ETF advertising slowly recovering in North America

Asset managers dedicated 22% of their advertising in the region to ETFs, data by Fundamental Monitor shows

Key points:

• The promotion of ETFs in North America increased to 22% in Q2 2023
• North American advertisers used to dedicate a large portion of their budget to the promotion of ETFs, which dropped significantly dropped in Q4 2022, but is now starting to increase again
• The number of asset managers specifically promoting one or more of the key strategies (equities, fixed income, ETFs, multi-asset and ESG) continues to drop

The promotion of ETFs in North America increased from 16% in Q1 to 22% in Q2 2023, according to data from Fundamental Monitor.

North American advertisers used to dedicate a large portion of their budget to the promotion of ETFs, accounting for at least 33% of all asset management advertising for all quarters between Q2 2020 and Q3 2022 and often even topping 50%. However, this dropped significantly in Q4 2022, but has since slowly started to increase again.

The other key strategies also saw small increases in Q2, apart from multi-asset which has always been very small or non-existent in North America.  

When looking at active advertisers, we can see that the number of asset managers specifically promoting one or more of the key strategies continues to drop. The number of ETF advertisers remained stable at 18, while the active advertisers promoting equities and fixed income dropped, respectively from 8 to 5 and from 14 to 10.

Brand campaigns gained in popularity during Q2 to the detriment of fund promotion. Brand campaigns made up 47% of all advertising, up from 38% in Q1, while fund promotion fell from 45% to 34%. Insights saw a marginal increase and there was also a relatively large portion of investment tools and event promotion (7%).

Below are some examples of the type of campaigns that were in market in North America during Q2 2023:

Brand campaign – Merrill Lynch

Fund promotion – Franklin Templeton

Investment tools – BlackRock

ETFs – RBC Asset Management

Equities – Invesco