×· Q4 2026
— days since Hingham's new online banking went live (Sept 21, 2026)

What new deposit relationships and multifamily loans from search, AI and ads are worth to Hingham

Hingham still funds $1.9B with wholesale money, and its borrowings cost 3.93% (Q2 2026); its growth now runs on deposit relationships. Yet about nine in ten of its search visits (91.5% of the ~3,000 a month Ahrefs ties to a keyword) come from people already typing its name, and Ahrefs has it outside Google's US top 100 for all 30 searches for what it lends and banks (Oct 2026). This models what ads, rebuilt specialty and market pages, and a place in AI answers are worth in added net interest income. Hingham's 3.93% borrowed-funds rate is its own (it caps the funding saving below); every other rate is a placeholder until Hingham's numbers replace it.

Search & AI
115
From searches like "nonprofit bank account", "property management banking" and "insured cash sweep" (1,660 a month nationally) reaching Google's top three, at a click curve with a 50% AI Overview haircut (volumes: Ahrefs; click curve: ROAST assumption). Hingham opens accounts nationwide.
12
Multifamily and commercial real estate searches (13,350 a month nationally) reaching the top three, counted only from Hingham's three lending markets (~6% of US searches, a placeholder until Keyword Planner geo volumes).
Google Ads
$2,500
70% on specialty-deposit searches nationally, 30% on multifamily and commercial real estate searches geo-targeted to Boston, DC and San Francisco. Ahrefs sees almost no paid search from Boston peers today. ~$2,500 a month is about what the measured searches can absorb; Keyword Planner will show the rest.
$6.75
Placeholder. Ahrefs CPCs: nonprofit bank account $9, property management banking $5, insured cash sweep $3.50, multifamily lenders $9. Replaced by Keyword Planner and the first month's data.
Deposits
1.0%
Placeholder until Hingham shares its own: new business, nonprofit and specialty accounts from site visits and ad clicks.
$300,000
Placeholder. Hingham's Specialized Deposit Group grew non-interest-bearing balances 37.7% in 2025; its own average relationship replaces this.
3.0%
Hingham's own: its borrowed funds (FHLB and FRB) cost 3.93% in Q2 2026, so each $1M of non-interest-bearing deposits that replaces them saves ~$39K a year. 3.0% is a placeholder blend of free and low-rate balances.
Loans
0.25%
Placeholder until Hingham shares its own: funded multifamily and commercial real estate loans from site inquiries.
$3,000,000
Placeholder. Hingham lends up to $100M of relationship exposure; its listed deals run $1.6M–$40M.
1.75%
Placeholder: loan yield less the cost of funding it. Hingham's net interest margin was 2.14% in Q2 2026.
Added net interest income a year
$598,100
from one year of new deposit relationships and multifamily loans won through search, AI answers and ads
44.9
New deposit relationships a year
13.8 from search & AI · 31.1 from ads
$13.5M
New low-cost deposits
replacing borrowings at 3.93%
3.7
New loans a year
$11.1M of loans
$15.17
Interest income per $1 of ads
ads alone: ~34 relationships

Ads alone: ~34 new relationships. With search & AI answers: ~49 on the same ad budget.

New relationships a year, by channel

Ads alone
34.4
Search & AI
14.2
Both together
48.6

Deposit relationships plus funded loans. Yellow is what search and AI answers add on the same ad budget.

From visits to relationships, one year

5,968
Visits & ad clicks
1,524 visits · 4,444 clicks
4,491
Deposit searches
1,380 visits · 3,111 clicks
44.9
Deposit relationships
1.0% · $13.5M of deposits
3.7
Funded loans
from 1,477 borrower visits & clicks

A year of visits and ad clicks at the rates set above. Organic and ad traffic convert at the same placeholder rates.

If the least certain rates come in different

Visits & clicks to relationship$150Kaverage$300Kplaceholder$600Kaverage

Added net interest income a year. Every other rate as set above; the yellow cell matches the current setting.

The paid view

Search ad budget a year$30,000
Ad clicks a year4,444
New relationships from ads34.4
Interest income per $1 of ads$15.17
Ad cost per new relationship$871

Search & AI add ~14.2 relationships on the same ad budget.

For scale: the same 127 search visits a month would cost ~$857 a month in Google Ads at $6.75 a click. Search also reaches what ads can't: AI answers and the explainers they quote.

What waiting costs

Each month without the plan defers ~$50K of added net interest income. Hingham still funds $1.9B with wholesale money (Q2 2026: $1.4B of FHLB borrowings, which cost 3.93%, plus $0.5B of brokered and listing-service deposits): every $1M of non-interest-bearing deposits that replaces those borrowings saves ~$39K a year. Meanwhile Ahrefs estimates its homepage lost 40% of its search visits in a year (2,827 to 1,703) while it still ranks #1 for its own name.

Assumptions & sources. Hingham's own: borrowed-funds rate 3.93% (FHLB and FRB), wholesale funds $1.915B, net interest margin 2.14% (Q2 2026 earnings release); Specialized Deposit Group non-interest-bearing balances +37.7% in 2025 (2025 letter to shareholders). Every conversion rate, balance, loan size and spread is a placeholder until Hingham shares its own (relationships and loans by source, average new balances, loan pricing). Search: Ahrefs, pulled 13 Oct 2026, US, modeled estimates: 30 category searches worth 18,680 a month (specialty deposits 1,660; multifamily and commercial real estate lending 13,350; Massachusetts deposits 3,020 and mortgages 650, not valued here (rate-shopping searches outside Hingham's specialty focus)); Ahrefs has Hingham outside the US top 100 for all of them (live from Massachusetts, its property-management page reached page 1 for "property management banking"). Visits use a standard top-three click curve with a 50% AI Overview haircut. Lending visits count only the ~6% of US searches from Hingham's three markets (a population placeholder). AI visits are an assumption. Ad costs are placeholders. ROAST fees are not in the number.
Formula. Deposit relationships = (deposit visits a month × 12 + ad clicks a year × 70%) × visit-to-relationship rate. Loans = (borrower visits a month × 12 + ad clicks a year × 30%) × visit-to-loan rate. Ad clicks a year = ad budget a month ÷ cost per click × 12. Added net interest income = relationships × average new deposits × funding saving + loans × average loan × net spread. Interest income per $1 of ads = the ads' share of that ÷ the ad budget a year. Each month of waiting = the total ÷ 12. The tiers change only the visits and the ad budget; the rates stay as set.
Part of the ROAST × Hingham Institution for Savings search, AI and paid media analysis, October 2026.