How the Top Brokers Actually Do Marketing

The latest Finance Magnates Intelligence report adds an interesting twist. It highlights which brokers actually generated the highest trading volume in Q4 2025 and that list doesn’t perfectly match the brands dominating attention across media, social platforms, and search.

In the media world, reach and audience size are everything. The more people visit a website, the more ad space can be monetised. The same applies to newsletters and influencers. In finance, the value per user is particularly high, which makes audience building even more attractive.

Brokers, on the other hand, have traditionally relied a lot on IBs and affiliates, so a large part of their growth has come through partners.

At the same time, visibility doesn’t automatically translate into trading volume. KYC and onboarding still create friction. But with models like prop trading, the industry could be moving closer to an e-commerce setup where audience size could matter a lot more.

So how are the brokers with the highest trading volumes actually doing their marketing in 2026?

Let’s take a look.

What immediately comes to mind when looking at IC Markets is that they might be going through a rebranding soon. Across various social channels, they are starting to refer to themselves simply as “IC”, often adding “(formerly IC Markets)” in brackets. This suggests a move towards a more unified, simplified brand.

We’ve seen similar moves before with brokers like NAGA or Admiral Markets.

At the same time, this also highlights where they are still behind. In a market where audience size is becoming more important, their social audience is relatively small. On YouTube, they currently have around 23.7K subscribers, while other leading brands in terms of visibility, like Trading212 for example, have more than 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube.

(Is IC Markets rebranding soon?)

According to the Finance Magnates Intelligence HeatMap, most of the interest in IC Markets in Q4 came from Europe, with the UK leading the pack. This is notable, as IC Markets has historically been more closely associated with Asian markets.

A soft brand refresh has already taken place at IG, with a sharper logo and updated creative assets.

IG has traditionally been very strong in SEO, generating around 5 million organic monthly visits. Right now, a significant portion of that traffic comes from Japan, driven by keywords like “IG,” “株価” (share price), and “S&P 500.”

Overall, thanks to their exceptional domain rating and well-established brand, IG ranks for around 180K organic keywords across all Tier-1 regions (Data from ahrefs).

One area where they seem to be underperforming is social media, particularly influencer marketing. Aside from a few traditional media partnerships, there isn’t much visible collaboration with community websites or emerging content creators. In the FYI Influencer Discovery tool, only 26 results appear for IG.

In the Finance Magnates Intelligence Report, IG ranks outside the top 10 websites in the Social Benchmark, which measures brokers’ activity in the social media space. IG performs relatively weakly on Facebook, ranking 17th among leading brokers, with around 127,000 followers on its main page.

Its position is somewhat stronger on X (formerly Twitter), where IG ranks 10th. However, in both cases, these results remain well below those of firms considered highly active in social media, such as eToro, Exness, or Plus500.

Why does IG Group underperform in the social media segment? There are several possible explanations. One is the firm’s strong focus on highly regulated markets, including Europe, Australia, and the United States. The OTC derivatives it offers are complex and tightly regulated, making them more difficult to promote through viral or influencer-driven content compared to simpler stock or crypto platforms.

Additionally, IG targets a different type of client. Its typical customer is more affluent and well-informed. In contrast, competitors such as eToro incorporate social media directly into their product offering through features like social trading, while IG positions its platform as a professional tool for self-directed traders.

TMGM is one of those brands that tends to fly a bit under the radar, likely because they are running a highly targeted marketing strategy with a strong focus on APAC. Most of their current traffic comes from Asia.

(Data from SEMrush, February 2026)

Our earlier Q3 data from the HeatMap shows that 59% of interest in TMGM comes from the APAC region, confirming the importance of these markets. Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand continue to be key regions for the broker.

A similar story applies to JustMarkets, which appears to be growing rapidly in these regions. Their careers page currently lists 65 open positions, with a strong focus on business development roles in APAC and the Middle East. This suggests a clear priority: acquiring traders through introducing brokers and affiliate partnerships.

This is a very common way of operating in markets where there is no clear regulatory framework for CFD business. When traditional marketing channels are not clearly defined by law, brokers often turn to affiliate networks to reach potential customers. This strategy appears to be effective for JustMarkets, which ranked among the top five brokers in the Finance Magnates Intelligence Q4 2025 volume ranking, with average monthly volumes exceeding $1 trillion.

Saxo Bank is clearly leaning into its corporate brand image and pushing strongly on performance marketing. As of March 2026, they are running around 3,000 ads on Google and 220 on Meta, positioning themselves as a trustworthy, sophisticated retail investment brand. A lot of their messaging focuses on image-driven content, with strong emphasis on ETFs and long-term investing.

At the same time, their Trustpilot rating doesn’t fully reflect that positioning. With a score of 3.5 based on 8,172 reviews, there seems to be a gap between the brand they present and how they are perceived by the targeted HNW audience.

