Success Story · Insurance

How to apply behavioral science to designing an insurance sales platform?

We redesigned a child health insurance sales page with nudges to increase the conversion rate and online sales.

5xthe Anchoring nudge quintupled sales versus the control group
Client
Insurance company · Latin America
Services
Behavioral Design · Experimental Validation
Method
Experiment with real users
Sector
Insurance
The challenge

Insurance that was easy to buy, but wasn't selling

A leading insurer in health, accident, and auto insurance launched a new children's insurance plan that could be purchased online in just a few steps. Despite its ease and accessibility, sales weren't meeting expectations.

The challenge was to optimize the product's main page design with behavioral science insights to increase the conversion rate and sales.

A key barrier: it's hard to gauge the value of insuring a child for $10 a month, because there's no frame of reference. There's no intuitive way to know whether that's a fair or reasonable price.

What we did

From 12 nudges to an experiment with real users

After reviewing the scientific evidence, we designed 12 behavioral interventions (nudges) to influence the purchase decision. Together with the client, we evaluated and prioritized them down to two, based on their potential for behavior change and ease of implementation. We then tested them with real users.

1

Literature review

Review of scientific evidence and design of 12 nudges to influence the insurance purchase decision.

2

Selection workshops with the client

Evaluation and prioritization of the alternatives down to two nudges: Pennies-A-Day and Anchoring.

3

Pennies-A-Day nudge

Landing page message: "For just $0.33 a day, protect your kids against all kinds of illness."

4

Anchoring nudge

Landing page message: "Treating your kids for a medical emergency can cost up to $3,000." This was the winning strategy.

5

Experimental validation

A real experiment to measure the effect of each version on the conversion rate and sales, against the status quo version.

Why it wasn't luck

The real barrier decides which lever to use

When something isn't selling, the typical reaction is to rewrite the copy until it sounds better. Behavioral Design starts earlier: it identifies the behavioral barrier (here, that no one knew if $10 a month was a fair price, because there was nothing to compare it to) and picks the lever that tackles it, from an evidence-based toolkit.

Then it tests it with real users. That's how the team knew which lever worked, and by how much, before scaling it.

How it's usually solved
Rewrite the copy
Change the message by instinct.
Publish and wait
See if sales go up, without knowing why.
How we do it
Diagnose and choose
The real barrier, and the toolkit lever that tackles it.
Test and scale
Measure the effect with real users and scale the winner.

Rewriting the copy is easy and usually a shot in the dark. Choosing the lever with evidence and testing it is what multiplied sales.

What Behavioral Design gives you
What's the real barrier?We diagnose it before writing a single word. Here: there was no reference point for the price.
Which lever tackles it?We choose it from an evidence-backed toolkit of nudges, evaluating 12 before settling on the best one.
Does it actually work?We test it with real users against the status quo before scaling.
How much does it add?We measure each version's effect on conversion and sales.
How we designed and tested it

We reviewed the scientific evidence and designed 12 nudges for the purchase decision. Together with the client, we prioritized them by potential impact and ease of implementation down to two: Pennies-A-Day ("for $0.33 a day") and Anchoring ("an emergency can cost up to $3,000"). We tested them with real users against the status quo version and measured each one's effect on conversion and sales. Anchoring, which gave people a concrete reference point, moved the needle the most.

Results

What moved the needle

5x
the Anchoring nudge quintupled sales versus the control group
More sales
the Pennies-A-Day version increased sales, more in some cases than others
Higher conversion
overall, the nudge versions raised the conversion rate and sales

Figure · The versions we tested (price framing)

Pennies-A-Day version: for just $0.33 a day, protect your kids against all kinds of illness. Anchoring version: treating your kids for a medical emergency can cost up to $3,000.
The insight

The Anchoring nudge turned out to be the most effective: giving a concrete reference point for the cost of a medical emergency multiplied sales fivefold. The Pennies-A-Day version also increased them, with effects that varied across cases. Overall, the pages with nudges converted better than the status quo version.

For decision-makers

Lessons for designing solutions

Applying behavioral science to the design of messages and web pages is an effective, cost-efficient way to increase online sales.

The results show strong potential for implementing other behavior-change strategies in the future, further optimizing the effectiveness of digital marketing campaigns.

Have a behavioral challenge to measure?

Let's design the experiment that gives you certainty before you decide.