2015 Silver Financial Services

MEC UK

HomeServe

How a Radiator Key unlocked a whole new market

The Team
Iain McPhee, Emily Gane, Laura Stephens, Vlad Cochintoiu, Julian Clarke, Rob Bassett, Jonny Burgess

Contributors
Ad2One & eBay - eBay ad inventory management and partners in campaign optimisation and facilitation

Campaign overview

Specialist home emergency insurance provider HomeServe wanted to grow market share in a highly competitive and mature market while retaining its direct response rigour.

Using customer data and behavioural insights, the team found specific searches on eBay within the Home and Garden category, such as heating, boilers and even radiator keys, that were often followed by purchases of emergency home cover – and surrounded these with activity.

By getting one step ahead in the consumer journey, HomeServe ensured that it was able to influence first preference, even as a relatively unknown brand in a commoditised category.

Strategy

With all traditional channels optimized and little room to grow key digital channels, HomeServe needed to find a new approach to deliver sales.

So the team decided to advertise one step ahead of the consumer need state. The eBay audience profile reflected a consumer profile HomeServe had historically struggled to convert, so the brand developed a new way to talk to them – and in an environment where this audience would actively engage with content.

By selling a branded radiator key on eBay, HomeServe was moved into the eBay search results (auction) for an initial home improvements enquiry. Keyword and category-related search activity surrounded this and was targeted to the most effective audiences. Opportunities were taken to dispel any perceived price barriers and encourage interaction with other HomeServe content.

Creativity

HomeServe produced their own branded radiator keys and sold them on eBay auction pages that contained insurance offers. Its own content site seamlessly integrated with the existing eBay experience and on-site navigation to ensure a seamless sales journey. The campaign messaging, built in collaboration with eBay, ran alongside targeted searches and directed people to relevant content housed within eBay pages – boiler insurance messaging alongside heating-related searches, such as ‘gas boiler’ or ‘thermostat’, and plumbing and drainage messaging for plumbing-related searches.

These placements were used in conjunction with homepage takeovers, eBay Doodles and retargeting elements to deliver efficient results at scale and help customers understand HomeServe’s offering in the market.

Results

The immediacy of conversions and a 12.5% post-click conversion rate throughout the campaign (compared with a typical industry rate of under 3%) proved that the solution was extremely relevant to HomeServe’s audience and was delivering qualified prospects.

An emphatic 5% growth in annual customer sales smashed the brand’s targets, and from a campaign that cost very little.

The strength of total conversions has enabled HomeServe to demonstrate the benefits of this creative approach, with the activity becoming part of the brand’s ongoing strategy and continuing to deliver growth in market share through a second phase and beyond.