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Mobile banking isn’t news anymore—it’s the baseline. Nine out of ten checking-account interactions now start on a phone [Chase Study], and the average U.S. consumer opens their banking app 17 times a month [American Bankers Association]. So for banks and credit unions, the challenge has shifted from whether or how to get started with mobile marketing to how to cut through a news-feed full of fintechs, retailers, and influencers competing for the same thumb-scroll.
It means designing campaigns for the phone from the ground up—vertical video, thumb‑friendly CTAs, and first‑party app data—because that’s where customers spend most of their time. It’s not just downsizing desktop creative. At RAIN, we focus on mobile because smartphones now drive the majority of banking interactions and ad clicks, making them the most efficient touchpoint for reaching and converting customers.
Below are 4 compelling reasons mobile marketing strategies give community institutions an edge, turning everyday screen time into deeper relationships, higher product adoption, and measurable ROI.
Studies like this one [American Phone Usage & Screen Time Statistics] show that Americans are on their phones for 4-6.5 hours every day for a variety of purposes, many of which can be meaningfully leveraged for advertising and marketing.
Marketing with a mobile-first approach means meeting these users where they already are, using phone-specific tactics such as in-app ads, short-form vertical video, animated banner units, and content built expressly for social platforms.
These methods remain critical for capturing tech-native Millennial and Gen Z audiences—and the rising Gen Alpha cohort—for whom mobile banking and digital financial tools are expectations, not novelties.
Advertising on the channels they prefer not only enhances user experience and fosters loyal, lifelong customers and members; it also positions your financial institution as forward-thinking, future-proof, and attuned to clients’ needs.
This one might seem a little counterintuitive — if people are on their phones, aren’t they disconnected from the physical world? More and more, the answer is no.
Mobile technology offers innumerable ways to engage with local communities — from reviewing and suggesting local businesses, to getting information about news and events, to connecting with community-based groups.
Geotargeting and other location-based services built into mobile technologies let you market to banking customers within a specific physical radius. Geofenced marketing campaigns can deliver helpful, relevant messages directly to people in your area, aligned with both their immediate needs and their proximity (Special note: paid ad campaigns must align with special ad category restrictions with respect to radius minimums).
And when digital marketing to your local community is helpful and relevant, offline interactions follow — like increased foot traffic to physical branch locations, and a stronger sense of community belonging for your customers and members.
People want to feel invested in their cities and neighborhoods, and — however ironic it may be — mobile marketing can help take them there.
We’re all aware (and, OK, a little afraid) of the massive heaps of consumer data available to businesses and advertisers. Regardless of how we feel about this data, one thing remains true: used well and in combination with first-party data, it facilitates the most customizable, testable, and efficient financial marketing features available to date.
With insights derived from fintech marketing analytics tools, your financial institution can make incredibly precise marketing decisions—and for far less capital than traditional ad campaigns.
We’re talking ad spend matched to your budgets and needs, targeting the exact customers you want to reach — based not on demographics, but on user interests, behaviors, and life events. Data insights can go far beyond where people live and what they do, to what their specific financial goals are and who has previously shown interest in your FI’s products or competing financial services.
By predicting with considerable accuracy which messages, personalized offers and recommendations will resonate, you’ll increase trust and connection with your audience, leading to new conversions and improving customer retention rates.
Plus, the same analytics tools can tell us how well your campaigns are working. If they miss the mark, you’ll know right away and we can adjust our creative, targeting, or several other factors. These abilities allow us to make the most efficient use of every dollar you spend on advertising.
Simply put: There’s no better way to track ROI, iterate and improve marketing than with the data-driven insights today’s mobile marketing technologies provide.
Anyone who has ever run a digital ad campaign knows that clicks don’t magically transform into customers. The beauty of mobile marketing is that by pinpointing the right confluence of message, audience, and timing, you won’t end up with a whole bunch of clicks and no conversions.
Picture this: a member spends only minutes with a teller, yet carries your banking app, push alerts, and interactive offers with them everywhere they go. That pocket‑level presence is the stuff long‑term relationships are made of (if you can capture their attention with the right messaging).
Interactive advertising formats, including videos, quizzes, gamification, and more, can go a long way toward winning customers’ attention and encouraging active participation with your brand. The result is a feedback loop—more engagement, richer data, sharper personalization—that boosts satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value.
Executed well, a privacy‑first mobile strategy places your brand in the channel where most banking journeys now start, transforming everyday scrolls into qualified leads, stronger community connections, and perpetually improving, data‑driven personalization. Because every tap feeds an encrypted feedback loop—built only on consented, first‑party signals and fully compliant with CCPA/CPRA and platform rules—mobile campaigns deliver lower cost‑per‑acquisition and higher lifetime value without compromising trust.
Ready to see which mobile tactics will resonate most with your audience and elevate your institution?
Fill out the contact form below and let’s map out the next steps together.
Most of our clients like us enough they stick with us for the long term. We think you will too.
