Auto insurer Esurance claims it was able to reduce its cost per acquisition 30 percent compared to other channels using Google mobile ads with click-to-call functionality.

As part of its most recent corporate initiative tag lined, ?People when you want them, technology when you don?t,? the company wanted to let potential customers access Esurance services at all times online and via phone. The goal was to let car insurance shoppers know that they could obtain personal quotes over the phone.

?Google mobile ads with click-to-call allow us to put an interested person in touch with a licensed insurance agent or dedicated claims representative, or obtain a personal quote on a mobile phone in just a few simple steps,? said Tolithia Kornweibel, director of online marketing at Esurance, San Francisco. 

?Google?s mobile advertising solution is not only more convenient and faster for customers, but also is a less expensive lead acquisition vehicle for us,? she said.

Campaign goals, results
Esurance?s goals for the mobile advertising campaign were to reduce CPA, improve close rates, drive lead volume and increase convenience for insurance shoppers.

The company deployed Google mobile ads? click-to-call to connect mobile users with car insurance agents and drive increased revenue.

Not only did Esurance acquire customers at about 20-30 percent less cost than through other marketing channels, the mobile ads also helped boost conversion rates.

In other words, the calls coming from click-to-call mobile ads were more likely to result in sales.

Esurance also improved convenience for potential customers.

Multichannel
The ?People when you want them, technology when you don?t? initiative is currently being marketed through television, outdoor media and online search marketing using Google AdWords.

Esurance also created an optimized mobile landing page for the campaign.

But Esurance wanted to expand its reach further to deliver ads to users on both WAP and high-end mobile phones.

?We chose Google mobile ads because we love the volume it delivers,? Ms. Kornweibel said. ?To expand our reach, Google mobile ads provide highly relevant ads to customers across a wide range of mobile phones.

?Setting up a mobile campaign in AdWords was easy, intuitive and very much in-line with the process to create any other campaign,? she said. ?The ease in functionality allowed our team to set up Google mobile ads ourselves.?

Tracking
Esurance used unique 800 numbers in its Google mobile click-to-call ads so that the company could track the moment when a potential customer requests an insurance quote.

Based on the results, Esurance began allocating more of its budget toward Google mobile ads.

By year end, the company expects mobile acquisition to drive 3-5 percent of direct response campaigns, which is an increase from the previous year.

?We tracked customers back to the first quote, rather than the last click,? Ms. Kornweibel said. ?So even if we remarketed to the customer through email, we knew if they first came through Google mobile ads click-to-call.

?This helped us deepen our understanding of how to best allocate our marketing budget,? she said.