New York Life

Pinterest provided the insurance and financial services company with more clickthroughs, a lower bounce rate, and more engaged visitors than other platforms via a campaign about major life events, and how to prepare for (or recover from) them.

Increasing traffic and engagement

New York Life is in the business of helping people set and achieve their financial goals. Nearly 175 years old and headquartered in New York City, the company is one of the largest insurance companies in the US. New York Life is also a mutual company, which means they’re collectively owned by their clients, not by shareholders.

With their “Be Good at Life” campaign, New York Life wanted to generate awareness about its insurance and investment products among young adults. Recognizing that the path to purchase life insurance can require time and education, they appreciated the opportunity Pinterest provides to directly target individuals in a planning mindset.

New York Life wanted to help prospective customers learn about their needs and options. So, they aimed to drive traffic to their site content about various life stages (getting married, having a baby, buying a home, etc.). Ultimately, they wanted to increase web traffic, engagement rates and time spent on the New York Life website, while also keeping an eye on costs.

Steering people through major life events

Since Pinterest is a place for discovery and planning, New York Life promoted their ability to offer flexible solutions that can adapt and evolve as life happens and plans change over time.

To communicate this idea, they created a series of Promoted Pins with lifestyle photographs paired with words like “marriage,” “flexibility,” and “your plan.” The Pins linked to a number of places.

Some went to content on the New York Life website about the best services for the particular life stage or event featured in the Pin. Other ads went to a page where people could choose a goal, and create a custom plan to achieve it with a New York Life agent's help.

To make sure their campaign reached the right people, New York Life used keyword and interest targeting tied to key life stages. Some key phrases they used included “tips for moving,” “adulting,” and “moving in together quotes.” They also used Pinterest’s visitor retargeting option to connect with people who had previously visited their website.

Breaking traffic benchmarks

New York Life’s first Pinterest campaign performed so well that the company plans to run more. Breaking newyorklife.com benchmarks, Pinterest delivered a 36% higher clickthrough rate than other platforms,¹sending that much more traffic to the site. And once there, Pinners stayed longer: The average bounce rate was 25% lower than the rate for referrals from other platforms,² and the average time spent on the site was 41 seconds longer.³

Among all other campaign platforms, Pinterest was also one of the most cost efficient for clicks and reach (cost per thousand impressions, or CPM).

^1-3New York Life data, 2018

• Spend extra time from the beginning thinking through campaign setup. This will allow for more efficient optimization and tracking options during delivery.
• Customize your existing brand elements to fit the display of Pins. This can increase platform-agnostic brand awareness.
• Include your campaign hashtag in your Pin's description copy. This will increase discovery and allows you to track organic saves of your Promoted Pins.