2025 Financial Marketing Intelligence Study
The State of Analytics, Automation, and Cross-Channel Performance in U.S. Banking
A Joint Report by MarketingBanks.com Research Group & Richardson Marketing (richardsonmktg.com)
Executive Summary
In Q1–Q3 of 2025, MarketingBanks.com Research Group partnered with Richardson Marketing to conduct a nationwide assessment of how banks and credit unions are actually using modern marketing tools — analytics platforms, CRMs, automation systems, and multichannel advertising.
The study gathered data from 147 financial institutions across 31 states ranging in size from $180M to $38B in assets. The findings were blunt:
- 71% of banks report “significant difficulty” tying marketing spend to product conversions.
- 63% of digital teams admit they “do not fully trust” the accuracy of their own analytics setups.
- 58% say their CRM contains incomplete or outdated customer data.
- Only 14% have a functioning cross-channel attribution model.
- And despite heavy investment, nearly half (48%) rated their automation performance as “below expectations.”
What emerged is a banking industry entering 2026 with modern tools… but no unified strategy to make them work together. The average bank is running GA4, a CRM, an email platform, some kind of automation tool — but the systems are stitched together poorly, measurements are inconsistent, and marketing decisions rely more on instinct than data.
This report breaks down why this is happening, what it costs institutions, and the practical steps banks can take right now to modernize their marketing operations.
The Fragmentation Crisis in Bank Marketing Data
The most common theme across survey responses was fragmentation — data stored in too many places, collected inconsistently, and impossible to unify.
Key Findings
1.1 Data Lives in Too Many Systems
Respondents listed an average of 6.3 separate platforms housing customer data:
- Online banking platform
- Mobile app analytics
- GA4 web analytics
- Loan origination systems
- CRM
- Email/automation tools
- Branch systems
Only 9% had all those systems connected.
1.2 GA4 Adoption Without GA4 Understanding
More than 80% of institutions confirmed they migrated to GA4 — but only 11% said their team “fully understands” how event-based analytics work.
Common frustrations:
- “We don’t know what’s actually being tracked.”
- “Dashboards don’t match our internal numbers.”
- “Multiple versions of the truth depending on who you ask.”
1.3 CRM Databases Are Full of Holes
CRM adoption is high, but quality is low:
- 58%: outdated or incomplete data
- 44%: duplicate contact records
- 39%: missing lifecycle histories
- 33%: no customer segmentation strategy
Institutions keep buying features instead of fixing fundamentals.
Automation in Banking: The Big Investment With the Small Return
Banks know they need automation — email nurturing, onboarding flows, triggered alerts — but most institutions are failing to use automation in ways that actually drive product usage.
Key Findings
2.1 Automation Is Underperforming
When asked to rate their automation results:
- 48%: below expectations
- 32%: inconsistent
- 20%: satisfactory
- 0%: excellent
Not a single bank surveyed claimed their automation was “optimized.”
2.2 Poor Data → Poor Automation
Almost every automation failure traced back to the same root cause: bad data feeding the system.
When the CRM is incomplete, automation breaks:
- Incorrect product recommendations
- Triggers not firing
- Outdated customer journeys
- Abandoned leads that never get followed up
The tools aren’t the issue — the data is.
2.3 Lack of Marketing-Ops Roles
Only 7% of banks had a dedicated “Marketing Operations” or “Marketing Technology” lead — the role that glues analytics, CRM, and automation together.
Without that role, tools become disconnected islands.
Multichannel Blindness: Banks Can’t See Across Channels
Modern bank marketing spans:
- Google Ads
- Facebook/Instagram
- YouTube
- In-branch promotions
- Website personalization
- Direct mail
- Mobile app messaging
But 86% of respondents said they have no unified view of customer behavior across these channels.
3.1 Attribution Is Almost Nonexistent
Only 14% of respondents had implemented any form of attribution modeling — linear, position-based, or data-driven.
Most rely on:
- Last-click
- Gut instinct
- “The channel that shouts the loudest”
3.2 Wasted Budget Due to Lack of Insight
Based on estimates from participating institutions, the average mid-tier bank wastes:
- $380K–$1.1M per year on digital spend that cannot be tied to outcomes.
This is not fraud.
This is not mismanagement.
This is blindness created by disconnected systems.
What Banks Actually Want (And Aren’t Getting)
Survey participants were asked to list their top frustrations in 2025. The most common were:
- “I want to know which campaigns actually drive account openings.”
- “I want clean data so automation works.”
- “I want our CRM to show the whole customer journey.”
- “I want GA4 reports that actually match our numbers.”
- “I want a full-funnel view of performance.”
Banks don’t want more tools.
They want their existing tools to finally work.
The Marketing Framework: Six Core Fixes Banks Need in 2026
The study concludes with six recommendations from Richardson Marketing — each one expanded below in detail — based on gaps observed across the industry.
1. Build a Unified Measurement Framework Before You Touch Another Tool
Most failures come from the lack of a clear measurement plan.
Banks should map:
- Primary KPIs (actual conversions)
- Secondary KPIs (signals leading to conversions)
- Cross-channel paths to conversion
- Consistent naming conventions
- Standardized event sets across GA4, CRM, and automation
This is the foundation. Without it, no tool will deliver clarity.
2. Rebuild GA4 From the Ground Up (Not a Patch Job)
GA4 only works when:
- Events are properly defined
- Conversions are configured
- Duplicate/ghost events are removed
- Cross-domain tracking is correct
- App + web streams are consolidated
- Dashboards are aligned to business KPIs
In institutions where GA4 had been rebuilt following best practices, data trust improved by 73%.
3. Clean and Unify CRM Data Into a True Single Customer View
Banks need:
- De-duplication and identity resolution
- Standardized customer attributes
- Lifecycle mapping
- Behavioral tagging
- Product holding datasets
- Historical data stitching
Once a unified profile exists, automation and segmentation start producing real results.
4. Redesign Automation as a Lifecycle Engine, Not a Batch-and-Blast Tool
Automation must follow customer life stages:
- New prospect
- Lead nurturing
- New member onboarding
- Product cross-sell
- Retention
- Win-back
Institutions that rebuilt automation around lifecycle touchpoints saw:
- 40–60% lift in product application rates
- 22% lift in engagement
- 15% decrease in churn
5. Implement True Cross-Channel Attribution
This report recommends a three-phase approach:
Phase A: Channel-level cost + conversion visibility
Start simple: connect spend and results.
Phase B: Multi-touch modeling
Understand how channels work together.
Phase C: Predictive and segment-level attribution
Attribute value at the customer level, not just the campaign level.
Institutions in the pilot group reduced wasted spend by 25–38% after attribution was implemented.
6. Add a Marketing Operations Function — Even a Team of One
Every high-performing bank in the study had one shared trait:
A single person or small team responsible for:
- Analytics configuration
- CRM maintenance
- Automation mapping
- Data integrity
- Tag governance
- Reporting
This “marketing ops” function is the glue that transforms scattered tools into a unified engine.
SECTION 6:
Conclusion: Banks Don’t Need More Software. They Need a System.
The financial institutions that will win in 2026 are not the ones buying the newest tools — they’re the ones integrating what they already have, removing data silos, and building a clear measurement structure.
Richardson Marketing (richardsonmktg.com) helped develop this study because we see the same pattern across the industry:
Banks aren’t failing due to lack of effort. They’re failing due to lack of alignment.
With the right framework, tools that once felt confusing or unreliable become powerful.
Campaigns become predictable.
Budgets become measurable.
Automation becomes intelligent.
And leadership finally sees the value of marketing in terms that matter: revenue, retention, and growth.
