• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, May 5, 2005

While consumers are using search engines to research financial services, many of those who convert to bank customers do so offline in branch offices, according to a new report by Yahoo! Search Marketing, formerly "Overture," and research firm Compete, Inc.

For the report, "The Role of Search Marketing in Financial Decisions," Yahoo! and Compete studied the behavior of 76,000 financial services searchers from its panel of two million online U.S. consumers, from September 2004 to this February, and conducted online surveys of 365 of those searchers. The study defined financial services searchers as those who queried on terms such as loan, savings account, or Chase Bank, across major engines including Yahoo!, Google, MSN, and Ask Jeeves.

Overall, conversion rates were high. Twenty-eight percent of the financial services searchers went on to open deposit accounts within four weeks, while 26 percent applied for a credit card within four weeks, and 8 percent applied for a loan within six weeks.

But many of the converters didn't seal their deals online. More than half--56 percent--of the consumers who opened checking accounts after conducting a search did so at a branch office, while 38 percent of those who opened savings accounts did so in person.

A higher proportion of those who applied for loans did so online--42 percent, according to the report. An additional 36 percent went to a branch office to apply, while 22 percent did so by telephone.

When it came to applying for credit cards, 83 percent did so online. Only 5 percent went in person to a branch office, while 12 percent completed the deal on the telephone.

The propensity to convert offline means that marketers must become more sophisticated at tracking the return on investment from search marketing, said Justin Merickel, director-finance category at Yahoo! Search Marketing.

The study also looked at the demographics of those who search for financial services online, and concluded that 49 percent of that group earns more than $60,000 a year.