Brand CMOs should reduce their dependence on search-led acquisition in favour of investment in brand and building cultural relevance, according to a leading financial services marketer.
Speaking at The Future of Media Manchester 2026, Joe Goldberg, Head of Brand, Marketing and Communications Strategy at Santander, questioned the tendency of many marketers to focus on search ads and visibility in large language models – potentially to the detriment of their overall brand.
“Search is eating into the budget of every single CMO. Yes, it can fill the pipeline very quickly; but the cost of those leads are all going up, while their value is going down,” he said.
Goldberg critiqued the direct-to-consumer model fuelled by performance marketing that some notable brands have favoured, arguing that businesses who don’t place enough emphasis on consumer connection can only last so long. “There’s not really enough of a brand story … So, they’ll come and go over time.”
He argued that brand distinctiveness and cultural salience are what enable a business to last, particularly in financial services.
The brand funnel is not dead
“The experts are telling us that the brand funnel is dead, that we shouldn’t worry about those sorts of things. There’s also a view that traditional advertising isn’t worth it, and that we just need an influencer in every postcode in the world,” said Goldberg. “I think consumers can spot a lack of authenticity with that sort of activity.”
He pointed out that search marketing costs have risen sharply, with category cost per click increasing from £1.50 in 2021 to approximately £3-4 now, while cost per lead rose from £125 to £300-400.
Goldberg also commented on the way that generative AI is reshaping the search marketplace: “Some people say we just need to be the right answer to the question, so let’s shove a load of FAQs online to feed the bots.
“That only works if you’re answering the right questions – questions related to the lifestyle and journey of the customer rather than questions about the product.”
The financial services marketplace is highly brand-driven: 54% of customer choice is attributable to brand, according to data from Kantar and Santander’s internal data; making banking as a category more comparable to the consumer behaviour surrounding luxury cars than, say, grocery products (34.5% attributable to brand).
Goldberg believes that reliance on paid search, display, influencers and generic FAQs risks marketing to bots rather than creating emotional engagement, cultural relevance, belief and meaningful differentiation.
“Performance marketing, both within our own channels and our bought channels, is eroding customer value,” Goldberg commented. “It doesn’t seem to make too much sense to carry on doing the same things that give you lower business performance.”
The roadmap to a successful brand
Goldberg argued that if CMOs “stay addicted to search” they will fail to hit commercial targets – both in terms of new customer numbers and the ultimate value of those customers.
“To cut through, you need to carry on using traditional channels, but tell a story that is going to connect: a story that is authentic, differentiated and meaningful.”
In 2022, Santander launched a new current account offering, naming it ‘Edge’ – a distinctive name that carries with it a distinctive brand identity.
Goldberg acknowledged that Edge’s spontaneous awareness was not “off the scale” but noted that it was double the level of its closest current account competitor for a relatively low media spend.
He nodded to the power of good brand advertising alongside this, referencing Santander’s recognisable ads with beloved TV presenters Ant and Dec.
“We still need to be driving advertising, making sure that we get a new footprint, and trying to connect with the customer on a level that is meaningfully different.”
In short, Goldberg argued, “If the consumer recognises that your brand improves people’s lives, it has an impact. If they see that in your products and innovation, then they experience it in your apps and in retail outlets, and then see the communications, and then they love you – that correlates almost perfectly with meaningful differentiation.
“Right there is the roadmap for a successful brand.”
