ICICI Direct streamlines customer acquisition efforts with Microsoft Advertising

ICICI Securities Limited (I-Sec), a subsidiary of ICICI Bank Ltd., is one of India’s largest retail broker and financial product distributor. With a 20-year track record as a trusted investment partner, the award-winning retail broker has gone from strength to strength; offering a robust portfolio of innovative solutions to create wealth generation opportunities for all investor types.

In order to grow their customer base, the firm turned to Microsoft Advertising’s Search solution to acquire targeted leads at low acquisition costs.

Example of ICICI Direct search ad on the search engine results page.

ICICI Securities’ wanted to target investors taking their first steps towards trading and influence them to open their personal dematerialization accounts with the retail broker. The team worked with InMobi, Microsoft Advertising’s partner in India and iProspect, to devise a well-rounded advertising strategy to increase its brand mindshare among first-time investors. Customer acquisition efforts were strengthened with customized solutions from the Microsoft Advertising suite. Search, being a high-intent engagement channel, was the ideal touchpoint for ICICI Securities to reach potential customers through compelling, targeted messaging served via eye-catching Multimedia Ads.

In order to increase account efficiency, separate campaigns were set up across owned, operated, and syndicate networks. Regular keyword scrubbing, and the use of both generic and branded keywords, increased reach and visibility for the brand. The entire campaign duration saw regular optimizations to the list of publishers, ad copy, and target audience to effectively deliver on core KPIs.

Empowered by digital-first strategies from the Microsoft Advertising suite, ICICI Securities witnessed significant bottom-line impact on the search engine results page.

Example ICICI Direct Multimedia Ad on the search engine results page.

A robust campaign strategy empowered by Search as a medium saw ICICI Securities bring down customer acquisition costs by a whopping 63%, recorded over a period of two quarters, from October 2021 to March 2022. The end of the campaign also saw a 48% decrease in cost of PAN verification, per customer. Superior conversions were recorded on mobile web, with 58% of total leads coming in from the channel.