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Luke Gracie: Trust in financial services is getting a paper trail

Happy Wednesday! I’m Luke Gracie, SVP of Client Services at Level, where I work with many of our financial services clients. With our team at the Digital Marketing for Financial Services Summit in NYC this week, I wanted to share some news specific to the industry.

Google announced it will require financial advertisers in the US and Canada to prove they’re authorized before certain ads can run, starting in early 2027. US banks will be checked against the American Bankers Association’s registry. The program is already active in 42 countries. Google hasn’t said which products are covered, when enforcement starts or what the penalty is. So the practical move for any financial services marketer is to audit licensing and ad account ownership now, before the notice arrives.
The same logic shows up on the client side. The Investments & Wealth Institute surveyed 1,000 investors with $500K or more in investable assets, and 68% said they are more likely to refer friends or family because their advisor holds advanced certifications. Among those with $5 million or more, the figure rises to 74%. The catch is that 28% don’t even know whether their own advisor holds one!

Put together: platforms and clients are both asking financial brands to show proof. Credentials that live in a compliance binder don’t help you. Credentials that show up in your ads, your site and your advisor bios do.

Ask your team this week: where would a prospect, or a platform, find proof that we are who we say we are?

This week’s one thing

Where to find Level

CECU Executive Summit
Nov 4 to 6 · Palm Springs, CA
Level is sponsoring CECU’s Executive Summit for career education leaders. Come find us in Palm Springs.

AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education
Nov 8 to 11 · Gaylord Rockies Resort, Aurora, CO
Level is exhibiting at the AMA Symposium, where higher ed marketers dig into AI, MarTech, and enrollment. Say hello in Aurora.

ProcureCon Marketing
Nov 9 to 11 · Sheraton Grand at Wildhorse Pass, Phoenix, AZ
Howard Diamond, our CRO, is leading a workshop at ProcureCon Marketing for marketing procurement leaders in Phoenix.

Luke's AI tip of the week: Save one competitor scan prompt and rerun it every month

Competitors change their positioning, offers and proof points faster than most teams check, so a one-off scan goes stale quickly. I saved one structured prompt and rerun it every month in any AI tool with a research mode, so each scan compares cleanly with the last. Here’s the prompt:

“Research [category] competitors [A, B, C, D, E] using public web sources only. For each, compare: (1) positioning and main message, (2) current offers and pricing, (3) new proof points such as awards, credentials or customer results, (4) how they show up in search and AI answers for [3 to 5 key queries]. Cite a source link for every claim, and mark anything you can’t verify as ‘unverified.’ End with a table of what changed since [paste last scan’s summary], then three bullets on what it means for a CMO.”

I use public sources only and spot-check every cited link before sharing, because sources are what these tools most often get wrong.

Try it this month: fill in five competitors, run the prompt, and save the summary so next month’s scan has something to compare against.

Luke Gracie: Trust in financial services is getting a paper trail

Our team is at DMFS New York today and tomorrow: find us at Booth 1

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Where to find Level

Luke's AI tip of the week: Save one competitor scan prompt and rerun it every month