Closing the Information Gap on Health Insurance
Visits to the Health Insurance online industry grew by 27% between January 2004 and January 2005. Online traffic was at the highest point ever during the week ending April 16, 2005, with 6.75% share across the Health & Medical parent category.
The ability to compare Health Insurance policies online to suit personal needs is shifting the information power-balance into the hands of the consumer. To meet this demand, comparison shopping is offered on iSelect (www.iselect.com.au) where users can compare, select and buy health insurance from a range of health funds. iSelect was the top ranking Health Insurance website during the week ending March 5, 2005, accounting for nearly 25% market share of the category.
Demographics analysis reveals that females are more likely to visit Health Insurance websites, accounting for 57% of traffic for the 12-week period ending July 30, 2005. This is an increased swing of 7% compared to the same time last year. Hitwise data also indicated a tendency over time for a more even spread amongst different age-brackets. Where the 25-34 age-bracket accounted for 42% of visits in July 2004, it comprised 33% of visits in July 2005 - a drop of 9%. The 18-24, 45-54 and 55+ age-brackets each rose by over 2% simultaneously.
Search data provides a powerful measurement of the brand strength of various health funds amongst consumers. Hitwise Search intelligence indicated 'medibank private' was the most popular search term to the Health Insurance online industry with 7.2% volume share, followed by 'mbf' with 4.25% share over a 12-week period ending August 13, 2005.
Search Terms - Health Insurance
The following lists the most popular terms typed into a search engine over the 12 weeks ending 13/08/2005 that resulted in traffic to websites classified by Hitwise within the 'Health and Medical - Health Insurance' industry.
For example, the most popular search term was 'medibank private' representing 7.20% of all search terms that delivered users to websites classified by Hitwise in the 'Health and Medical - Health Insurance' industry.
| Search Term | Share (%) |
|---|
| 1. | medibank private | 7.20% |
| 2. | mbf | 4.25% |
| 3. | medibank | 2.86% |
| 4. | health insurance | 2.78% |
| 5. | medicare | 2.78% |
| 6. | hcf | 2.12% |
| 7. | hbf | 2.02% |
| 8. | nib | 1.94% |
| 9. | australian unity | 1.75% |
| 10. | private health insurance | 1.45% |
Fast Mover - Virgin Superannuation
www.virginsuperannuation.com.au
Position August 13 - 138
Position July 16 - 1,321
Positions jumped - 1,183
With wholesale changes to superannuation legislation implemented on July 1, Hitwise is now in a unique position to comment on online trends and visitor behaviour in relation to such websites as outlined in the Hitwise Australia Update of July 2005.
On the back of an aggressive through-the-line campaign, www.virginsuperannuation.com.au has leaped 1,183 places overall and an astonishing 290 places in the hotly contested 'Business & Finance' category.
Securing its position as the #1 ranking 'Business & Finance - Superannuation' website with a market share of 19.57%, the website eclipses that of its nearest rival by a staggering 9.14%. Available demographic data shows that website visitors are more likely to be female, with 63.29% of users identified as such.
The lions share of website visitors were aged between 45-54, accounting for 39.25% of users based on a rolling 12 week sample. On average, users are browsing the website for six minutes and 46 seconds, up a full five minutes from two weeks ago. The top search term was 'virgin super' which represented 16.28% of all search terms that delivered users to the 'Virgin Superannuation' website.
Category Spotlight: Sports - AFL Football
This category encompasses the websites of football clubs and fans, as well as sites which provide anything related to Australian Rules Football. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 20/08/2005 » Ranks by 'Visits'.
Case Study
How Yahoo! Singapore uses Hitwise to qualify leads and justify advertising spend.
For the Yahoo! Singapore sales team Hitwise is the ideal way to get an instant overview of all key prospects in an industry and report on the success of campaigns.
Hitwise rankings and ranking alerts advise the sales team of the performance of all online businesses by industry and alert them of new popular websites as soon as they arise.
While all advertisers on Yahoo! receive click-through reports to assess the effectiveness of online campaigns Hitwise clickstream reports are also used to show the total traffic Yahoo! sends to the advertiser's website as a percentage of all referring traffic. Clickstream data represents click-throughs from banners as well as people seeing a banner and typing the website address into the browser.
Using Hitwise, Yahoo! can demonstrate how a client's overall traffic has increased due to a campaign in comparison with competitors; another way the Yahoo! sales team is able to justify further advertising spend.
Richer than the click through rate alone, this type of information helps advertisers see the precise impact of their campaign, making return on investment calculations much easier.
Media queries at Hitwise
If you are interested in using Hitwise content and statistics in publications and presentations, we encourage you to do so. Please source the content as "Hitwise Australia - www.hitwise.com.au".
Additionally - if you require assistance with statistics or content, please feel free to contact James Borg at james.borg@hitwise.com.
About this Newsletter
This monthly email Newsletter is designed to provide Hitwise subscribers with analysis of new developments, industry trends and competitive activity. The powerful real-time web intelligence capabilities of Hitwise and a continual flow of additional research findings make this an indispensable business resource.
You have received the Hitwise newsletter because you subscribed to our services, or a friend sent it to you. To unsubscribe from the Hitwise newsletter please click here.
Hitwise is strongly committed to your privacy rights and does not sell or give its list to third parties. To view the Hitwise Privacy Policy please click here.
Brought to you by the team at Hitwise Australia - www.hitwise.com.au.
Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, August 2005
| 
Hitwise Australia Newsletter - August 2005
Real-time competitive intelligence
