How a Targeted Ad Campaign Increased Conversions By 121%

Wallace, Welch & Willingham (W3) is an insurance company that provides a variety of insurance products to its clients, including commercial, homeowners, auto, boat and life insurance, as well as employee benefits coverage. In business for 95 years, they have offices in St. Pete and Sarasota, and have been named a Top Place to Work in Tampa Bay.

The Goal: Deliver more requests for boat insurance quotes

In the past, W3 had the majority of their leads for marine insurance come from referrals and word-of-mouth. Running outbound ad campaigns delivered limited results, and there was difficulty in targeting the right audience targeting. Previous campaigns faced some of these challenges: 

• Low ROI: With limited resources, every dollar spent on ads needs to deliver. Previous campaigns were limited in their ability to track attribution, resulting in lower than hoped for return on investment (ROI).
• No targeting: Lacking the ability to specifically target this niche audience in past campaigns also led to low ROI and conversions.
• Greater visibility: The marine site has its own domain, separate from the company website, so it has less organic traffic and visibility. 

The Strategy: Geo-targeting & strategic messaging

We knew it was important for this campaign to hone in on a specific audience — boat owners — with a specific type of insurance — boat insurance. Both the creative and in the audience creation needed specificity to be effective. 

We came up with a programmatic advertising strategy that would target their niche audience with specific messaging and geo-fencing.

The Tactics

Specific messaging

Due to COVID-19, we knew people were going to want to spend more time outside and on the water, as that’s one of the few safe things we can do. So, the offer of new boat insurance with a message about getting rid of your worries was extremely relevant due to those circumstances. The imagery we selected showed people out on the water, which is where they want to be!

Geo-targeting

Targeting local marinas in the state of Florida allowed us to deliver ad impressions directly to people at the marina, on their boats, and for 30 days after we captured them in the geofence. Focusing on the marina means a greater chance of targeting boat owners who can benefit from our message, creating a specific target audience.

The Results: The Most Conversions, Ever

• 121% increase in total submissions
• 438% increase in total website users
• 67% increase in monthly submissions

With a strategic targeting and messaging, our advertising campaign for W3 was simple yet wildly effective. In the four months the campaign has been running so far, its click-through-rate is higher than the industry standard and it has hundreds of thousands of impressions. 

We are continuing to optimize the campaign by refreshing creative and refining our targeting, but we know that we are running a campaign that works. 

Are you interested in creating or refining your advertising strategy? Let’s talk.