Unicaja has added ChatGPT Ads to its digital acquisition strategy with two product categories: mortgages and payroll accounts. Announced on September 23, the activation was developed with Performics , its digital acquisition partner and a media agency within Publicis Groupe . The bank is seeking a place in the conversations where people explore alternatives before contacting a provider. Its starting point is consideration, with an initial strategy covering questions about financial products generally and searches connected to the Unicaja brand.
The choice brings together two different commercial relationships. A mortgage involves a substantial decision about a home and financing. A payroll account can provide an entry into everyday banking and a route to a longer relationship. The announcement explicitly connects both to customer acquisition and engagement. Unicaja is taking that offer into a conversational information environment while its own website gives interested visitors separate routes to calculate a mortgage, open an account or request contact from the bank.
Those routes reveal how the commercial proposition continues beyond the initial message. On the bank's current website, someone can compare mortgage options before starting an application, while an online account can be opened without first transferring a salary. Payroll deposits and payment activity then have their own incentives. The pages consulted on October 19 describe that current offer; the September announcement identifies the two categories chosen for the first advertising activation.
Reaching the question before the application
Performics frames the move around a change in discovery. Carlos Bravo, its business lead, associates conversational tools with the way people find, compare and evaluate products and services. In the campaign announcement, he describes the activation as an opportunity to learn how brands can become relevant in that environment. The agency's stated interest is therefore in the early information journey, before a user has necessarily chosen a particular bank or begun an application.
Victoria Cases, identified in the announcement as Unicaja's director of digital deposit sales and payment methods, places the decision in a customer context. The bank wants to appear where people seek information and make decisions about a mortgage or payroll account. Her explanation emphasizes useful information and a simple, accessible experience. The two statements give the activation a common commercial purpose: meet consideration as it develops, rather than wait for a person to arrive already looking for a bank's application form.
The distinction between generic and brand-related questions matters to that plan. One person may be examining a category, while another has already included Unicaja among the alternatives. The announced strategy covers both situations. Mortgages and payroll accounts supply recognizable subjects for those conversations, and the bank's current pages give each subject a different next step. A visitor interested in financing encounters a calculator; someone looking for an everyday account finds an opening process and a description of subsequent benefits.
A visibility benchmark from before the activation
A banking visibility index reported on April 20 provides a separate view of the sector's position in AI-based information journeys. The reported scores, on a scale of zero to ten, put BBVA at 9.20 and Santander at 8.10, followed by CaixaBank at 6.40, Sabadell at 5.20, Bankinter at 4.20 and Unicaja at 3.90. They are the published values of a proprietary index concerned with banks' ability to be recommended by AI assistants.
Banking visibility scores for AI reported in April 2026
Six values from a proprietary index of banks’ capacity to be recommended by AI assistants, reported in an article published on April 20, 2026.
points / 10
Tap or hover for details. All values are also available in the data table.
Collapse notes
Scores from a proprietary indicator of AI visibility. They are not metrics from the advertising activation announced in September.
Explore the data table
| Category | Reported score |
|---|---|
| BBVA | 9.20 points / 10 |
| Banco Santander | 8.10 points / 10 |
| CaixaBank | 6.40 points / 10 |
| Banco Sabadell | 5.20 points / 10 |
| Bankinter | 4.20 points / 10 |
| Unicaja | 3.90 points / 10 |
The accompanying account describes technical access and the organization of product information as issues affecting visibility. It points particularly to mortgage information, where questions can depend on detailed, changing conditions. The benchmark places the subject of AI discovery within a competitive banking discussion several months before Unicaja's advertising announcement. It also shows why the financial product, the information explaining it and the channel through which it is discovered belong in the same commercial analysis.
Paid advertising and appearing within an assistant's answer are different routes to that discovery. The April ranking concerns the latter kind of visibility; Unicaja's September initiative concerns an advertising activation. The common business question is how the bank becomes part of a person's consideration. The current product pages offer another perspective on that question by showing what information and actions Unicaja makes available once someone is exploring its own offer.
