Targeted search advertising drives more sales for MORE TH>N

Case Study, 31.08.07
MORE TH>N
Targeting search advertising drives more sales for MORE TH>N

Launched in 2001 to bring a fresh approach to the consumer financial services market, MORE TH>N is now one of the leading direct insurance providers in the UK with a product range encompassing motor, home, pet, travel and life insurance. Assisted by Microsoft Advertising and media agency Universal McCann, MORE TH>N continues to gain recognition for its innovative marketing approach in the financial sector. In recognition of this, MORE TH>N was recently awarded the Most Effective E-Commerce Campaign by The Financial Services Forum and the British Insurance Awards Marketing Initiative of the Year accolade.
 
Objective
MORE TH>N’s strategy for promoting their motor insurance range was driven by extensive customer insight which identified superior quote-to-sale ratios amongst the over 25’s. Consequently, MORE TH>N decided to make use of Microsoft adCenter’s unique targeting tools to focus their search marketing efforts more effectively on this responsive demographic.
 
Approach
MORE TH>N and Universal McCann worked closely with Microsoft adCenter’s Search Media Operations team to set up new demographically-targeted Pay-Per-Click campaigns, with a creative approach especially designed to appeal to the over 25’s. In this campaign, demographic targeting was incrementally used for each of the age groups - whereby keyword bids were up-weighted per bracket; 25-35 years (50%), 35-50 years (100%), 50-65 years (70%) and 65+ years (50%).
 
MORE TH>N was the first UK insurer to utilise Microsoft adCenter’s demographic targeting tool.
 
Campaign Results
MORE TH>N immediately experienced the benefits of using demographic targeting to focus on an audience with a superior readiness to buy online. By using adCenter’s demographic targeting tool MORE TH>N achieved:
  • Four fold increase in clickthrough rate
  • 45% increase in quote-to-sale ratio
  • 80% drop in cost per sale
  • 47% reduction in time taken between click and transaction
 
Up-weighting keyword bids to the over 25’s increased campaign effectiveness throughout the purchase funnel. Clicks coming from Bing (Live Search) to MORE TH>N clearly exceeded those from the other major search engines: simple, smart thinking had delivered remarkable campaign results.
 
The click-to-sale ratio from MSN/Live searchers on the MORE TH>N site was twice as high as searchers from Google – and three times higher than those from Yahoo!
 
Summary
The MORE TH>N motor insurance campaign provides powerful evidence that the responsiveness of the Bing (Live Search) audience, combined with adCenter’s unique targeting capabilities, can lead to substantial advertiser benefits. Offering a targeted advertising experience to an action-ready audience clearly drove an effective campaign - and ultimately improved ROI. As a result of this successful motor insurance campaign, MORE TH>N is looking to extend the strategy across their entire product portfolio.
 
‘Microsoft adCenter has been a great addition to our search portfolio. They deliver targeted traffic and their foresight in building a great suite of tools really complements the sophisticated nature of the campaigns that UM build.’
 
Angela Southall E-Media Manager, MORE TH>N
‘ The ability to target specific demographics on adCenter is a massive benefit for our campaigns and a huge breakthrough for the industry as a whole. The quality of traffic that we receive from Live Search is fantastic, but targeting further enables our campaigns to perform even better.’
 
Chris Jones
Search Manager for MORE TH>N
Universal McCann

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