Marketing has become a pressure cooker and digital agencies are feeling the heat. That’s partly because ongoing economic concerns are impacting marketing spend. Some forecasts predicted continued growth in ad spend in 2023, but at a much slower rate than the previous two years.¹ Other sources suggest that global advertisers have cut their total media budgets by nearly 30 percent.² 

Competition for tight marketing dollars is high. Digital agencies must find ways to stand out and deliver a compelling ROI. 

Here, we share how an often-overlooked component—the data powering your digital strategies—can electrify your campaigns. And with the right data, you can help your clients grow their business, in any economy. 

Everything starts with the right data. 

Think about hyper-personalized advertising, omnichannel marketing, and more of today's marketing trends. They are all powered by one common ingredient: data. 

Without access to the right data, you can’t connect your client strategies to the right audiences. And by the “right audiences,” we mean those who are: 

1. likely interested in your clients’ products and services; and 

2. financially durable with the steady ability to spend regardless of financial stress due to job losses, pay cuts, or economic downturns.

These consumers have strong potential to deliver immediate and long-term revenue gains. They are the sweet spot digital agencies should be striving to reach. Now, let’s dig a little deeper to better understand this sought-after audience and the data you need to find them. 

What exactly is financial durability (and why does it matter)? 

Agencies sometimes use basic demographics or standard measures of income to identify and target high-potential audiences. The problem is, this doesn’t capture the bigger picture of financial durability. A consumer’s capacity to save, spend, and invest during stressful economic conditions is an important consideration in today’s economic environment.

Instead of estimated income ranges based on paycheck alone, imagine a better alternative. Try continuous dollar values of total estimated income—up to $2 million. Values that include income from wages, investments, businesses and retirement funds. Then imagine, seeing beyond income to better understand total financial capacity with clear visibility into measures of affluence, discretionary spending, financial durability and credit usage. 

It’s game-changing insight that can help your agency in several important ways.  

• Unlock faster, more efficient paths to revenue. Pinpointing financially durable consumers among groups with similar demographics and credit scores can help improve efficiency and ROI. You'll sharpen your campaign focus, optimize resources, and reduce spend.  

• Craft personalized moments that “wow” audiences. With nuanced views of financial resilience, you can create tailored campaigns that meet more discerning audiences where they are in life and motivate them to act. Likewise, you can predict and trigger “next best” offers throughout the customer journey to drive incremental revenue gains. 

• Seize market growth opportunities. Combining financial durability insights with standard household demographics can provide eye-opening views of opportunity markets. You’ll uncover new pockets of high-yield audiences that were previously hidden from view. Similarly, you can identify geographic hotspots with clusters of financially durable consumers to help your clients intelligently expand their campaigns and identify potential new business locations. 

How do you gauge financial durability?

At Equifax, we use a specialized mix of proprietary data to measure financial durability. It spans the following categories:  

• Income from financial inflows, plus total estimated income from business and retirement funds. 

• Affluence derived from our exclusive foundation of $27 trillion in anonymous U.S. consumer investable assets.

• Spending power based on funds available to spend, save or invest after paying for fixed expenses.

• Credit capacity compiled from aggregated credit needs and behaviors. 

Together, these dynamic insights offer an expanded financial view of consumers that helps you expertly align campaigns with the wants, needs and preferences of lucrative audiences. You'll be in a better position to meet the revenue goals of your clients, no matter the economic situation. 

How does this approach translate into real-life results?

When you can focus your campaigns—and your clients’ marketing dollars—on niche audiences who have the interest and financial capacity to spend or save, you set the table for future success. Campaign efficiency improves, as do response rates and conversion rates. Your clients can build relationships with consumers who can become great customers.

At Equifax, we know this because we’ve seen it firsthand. We help organizations of all sizes use financial durability insights in creative ways. We help elevate marketing programs with outcomes oftentimes far exceeding their expectations.  

• A regional bank was able to shrink its target audience by 90 percent. It also grew its invested asset opportunity by a stunning 900 percent and increased its deposit opportunity by 500 percent.

• An automotive dealer narrowed potential sites for new dealership locations by 50 percent. 

• A travel company narrowed its target audience by 25 percent, lowering its costs associated with timeshare tours.

• An alternative finance firm achieved a 15 percent lift in response rates. 

These real-life results barely scratch the surface of what’s possible with the right data. It’s the secret ingredient for higher-performing campaigns that differentiate your agency and consistently deliver better results for your clients. Want to further explore the concept of financial durability and how to use Economic Insights data in your campaigns? Check out our eBook, 3 Ways Digital Agencies Can Power Smarter Marketing Strategies with Data.

 

1 Global Ad Spend Forecast for 2023 | Study (marketingprofs.com)

2 2023_Media_Budgets_Flash_Survey_Results.pdf