Advertising based on financial profiles

I used to bank with Bank of America because I liked the convenience of their branches and ATM locations. Additionally, their online banking is second to none with their notable MyPortfolio system. It's an online application, similar to Quicken or Money, into which you enter the usernames and passwords for all of your financial accounts (banks, 401(k)s, credit cards, etc) to see a dashboard that reports on your net worth and transaction history. After discovering that the interest rate on my wife's BOA student savings account was less than half a percent, I decided it would be best for us to switch banks. However, because of my addiction to MyProfile, I still have a foot in the door and would love for someone to give me an excuse to take it out!

Why am I addicted? I love that, for free, I can easily pull up pie charts that look at live data related to my spending and net worth. I value the convenience of having a single list of classified transactions, displaying each purchase from each credit card and each deposit into a bank account in chronological order. Every transaction is classified into a category of groceries, gas, and home improvement for expenses and investment income, salary, and gifts for income. The software will also track the value of your home, as reported by zillow.com, and will also keeps track of your reward points from credit cards, hotels, airlines, and more. BOA has a little bit of my loyalty because of their MyPortfolio system. Period. But once I find a replacement for that service, I'm through.

I don't know why the Google folks haven't jumped on this, wrestled it to the ground, and started running away as fast as they can with it draped over their shoulder. Imagine the value of something like this to their advertising business. Google specializes in, very simply, placing ads targeted at users based on where they go and what they talk about. Imagine if they could place ads targeting people with specific financial profiles, evaluating how a person actually spent his or her money -- literally. I can't think of a better way to advertise.

Let's look at a sample scenario, calling this future application GF (for Google Finance).
When creating my GF account, I enter in some personal information like name, birthdate, address, etc. Next, I provide the usernames and passwords for my different bank, credit card, mortgage, auto loan, brokerage, and reward accounts. I enter the makes and models of my family's vehicles and the address of my home. GF will do some processing and spit out my net worth based on my asset account balances less my debts, plus the estimated value of my home and vehicles. Of course, GF would be well-thought-out and apply GAAP principles, considering the liquidity of assets, etc.

Next, GF would establish a constant connection with my accounts, providing a list of transactions that could be classified into customizable categories. I could use ad hoc reports to evaluate how much I spent last month on gas and groceries and use it to create a personal budget.

Essentially, I'm not describing anything that Quicken or Microsoft Money can't already do -- nothing new here. But imagine the targeted advertising that could come of this. All of a sudden, Geico knows how much they really CAN save me by switching over. They can see what kind of vehicle I have and evaluate what I currently pay for insurance. The gecko might tell me "we could probably save you $100 by switching to Geico."

Or let's say I have excessive credit card debt. Google would classify me as someone who might receive ads targeted toward high debt-to-income consumers, indicating my potential interest in credit counseling, free balance transfers, or payday loans. Or if my credit is good, I might instead receive ads for low-APR credit cards, mortgages, etc.

Another consumer classification could be based on those who travel frequently. If you were a place like Orbitz or Expedia, wouldn't you want your ads shown to people who travel frequently? A traveler profile could be determined by either the purchase of plane tickets or the purchase of gasoline at gas stations outside of one's hometown.

Google's current advertising methodology is a step in the right direction, but by no means perfect. Just because I'm on a website that talks about dogs doesn't mean that I'm going to buy pet supplies. But if I'm on a pet website and, according to my GF account, I spend $50/month at PetSmart, that's a different story.

Furthermore, places like Monster and TheLadders could use my salary information and only show ads for employers who will pay similar to what I make now.

The possibilities of advertising based on financial behavior are endless. If Google eventually gets with the program, maybe I can finally shed my ties with Bank of America and look at ads that actually mean something to me! There are certainly some privacy issues with a system like this, but with regular analysis, proper care, and Google's famous statement of "Don't be evil," it may be a useful tool for consumers be a very real opportunity for advertisers.