Driving Engagement for Personal Loans

Client: Banca Comercială Română (BCR) ·
Agency: Performics Romania ·
Vertical: Financial Services (Personal Loans)

Executive Summary

Performics Romania, the agency managing BCR’s personal loan campaign, needed to reach bank clients actively in-market for a loan within a limited six-month window. Anonymous, first-time interactions were the hardest layer to reach, requiring a data-driven approach that could extend beyond BCR’s own first-party data.

Performics tested Digiseg’s household-based audience segments against contextual targeting in two separate line items. Digiseg outperformed decisively on engagement, delivering a 137% engagement rate against 51% for contextual, and a stronger video completion rate of 58% versus 51%.

Digiseg was used to extend reach into anonymous, in-market bank clients beyond BCR’s first-party audience pools.

Campaign Goal / KPI

The campaign needed to effectively promote a highly competitive personal loan offer within a six-month window, reaching bank clients actively considering a loan while optimizing engagement across multiple media channels.

The Challenge

Performics Romania, the agency managing BCR’s personal loan campaign, faced the challenge of effectively promoting a highly competitive loan offer within a limited six-month window. To maximize impact, they needed a sophisticated strategy to reach the right bank clients, those actively considering a personal loan, while optimizing engagement across multiple media channels.

Performics structured the campaign around four key audience layers:

• Anonymous users (first-time campaign interactions)
• Suspects (website visitors showing interest in loans)
• Prospects (users entering the banking app to apply)
• Clients (successful loan applicants)

Reaching the anonymous layer was particularly challenging. Performics needed a data-driven approach that could extend beyond limited first-party data and effectively capture in-market loan seekers.

The Solution

Performics leveraged its deep expertise in audience segmentation and data-driven advertising to design a dual-strategy approach, testing two key targeting methods:

1. Digiseg audience segments: Anonymous bank clients categorized by relevant interests (banking-loans, auto, education, tech)
2. Contextual targeting: Bank clients reached through contextual signals

Recognizing the need for precise and scalable targeting, Performics identified Digiseg as the ideal tool for reaching bank clients most likely to be in-market for a personal loan. Digiseg’s real-world household demographics and probabilistic targeting enabled Performics to enhance campaign reach beyond BCR’s primary first-party audience pools.

The campaign was structured into two separate line items:

• Digiseg (bank clients with loan-relevant characteristics)
• Contextual (bank clients based on content relevance)

This segmentation allowed Performics to track, measure, and compare performance across different targeting strategies, ensuring the most effective approach.

“We tested two untracked data strategies to extend our reach, contextual and household data. Both added value, but Digiseg stood out for driving stronger engagement throughout the campaign, demonstrating an effective approach for BCR Romania, in targeting consumers seeking personal loans.”

Andreea Ivanov, Programmatic Lead — Performics

Results

Performics’ strategic approach, powered by Digiseg’s audience insights, significantly outperformed contextual targeting across key engagement metrics:

• Engagement Rate: Digiseg audiences delivered an engagement rate of 137%, meaning that for every 100 impressions, the campaign generated 137 unique engagement events, such as sound toggles and full-screen activations. This suggests users interacted with the ad more than once per impression on average. Contextual segments delivered a significantly lower engagement rate of 51%. Among impressions that generated at least one engagement, Digiseg audiences averaged 2.63 engagement events per engaging impression, compared to just 1 for contextual segments.
• Video Completion Rate: Digiseg delivered a 58% completion rate, outperforming contextual segments, which achieved 51%.

By identifying and integrating Digiseg’s data into their campaign strategy, Performics demonstrated their expertise in audience-first media planning. Their ability to select the right targeting tools and optimize performance helped BCR Romania successfully engage bank clients in the market for personal loans, delivering superior results compared to traditional contextual targeting methods.