How to Target and Convert Credit Card Searchers: US Market

Key Search Trends & Audience Insights

Reaching credit card seekers early in their research phase (before the competition does) is the key for most credit card brands. In this report, we explore keyword trends, audience behavior, and other examples of how brands can use strategic insights to reach credit card searchers first.

Unbranded Searches: SEO Opportunities

“Branded” searches (those that include a brand name) are by far the most common amongst credit card searches, because most consumers begin research with specific store rewards or banks already in mind.

However, “unbranded” search terms represent an opportunity for credit card companies to compete for SEO rankings by incorporating highly organic keywords into their website metadata and content strategy. Below, we see several opportunities where travel credit cards in particular have strong opportunities to rank organically.

Branded Searches: Non-Financial

Below are the top 10 branded credit card searches (from from financial brands). These retail cards are extremely popular, and add up to well over half of the top 100 credit card searches.

We see several patterns amongst branded credit card searches in the last three years:

– Walmart has consistently lost search share
– Best Buy has held steady and only eclipsed Walmart in the last few months
– Amazon has shown the most growth, with over 2X credit card searches since 2014

Branded Searches: Financial

Here, we share all of the credit card search variations (out of the top 100 searches) which include brand names of banks or financial institutions.

Chase sits in the number one spot with the highest share of credit card searches, although this was not always the case. At one point, “capital one credit card” held nearly 7% of all credit card searches.

Let’s explore what happened, and several ways Capital One might be able to regain traction.

Spotlight: Capital One

Searches for “capital one credit card” have fallen YOY, down a total of 95% since April of 2014.

In spite of challenges, several Capital One terms have been steadily growing, particularly for cards like Quicksilver, Venture, and Spark. This suggests that building the brand value of specific cards is paying off, and can provide strategic advantages within search marketing.

Another strategy is to capture interested consumers earlier in their journey. Below are the top five news publications that Capital One credit card searchers visit before hitting a credit card or banking site. The Daily Mail and several local news sites represent a key opportunity to reach interested consumers before they hit Capital One’s website—or that of a competitor.

Spotlight: American Express

In contrast to Capital One, American Express pulls a smaller percentage of credit card searchers. How can Amex better reach their niche audience? One area where Amex credit cad searchers stand out is their engagement with social media before hitting a financial website. Based on the information below, Amex might consider allocating more funds towards advertising and retargeting on YouTube and Twitter, rather than Facebook.

Amex is known for pulling older customers, but attracting young consumers will be key to their future. Amex credit card searchers actually over-index for consumers aged 25-34. However, when compared to the index of actual Amex cardholders, there appears to be a huge drop-off amongst older Millenials, especially men aged 25-34. How could American Express better nurture this untapped audience?

Source: Data pulled using Hitwise Intelligence and AudienceView, based on search terms that indicate interest in credit cards. Search share & traffic percentages rebased from top 100 searches. YOY charts are from 4/19/2014 through 4/13/2017.