by Kevin Windorf, CEO, FCS; CMO, 2112 Communications
For financial marketers, 2026 will not be about chasing the next shiny channel. Trust will remain the non-negotiable foundation of the customer relationship. What will change is how that trust is earned, signaled, and reinforced across a more fragmented, data-sensitive media environment.
Recent research from AdRoll and WBR Insights confirms what many financial marketers have already been feeling on the ground: performance, brand, and relationship marketing are no longer discrete disciplines.
The most effective strategies in 2026 will be those that integrate all three with intentionality and purpose.
Advertising regains strategic importance.
After years of over-indexing on lower-funnel performance, paid advertising is reasserting itself as a trust-building engine. Nearly half of marketers plan to significantly increase spend across search, paid social, and display, while connected TV and audio continue to grow in importance
In financial services, this is especially important because trust is cumulative. Repetition, consistency, and presence in premium, brand-safe environments do more to establish credibility than any single conversion metric ever could.
Email remains the industry’s quiet powerhouse.
Despite its “stepchild” status, email continues to shoulder a disproportionate share of the load in financial marketing. Sixty-five percent of marketers plan to reinvest in email in 2026, making it one of the strongest signals in the AdRoll/WBR research.
For financial marketers, email is where they deliver education, while offering reassurance and building continuity. Any shift in the year ahead is not about volume, but about quality: better segmentation, lifecycle thinking, and content that respects the audience’s intelligence.
Paid social and podcasts continue their rise — but for different reasons.
Paid social is now fully operationalized, with nearly half of marketers planning increased investment next year. For financial brands, the role of paid social is less about immediacy and more about sustained visibility and credibility among defined target segments.
Podcasting, meanwhile, is emerging as one of the most intriguing trust environments. While few brands rate their own podcasts as top performers today, 78% see third-party podcasts as a major opportunity in 2026.
For financial marketers, podcasts offer something rare: time, attention, and context — all critical for explaining complex topics without oversimplifying them.
AI becomes infrastructure, not differentiation.
Ninety-seven percent of respondents told AdRoll/WBR that AI has already impacted marketing performance, with benefits spanning personalization, speed, and responsiveness.
By 2026, AI will no longer be a clouded headline — it will be a clear standard. But the key differentiator for marketers will be judgment: how will they balance efficiency with accuracy, automation with human oversight, and personalization with privacy.
Community, authenticity, and data stewardship converge.
Perhaps most relevant to financial services is the research report’s emphasis on community-centric, purpose-driven strategies built on ethical data use and transparency.
Financial brands do not win by being louder; they win by being steadier, clearer, and more aligned with the values they claim to represent. In 2026, financial marketing will reward coherence over cleverness. The strongest teams will treat trust as a system — reinforced through advertising, deepened through owned channels like email, amplified through paid social and podcasts, and protected through disciplined use of data and AI.
This is neither a revolution nor a reinvention of financial marketing. It is a maturation – of the skilled and strategic use of technology, old and new.