How Collectibles Insurance Services Went from 228 to 1,360 Calls a Month

The Client

Collectibles Insurance Services is a US insurance agency covering collections: sports cards and memorabilia, comic books, coins, art, antiques and more. We ran their Google Ads from January 2021 to August 2022, growing calls from the ads from 228 a month to 1,360 a month, with 21,181 calls and completed quotes in total.

The company has insured collectors since 1966, with policies built for collections that standard homeowners insurance doesn't fully cover.

228 calls in January 2021. 1,360 in November 2021.

The Challenge

Google Ads for insurance is expensive, and a niche line makes it harder:

• An unfamiliar product. Many collectors don't know collectibles insurance exists, so searches start broad.
• Many collector types. A baseball card collector and a comic book collector search in completely different ways.
• A large budget to keep efficient. Spend ran from about $34,000 to more than $60,000 a month, so small leaks cost real money.
• Leads that look alike but aren't. Quote starts, page visits and phone-number clicks are easy to count and don't sell policies.

What We Built

1. Campaigns by Collector Type

Search campaigns were split by what people collect, with dedicated campaigns for baseball cards, comic books and general collectibles, plus brand terms.

2. A/B Tests on Every Major Campaign

We ran controlled A/B tests beside the brand, high-conversion, baseball card and comic book campaigns, testing bidding strategies and targeting. Winners replaced the originals.

3. A High-Conversions Engine

In March 2022 we built a new version of the high-conversion campaign around the keywords with the best conversion history, with its own A/B test beside it.

4. Real Leads Only

The numbers on this page are calls from ads and completed quotes. Phone-number clicks, quote starts and the steps in between are not counted as leads.

5. Daily Optimization via Ad Campaign Concierge™

Every campaign was reviewed daily through our proprietary Ad Campaign Concierge™ system: search-term cleanup, bid strategy changes on the tests, and budget moved toward the collector types calling most.

The Results

• 2020 (before us): 1,894 calls from ads
• 2021: 10,713 calls from ads, 5.7 times the year before, plus 4,903 completed quotes
• Calls a month: from 228 in January 2021 to more than 900 by May, and 1,360 in November 2021

Cheaper Leads as the Account Grew

In January 2021 a call or completed quote cost $50. From October to December 2021 it cost $37, on nearly twice the monthly budget.

Every Lead in Our Management Period

21,181 real leads from January 2021 to August 2022: 14,545 calls from ads and 6,636 completed quotes.

Key Takeaways

1. Google Ads for insurance runs on the phone. Calls from ads grew 5.7 times in our first year and made up most of the leads.
2. Split by what people collect. Each collector type searches differently and deserves its own campaign.
3. Test beside every big campaign. Continuous A/B tests are how a large budget gets cheaper per lead.
4. Count only real leads. Quote starts and phone-number clicks are not customers.

About This Campaign

This account was managed daily through Ad Campaign Concierge™, our proprietary optimization system for lead generation.

Industry: Insurance: Specialty Collectibles Platforms: Google Ads (Search) Location: USA (nationwide) Account Duration: January 2021 to August 2022

Leads are calls from ads and completed online quotes as tracked in Google Ads. Phone-number clicks, quote starts and quote-page steps are excluded. The 2020 figure counts calls from ads only. Amounts in US dollars.