Slashing Lead Costs and increasing ROI in competitive life insurance market

Company: Manulife Singapore

SUMMARY

  • Client: Manulife Singapore (Life Insurance)
  • Industry: Financial Services / Insurance
  • Market: Singapore (High CPC, fierce competition)
  • The Goal: Reduce Cost Per Lead (CPL) and increase lead volume
  • The Solution: Incremental paid media optimizations + offline conversion tracking
  • The Results:
    • 30% reduction in Cost Per Lead
    • 100% increase in lead volume (to 1,500+ leads per month)
    • 30% increase in ROAS

The strategy

The life insurance space in Singapore is notoriously competitive. Bidding wars drive CPCs through the roof, and every major player is fighting for the same audience.

Manulife was spending heavily but leaving money on the table:

  • High CPLs eating into ROI.
  • Limited visibility into which leads actually converted (offline sales process).
  • Campaign structure had grown bloated and inefficient over time.

We needed to cut waste, improve targeting, and close the data loop between ad spend and actual sales.

Strategy & execution

We didn’t look for a magic bullet. We focused on marginal gains across every lever.

1. Ad Copy & Creative Refresh

  • Moved beyond generic insurance messaging.
  • Tested different value propositions: protection, investment, legacy, peace of mind.
  • Iterated on creative formats (video, static, carousel) to find winning combinations.
  • Result: Higher CTR, lower CPC.

2. Keyword Optimization

  • Pruned high-cost, low-converting keywords.
  • Expanded into long-tail, intent-rich terms (e.g., “best life insurance for families Singapore”).
  • Implemented negative keyword lists to filter out tire-kickers.

3. Campaign Structure Consolidation

  • Simplified fragmented campaigns into a logical, testable structure.
  • Separated brand vs. non-brand, prospecting vs. retargeting.
  • Reduced internal competition and improved budget allocation.

4. Offline Conversion Tracking (The Game Changer)

  • Insurance sales happen offline (phone calls, agent meetings, paperwork).
  • We implemented offline conversion tracking, feeding sales data back into Google & Facebook.
  • Result: Platforms could now optimize for actual sales and qualified leads, not just form fills.
  • Algorithms learned which clicks led to revenue, not just which led to cheap leads.