Synergy Credit Union

The Brief

68.9% Organic Traffic Growth and a 60% Rise in Youth Loan Applications for Synergy Credit Union

How a Cork credit union grew its loan book across search, paid media and social while the wider financial sector lost a third of its organic traffic.

Metric	Result
Organic traffic	+68.9% (vs an industry decline of ~34%)
Loan applications from 18 to 25 year olds	+60% year on year
Google Ads contact form completions	+277%, on 19.38% less spend
Loan page traffic	+83.35% year on year

Ready to grow your loan book with a digital strategy built around measurable results? Talk to ePresence

The Opportunity

Synergy’s commercial objective was never marketing activity for its own sake. It was sustainable growth of the loan book, and two clear openings existed to deliver it.

The first was local search. High-intent loan queries in Cork, terms like personal loans, car loans and home improvement loans, carry genuine borrowing intent and sit within Synergy’s common bond. These positions were held by major banks and national lenders, but they were winnable by an organisation prepared to build content around real borrower demand rather than generic financial messaging.

The second was the 18 to 25 age group. Younger borrowers taking out a first car loan, a student loan or opening a current account represent decades of future loan book value, and most default to a bank or dealership finance without ever considering a credit union. Reaching them early is the single highest-value thing a credit union can do for its long-term loan book.

There was also a timing opportunity. Google’s shift towards AI-generated results was reshaping search visibility across financial services. That created an opening for any organisation willing to adapt its strategy early, while competitors continued with approaches built for a version of search that no longer existed.

The Challenge

Capturing that demand meant competing directly against institutions with far larger marketing budgets, and doing so in a search environment that was actively working against financial services websites.

Since the introduction of Google’s AI Overviews, websites have on average experienced organic traffic declines of approximately 34%, with reduced visibility for any organisation that had not adapted its search strategy. Holding position would have been an achievement. Growing against that trend required a fundamentally different approach.

Credit unions also face a persistent perception problem among younger borrowers, who often see them as old-fashioned and default to banks or dealership finance for their first car loan or current account. Visibility alone was never going to be enough. The brand had to feel relevant to an audience that was not looking for it.

Early campaign activity revealed a creative lesson of our own. The video content leaned towards telling rather than showing, focused on individual services rather than benefits, and was too serious in tone to resonate with the 18 to 25 audience that represents the future of the loan book.

The Approach

ePresence built a fully integrated digital strategy around a single measurable outcome: loan book growth. Every channel was aligned to that objective rather than to marketing activity for its own sake.

Phase 1: Website audit and localisation. A full audit and content review of the Synergy website, with all content localised to the Cork common bond. This eliminated irrelevant, non-converting traffic and focused the site entirely on the borrowers Synergy can actually serve.

Phase 2: High-intent SEO. Search strategy targeted loan-driven, location-specific keywords with strong conversion potential, positioning Synergy to benefit from changes in search behaviour rather than suffer from them.

Phase 3: Conversion-focused paid media. Google Ads activity was optimised for cost-efficient loan enquiries rather than traffic volume, with continuous refinement of spend towards commercially valuable outcomes.

Phase 4: A social campaign built for 18 to 25s. ePresence developed a multi-platform brand ambassador campaign with Niall O’Leary, the Cork senior hurler, running across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. The campaign was deliberately worked to be fun and tongue in cheek, entertaining younger audiences so Synergy is the name they remember when they need a first car loan, student loan or current account. Standout content included “Irish Mammy Knows Best… About Everything Except Car Loans”, a comic take on young adults chasing independence that reached 44.8K TikTok views and 1.4K shares, and a community Meet and Greet at the Fermoy branch that drew approximately 200 attendees and a combined online reach of over 29,500.

Results

Organic traffic: +68.9% Comparing the most recent year against the first year of the partnership, Synergy grew organic traffic by 68.9% during a period when the average website lost around 34% of its organic visibility. Google impressions rose 85% over the last three months versus the same period the previous year, with average keyword rankings improving 25%.

Dominant Cork loan rankings Synergy held position 1 on Google for personal loans, business loans, green loans, education loans, student loans and home improvement loans in Cork, competing directly against major banks.

Loan demand: +83.35% loan page traffic Traffic to loan pages grew 83.35% year on year, with Apply for Loan page traffic up 42.98%, evidence that growth is arriving from genuinely high-intent borrowers.

Google Ads: +277% conversions on 19.38% less spend Contact form completions from paid media rose 277% while overall spend fell 19.38% and cost per click dropped 30.24%, a substantial improvement in return on ad spend.

Youth loan applications: +60% Loan applications from 18 to 25 year olds rose 60% year on year during the ambassador campaign, with new members in the same age group up 80%, securing the borrowers who will drive the loan book for decades.

Social reach transformed TikTok video views grew 386% and engagement 986%, with Instagram impressions up 2,062%, building visibility precisely where younger borrowers spend their time.

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About Author

Declan Clancy

Declan Clancy is an enthusiastic, results oriented and creative Digital Marketer with over 10 years hands on experience across digital channels.In his last role as Group Digital Marketing Manager for Trigon Hotels, Declan was responsible for the ecommerce strategy and implementation for their 3 hotels. While at Trigon Hotels, Declan won Best use of Twitter for a Large Business at the Cork Digital Marketing Awards for his work for Cork International Hotel.Declan holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing from the Digital Marketing Institute and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from University College Cork.

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