Paul Drago
Marketing Measurement Reset
For bank and credit union CMOs, CFOs, and the leaders who sign the marketing budget.

Show the board what marketing produced in funded balances.

Connect spend to retained accounts and core balances using definitions finance and marketing agree to use.

Most marketing reports stop at account opening. The reset follows the account after opening day: what stayed open, what funded, what balance remained, and what acquisition spend is still attached.

Spend→Retained accounts→Funded balances→Board reporting
Run the survival math on last year's online accounts
Your number
$
Assumed. Fintel Connect, September 2026: $75 to $400+
%
Curinos SalesScape, 2022
Acquisition spend
$300,000
Spend attached to accounts closed by day 90
$135,000
Still open at one year, estimatedCurinos, July 2026; scaled to your 90-day rate
410
Acquisition spend per surviving account
$732
What the deck said an account cost
$300
What an account that lasted a year cost
$732

Illustration only. The one-year estimate preserves the relationship between Curinos' published 90-day and one-year retention benchmarks. Client reporting uses the institution's actual cohort data and agreed definitions.

The account-opening report stops too early.

The opening report shows volume. It does not show which accounts stayed open, which ones funded, what balances remained, or what acquisition spend is still attached to them ninety days later.

45%
of accounts opened online close within three months
4%
of accounts opened in a branch
6 in 10
marketing executives say their core or CRM system cannot measure return
Curinos SalesScape, 2022. Cornerstone Advisors, April 2026, survey of 126 executives.

The budget conversation needs a finance line.

More than half of banks and credit unions set next year's marketing budget by adjusting last year's number. When the third quarter comes in light, marketing is the first line reallocated to protect the year.

The reset gives finance and marketing one line from acquisition spend to retained accounts and funded balances, with the assumptions visible enough to challenge.

Cornerstone Advisors, April 2026. American Bankers Association budget guidance.

One report from spend to funded balances.

A working reporting line from marketing spend to retained accounts and funded balances, built with definitions finance and marketing agree to use.

The reset does not start with a new dashboard. It starts with the definitions: what counts as opened, funded, retained, closed, dormant, profitable, and still worth paying to acquire.

A KPI tree from acquisition spend to retained accounts, funded balances, and the board report.
One attribution method, chosen with finance, documented, and used consistently.
A working dashboard on bank data, with sources and assumptions visible enough to challenge.
A monthly review that brings marketing and finance together before the next budget cycle.

Four to six weeks, then optional monthly support.

FIXED FEE, FOUR TO SIX WEEKS

Marketing Measurement Reset

A focused build for banks that need the marketing number to stand up in a budget conversation. It connects spend, digital account opening, retained accounts, funded balances, and board reporting without asking the bank to replace its core, CRM, or reporting stack.

You receive a board report with the definitions and source logic attached.
Illustrative output
Acquisition cohort reporting line
Definitions agreed
Acquisition spend$300,000
Accounts opened1,000
Retained at 90 days550
Estimated at one year410
Funded balancesCore data required
This is the reporting structure, not client data. The delivered model includes source fields, exclusions, attribution rules, and finance-approved definitions.
OPTIONAL OPERATING SUPPORT

Monthly Measurement Support

After the reset, the same reporting line can be run monthly: definitions maintained, exceptions explained, budget questions prepared, and the board deck kept aligned with the numbers finance is using.

Monthly support keeps the definitions, exceptions, and board report current.
Book a call
Outside this project: brand creative, campaign production, events, hands-on paid media, branch-site modeling, and acquisition analysis. Those services are listed on the main financial-services page.

Twenty minutes. Bring the deck and the account-opening report.

I will trace where the reporting line stops and what it would take to connect spend to retained, funded value. If the fix is small, I will say so.

Book a call
  1. 1Curinos, September 2022. Accounts closed within three months of opening, digital versus branch.
  2. 2Curinos, July 2026. One-year retention for digitally acquired relationships.
  3. 3Cornerstone Advisors, April 2026. Survey of 126 senior executives at U.S. banks and credit unions.
  4. 4Fintel Connect, September 2026. Directional customer-acquisition-cost range for banks and credit unions.
  5. 5American Bankers Association. Guidance for connecting marketing budgets to bank business objectives.