accounts, credit cards and loans.
• The pay day loan market which sits outside of the traditional retail banking arena has seen the most dramatic increase in search
impression activity.
• As aggregators monopolise the organic index, paid search has become a key channel to market for many of the traditional retail
banks including HSBC, NatWest Bank and Barclays Bank.
• Comparethemarket is the most innovative operator within social media, making the channel a key element of their online market
strategy.
• Very few of the traditional retail banks are utilising social media to develop a two way dialogue that stimulates social integration and
engagement.

3. 3
Key Findings of the report
What’s the size of opportunity within the consumer finance sector?
• A macro analysis of the consumer finance sector tells us that insurance and loans dominate the search impression volume with a
collective 69%.
• The dominance of insurance and loans is underpinned by high search impression volume for keyword markets such as car insurance
(22%), pay day loans (21%) and loans with 12%. This stands in contrast to the traditional core consumer finance services market i.e.
current accounts and savings, which has a much lower collective search impression volume of only 10%.
Who are the leading brands?
• Barclays Bank, HSBC, RBS, NatWest, Lloyds TSB, Halifax Bank and Santander take the lions share covering an impressive 82% of all
brand search impression volume.
• Traditional high street banking retailers dominate our brand index with Money Supermarket being the only non-lending operator who
features in the top ten.
• Money Supermarket leads the organic rankings for nine out of ten keyword markets including the high volume sub verticals car insur-
ance, loans and mortgages.
• MoneySavingExpert has a strong presence within many keyword verticals including loans, car and travel insurance. Their purchase by
Money Supermarket will give the group a massive search coverage across many verticals.
• As part of an aggressive strategy to challenge the dominance of the aggregators Google has launched their own price comparison
service within the online consumer finance market for credit cards, current account and savings accounts segments.
• PPC is a key channel to market for many retail banks or direct financial lenders. This is largely down to the fact that price comparison
sites dominate the organic index for a large number of keyword verticals.
• Supermarket giants Tesco Bank and Sainsbury’s Bank are providing consumers with a cost effective alternative and feature prominently
for the keyword markets loans and car insurance.
• Tesco Bank, along with confused.com, has developed a social strategy that has the most robust balance between engagement quality
and volume.
• Operators are primarily using price promotions and customer service content techniques on social media to engage with potential and
existing customers.
“IN DIRECT RESPONSE TO THE RECENT
ECONOMIC CHALLENGES, MANY BRANDS
ARE LOOKING TO PROMOTE THEIR
PRODUCTS ONLINE IN ORDER TO
MAXIMISE THEIR MARKETING SPEND
AND HELP REDUCE OVERHEADS.”

4. executive
summary

5. “Consumer finance
refers to the segment
of the financial services
industry that lends
money and credit directly
to individual consumers.
there are a range
of operators within
this market including
retail banks, insurance
companies pay day loan
services as well as
aggregators. Within this
section we reveal the
most visible brands across
both Paid and organic
search.”

6. 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The global finance crisis
The global financial crisis of 2008 not only witnessed the collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national govern-
ments, and downturns in stock markets around the world, but it also played a significant role in the failure of key businesses, decline in con-
sumer wealth as well as a downturn in economic activity, in which the UK economy was plunged into recession (see Appendix B Reference
2: Quarterly GDP growth).
At the centre of the crisis was the credit crunch which saw a dramatic reduction in the general availability of credit as well as a sudden
tightening of the conditions required to obtain credit from banks and financial lenders. This forced the UK Government to take to unprec-
edented action to prevent the collapse in the financial markets as well as supporting the broader economy. The result saw a dramatic
change in the landscape of the financial services market and in particular consumer related financial lending and banking (source: The
Turner Review, A regulatory response to the global crisis, March 2009).
IMPACT OF THE CRISIS ON CONSUMER FINANCE
The financial crisis impacted every aspect of consumer finance including:
• Deposit and savings accounts: retail savings have grown at a much slower rate since the 2008 financial crisis, reflecting weaker earn-
ings growth and prevailing low interest rates (source: UK Banks: Performance Benchmarking Report, KPMG, Full Year Results, 2011).
• Mortgages: not only is the fragile economy holding back house prices, but rising levels of unemployment have impacted house
purchases at the bottom end of the market resulting in a knock on effect further up the housing ladder (source: Council of Mortgage
Lenders, Annual Report, 2011).
• Loans: a difficult and uncertain economic backdrop has reduced consumer appetite for spending and borrowing. However, demand
is still outstripping supply, indicated by a relatively high proportion of loan rejections. The supply of credit to consumers continues to
be constrained by more stringent lending criteria and a sharp contraction in supply (source: Financial Services, Spring Forecast, Ernst &
Young 2012).
• Pay day loans: the decline in tradtional high street lending has been reflected by the growth in prominence of pay day loans. Accord-
ing to the CFA, payday lending accounts for about £1 billion annually, representing 0.6% of total consumer credit advanced in the UK
(source: Crisis boosts growth in payday loans sector, Financial Times, December 2011).
• Credit and debit cards: the difficult economic backdrop has made consumers more aware of the consequences of using credit and
being in debt. Although consumers continue to use their credit cards when purchasing goods and services, a growing number see their
card as a useful payment tool rather than as a way of borrowing (source: Credit and Debit Cards, Mintel, UK July 2011).
outlook for 2012 and 2013
Since 2008 financial services output has declined. Where previously it averaged over 6% per year, compared with overall UK GDP growth,
this has shrunk to 3% per year (see Appendix B Reference 3). Moreover while the UK economy grew by 0.8% in 2011 as a whole it con-
tracted by 0.2% in the final quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, pushing the economy back into recession. This will only serve
to increase pressure on an already strained sector forcing operators to optimise advertising spend and marketing budgets in a bid to gain
more customers (source UK Economic Outlook, pwc, March 2012).

