Keyword ads trigger FCA warning

Keyword ads trigger FCA warningFinance firms have been warned to tread carefully when they use online keyword advertising or face a slap round the face from the City regulator, which has already deemed 227 financial marketing campaigns to be misleading since April.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted one campaign where a search for ‘government debt help’ triggered an unrelated sponsored ad to appear for a loan. It said this might have had the effect of “potentially misleading people to believe the firm was offering government assistance when this was not the case”.
The FCA added that 15% of the financial promotions for consumer credit products it has reviewed since taking over policing of the industry at the beginning of April failed a test of compliance.
In that time, 227 financial marketing campaigns were ruled to be non-compliant with laws that require them to be clear, fair and not misleading. In total since 1 April, the FCA said it has reviewed more than 1,500 financial promotions for products such as payday loans, debt management services and credit brokers.
Some 80% of the cases it has dealt with since April concerned financial promotions for consumer credit products on digital media, including websites, emails and in text messages.
FCA director of supervision Clive Adams said: “It is important that all firms ensure financial promotions are fair, clear and not misleading so that customers are able to make informed decisions.
“We are disappointed to see standards fall short of what we expect, particularly in the consumer credit space, four months from when we took over regulation. We believe that firms in this sector can do more to ensure financial promotions meet the standards we would expect and will continue to monitor performance in this area.”

1 Comment on "Keyword ads trigger FCA warning"

  1. Keyword ads trigger City watchdog warning http://t.co/4FZMSK2nMc #digitalmarketing #directmarketing #socialmedia #advertising

Comments are closed.