5 tips for search advertising success during health care reform

5 tips for search success during health care reform

Formulate bidding strategies. Oct 2013 marks peak search traffic so make sure you’re staying competitive on Medicare and Health Insurance keywords.

5.

Leverage key ad formats. Use Sitelink Extensions and Location Extensions to boost clicks and increase ad relevance.

4.

2.

3.

1. Seek out the right audience. The Yahoo! Bing Network delivers an audience

primed for purchasing health care.

Optimize for devices. For Health Insurance, dedicated device targeting may produce higher performance (CTR) when compared to targeting all devices.

Refine ad copy. Leverage Bing Ads Ad Copy research to test ad copy performance by device.

What’s

changing?

What’s the

impact to

Search?

How can

marketers

prepare?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a new “Patient’s Bill of Rights”

giving Americans the flexibility they need to make informed choices

about their healthcare. The ACA will go into effect on January 1,

2014 with health exchange enrollment beginning on October 1,

2013 in most states.

Americans will be looking for answers on how the new healthcare

law will affect them, most likely resulting in spikes in search traffic

in 2013 and into 2014.

We’ve got 5 tips to help prepare search campaigns for the post-ACA world

4. Refine ad copy

5. Optimize for devices

3. Formulate bidding strategies

2. Leverage key ad formats

1. Seek out the right audience

The ACA will impact individuals, families and small businesses –audiences that the Yahoo! Bing Network more effectively reaches than Google

also, more likely to work in a company of 50 – 499 employees

more likely to start a business in next 12 months

more likely to work in a company of 25 – 49 employees 7%16% <5%

21% more likely than Google’s audience to

have applied for health insurance online

in the last 6 months

When compared to Google, the Yahoo! Bing Network audience is…

more likely to be a business owner

more likely to be self-employed

more likely to have children in the home

4. Refine ad copy

5. Optimize for devices

3. Formulate bidding strategies

2. Leverage key ad formats

1. Seek out the right audience

create richer and more relevant search ads for health insurance advertisers by providing direct access to site content

Effect of Sitelink Extensions

on Ad Copy Quality

for Health Insurance

+316%

Financial Services and Insurance ads saw…

24%increase in average CTR1

Content Ads may help health insurance advertisers get more clicks at a lower CPC, resulting in lower acquisition costs

An internal study showed

that Financial Services and

Insurance advertisers saw

cost per acquisition

36% lower than with

standard text ads

4. Refine ad copy

5. Optimize for devices

3. Formulate bidding strategies

2. Leverage key ad formats

1. Seek out the right audience

Medicare searches

this is due to the attention given to

health care reform and a general

aging population

Our 2013 - 2014 forecasts show

that top Medicare searches and

clicks will peak in Oct 2013…

-

50,000,000

100,000,000

Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul

Searches - Actuals & Forecasted

Searches - Actuals Searches - Med Forecast

Searches - Low Forecast Searches - High Forecast

-

50,000

100,000

150,000

Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul

Clicks - Actuals & Forecasted

Clicks - Actuals Clicks - Med Forecast

Clicks - Low Forecast Clicks - High Forecast

this is due to the delayed ACA

reform starting in 2014 and the

open enrollment season in

October 2013

Our 2013 - 2014 forecasts show

that top Health Insurance

searches and clicks will increase

YoY starting in Oct 2013…

-

50,000

100,000

150,000

Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul

Clicks - Actuals & Forecasted

Clicks - Actuals Clicks - Med Forecast

Clicks - Low Forecast Clicks - High Forecast

Health Insurance searches

-

50,000,000

100,000,000

Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul

Searches - Actuals & Forecasted

Searches - Actuals Searches - Med Forecast

Searches - Low Forecast Searches - High Forecast

Click Here for Medicare and Health Insurance

keywords to leverage in campaigns

4. Refine ad copy

5. Optimize for devices

3. Formulate bidding strategies

2. Leverage key ad formats

1. Seek out the right audience

When describing

costs, use of the

term “affordable”

in the Ad Title proved

to be positive.

Across the Ad Title

and Ad Description

the term “savings”

experienced

significantly lower

performance.

Perf

orm

ance

Lift

Dynamic keyword insertion

contributed to four of the top five

Ad Title/Ad Description

combinations.

Title Description

Insurance Low Cost

Health {Keyword}

Low Cost {Keyword}

Insurance {Keyword}

{Keyword} Compare

TOP TITLE/DESCRIPTION COMBINATIONS

22,000 health insurance ads and 30+ million impressions analyzed

PC

Insurance

PC

DisplayURL

Plans

Medical

DisplayURL

Plans

medical

DisplayURL

Health

keyword

DisplayURL

Affordable

apply

DisplayURL

Tablet

Low cost

coverage

DisplayURL

Insurance

coverage

DisplayURL

Health

medical

DisplayURL

Insurance

low cost

DisplayURL

Insurance

dental

DisplayURL

Mobile

Keyword

insurance

DisplayURL

low cost

Plan

DisplayURL

low cost

Plans

DisplayURL

low cost

$

DisplayURL

Insurance

Exam

DisplayURL

– Low cost, particularly with a specific price point, performed well on mobile devices.

– Dynamic keyword insert + insurance combination had the best performance on mobile.

Mobile

4. Refine ad copy

5. Optimize for devices

3. Formulate bidding strategies

2. Leverage key ad formats

1. Seek out the right audience

42% more likely to own Kawasaki

Key TakeawayGenerally speaking, for Health Insurance campaigns, dedicated device targeting produces higher performance (CTR) and better quality ads than targeting all.

42% more likely to own Yamaha

10% more likely to own Lexus

1.20% CTR on Mobilefor campaigns targeting mobile devices only. Other bundled targeting had much lower CTR.

12% more likely to own

3.73% CTR on Tabletfor campaigns targeting tablet only. Other bundled targeting that included tablet in it had lower CTR.

1.48% CTR on PCfor campaigns targeting PC only. When bundled with other devices, the ad groups showed diminishing return.

…create targeted landing pages to showcase

content from SEM campaigns, such as a health care

reform FAQ or other educational resources

…if you haven’t already, considering launching a

mobile site

…leverage Sitelink Extensions and Click-to-Call to

help potential customers quickly obtain information

Understand how searchers are accessing your website. If mobile is substantial or on the rise

Opportunity

Solution

Results

With increases in cross-screen engagement, Baines & Ernst used

web analytics to discover which devices were used to access their

site and learned that mobile was on the rise, both as a widespread

trend and within its own business.

Baines & Ernst has seen fantastic results since introducing the

responsive web design, with mobile conversions up by 51%.

They launched mobile-specific search advertising, creating a

separate mobile site, but wanted to further streamline for a

consistent brand experience across devices. To achieve this, they

built a new site with responsive web design (RWD) to optimize the

user experience across devices without creating multiple websites.

Inspiration from a success story

so capitalize on this transition to improve search advertising returns

Check out our latest publication, US Search Advertising Trends in Financial Servicesfor more insightful and actionable search advertising resources

Get Started

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