7. 7
buying consumer financial products online
TV and direct mail have traditionally been the route to market. As a direct response to the recent economic challenges many financial op-
erators have looked to promote their products and services online in order to maximise their marketing spend and help reduce operational
overheads and costs. This shift in thinking has been coupled with a growth within mobile banking. According to KPMG, banks with strong
internet banking propositions now promote a quarter of their retail product via mobile, and the proportion of sales from this channel is ris-
ing steadily year-on-year (source: UK Banks: Performance Benchmarking Report, KPMG, Full Year Results, 2011).
This trend is supported by a number of research groups:
• Aggregators: 2012 Mintel research has shown that a significant proportion of customers who said they would consider buying via a
price comparison site - mortgage 27%, pension 28% and investment product 30% (source: Web Aggregators in Financial Services,
Mintel, June 2012).
• Credit cards: according to a Target Group Index (TGI) survey the numbers of customers searching and applying for credit cards online
has seen a 12.5% percentage increase between 2008 and 2011, while all other channels including telephone and in brand have de-
clined sharply (source: Credit and Debit Cards, Mintel, UK July 2011).
• Insurance: a Global Market Institute (GMI) survey conducted in 2011 reveals that general insurance products such as car (50%) and
home insurance (38%) are the most common financial products purchased online (source: Financial Services: Consumers and New
Technology, UK, August 2011).
• Loans: according to Nielsen Media Research, internet advertising accounted for 16% of total ad spend in 2011, making it the third
largest channel by total ad spend (see Appendix B Reference 4)..

8. 8 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction to online consumer finance
Consumer finance (often termed retail finance) is the segment of the financial services industry that lends money and credit directly to
individual consumers. Although banks are the primary lenders in the consumer finance industry, alternative lenders include insurance com-
panies and pay day loan services specialising in lending to borrowers with poor credit.
As a whole, the broad range of services in consumer finance provides the financing to purchase vehicles, home improvements or obtain
secured and unsecured lines of credit from financial lenders, as well as offering a range of consumer insurance products such as home, life,
travel and car insurance (Appendix B Reference 5: Categorisation of Consumer Finance).
Consumer finance is defined by a broad product range and can be broken down into a multiplicity of specialist markets. We have focused
our analysis on the top product keyword sub-verticals.
The financial crisis impacted every aspect of consumer finance including:
• Current Accounts
• Savings
• Mortgage
• Credit Cards
• Loans
• Pay Day Loans
• Car Insurance
• Home Insurance
• Travel Insurance
• Life Insurance
A macro analysis of the consumer finance sector tells us that insurance and loans dominate the search impression volume with a collective
69% (see Figure 1). The dominance of insurance and loans is underpinned by high search impression volume for keyword markets such as
Car Insurance (22%), Pay Day Loans (21%) and Loans (12%). This stands in contrast to the traditional core retail services market i.e. cur-
rent accounts and savings, which has a much lower collective search impression volume of only 10% (see figure 2).
This report analyses the leading consumer finance brands between the period December 2011 to May 2012. Our findings will detail tactics
and strategies as well as reveal the most visible brands within:
• Organic search
• PPC (Pay Per Click)
• Social media
The following insight analyses the top 100 keyword phrases within each of the primary verticals across the top 50 brands. We have re-
moved all none commercially focused websites from our analysis e.g. Wikipedia.

