Cutting Cost Per Conversion in Half: Lessons from Chaffey Credit Union’s Summer Savings Ad Campaign

In digital marketing, success isn’t just about reach, it’s about efficiency. For financial institutions especially, every click and conversion represents real trust built with a member.

When 454 Creative partnered with Chaffey Federal Credit Union to promote their Summer Savings Club, we set out to improve conversion performance without increasing ad spend. The result: a 50.2% decrease in cost per conversion in one year — from $18.43 in 2024 to $9.14 in 2025.

But this story isn’t just about one campaign. It’s about what every credit union or community-focused brand can learn from optimizing around clarity, accessibility, and data.

The Common Challenge: Great Products, Limited Awareness

Many local financial institutions face a similar problem: strong products and loyal members, but limited digital visibility.

Chaffey Federal Credit Union is a community-based institution serving Southern California since 1964. Their Summer Savings Club, offering a competitive 6.00% APY, was designed to help members save for summer expenses. Yet, like many niche programs, it suffered from a misconception: people thought it was just for educators.

Our task was to shift that perception and prove that with the right messaging and digital structure, programs like this could appeal to anyone.

The Approach: Making Saving Feel Simple and Inclusive

We reframed the message through the theme “Start Building Your Sunshine.” The goal was to connect saving with optimism and ease, and to help members see themselves in the program. We wanted to reframe the Summer Savings Club from a niche offer to a universal opportunity.

This involved building a clear, conversion-driven digital ecosystem that guided members seamlessly from awareness to action. We developed a custom HubSpot landing page designed to simplify sign-ups and clearly communicate the program’s benefits. The ad creative carried through the same warmth and optimism of summer, using bright visuals, concise copy, and clear calls to action to encourage engagement. To tie it all together, we ensured cross-channel consistency, so whether members encountered the message through ads, email, or the website, they experienced one unified story that felt approachable, trustworthy, and easy to act on.

This holistic approach is something any credit union can benefit from, ensuring that no matter where a member encounters your brand, the experience feels consistent, confident, and easy to engage with.

What the Data Taught Us

The 2024 campaign built a baseline. It reached nearly 48,000 people, generated 83 conversions, and had a cost per conversion of $18.43. It revealed one important insight: members responded best to simple, benefit-driven language.
Implementing those lessons to the 2025 ad campaign, we refined the creative, improved targeting, and simplified the landing page to remove any friction in the conversion path. The results weren’t surprising:

• 176 total conversions (+112%)
• 58,360 impressions, 3,625 clicks
• $9.14 cost per conversion (↓50.2%)

By keeping the budget consistent but improving the user experience and message alignment, the campaign became twice as effective, and more importantly, more accessible to members who had never considered joining before.

What Other Credit Unions Can Learn

Chaffey’s results reflect a broader truth for community-based financial institutions:

1. Clarity outperforms complexity.
   Members respond to messaging that makes saving feel easy, not exclusive or intimidating.
2. Your first campaign is your data set.
   Don’t chase perfection. Launch, learn, and optimize. Every campaign should inform the next.
3. Consistency builds trust.
   When members see the same visuals, tone, and message across channels, they feel confident taking action.
4. Small refinements compound over time.
   Doubling conversions isn’t always about spending more, it’s about improving alignment across every step of the member journey.

Looking Forward

For Chaffey, this campaign became the foundation for a broader digital evolution, from new website development to CRM integration and automated communication through HubSpot.

For us, it reinforced something we see across industries: data-driven creativity wins. When storytelling and analytics work together, campaigns not only perform better but also create more meaningful engagement with the audience.

Takeaway

Whether you’re a credit union, a nonprofit, or a local brand, the principles are the same:

• Keep your message clear
• Align your channels
• Treat every campaign as an opportunity to learn

Because when you build marketing systems that listen and adapt, your next campaign won’t just reach more people, it’ll reach the right ones more efficiently.