Plus500 has been historically extremely strong on mobile acquisition. Over the years, they have simplified onboarding and mastered the entire onboarding journey and customer experience.

They are quite active as well on the media side, with top positions with a lot of the leading financial websites. Their sponsorship with Chicago Bulls and intensive OOH ads in key locations makes sure brand awareness stays up.

In contrast to many newer, large FX/CFD brokers, Plus500 is increasingly active in highly regulated markets such as Europe and the United States. The company also positions itself as a multi-asset broker rather than a pure FX/CFD provider. Finance Magnates Intelligence HeatMap data shows that over 74% of interest in the broker comes from Europe, with Italy emerging as a particularly strong market in Q4 2025.

XM is strong on Affiliates and Partnerships. They have a sophisticated internal partnership program and advanced tools for partners. According to their own website 250,000 partners, most traffic coming from offshore locations.

CFI has a very clear regional focus, targeting the Arab world. Most of their traffic comes from countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, and Kuwait.

Their strategy relies also heavily on out-of-home advertising and a strong presence at industry events across these regions.

eToro currently ranks #1 for visibility in the FYI  Broker ranking. At a high level, they’ve always been strong at reacting quickly to market trends. This is largely driven by a strong in-house marketing team and an agile leadership setup.

CEO Yoni Assia plays a visible role, and the brand takes a more edgy, startup-style approach to marketing, something that set them apart early on.

With local offices across most European countries, a large share of their traffic still comes from matured markets like the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France, unlike other brokers who went fully offshore.

Overall, as the Finance Magnates HeatMap shows, these countries accounted for 69% of interest coming from Europe in Q4 2025. This is particularly interesting given that eToro has been focusing heavily on the U.S. market in recent years.

The reliance on Introducing Brokers (IBs) and affiliate networks introduces a significant "client portability" risk that can undermine a brokerage’s long-term valuation. Because these intermediaries often maintain the primary client relationship and provide localized support or proprietary tools, the broker can effectively become a back-end utility. 

This creates a dependency in which IBs can leverage their position, with the ability to migrate entire client bases to competitors offering slightly higher rebates or more attractive B-book arrangements. For brokers, this turns what should be a stable asset into a more transient one. Without a direct, brand-driven relationship, acquisition costs remain high, while the lifetime value (LTV) of clients becomes dependent on third parties. 

Beyond commercial churn risk, the "vicarious liability" associated with affiliate-led distribution has become an increasing focus for regulators. Even if a broker remains compliant internally, an offshore affiliate using aggressive social media “finfluencers” to bypass local CFD restrictions can expose the firm to fines, license risks, and reputational damage. 

This creates an operational challenge. Brokers must invest in monitoring systems and multi-layered compliance processes to oversee distribution channels they do not fully control, which can reduce the cost advantages that initially made the affiliate model attractive. 

As recently as October 2025, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority highlighted growing risks associated with online “finfluencers” promoting unregulated offshore firms. These influencers often promise unrealistic returns through copy trading, managed accounts, or paid trading signals. This demonstrates that regulators are increasingly scrutinizing affiliate-driven promotion, even when brokers are based offshore.

Many brokers also concentrate their operations in a single region, for example in parts of Asia. This concentration creates a "single point of failure" that can expose firms to sudden disruptions. While emerging markets often generate high volumes due to lighter oversight, these regulatory gaps are narrowing quickly. As local authorities introduce stricter licensing requirements and restrict payment channels, offshore brokers face the risk of being blacklisted, potentially losing core revenue streams before they can diversify. 

India provides a clear example of this risk. Until 2025, it was considered a key growth market, but regulatory actions forced several brokers to rethink their strategies. Even large players such as Exness halted onboarding and scaled back marketing efforts. This shows that market position does not provide protection against sudden regulatory changes.

 Ultimately, a single-market strategy can limit long-term sustainability. Without diversification across multiple regions, including areas such as the Middle East, Latin America, or Africa, brokers remain exposed to localized regulatory shifts and broader global enforcement trends.

It’s quite interesting to see that among the top 10 brokers by trading volume, there are completely different marketing strategies at play. Partners and affiliates are important for all brokers. However, not every company has started building its own funnels yet. Some still rely almost entirely on partner traffic, , which, as we have noted, can be a risky strategy.

Other brokers focus primarily on traditional marketing channels and formats, such as IG and Saxo Bank.

It will be interesting to see whether this model will prevail in the future.

For the time being, many companies are heavily investing in business development functions. At the same time, several brands are doing very well on the digital marketing side, building strong visibility and tracking their performance closely. For some, this hasn’t yet fully translated into trading volume. However, this is likely just a matter of time. Companies that are highly visible will eventually catch up in terms of trading volume.