By Mark Gibson
ABA’s most recent member survey probes how bank marketers are planning to allocate their budgets next year, and which media channels are performing the best. The survey was fielded among 88 respondents between June and July 2025. Consistent with last year’s survey and with general advertising industry trends, digital media such as display advertising and paid search will receive a larger share of the advertising pie. Direct mail tops the list among traditional or analog channels in terms of investment, probably because its financial impact is also measurable.
In terms of ROI, paid search, display and social media advertising ranked highest. For these reasons, as well as the fact that channel performance is easier to measure, digital media continues to account for the majority of bank advertising spend.
Marketing investment trends in 2026
Bank marketers have been nothing if not consistent over the past few years. When asked which media they are shifting dollars to, digital channels dominate. Eighty-three percent are increasing digital advertising, while 63% are growing search engine marketing or optimization. Social media comes in at 45%, and 31% are increasing their email marketing budgets.
This multi-year trend reflects that, since the inflection point of the COVID-19 pandemic, bank marketing budgets have been under increased scrutiny, and marketers have shifted dollars to channels that are more easily measurable and where the financial benefit is more quantifiable.
Along those same lines, marketers plan to increase their spending on the top traditional channel, direct mail, which has more measurable sales results. Twenty-three percent of respondents planned to increase their direct mail budgets next year.
How these spend trends compare to other industries
Advertisers in other industries also continue shifting dollars from traditional channels to digital media. According to Nielsen’s 2025 report on shifting spend between traditional and digital channels, social media and paid search advertising receive the most budget allocation and are also increasing year over year. One interesting difference between other industries and banks is their commitment to video, including smart TV and digital video. Other industries commit nearly 15% of their total budget to digital video advertising, and they are continuing to grow the video budget, albeit only at a 2% annual rate. While video was not a specific category in the bank survey, only 7% of bank marketers anticipate increasing their TV budgets in 2026.
Another significant difference was bank marketers’ commitment to direct mail. While only 3% of the budget for other industries was allocated to mail, and it was being held flat, bank marketers spend a larger percentage of their budget on direct mail, and 23% are planning to increase that spend in 2026.
Source: Nielsen Annual Marketing Report 2025
Channels with the best ROI
The recent ABA survey also explored which advertising channels perform the best in terms of return on investment. Search engine marketing and digital advertising rated the highest, followed by social media and email marketing. Traditional media channels that performed best were outdoor and direct mail.
The survey findings for banks are very consistent with benchmarks in other industries. From an ROI standpoint, digital channels such as SEO and paid search, email, and social media are often highlighted as top performers. Regarding traditional channels, direct mail continues to be cited as the channel with the highest return, probably because it shares characteristics with digital, such as precise targeting, performance measurement, and attribution.
Digital channels dominate the media ‘pie’
Digital media passed the 50% threshold several years ago and today makes up more than 60% of a typical bank’s media mix, with traditional media such as direct mail, print, radio, and TV accounting for the remainder. Given the survey respondents’ intent to increase digital spending, the proportion allocated to digital media will likely grow to 65 or 70% in 2026. This is consistent with most industries, although some, like large automotive and retail firms, allocate 70% and 46% of their budgets to traditional media, respectively. Those categories find traditional media necessary for a broad audience reach and brand awareness building.
Regarding what these channels are being deployed to accomplish, survey respondents indicated that new customer acquisition was the number one business objective, followed by customer retention, which likely includes relationship deepening.
Summary and conclusions
This year’s bank marketers survey results are consistent with previous years, documenting a steady shift from traditional media channels to digital alternatives. Bank marketers are following in the footsteps of their peers in other industries, doubling down on digital channels such as paid search, display and social media advertising. In addition, email is a top-performing channel, especially for existing customers. Direct mail rounds out the top-performing and growing channels. All these channels share the benefit of allowing discrete targeting and being able to correlate and measure revenue growth.
One apparent difference between banks and other industries is the level of commitment to digital video. While not explicitly asked in the survey, other industries appear to spend more in this channel and plan to grow that commitment in 2026. Another interesting difference involved specific categories like automotive and retail. These industries spend much more on traditional channels like TV and print than bankers or other industries do for brand building and traffic generation.
Getting the media mix right is one of the most important tasks a bank marketer does since it can make a meaningful difference to a bank’s bottom line. The evidence is clear that marketers are taking this responsibility seriously, doing their best to measure ROI and allocate funds to the best-performing channels.
Mark Gibson is co-leader of the sales and marketing practice at Capital Performance Group, a strategic consulting firm that helps financial institutions maximize the ROI of their marketing efforts. He can also be reached on LinkedIn or at mark.gibson@capitalperform. com.
