Published by isobel.regan@dontpanicprojects.com
Published Date 07.06.2023 
Going for a hat-trick, Protect Line’s marketing team is a finalist for “PPC CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR (B2C)”, “BEST UX AWARD” and “IN-HOUSE TEAM OF THE YEAR” at the UK Digital Growth Awards 2023!
Protect Line is a UK life insurance broker, providing financial security to 270,000+ families if the unexpected was to happen. Founded in 2010 by a husband and wife team, the business has grown with pure passion and entrepreneurial drive, now employing more than 230 team members primarily based in the South of England. Protect Line remains independently owned, growing at a significant rate each year through a great range of family protection products and fantastic customer service.
Since day 1, Protect Line has primarily relied on third-party providers and agencies to generate leads. However, in 2020, Protect Line decided to invest in an in-house Marketing team and start the process of generating first party leads. The team found initial success with advertising on Facebook and Instagram, keeping the cost per lead at a desirable amount.
With the introduction of iOs14, which made social media advertising increasingly more expensive and ineffective in 2021, Protect Line’s marketing team knew they needed to pivot and try something different. The team chose to advertise on Google, despite the extremely high cost and competitiveness of this activity within financial services. In fact, the cost of one click on some keywords is equivalent to 200+ unique clicks on a Facebook advert.
The team recognised that for the best chance of success the attitudes and behaviours of customers needed to be considered at every step of the journey. Concluding that most people in the UK are more familiar and comfortable with comparison websites, as opposed to brokerage firms, the team created a new comparison style brand for search: Compare The Quote.
A new Google account was started and, as expected, the cost of advertising was a loss making activity at first. However, unlike when relying on external lead generation partners, the team now owned the whole customer journey through the Compare The Quote brand. Every part of the journey was monitored and tweaked, from small changes to the enquiry forms to significant changes such as how the phone call was delivered.
Protect Line’s marketing team put everything into their search campaign. From advertising copy, to design, automated emails, customer appointment booking journeys… no stone was untouched in making sure the campaign would be a success.
Reaching out to real people who had previously made life insurance claims and would be willing to share their experiences, Protect Line then hired the services of a professional film company to film heartfelt true stories of how life insurance has such a positive impact on people’s lives. The video adverts were many minutes long, which is rarely seen on platforms such as Youtube. However, after analyising viewer behaviour and editing as appropriate, the team ended up with quality content which was watched to the end by tens of thousands of individuals. These videos, used in both customer acquisition and retargeting, made a significant impact to the overall PPC campaign’s profitability.
In early 2023, Protect Line was able to successfully make the switch to 100% self-generated leads for the first time in its operating history.
“In an industry dominated by publicly listed companies with multi-million pound marketing budgets, a relatively unknown and independently owned broker has been able to dominate the paid search results for life insurance, whilst turning a profit, and successfully scale it into a sustainable lead funnel feeding 150+ full-time sales agents every day.” – David Brewer, Chief Executive Officer at Protect Line
Whilst making the company self-sufficient on its own lead supply was more than enough to satisfy the company owners, and an excellent case for winning ‘PPC Campaign of the Year (B2C)’, the ambitious marketing team had three major UX goals they also wanted to focus on.
Objective 1: Create a seamless journey for all leads.
Objective 2: Increase the contact rate of new leads.
Objective 3: Reduce policy cancellations within the first year.
To achieve these objectives, the marketing team decided to implement what they describe as “an advanced personalisation strategy”. All digital communications are personalised to the individual, ensuring that everyone receives a different type of email based on who they are and what route they take with Protect Line. For example, a young dad might see photos of other young dads in emails as opposed to Over 50s who see similar aged individuals. Videos were also created to help educate leads throughout the buying process and offer them reassurance in speaking with Protect Line’s sales staff. Finally, the team created a series of communications post-sale to re-enforce the value of the product, with added personalisation about the individual’s specific policy.
All the UX goals were successfully met: a significant increase in conversion rate, a significant increase in lead contact rate, and a significant reduction in policy cancellations within the first year. For these reasons, along with the user experience work to make the PPC campaign profitable, Protect Line believes it should win the ‘Best UX Award’ at the UK Digital Growth Awards 2023.
“Protect Line already feels like it has won, given the success of our PPC campaign and the incredible metrics delivered due to the UX work of the talented marketing team. Winning one or more prestigious UK Digital Growth Awards would be the icing on the cake and would mean so much to everyone. Thank you to the judges for the vote of confidence in us getting this far!” – James Holden, Head of Marketing at Protect Line
The Protect Line marketing team has booked a table at the 2023 Digital Growth Awards and is looking forward to a fantastic evening of celebrations, hoping to walk away with a win for the PPC Campaign of the Year (B2C), Best UX Award, and In-House Team of the Year.
