19%
increase in number of wills completed (June vs March)
9%
decrease in adspend despite higher conversions
23%
Gathered Here is Australia’s leading online will-writing service. People can complete a legal will free of charge, in under ten minutes. The platform launches in 2021 and has now helped over 25,000 Australians write wills online while significantly reducing legal costs for basic estates.
When Gathered Here partnered with Defiant, the brand relied heavily on Google search traffic and had little presence on Meta. Their message lacked creative direction, and awareness of the free will service was low. To grow sustainably, they needed a fuller demand generation strategy, better creative segmentation, and a higher degree of brand consistency.
When Gathered Here partnered with Defiant, they had a strong service offering but lacked the creative and strategic foundation to scale. Their marketing leaned heavily on Google Search, with limited testing on Meta and very little demand generation. As a result, performance plateaued and brand visibility remained low outside of high-intent search traffic:
We expanded Gathered Here’s focus from just capturing intent on Google to also generating demand on Meta. With the introduction of top-of-funnel campaigns, we built awareness around the importance of writing a will—especially for people going through major life events like getting married, having children, or buying a home. Meta became a consistent source of new leads and conversions, reducing their dependence on search.
To speak to more people, we segmented audiences into three life-stage groups: young professionals, middle-aged parents, and retirees. Each segment received unique messaging based on life triggers like marriage, parenthood, or retirement. This allowed us to match creative with specific emotional drivers and build relevance across age groups, leading to stronger engagement and higher completion rates.
Writing a will can feel cold, boring, or even overwhelming. We helped reimagine Gathered Here’s creative identity by introducing native-style ads, memes, and humor-driven content. This made the topic feel more approachable and less clinical. It also helped cut through a crowded feed with scroll-stopping creative that looked and felt like the platforms it ran on.
While Meta was used to generate demand, Google remained a key channel for capturing it. We introduced Performance Max campaigns, pruned ineffective keywords, and aligned targeting with higher-intent search behavior. This approach made Google more efficient and contributed to a 23% drop in blended CPA from March to June—all while reducing spend by 9% and increasing conversions by 19%.
