Why You May Never See Your Credit Union’s Awareness Ads

Measuring the success of a digital ad campaign depends on several factors, including the purpose of the campaign, who you’re trying to reach, and the outcomes you want to influence. But one thing it should not be measured by is whether or not you, personally, are seeing the ads.

It’s understandable. You’ve invested a lot of money, and of course you’d like to catch a glimpse of your ads “out in the wild.” But unlike billboards or TV commercials, digital ad space is far more diverse and spread across an enormous volume of placements. That means unless you’re spending huge amounts of money and happen to fit the exact profile of the audience we’re targeting, there’s a good chance you won’t see them yourself.
Furthermore, even if you are spending and fit the target market, you may intentionally be excluded from seeing the ads due to your connection with the credit union.

Reasons Why You’re Not Seeing the Ads

We’re often targeting prospective members, not current ones.

In many cases, awareness campaigns are built to reach people who could join your credit union but haven’t yet. That means the targeting is based on your field of membership, key demographics, and online behaviors that line up with your CU’s growth goals. Specific product campaigns also incorporate audiences aligned with both your Ideal Customer Persona (ICP) and the ad platform’s insights on users’ in-market likelihood. For example, a mortgage campaign aimed at targeting first-time homebuyers with young families would include users who not only have been searching home-buying sites and loan calculators, but also for baby registries and preschool educational apps.Unless you happen to also fit all of this criteria, the algorithm will not serve the ad to your device.

Geography matters.

If you’re in a different city, county, or even zip code from the members we’re trying to reach, you may not be in the target zone at all.

We run exclusion lists.

If you’re already a member, visited the site recently, or your IP address matches the credit union’s internal network, you’re likely excluded from certain campaigns. That’s intentional because the goal is to use budget to reach new people, not the ones we already have (or who may be a CU employee).

Frequency caps keep spending efficient.

Even if you were in the audience, you wouldn’t see the ad over and over. We put limits in place to avoid waste and ad fatigue.

The platforms optimize for performance.

Meta (Facebook & Instagram), Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, and our programmatic and CTV partners offer highly advanced ad platforms. If their algorithms detect that you’re unlikely to engage with the ad, they’ll stop showing it to you so they can focus on people more likely to respond.

Settings like timing, devices, and platforms matter.

The ad you’re looking for may only run during certain hours, on mobile devices, or on platforms you don’t personally use. Ad practitioners are always reviewing performance and optimizing settings to achieve the best results, which may include doubling down on certain placements and turning off others. For example, Facebook Feed inventory may be excluded if Instagram Stories are achieving significantly better ROI. Similarly, budget may be heavily focused on Google’s Discover feed instead of promoted Gmail placements depending on engagement.

Why that's a good thing

If you’re not seeing your own ads, it means:

• The budget is being spent where it matters, e.g. on people who can actually become members.
  
  
• The targeting is tight, keeping the ads relevant and impactful.
  
  
• Your reporting isn’t being skewed by staff, board members, or existing members.

The Right Way to tell if Ads are working

Ad success will depend on several factors. The first, and most important, is the purpose of the campaign. Some campaigns are simply meant to bring visibility and awareness to a brand. These are known as high-funnel awareness campaigns. Other campaigns are meant for people who are actively looking for your products and services and likely to convert right away (e.g. apply for a loan, open an account). These are called low-funnel conversion ads. 

Since these ads are not built to do the same thing, the way we measure them has to be different.

Primary KPIs for high-funnel campaigns:

• Reach (unique people who saw the ad)
  
  
• Impressions (total times the ad was served)
  
  
• Video completion rates or engagement with educational content
  
  
• Increase in searches for your credit union’s name (brand lift)
  
  
• Visits to key pages like “Membership,” “About Us,” or service overviews

Primary KPIs for low-funnel campaigns:

• Applications or loans funded (tracked thanks to HubSpot integrations!) completed
  
  
• Cost per application (CPA) or cost per lead
  
  
• Conversion rates from click to application
  
  
• Return on ad spend (ROAS) when tied to revenue

Why this distinction matters:

If you judge an awareness ad by the number of auto loan applications it generates in a week, you’ll almost always be disappointed. But if you judge it by how many potential members your ad was shown to (reach), and then track a lift in interest of your CU (visits to key pages or searches of your brand), you’ll have a better sense of the real value. 

Not Seeing Is Believing

Not seeing your own credit union’s awareness ads isn’t a sign they’re failing, it’s likely a sign they’re doing their job. They’re built to reach the people you want to see them and they may or may not be the people who already know you exist (which includes you).

So the next time you log in and wonder where your ads are, remember: the absence in your feed might just mean they’re showing up exactly where they should be.

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