9. 9
Figure 1 % Split of search impression volume by product area
Insurance - 36%
Loans - 33%
Mortgages - 15%
Deposit and savings account - 11%
Credit and debit cards - 5%
source: Google keyword estimation tool
Figure 2 % Split of search impression volume by keyword market type
Car insurance - 21.81% Savings - 8.21%
Pay day loans - 21.02% Credit cards - 4.85%
Mortgages - 14.68% Home insurance - 4.38%
Loans - 12.12% Current accounts - 2.62%
Travel insurance - 8.31% Life insurance - 2.0%
source: Google keyword estimation tool

10. 10 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
how do we measure the search market
Search impression represents the number of times a website page is displayed within the search results. It is only after the results are dis-
played that visitors are able to click on either a PPC advert or an organic link. Therefore, “click share” represents the act of a visitor clicking
on a PPC advert or an organic link and is calculated as follows:
• organic click share is the number of clicks that an individual operator has achieved against a keyword, as a measure of where they
rank for that keyword.
• PPC click share is the number of clicks that an individual operator has achieved against a keyword as a percentage of their Share of
Voice (SOV). SOV is a measure of how often a brands PPC ads appear and their position.
See Appendix A Reference 1 for a full break down of our methodology.
Brand Search impression volume
• Despite the tough economic times and the mixed performance of many of the top financial institutions within the UK (Appendix B
Reference 6) brand search impression is still dominated by the traditional high street banking retailers.
• 85.13% of all brand search impression volume is taken up by the following high street banks including Barclays Bank, HSBC, RBS, Nat-
West, Lloyds TSB, Halifax Bank and Santander (see Figure 3).
• Traditional high street banking retailers dominate our brand index with Money Supermarket being the only non-lending operator to
feature in the top 10, while MoneySavingExpert, Gocompare and Confused appeared within the top 20.
role of price comparision websites
• Price comparison sites have positioned themselves as a critical part of the buying cycle providing consumers with an easy and flexible
way of viewing comparative products within the market. Moreover these sites also provide financial lenders with the necessary means
to advertise their products online. Paradoxically, price comparison sites are also absorbing critical organic real estate. Many financial
operators who directly lend to consumers are jostling with these sites for premium position within the Search Engine Results Pages
(SERPs) to maximise their exposure.
• Of the top price comparison sites, Money Supermarket has the largest volume of brand search impression which is reflective of their
leading position within the market (see Figure 4).

11. 11
Figure 3 Brand related search impression volume for the top financial lenders
% Split
20
15
10
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source: Google keyword estimation tool
Figure 4 Brand related search impression volume for the top price comparison sites
% Split
50
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40
35
30
25
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source: Google keyword estimation tool

12. 12 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Most visible consumer finance brands in search: key highlights
Key findings of the report:
• The most important non-brand keyword markets in online consumer finance are insurance and loans which have a collective 69% of
the total search impression volume.
• Of this group, car insurance is the most dominant product category with 22% of all search impression volume. High rankings within
this market are critical for maximising visibility within consumer finance.
• The pay day loan sub vertical is one of the fastest growing keyword markets and has grown by 218% since the start of the financial
crisis in 2008, with the single biggest increase occurring in 2011.
• 85.13% of all brand related search impression volume comes from just 8 financial retailers including Barclays Bank, HSBC, RBS, Nat-
West, Lloyds TSB, Halifax Bank and Santander.
• Money Supermarket is the leading price comparison site with the largest share of brand search impression volume.
• Price comparison sites such as Money Supermarket and Gocompare are absorbing critical organic real estate. Many traditional retail
financial operators are jostling for premium positions within the SERPs to maximise their exposure competition and this is only set to
continue.
• A key challenge for many of the traditional retail banks is that they are competing with a diverse range of brands. At one end of the
spectrum are the likes of the price comparison sites like Money Supermarket and Compare The Market while at the other, supermarket
giants Tesco and Sainsbury’s offer the same types of products as high street banks, at competitive prices.
• Keywords like ISA, mortgage and travel insurance are heavily driven by fluctuations in seasonality. The real winners are those brands
who are able to maintain high consistent organic rankings as well as being able to deploy a cost-effective PPC campaign during peak
periods.
• Despite the economic downturn following the financial crisis in 2008, recent trend analysis shows a gradual increase in volume during
2011 for the current account sub vertical.
• first direct has the largest paid click share with 14.73% for the keyword market current accounts. However, with less than five percent
between the top five this lead is marginal and is indicative of the strength of competition within the market.
• Competition within the savings market is intense. Although Money Supermarket is leading with a click share of 22.82%, this lead is
only small (2.5%) over second place MoneySavingExpert

