Background

At GOBankingRates, the Financial Advisor category quickly became our highest-traffic vertical, highlighting significant demand from both consumers and clients. However, the existing ad experience lacked interactive elements and qualification inputs, limiting our ability to connect effectively with prospective clients.

Working closely with my team of interns, I was tasked with developing a new interactive solution aimed at engaging and "soft-qualifying" consumers, with the potential to unlock up to $1M/month in additional client demand.

Addressing this challenge was essential for strengthening client partnerships and growing the Financial Advisor business.

Goal: Create new ad experience that boosts user engagement and supports client demands

Requirements & Strategy

The success of this initiative relied heavily on strong cross-functional collaboration. A working group was established with key stakeholders from Sales, Marketing/Media, and Tech to support this effort. This group gathered relevant insights and past learnings that helped shape the design requirements, development process, and go-to-market strategy:

Requirements

The widget must be fully responsive, with an optimized experience for mobile users.
The widget should include a “soft qualification” feature, guiding users through an input + button click interaction.
Primary inputs for generating listings must include “Zip Code” and “Savings Amount”.

Tech Considerations

Use existing geo-targeting logic and savings requirements from internal system to generate listings.
Listings will update upon button click. Clients who do not require 'soft qualify' will be displayed on page load.

Go-to-Market Test Plan

Test against original ad experience on the Financial Advisor category on site:

1M visitors, 5%MDE
Success Metric: CTR, +20% or more
Est: 6 weeks

If successful, roll out to the rest of the site. Present new experience to prospects in upcoming discovery sales calls.

Research

To guide the development of the Financial Advisor Widget, competitive analysis, industry research, and insights from past projects and best practices were leveraged. These efforts provided a clear understanding of the competitive landscape, identified areas of optimizations for the proposed ad experiences, and offered valuable insights into the target audience. Key research findings included:

Emphasizing Trust Through Detailed Listings
Selecting a financial advisor is a personal decision for consumers who prioritize trust. Our research underscored the value of trust-building content, prompting us to expand advisor listings to showcase qualifications and approach, strengthening connections with potential clients.
Boosting Engagement with Interactive Formats
Competitors increasingly use interactive formats over traditional display ads, which proved effective in engaging users. Our prior testing confirmed that interactive elements and organic product experiences significantly enhance user engagement on our site.
Leveraging High-Contrast Colors for Increased Engagement
Testing revealed that using orange as a high-contrast color against the brand’s traditional green significantly boosted user engagement and conversions. This insight guided us to incorporate orange elements strategically within the Financial Advisor Widget to draw attention to key actions, enhancing visibility and encouraging user interactions.

Prototyping

Initial Sketches

In the initial phase, rapid prototypes of early concepts were developed and presented to stakeholders for feedback. Based on their input and findings from a parallel technical feasibility review, the designs were refined to align with user needs and technical constraints, enabling swift adaptation and optimization of the widget experience.

Key feedback included:

Increase the number of listings displayed on screen
Add a tooltip to the “savings amount” input
Display listings immediately upon page load
Add necessary sponsorship/disclosure details

Informal Usability Testing

To validate the design direction, informal usability testing was conducted with willing participants, including co-workers, friends, and family. This enabled real-time identification of decision-making patterns and usability challenges. This streamlined approach delivered actionable feedback on the widget’s clarity and functionality, driving rapid improvements for a smoother user experience. Updates were made based on key insights:

Reducing User Friction with Simplified Inputs
Users were uncertain of their exact savings amount and felt uncomfortable providing an estimate. Converting the savings input to a dropdown menu would help reduce the mental burden and make the input process easier for users.
Guiding Users with Actionable Instructions
Clear instructions are essential to guide users smoothly through the widget experience. Testing showed that users felt uncertain without an initial prompt, underscoring the need for concise, visible guidance to enhance usability and reduce confusion.

Final Solution

Key features of the design solutions:

Display of standard advisors (no soft-qualify requirement) on page load, ensuring options are always visible to users
Enhanced focus on advisor listings by utilizing a compact, interactive area
Dropdown menu for savings input to reduce user mental load
Short, clear instructions to guide users through the experience

Outcome

Early testing demonstrated the following:

A 28% increase in click-through-rate (CTR) compared to our original ad experience
Generating an additional $78k in monthly revenue

The new widget effectively met the “soft qualification” requirement and provided the Sales team with a compelling experience that prospective clients found appealing.

Due to the success of the initial tests, plans were made to roll out the widget across the entire site starting in the summer of 2024.

Learnings

Engage all stakeholders early and often! Early discussions with developers revealed feasibility concerns and technical constraints with the existing tech stack, enabling us to pivot early in the design process.

Designing an interactive Financial Advisor widget to meet $1M in client demand