The Financial Services category is typically a front-runner on digital in terms of spend. The enormous category encompasses everything from insurance and banking, to tax filing software and credit score monitoring. The niche verticals within the behemoth category represent individually competitive marketplaces, with every brand involved fighting for a piece of the revenue pie. As more and more consumers are managing their finances online, digital advertising has become a critical channel for brands to invest in.
Credit reporting companies, such as TransUnion, shell out serious digital ad dollars every year in an attempt to get your attention. Chances are, after filling out your credit information once, you will use that service again instead of repeating the process. As the credit reporting vertical gears up for their next big wave of spending - usually late Spring to early Summer - let’s take a look at the most popular ad types used by the top credit reporting companies. Here is a peak into the digital strategies of Credit Karma, Equifax, Experian Consumer Services, and TransUnion for 2016.
Credit Karma
The most common ad type used by Credit Karma in 2016 was the HTML5 standard display creative 728x90. Seventeen percent of the brand’s spend went towards this ad type, and the format represented over 28% of the unique display creatives released by the brand last year. The largest investment went to desktop 970x250 HTML5 creatives, consuming over 39% of the brand's digital budget but representing only 11% of the total creatives released.
| Device | Creative Type | Size | Number of Creatives | Percent Total | Spend | Spend Share |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 728x90 | 765 | 28.3% | $1,248,325 | 16.5% |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 300x250 | 723 | 26.7% | $1,452,547 | 19.2% |
| Mobile | HTML5 | 300x250 | 394 | 14.6% | $74,570 | 1% |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 970x250 | 295 | 10.9% | $2,979,132 | 39.3% |
| Mobile | HTML5 | 728x90 | 131 | 4.8% | $29,011 | .4% |
Equifax
Equifax preferred the Medium Rectangle 300x250 HTML5 display format in 2016, investing 35% of their total spend towards the ad type. The ad type also yielded over 718M impressions for the brand - 34% of the total brand’s total impressions for the year. The second top ad type investment for Equifax was the HTML5 standard display 728x90, with 23% of the brand’s ad spend.
On mobile, the top ad type was also the 300x250 HTML5 creative representing 13% of all of the cross-channel creatives released, however the brand only spent 4% of their budget on this format.
| Device | Creative Type | Size | Number of Creatives | Percent Total | Spend | Spend Share |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 300x250 | 417 | 23.8% | $2,350,689 | 35% |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 728x90 | 402 | 22.9% | $1,546,812 | 23% |
| Mobile | HTML5 | 300x250 | 221 | 12.6% | $264,473 | 3.9% |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 160x600 | 185 | 10.6% | $328,536 | 4.9% |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 300x600 | 128 | 7.3% | $315,752 | 4.7% |
Experian
Also a fan of the Medium Rectangle 300x250 HTML5 display creative, Experian invested 9% of their digital budget towards this ad type. The brand advertised across desktop, mobile, and video throughout last year, releasing 45 different ad types in total. The second top ad type by spend was the standard 728x90 HTML5 display creative, with 7% spend share. Eleven percent of the creatives released were mobile 300x250 HTML5 ads, but the ad-type only represented just over one percent of the brand’s spend.
The largest investment was on the forty-five 640x360 video creatives that took 64% of the brand’s budget. Only 5% of the brand’s total creatives were this ad type, but it bought in the most impressions - and cost the most.
| Device | Creative Type | Size | Number of Creatives | Percent Total | Spend | Spend Share |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 300x250 | 126 | 15.2% | $674,696 | 8.7% |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 728x90 | 108 | 13% | $544,486 | 7% |
| Mobile | HTML5 | 300x250 | 87 | 10.5% | $98,452 | 1.3% |
| Mobile | HTML5 | 728x90 | 45 | 5.4% | $44,072 | .6% |
| Desktop | Image | 300x250 | 33 | 4% | $293,350 | 3.8% |
TransUnion
The top spender of the group dropped thirty percent of their 2016 digital budget on Medium Rectangle 300x250 HTML5 creatives. The ad type brought in over 1.6B impressions for the brand and represented 21% of the creatives released. Following in trend with the competition, the second top ad type for the brand was a banner desktop 728x90 HTML5 creative size consuming 21% of the TransUnion’s digital spend share.
| Device | Creative Type | Size | Number of Creatives | Percent Total | Spend | Spend Share |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 300x250 | 85 | 20.5% | $4,931,624 | 31% |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 728x90 | 64 | 15.4% | $3,350,335 | 21% |
| Desktop | HTML5 | 160x600 | 30 | 7.2% | $915,700 | 5.7% |
| Desktop | Image | 300x250 | 29 | 7% | $2,718,003 | 17.1% |
| Desktop | Image | 160x600 | 21 | 5.1% | $386,427 | 2.4% |
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Source: Pathmatics US Desktop, Mobile, and Video Data, January 1st, 2016 - December 31st, 2016.
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