FreeCreditReport.com partnered with Optaros and leveraged its application syndication software, OView, to create embedded content marketing campaigns on its partner media sites. With help from Optaros and OView, FreeCreditReport.com has achieved 5 of their top performing campaign days in terms of order volume and CPAs. Time to deploy content marketing campaigns on new partner sites has been reduced to a few weeks.
Partner On-boarding: Simple integration with a single line of javascript.
Content/Tools: Various formats (Flash, HTML, JavaScript, APIs).
Web Analytics: Full analytic visibility as campaign is running.
Distributed Content Management: Full content management capabilities (Article, Polls, Surveys).
Optimization: With full visibility and control of the page, optimization is possible, even in-market.
The Client
FreeCreditReport.com provides consumers with quick, easy and cost-effective access to their personal credit reports, daily monitoring of their credit reports, alerts of key changes and access to educational materials. FreeCreditReport.com is one of the top online, direct response advertisers and works directly with over 240 online media properties and major media sites. FreeCreditReport.com is a web site owned by ConsumerInfo.com, Inc., an Experian® company. Experian is a $4 billion global leader in providing information, analytical tools and marketing services to organizations and consumers to help manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions.
The Challenge
As a top online, direct response advertiser, FreeCreditReport.com is constantly seeking new ways to increase orders and lower the cost per customer acquisition (CPA). As part of this ongoing effort, FreeCreditReport.com and Optaros reviewed the results of numerous campaigns (html display ads, rich media ads, video, and content marketing) and determined that content marketing (placing content and tools on the content side of the page of media partners) were some of the best performing, but the number of content marketing campaigns was constrained by the dependence on the publishers' IT departments to implement. In short, content and tools placed in the content side of the publisher page led to engagement and click through levels that were higher than display ads on the same partner site and converted to sales at a higher rate than display ads. This performance difference was hypothesized to be due to the fact that visitors are opting into the content (a great form of targeting) on a trusted side of the site as opposed to largely ignoring or blocking the display ads (even rich media ones).
Solution
FreeCreditReport.com partnered with Optaros and leveraged its application syndication software, OView, to create embedded content marketing campaigns on its partner media sites. This approach has successfully proven to address many barriers in order to scale performance across multiple media partner sites:
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Partner On-boarding: OView embeds on publisher sites with a single line of javascript - just like an ad. Media properties do not have to create, manage, host or support the content marketing campaign. In one case, the ease of implementation reversed an initial decision to refuse a content marketing campaign. OView has passed all security and SLA concerns of every media property it has been introduced to.
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Content/Tools: Optaros took existing tools in various formats (Flash, javascript, APIs, etc.) from FreeCreditReport.com and quickly added them as OView AppViews with updated designs and user experiences to improve click through rates. Each partner's stylesheet is applied by OView so the tools fit seamlessly into the page.
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Web Analytics: FreeCreditReport.com now has analytic visibility of the sponsored content (visitors, navigation paths, engagement funnels, etc.), not just the standard impressions and click throughs. Insights, such as what headlines drive the most traffic and abandonment funnels for surveys, have already led to significant improvements in orders.
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Optimization: With full visibility and control of the page, optimization is possible, even in-market. Take the credit score survey for example: 80% of those that engaged made it through 10 questions but only 5% of those actually clicked through from a partner channel to FreeCreditReport.com. Optaros identified this large potential improvement opportunity through the web analytics and worked with FreeCreditReport.com to develop new copy and design of the survey results page. The change was made in time for the next weekly run and resulted in a click through rate of 51%, a 10X increase in the click through rate.
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Distributed Content Management: Working with Optaros, FreeCreditReport.com now manages content marketing campaigns through OView. Tools can be swapped out if they are under-performing or changes can be made, such as to the survey. Nothing changes on the partner site - all of it is done through the same line of javascript. OView is capable of accepting and adapting to real-time marketing data to optimize content, conversion and/or user experience.
The Results
With help from Optaros and OView, FreeCreditReport.com has achieved 5 of their top performing campaign days in terms of order volume and CPAs. Time to deploy content marketing campaigns on new partner sites has been reduced to a few weeks.
"As with all online advertising, the challenge is to continue to test and improve and to exceed sales and CPA targets," said Nick Roberts, VP Online Marketing, FreeCreditReport.com. "We believe Optaros' OView provides us the systematic platform to enable consistent out-performance."
“We were skeptical that Optaros had solved the challenges to content marketing campaigns and that our media partners would be receptive. We have been blown away by the results, publishers’ response, and the overall service provided by Optaros.”
Nick Roberts, VP Online Marketing, FreeCreditReport.com
OView Content Marketing Service from Optaros