How Well Do You Know Your Digital Customer?

Digital account opening has grown into one of the industry’s most important acquisition channels, with 48% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers combined having opened an account online. But growth alone does not tell the full story. How many of those customers complete and fund the account? Who is being acquired? And how do their balances and engagement compare with customers acquired through other channels?

Recent ProSight research suggests that evaluating digital acquisition requires looking across multiple metrics to understand both the customer journey and the relationships generated through the channel.

Growth Is Only Part of the Story

The ProSight Consumer Pulse+ benchmarking analysis shows that digital checking account originations have grown by more than 50% over the past three years. Yet, a separate measure of account retention shows that roughly half of digitally originated accounts remain open and active after 12 months.

Growth and retention are two different lenses, and neither alone explains what is happening beneath the surface. To see the full picture, you need to understand who is being acquired and how those relationships compare with ones acquired through other channels.

The Digital Account Opening Journey

So where in the funnel does digital acquisition succeed, and where does it lose people? While many applicants begin the journey online, far fewer ultimately fund and maintain an active account. The ProSight Consumer Digital Funnel Pulse data shows that for every 100 checking account applications started digitally only 11 ever make it to the funded stage.

The journey also looks different depending on whether the customer is new to the financial institution or if they already have an existing relationship.

ProSight’s analysis further shows that approximately 9% of prospective new-to-bank applicants successfully complete and fund an online checking account, compared with roughly 20% of existing customers opening an additional account online.

That gap is a reminder that digital customers do not all start from the same place, relationship history shapes the outcome as much as the channel does.

Beyond Account Opening

Account volume and deposit volume tell almost opposite stories. The Mass Market drives the most digitally acquired accounts, while higher-wealth segments, though fewer in number, bring in larger initial balances.

The difference between account volume and deposit volume illustrates why digital acquisition cannot be evaluated through a single measure. Demographic breakouts contribute to the story when evaluating digital acquisition and the types of relationships it produces.

Rather than viewing initial balance as the measure of relationship quality, the benchmarking data suggests that customer mix, demographics, engagement patterns, and longer-term potential each contribute to a broader understanding of digital performance.

Digital and Branch: Two Paths, Two Data Points

Data from the ProSight Digital Benchmarking report shows that digitally opened accounts generate approximately one-third the average balance than those opened in a branch, though the gap varies significantly by generation.

These differences do not necessarily indicate that one acquisition channel produces a better customer than another. Rather, they reflect differences in customer demographics, account-opening behavior, relationship size, and channel preferences.

Digital customers also tend to rely more heavily on self-service channels than branch-acquired customers, indicating a preferred channel of engagement.

Benchmarking Provides Context

Each measure provides a different perspective on the customer relationship.

The value of benchmarking is in bringing those perspectives together. How does your digital conversion rate compare with peers? Are digitally acquired customers funding their accounts at similar levels? How do open and active rates compare over time? And how do the characteristics of digitally acquired customers differ from those acquired through a branch?

Learn more about ProSight Digital Benchmarking to assess your financial institution’s performance relative to peers and the industry.