13. 13
• When we aggregate Money Supermarket’s paid and organic click share for the sub vertical mortgages their dominance is wholesale.
With 36.13%, this is 22.14% ahead of their nearest rival Barclays Bank.
• 63% of the organic click share index for the sub vertical savings is dominated by price comparison sites. For the keyword best savings
rates the first seven places within the index are occupied by aggregators.
• As a direct challenge to the large aggregators, Google has launched their own price comparison site within the keyword markets for
credit cards, current accounts and savings.
• As part of an aggressive strategy to maximum exposure, Google has positioned their own sponsored listings directly above the organic
results and the use of images makes the ads appear more imposing than normal paid search results.
• Gocompare’s aggregated click share of 19.28% is indicative of an aggressive paid and organic search strategy making them a leading
brand within the home insurance sub-vertical.
• While InsureandGo struggled to breach into the top echelons of the organic click share index, they have cornered paid search with an
impressive 19.26%, dominating 90% of the top 10 keywords.
• The only pay day loan operator which has maintained a stable position ranking is Payday UK, while PayDayExpress, Wonga and Pay-
DayPower have all been subjected to dramatic shifts in their organic rankings.
• These high levels of volatility within the organic rankings for pay days loans makes paid search an essential channel for delivering
consistent exposure.
• Among the retail banks, social media remains a relatively under developed channel, with many operators not integrating their main
site with key social media assets such as Facebook and Twitter.
• Those brands that do leverage social media are using their assets to support their customer relationship management processes.
• Compare The Market’s top position within the social media score card is underpinned by the cross pollination of their “Compare the
Meerkat” brand campaign which gives them one of the highest engagement scores.
• Supermarket giant Tesco Bank is the next leading brand, developing a social strategy that has the most robust balance between en-
gagement quality and volume.
“While traditional search
marketing channels form part of
the strategic staple diet, social
media remains underdeveloped
within the consumer finance
sector.”

15. 78 ABOUT US
About Stickyeyes
Stickyeyes is an international digital marketing agency with an award winning pedigree in SEO, PPC & display, content creation, social
media, blogger engagement, PR, design & development, mobile, conversion optimisation and insight.
A wide variety of blue chip companies and prestigious brands (including many household names) utilise Stickyeyes’ expertise to provide
innovative, effective and creative marketing solutions in incredibly competitive sectors, including retail, travel, gaming and professional and
financial services amongst others.
Stickyeyes was recently named as one of the fastest growing technology, media and telecoms companies in the UK in the Sunday Times
Tech Track 100 and is the first agency in Europe to achieve Mobile Marketing Association accreditation for its entire client-facing team.
W : stickyeyes.com
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About the Author
Philip McGuin, Head of Insight and Market Research at Stickyeyes has 15 years’ experience in the areas of online marketing, performance
based lead generation as well as, data analysis techniques including web metrics, portfolio score carding, attribution, econometrics and
statistical modelling.
He has worked both client and agency side for a range of sectors including public bodies such as European Parliament, European Commis-
sion promoting the EU’s policy on Information and Communication Technology (ICT ) as well as the Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI), marketing policy on e-Government. He has also extensive experience in the private sector as Head of Marketing for an enterprise
software provider Atlantic Global as well as the Head of Online Marketing for one of the UK’s first private online higher education training
providers - Kaplan. Prior to his career in the private sector Philip worked as a doctoral research fellow in Economics, Politics and History.

16. 79
Want to know more?
If you have any questions on the findings or would like to speak to one of the team about maximising the ROI of your search and social
strategies please contact:
Philip McGuin John McCambley
Head of Insight Marketing Manager
0113 391 2929 0113 391 2929
phil.mcguin@stickyeyes.com john.mccambley@stickyeyes.com
Disclaimer
The information contained in this report is for reference purposes only. Although every effort has been made to ensure accuracy
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