Banco Carregosa AI
Reaching a new generation through smart content and AI-powered visibility
Background
The way we search is changing fast. Across industries, organic traffic has been in decline as search engines increasingly prioritize AI-powered summaries that answer users’ questions directly, often without a single click. While impressions are growing, actual visits from search are harder to capture.
At the same time, a new opportunity is emerging: AI-driven referrals. Platforms like ChatGPT are starting to become entry points where users discover brands, products, and services. Even though this traffic still represents a small share today, its growth rate is significant and marks the beginning of a new channel for digital visibility.
For Banco Carregosa, this evolution comes after a strong year of results, that saw 3 digits organic traffic growth. The bank had already achieved record levels of organic growth in the previous period, reducing its dependence on paid media and establishing content as a powerful acquisition channel. But with a culture built on continuous improvement and innovation, the challenge was to keep growing while adapting to the new AI-driven landscape and, at the same time, create a fresh way of engaging younger audiences through Banco Carregosa NextGen.
Results
+AI referrals
AI Referrals become largest referral source
+25%
Increase in organic traffic, year on year, after 3 digits growth on previous years
CONTENT STRATEGY
CONTENT MARKETING
VIDEO MARKETING
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
GENERATIVE ENGINE OPTIMIZATION
Contributions
Challenge
The new phase of work with Banco Carregosa was defined by three priorities:
Keep organic growth on an upward curve. After a record year, the goal was not only to maintain performance but to expand it further across all audiences, consolidating the bank’s leadership in search visibility.
Grow traffic from AI-powered referrals. While still small, AI-driven visits represented a new opportunity to diversify sources and reduce dependence on traditional search alone.
Develop content for a new generation. NextGen needed a voice of its own: clear, relevant, and aligned with how younger audiences consume information and make financial decisions.
Solution
We designed a new a content strategy for today and tomorrow:
Regular publications for a new generation
This year marked the launch of NextGen, a brand designed specifically for a new generation of investors. To match its ambition, we developed content with a lighter, friendlier tone on topics that resonated with younger audiences—from saving tips to starting out with small investment amounts. Articles like “How to start investing (when you’re strapped for cash)” were crafted to engage time-pressed readers with limited experience (and limited funds), who, over time, may grow into the bank’s next generation of high-value clients.
Continued publications for Banco Carregosa’s wider audience
The launch of NextGen did not come at the expense of Banco Carregosa’s established audience. We continued publishing weekly blog posts focused on advanced investment topics such as ETFs, investment funds, savings solutions, and precious metals. High-performing pieces like “14 Best Financial Podcasts” and “9 Best Financial YouTube Channels” attracted thousands of organic views, reinforcing the bank’s reputation as a trusted source of expertise.
Optimized for AI and traditional search
Optimizing for search engines today means optimizing for AI. Beyond traditional SEO work, we focused on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): creating content that is structured for easy extraction by AI models and more likely to appear in AI-powered summaries. Key tactics included:
Clear FAQ sections that directly answer user questions,
Authoritative bylines and strong author profiles to build trust,
Concise summaries at the top of articles designed for snippet inclusion,
Titles framed as questions to match natural search intent.
Improved website pages
In parallel, we continued to optimize the bank’s static pages (like category and product pages), strengthening their long-term performance and further reducing reliance on paid campaigns. Instead of focusing on short-term ad traffic, the priority was building a sustainable base of evergreen visibility.
Results
Over the past 12 months, Banco Carregosa has strengthened its position in search, achieving a 25% increase in organic users after 3 digits growth on previous years. Organic is now the number one traffic channel, responsible for almost a third of all visits, while paid media has taken a secondary role. Conversion rates improved as well, with organic delivering the highest efficiency of any channel – evidence that content-driven users are more engaged and more likely to take action.
But the most exciting development is the growth of AI-driven traffic. Referrals from platforms like ChatGPT represent now one-third of all referrals and have already become one of the strongest sources of referral traffic.
This places Banco Carregosa ahead of the curve, experimenting early and building visibility in a space where younger audiences are increasingly searching, comparing, and making decisions.
"By leveraging AI-driven SEO, we were able to match high-quality insights with real user intent, ensuring our work reached both seasoned investors and a new generation of clients. The results speak for themselves: smarter visibility, stronger engagement, and lasting impact for the brand."
Tiago Fleming, Marketing and Communications Director, Banco Carregosa