Nedbank Insurance, specialising in business insurance and personal short and long term insurance and investments, required a clear and strategic online marketing and search strategy. Because Nedbank is traditionally associated with banking rather than insurance, the team aimed to drive awareness of the Nedbank Insurance brand in the digital space within ambitious cost per lead targets.

Flume took up the challenge and launched search campaigns on Google AdWords and display campaigns on the Google Display Network. By optimising search and display campaigns on Google, Flume (a certified Google AdWords partner) on behalf of Nedbank Insurance, reduced cost per lead by 54% and drove monthly traffic increases of 10%.

Those impressive results did not happen overnight or by luck, though. Flume had a dedicated team of strategists working on the campaign, which was led by Flume’s CEO, Ruan Oosthuizen – a CFA affiliate.

Having Google create a case study based upon a campaign by a South African agency and brand is a pretty neat achievement. Jacques du Bruyn, MD at Flume, will tell you that Flume were very excited when they received confirmation from Google about the case study. In Flume’s mind, they thought that they were just going about their daily duty in serving their client and driving leads, but as it turns out, they were doing a rather special job.

It always helps having a brand that is clear on their customers’ needs, and being proactive enough to tap into these needs – and deliver. Nedbank Insurance identified that buyer behaviour amongst their customers had pivoted to focus more on digital and e-commerce platforms as the preferred channels to shop for insurance. “This fundamental change in customer behaviour meant that we had to become more responsive and tech savvy, to enable a positive digital customer experience,” says Tawanda Chatikobo, Nedbank Insurance’s mobile and digital manager.

Nedbank Insurance’s search engine marketing objective has always been laser focused on return on investment. “Google search and display allow for broad reach, but also continuous optimisation to ensure there isn’t a lot of wastage as the media targets the right customers who are looking for insurance. Display helped with our brand visibility and awareness,” explains Tawanda.

“Meanwhile, insights gathered from search traffic drove improvements to the Nedbank Insurance site itself. We were able to optimise the usability of the website based on search traffic and conversion goals to ensure users had the best experience when looking for insurance,” adds Tawanda.

With Google search being the biggest search engine on the planet, it’s no wonder that more and more brands are taking to the platform to directly target consumers. “In South Africa over 95% of search goes through Google. What makes search so compelling is that users are already in the buying cycle, unlike third party banners where we’re trying to convince users to enter the buying cycle,” says Du Bruyn.

He adds that South Africa is seen as a young digital industry, and as such is still considered ‘emerging.’ “That said, with the creation of the first ever Google Case Study in Banking in South Africa not only shows that we’re progressing as a country, but that we as an agency are part of that progression- we’re adding to growth of the industry in South Africa. We’re really proud to be a part of that.”

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