January 29, 2026

Why Synovus Chose to Buy, Not Build: Achieving 18% Click-Through Rates with Cognitive Banking

By Juan Horvath, Customer Success Manager, Personetics 

As banks sprint out of the blocks in Q1, setting growth priorities, sharpening retention strategies, and looking for faster ways to turn digital engagement into measurable outcomes, I’m reminded of a conversation we had on stage last fall at MoneyLive USA with Synovus. It centered on a question many banks are weighing right now: should you build personalization capabilities in-house, or partner to accelerate outcomes? 

Synovus’ answer is showing up in the numbers. Since launching its Cognitive Banking experience in 2023, the bank has reported results that go well beyond typical engagement benchmarks—most notably an average 18% click-through rate from insight to action—alongside growth in relationship balances, account expansion, and strong customer satisfaction. 

What stood out in our discussion with Katie Webb, Chief Digital and Experience Officer at Synovus, was how deliberately the bank approached the shift from digital transactions to digital relationships, and why the decision to buy, not build helped them move faster. 

The Industry Challenge: Digital Banking Still Feels Transactional 

While digital channels have traditionally delivered scale and convenience, they also made many interactions feel transactional rather than relational. 

Today’s consumer expectations, however, have been shaped by digital-native experiences. Companies like Netflix, Uber, and Amazon have trained users to expect services that understand preferences, anticipate needs, and make it easy to take action with minimal friction. Financial services customers increasingly expect the same from their bank. 

The competitive impact is clear across the industry. According to Accenture, 59% of consumers acquired a financial services product from a different institution in the last 12 months, rising to 82% for Gen Z. In Personetics’ own global survey of 2,000 customers, 84% said they would consider switching banks for more personalized service. 

The message: customers won’t wait for personalization to mature; they’ll simply move to where they feel understood. 

Why Basic PFM and Marketing Banners Don’t Close the Gap 

Many institutions have tried to respond in one of two ways: 

• Financial wellness / PFM tools (budgets, widgets, content hubs) 

• “Next best offer” marketing banners powered by propensity models 

But as discussed on stage, both approaches often fall short because they miss the moment and the context. 

Financial wellness tools can be valuable, but frequently remain generic or disconnected from what a customer is actually experiencing. Meanwhile, banner-style offers—even when the modeling is sophisticated—can train customers to tune them out, especially when messaging feels promotional rather than helpful. 

The alternative Synovus described is contextual guidance: using transaction-level understanding and behavioral models to deliver the best advice or offer in the flow of the customer’s real financial life, and at a moment when taking action makes sense. 

Synovus’ Decision Point: “There Are Times to Build and There Are Times to Buy” 

Synovus didn’t start from zero. Katie Webb described a foundation that many modern banks are building toward: a strong understanding of customer journeys, the data to support them, and a modern integration layer. 

What Synovus didn’t have, by design, was what it would take to build and maintain Cognitive Banking capabilities internally at speed: deep behavioral modeling, a large team of specialized engineers, and the time required to iterate toward measurable results. 

As Katie put it during the discussion: “There are times to build and there are times to buy.” For Synovus, partnering made it possible to take transactional data and translate it into actionable insights and advice faster, without needing “armies” of teams to develop and sustain the models. 

Just as importantly, Synovus reframed how it thought about digital experiences. Instead of treating interactions as features to launch, the bank focused on a job-to-be-done mindset. 

Account opening was a simple example raised in the conversation. A customer doesn’t open an account just to complete a form; they may be saving for college, preparing to buy a car, or managing a major life change. Understanding the “why” creates room for ongoing guidance throughout the journey, not just the moment of transaction. 

What Synovus Achieved Since Launching in 2023 

Synovus shared performance metrics that illustrate what can happen when personalization is delivered as timely, relevant guidance rather than generic marketing. 

Since launching in 2023, Synovus has reported: 

• 22% increase in average relationship balance 

• 19% growth in accounts by recognizing opportunities to move customers from basic deposit accounts into money markets and savings 

• 18% average click-through rate from insight to action 

• 4.4 out of 5 client satisfaction rating 

That 18% CTR was a key highlight because it significantly exceeds typical “banner” performance. The difference, as discussed, is relevance: customers are responding to insights that reflect their real financial situation and provide a clear, helpful next step.

For a deeper dive into Synovus’ success, read the Case Study.

Three Factors Behind Synovus’ Results 

Across the session, three themes emerged as drivers of progress: 

• Start where you are today: Synovus’ approach emphasized momentum over perfection: begin, learn, and mature the experience over time. 
• Choose platform partners with configurability: Personalization needs to flex with a bank’s brand voice and experience design. Cognitive Banking is not one-size-fits-all; the “persona” of the bank matters in how guidance is expressed and how it feels to customers. 
• Test, learn, and iterate: Synovus monitors what performs well, listens to customers, and increases segmentation sophistication over time, treating insights and actions.

If you’d like to learn how Personetics’ Cognitive Banking platform can help your bank drive measurable growth, improve retention, and increase operational efficiency, book a conversation.