Legal & General’s Over 50s Life Insurance marketing activity has traditionally used direct mail to engage consumers and drive new business. Though the approach has been successful for a number of years, new GDPR regulations and the shifting digital landscape led Legal & General to think differently about how to engage with consumers to meet the growth ambitions of the business.
About Legal & General Group
One of the UK’s leading financial services companies
Over 9 million customers in the UK for life assurance, pensions, investments and general insurance plans
Established in 1836
Goals
Reduce cost per acquisition
Drive incremental sales
Gain insights to apply to other digital activity
Approach
Shifted budget from offline door drop activity to Google Display Network
Reached audiences using remarketing lists and in-market and affinity segments
Results
44% lower cost per acquisition than door drop campaigns
Legal & General tested other offline communications media, primarily door drops and inserts, but results showed them to be less efficient than direct mail. The company’s challenge was to discover ways to better utilise their marketing budget elsewhere.
“The test campaign results have also supported our internal thinking that we need to expand our digital media footprint for the Over 50s Life Insurance audience as they move towards digital channels from more traditional offline media. The world is changing!”
– Paula Llewellyn, Global Marketing Director, Insurance, Legal & General
With Google a joint business partner of Legal & General, the company took the opportunity to test new activity using the Google Display Network. The main objectives of the test campaign were to achieve a lower cost per acquisition, drive incremental sales and gain insights that could be applied to other digital activity.
As far as possible, the targeting methodology and measurement framework used for door drops were recreated in the Google Display Network campaign to reflect an accurate test of the shift of budget from offline to online.
To reach the right audiences, the team targeted in-market and affinity segments on desktop. In addition to remarketing activity, they added new segments by analysing the audience list of those who converted and applied a bid modifier for females based on prior performance.
Overall the test campaign results were extremely positive, with a cost per acquisition that was 45% lower than door drop campaigns. Legal & General also gained some key insights, which the media team at Merkle Periscopix has now adopted as part of the brand’s business as usual programmatic display activity.
“Conversations have already taken place with Google regarding how we move forward with more testing along these lines in order to utilise our marketing budget in the most effective channel for the relevant audience”, says Paula Llewellyn, Legal & General’s Global Marketing Director, Insurance. “The test campaign results have also supported our internal thinking that we need to expand our digital media footprint for the Over 50s Life Insurance audience as they move towards digital channels from more traditional offline media. The world is changing!”
