Case Study: Scaling Full-Funnel Acquisition for Health Insurance
This case study for a small Health Insurance company showcases a full-funnel digital media strategy designed to educate, engage, and convert health insurance shoppers during the critical open enrollment period. I led the planning and execution of a multi-channel approach spanning programmatic display, sponsored native content, and paid search, with audience targeting tailored to small business decision-makers, HR professionals, and self-employed individuals. Through strategic channel layering, dynamic creative, and real-time optimization, the campaign successfully increased brand visibility, improved site engagement, and drove a significant lift in enrollments—while maintaining cost-efficiency and funnel alignment.
The Challenge
The Health Insurance company needed to build both brand awareness and generate qualified leads for its health insurance plans, particularly targeting self-employed individuals and small business decision-makers. The goal was to implement a full-funnel digital strategy that would guide prospects from first impression through plan comparison and sign-up—while staying efficient in a highly competitive healthcare advertising window.
Solution and Strategy
Upper Funnel:
Launched programmatic display and native content sponsorships focused on educational messaging, targeting interest-based and contextual audiences (e.g., healthcare decision-makers, small business owners, HR professionals).
Used custom publisher integrations (e.g., finance, health, and business media) to build credibility and improve on-site engagement rates.Mid Funnel:
Created segmented retargeting pools (site visitors, article readers), tailored messaging based on user behavior and intent stage.Lower Funnel:
Activated high-intent paid search campaigns using dynamic ad groups for branded/non-branded terms, landing page variants, and site extensions optimized for conversions.Creative:
Rotated multiple versions of educational content (e.g., “What Makes this company Different?” and “Compare Plans”) with strong CTAs and benefits-focused copy.
Matched ad formats to funnel stage: native and explainer display top-funnel, stronger CTAs, and plan details bottom-funnel.
The Results
Retargeting drove 4.6x higher conversion rate than prospecting alone
Search campaigns contributed 61% of total sign-ups, with branded CPCs under $0.80
Sponsored content drove 3.2x longer session duration than display, proving effective for education and trust-building
Takeaways
This campaign demonstrated the effectiveness of a layered full-funnel strategy, combining storytelling, education, and intent-driven targeting. Leveraging programmatic and native channels to build trust, and search to convert, helped Gravie drive results without sacrificing efficiency in a highly competitive open enrollment period.