Financial services keywords attract high-LTV competition, tight policy restrictions limit creativity, and Quality Score suffers without domain authority - combined, CPCs are 6-40 pounds.
Cost drivers
1. LTV-based bids: a wealth manager bids 30 pounds for a term a comparison site bids 8 pounds on 2. Policy restrictions reduce eligible ad formats 3. Lower Quality Score without topical authority inflates CPC 2-4x
What lowers CPC
- Build domain authority with guides, benchmarks, glossary - Tightly themed ad groups (1 keyword : 1 ad group) - Long-tail "how much / what is" queries - Strong landing pages that load under 2s and convert over 6%