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GoCompare expands its reach with Microsoft Audience Ads

July 2019

  • Article
  • Financial services
  • Success stories

A better standard of comparison

As one of Britain’s biggest financial services comparison websites, GoCompare has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a small startup founded in Newport, Wales. Since its creation, the company has always intended to do things differently.

Back in 2006, the six founding members of GoCompare noticed that shoppers were being inundated with a barrage of insurance offers for the cheapest policies, only to discover that the coverage didn’t fulfill their needs. Spotting an opportunity to create a better customer experience, GoCompare was the first comparison website to focus on product features rather than simply listing the cheapest quotes.

As a team, we focus on being market leaders and embracing innovation when it comes to reaching our customers, we are proud to be one of the first advertisers in Europe to test Microsoft Audience Ads.

David Grenfell, PPC manager, GoCompare

What started as a vision to help people make better-informed decisions has become a philosophy of creativity and innovation in financial services to better serve customers.

Today, the company continues to push the boundaries, always looking for the next innovation that will give it a competitive edge. The GoCompare team has an internal motto to “be impatient” with its technology partners, to always push for the latest beta tests and product releases so it can stay ahead of the curve.

“As a team, we focus on being market leaders and embracing innovation when it comes to reaching our customers,” says David Grenfell, GoCompare PPC manager. “This means working closely with our account team on identifying new strategies.”

That tenacity and impatience led GoCompare to be one of the inaugural beta testers of the Microsoft Audience Network in the UK market. “We are proud to be one of the first advertisers in Europe to test Microsoft Audience Ads, giving us access to new audiences and additional volume that drove performance,” says Grenfell.

A potent audience mix

GoCompare decided to strategically align its campaign on the Microsoft Audience Network with In-market Audiences and a Remarketing strategy that allowed precise targeting on premium Microsoft ad placements on MSN and Outlook.com.

The combination of Microsoft Audience Ads with an overlay of In-market Audiences and Remarketing allowed GoCompare to expand its search reach into a native environment but maintain a targeted approach that would resonate and perform well.

The company achieved excellent results, with a marked increase in incremental ad impression reach per month. This incremental traffic performed above expectations of normal native advertising, coming in at 30% below the GoCompare target cost per acquisition (CPA).

“We will continue to look for new opportunities to differentiate,” says Grenfell. “And Microsoft Audience Ads are just one example of that.”

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