Opening an account and developing a banking relationship
The current Cuenta Online page separates opening an account from transferring a salary. It presents an account for new customers that can be opened online without a payroll deposit. The page describes no maintenance or administration fees and includes a debit card and digital banking. This makes the initial entry different from the subsequent payroll proposition: an account opening is one action, and adding a regular income stream is another.
The site describes identification using a DNI or NIE and a mobile phone, with video identification and a photograph of the identity document. It invites the visitor to have a phone with a camera ready. Its opening button links to a dedicated onboarding address, while a separate option allows an existing application to be resumed. The information page therefore supplies both a way to begin and a way to return, alongside explanations of eligibility and the documents associated with the account.
The current offer is directed at people who have not held a Unicaja product or service during the previous twelve months. It describes a personal account for adults resident in Spain, with a separate account available for the self-employed. The bank also publishes precontractual information, general account and debit-card conditions, digital-banking documentation and a standardized fees document. These resources sit on the same product page as the opening invitation, providing an information layer for someone assessing the account before identifying themselves.
Payroll acquisition is then developed through a separate promotion. In the offer consulted on October 19, the site advertises a gross incentive of €350 for monthly net salaries or pensions from €600 to €1,199.99, and €450 from €1,200. It requires that a salary or pension has not been deposited with Unicaja in the preceding twelve months. The promotion is advertised until January 31, 2027, with payments made month by month for up to twelve months, subject to the stated requirements. The page gives participants three months from joining the promotion to meet its conditions.
Payment use has another incentive. The current page describes 5% cashback for qualifying purchases made with Bizum online or Bizum Pay in physical shops, capped at €10 gross per month and €120 gross in total over twelve months after registration, advertised until January 31, 2027. The combined headline of up to €570 therefore brings together two different behaviours: a qualifying salary or pension deposit and eligible payment activity. The offer turns the account relationship into several defined actions, each with its own requirements and payment schedule.
The page also describes the services available around those actions: managing accounts and cards, digital transfers, Bizum and mobile payments. A free account-transfer service is presented for moving regular payments and other banking activity. This is the commercial depth behind the payroll category named in the advertising announcement. The entry offer introduces an account; the broader proposition concerns the recurring transactions a person may subsequently conduct through it.
The product page introduces further services after a payroll relationship has been established. It describes an authorized overdraft of up to €500 after three consecutive qualifying payroll payments, regularized with subsequent account income. It also describes a salary advance of up to €6,000 after six months of payroll deposits, repayable over up to twelve months and subject to the bank's lending decision. These are separately described account features with their own conditions. Their timing makes the commercial proposition extend beyond the initial opening, with particular services introduced at later points in a recurring-income relationship.
The mortgage route begins with a scenario
The bank's mortgage page describes a four-stage simulation. It first distinguishes a new mortgage from bringing an existing one from another bank. The user then supplies basic information, compares options and adjusts associated products. The structure starts with the person's situation and works towards a financing scenario. It gives the bank a way to address a detailed question about a product before requiring the documentary work involved in an application.
The information listed for a simulation includes the purchase price, whether the property will be the main home, whether it is new or second-hand, the number of applicants and estimated monthly income. The page also describes adjusting the amount, term and type of property. These are specific inputs into the comparison presented by the bank. They translate a general interest in a mortgage into a set of parameters around which the visitor can examine the offer.
The described results stage brings fixed, variable and mixed-rate options into the comparison. The page says the simulator shows an estimated monthly payment, term and associated costs, distinguishing costs borne by the applicant from those borne by the bank. It also allows associated products, including a payroll deposit and insurance, to be considered in the conditions. The mortgage route therefore connects calculation with the wider banking relationship, making product choices part of how the offer is explained.
