What to budget for digital marketing as a financial services firm

Fibvo editorial · 21 October 2023 · 4 min read

Most generic marketing budget frameworks do not account for the compliance review step that financial services content genuinely requires. Leaving it out of the budget either means it does not happen properly, or it becomes an unplanned bottleneck that slows every campaign.

What the spend typically covers

• Website and disclosure content maintenance, including regular compliance review.
• Targeted Google Ads on specific product and eligibility terms, within advertiser verification requirements.
• Educational content production, which carries lower compliance risk and often performs well.
• Marketing automation tooling with proper audit trail capability.

Why volume-based rules of thumb undercount the real cost

A financial services marketing budget needs to include legal and compliance review time as a real line item, not an assumed free resource — this is often the biggest gap between a generic budget template and what the work actually requires.

Compliance review is not overhead on top of financial services marketing — it is a required part of the marketing process itself.

Adjusting for regulatory change

Budget extra capacity for content review in any quarter where relevant regulation changes — a new RBI, SEBI or IRDAI circular can require updating disclosure content across the entire site quickly.

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Written by Fibvo — Bengaluru and Erode, India — working with clients in other time zones. Questions, or think we have it wrong? Tell us.