The Progressive Corporation (PGR) Annotations

So cost per sale was significantly below the target acquisition cost in 2023. Even with a significant rise in spend in 2024, the ratio has increased, but is still well below our targets. This means that so far in 2024, we are adding policies very efficiently. And this is true for 2 reasons: first, year-to-date, many of our competitors have remained at depressed levels of media spend. This means that we are able to get a large amount of media impressions for less.

The decision to buy media in-house was made almost at the very beginning of our efforts in the direct channel in the mid-1990s. At that time, our demand generation efforts were focused on television and direct mail. But since then, our Media Group has evolved with the media landscape.

One of the distinct things about Progressive is that we buy almost all of our media using an in-house team.

There are 3 primary distribution channels for U.S. auto insurance: captive agents; independent agents; and direct-to-consumer.

Agency customers often choose that channel because they value the professional local counsel, ease of shopping, and breadth and depth of product and carrier options available through independent agents. These customers often have more complex insurance needs