After simulation, the bank describes an online application requiring additional details and documents. It says a specialist manager is then assigned to accompany the applicant and follow the case. The described process continues online through the approval stage, with signing before a notary as the in-person part. The calculator and the manager have distinct roles: one organizes the initial comparison, while the other supplies an identified human point of continuity as the application progresses.
The bank says visitors can repeat scenarios without submitting documentation at the simulation stage. It also supplies precontractual documents and explains that a simulated result is an estimate, while a mortgage decision depends on the bank's assessment. That distinction is part of the journey itself. Someone can investigate the product before making an application, then provide the further information required to continue. It corresponds closely to the consideration stage that Unicaja and Performics emphasize in the advertising announcement.
Access to precontractual information is also organized by the circumstances of the enquiry. The page asks for the territory, distinguishing Andalusia from the rest of Spain, the property used as collateral and the financing purpose. The displayed purposes include buying a main or second residence, buying a property to rent out, self-building and energy renovation. This information selector sits alongside the calculation and application explanations. It classifies a broad mortgage question into more specific situations, giving the bank's product content a further layer beyond the initial choice between a new mortgage and transferring an existing one.
A contact request that identifies the conversation
For people seeking a conversation rather than an immediate account opening, the bank also publishes a request-for-information form. It asks for identity details, including document type and number, name and surname. It then asks for a preferred contact method, offering telephone or email, followed by contact and address information. The form supplies a structured route for explaining an enquiry, alongside the more product-specific paths for account opening and mortgage simulation.
The form also asks the person to select an office through province, locality and branch fields. A comments area lets them write their message. The combination brings the office preference and the substance of the request into the same contact page. An enquiry can therefore be described through a preferred communication channel and an identified office, while the comments give space for the person's question in their own words.
The page separates acceptance for handling the request from an additional advertising-consent option. The latter is presented for interested people who are not already Unicaja customers and concerns communications about products and services of the bank, its group and collaborators. The distinction makes the purpose of the immediate contact visible alongside the possibility of subsequent commercial communication. It is another part of the relationship the bank describes around someone who has expressed an interest.
The bank's earlier conversational ambition
The advertising move follows earlier public statements about how Unicaja sees AI within the organization. In February, its AI Week formed part of a global generative-AI adoption programme linked to the bank's 2025–2027 strategic plan. The programme addressed employees and included activities with customers and universities. The bank presented conferences, discussions, video podcasts and webinars as ways of bringing practical uses and responsible adoption into that wider programme.
That February announcement included collaboration with the universities of Málaga and Granada, and a planned session for customers, particularly small and medium-sized businesses. Isidro Rubiales, speaking as the bank's chief executive in that announcement, linked AI to a conversational banking model and emphasized the continued role of professional judgement. September's acquisition initiative approaches a different part of the relationship: the information environment in which a prospective customer discovers and compares an offer.
September's announcement gives Performics a role in learning from that commercial environment, while Cases explains the bank's wish to provide relevant information at an important decision point. The account, calculator and contact routes give that stated ambition a concrete product setting.
Who's who and how to read the figures
Unicaja is the advertising bank. Its corporate legal notice identifies Unicaja Banco, S.A., with a registered address in Málaga and commercial registration there. Performics is its digital acquisition partner within Publicis Groupe. Carlos Bravo provides the agency's explanation of the initiative, while Victoria Cases provides the bank's. ChatGPT is OpenAI 's service and the environment named in the advertising announcement.
The April visibility figures are scores from a proprietary index on a zero-to-ten scale. The current account figures describe the terms of separately defined commercial incentives, not advertising performance. The four steps belong to the bank's description of mortgage simulation. September 23 dates the original campaign announcement; October 19 dates the consultation of the current product and contact pages, whose details explain the bank's own commercial journeys.
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Marian Vasile
Marian Vasile is a MarTech and growth professional. His work spans product marketing, SEO, paid advertising and deep online tracking, including behavioral analytics and attribution.
