Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign

DWP Invitation to Tender (ITT) for Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign CONTRACT REFERENCE NO: DWP_PPC_0613 1

1. Purpose... 3 2. Background and context... 3 3. Purpose of the campaign... 4 4. Audience... 4 5. Messaging... 5 6. Campaign Aim... 7 7. Objectives... 7 8. Budget... 8 9. Proposal and supplier requirements... 8 10. Deliverables... 9 11. Costings... 9 12. Project and contract management... 10 13. Contract and Contract Terms... 10 14. Invitation to Quote (ITT) approach... 11 15. Evaluation criteria... 12 16. Confidentiality... 13 17. DWP s rights... 14 18. Bid costs... 14 2

1. Purpose 1.1 This invitation to tender is issued by Child Maintenance Group. 1.2 The purpose of this ITT is to select a supplier to deliver a Pay-per-click advertising campaign to direct traffic to static destination content hosted on a 3 rd party website. 1.3 This ITT sets out the information which is required to enable the DWP to assess the ability of suppliers to meets the standards and provide a solution which fully meets the requirements. The DWP intends to award a contract to a single supplier whose response represents the most economically advantageous tender. 2. Background and context 2.1 The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for the child maintenance system in Great Britain. It operates the: Statutory child maintenance scheme administered by the recently launched Child Maintenance Service (CMS); Child Support Agency (CSA); and it funds, Child Maintenance Options, a national service which provides information and support for separating parents. 2.2 The Government is committed to helping parents to take responsibility for their children. Strengthening and supporting families is one of its key priorities. The Government s view is that a parent s failure to take responsibility for their children or to pay child maintenance is simply not acceptable. 2.3 The 2012 Child Maintenance Command Paper Supporting separated families; securing children s futures, sets out the Government s vision for the new child maintenance landscape where collaborative family-based arrangements between separated parents should be the main feature. Government policy is to encourage and support separated parents to make their own family-based arrangements wherever possible. 2.4 In late 2012, DWP launched the new child maintenance system. Part of this saw the introduction of a new statutory Child Maintenance Service for parents who are not able to make their own arrangements. Eventually, this service will replace the current CSA. When this happens, CSA clients will be told their current CSA arrangement will end. The process will take three years. 2.5 In January 2013, an arrears strategy Preparing for the future; tackling the past was published. It describes how we intend to deal with a difficult legacy in CSA, where arrears were allowed to build up on cases over a very long period of time. The strategy outlines how we aim to prevent further build up of arrears and address the existing arrears, particularly where children are of an age where they can benefit. There will be operational activities that support parents to keep paying; allowing the swift pursuit of those who don t. 2.6 A supporting communications plan has been developed that outlines the approach to promoting the positive behaviours required from clients to pay in full and on time, prevent future arrears building up, provide support to people who are willing to pay and enforce payment of outstanding arrears for those who are not. 3

2.7 The communications plan approach is to trial a number of innovative behaviour change techniques to explore which activities influence client behaviour most before they can be rolled out as business as usual. This piece of work is part of that trial and aims to test online client behaviour in response to messaging and the use of PPC in driving clients to impartial third party online content. 3. Purpose of the campaign 3.1 The purpose of the campaign is to: Use paid for search trial to understand and test how clients respond to behaviour led messages encourgaing them to pay, provided by a 3 rd party organisation. Test whether paid for search provides sustainable traffic to partner sites over the longer term, when the paid for adverts have ended. 3.2 Building on a previous trial, this campaign will seek to identify people who are already actively searching online for information about paying/not paying and not receiving their maintenance. Paid search will generate referrals through pay-per-click advertising to content hosted on 3rd party, publically trusted sites (these will be made available to the successful supplier). The campaign will drive traffic to this content, in an attempt to steer clients away from the more negative content available online from sites such as CSAHell.com. Research shows paying parents, who have a poor record of dealing with child maintenance, tend to fall into one of two categories: unwilling or unable to pay. There are many factors and potential characteristics that drive these attitudes and compliant behaviours, for example: Possible characteristics of unwilling Actively avoid paying child maintenance Bad relationship with CSA Relationship issues with receiving parent (no contact) Possible characteristics of unable Fluctuations in income Costs of managing 2 households Change in circumstances Lack of budget management skills 3.3 Results of previous campaign with male paying parents showed high reach and traffic to content, but no robust evaluation of call to action or sustained traffic over time. This campaign seeks to verify results with female paying parents and to explore how we can influence behaviour of receiving parents to play their part in keeping arrangements working and sustain this traffic to partner content once paid for search has ended. 4. Audience 4.1 The client audience is split into two, paying parents and receiving parents. The Receiving Parent is the parent or carer the child lives with. The Paying Parent is the parent the child doesn t live with. A Family Based Arrangement is the way for parents to sort out child maintenance, without government intervention, if both parents agree. 4.2 There are 880,700 CSA cases of which 81% are currently classed as compliant. The paying parent audience matrix below splits the full paying parent client load into two primary attitudinal segments: 4

Willing to pay Needs support to sort out financial/other issues. Likely to pay without support. May need support to keep paying due to using a new service, or at known payment breakdown triggers. Needs Needs intervention to change attitude towards liability/cms/csa. i Unwilling to pay Unable to pay Able to pay 4.3 The approach to move clients currently, unwilling or unable, away from statutory arrangements is as follows: FAMILY-BASED ARRANGEMENT SUPPORT Support parents to make a family-based arrangement. Willing, able and independent families ARREARS PREVENTION Increase number of willing and able to pay parents who have a working statutory arrangement with no arrears. Willing and able paying parents Unable paying parents Unwilling paying parents Help parents climb the ladder ARREARS SUPPORT Increase number of unable to pay parents who are paying towards their arrears. ARREARS ENFORCEMENT Increase number of non-compliant unwilling to pay parents who are paying towards their arrears. 5. Messaging 5.1 The following high-level messages have been developed: 5

PREVENT We recognise that you want to support your child and we ll help you to do it. Both parents can contribute to making an arrangement work. Whatever happens with your arrangement, it s important to keep paying. There s support out there to help you to pay, keep paying and overcome any barriers to this. SUPPORT We understand that there can be a range of issues affecting your ability to pay and we want to help you to support your child. There s support out there to help you to make and keep to an arrangement. We don t want you to fall into arrears/we ll help you to stay out of enforcement. There s no excuse for not getting in touch with us if you re having problems paying. ENFORCE Your child has a right to be supported and you are legally obliged to support them. We take serious action against parents who choose not to pay. We take action against people like you. It needn t come to this. Help and support is available. The Pay-per-click campaign will aim to support those in the Prevent and Support groups. 5.2 The key learnings from month 3 of the previous campaign are: Strugglers Unable to pay Strugglers whose Circumstances are Changing Responded better to Advice & Rights and Law messages Traffic reaching the content page engaged with the content and explored the site through to the contact pages Clients spent over 3 minutes on average reading the content Over 80% of visitors read multiple sections of the content Search terms are more specific to the father s problem CSA advice for fathers CSA fathers rights There was strong target mindset market for the content listed on an impartial website. Avoiders Unwilling to pay Avoiders who searched for Avoid CSA/Get Advice Responded better to Do I have to pay and Impartial Advice messages Direct approach works better at driving on site engagement Questions in the ad headline helped response rates of Avoiders They did not spend much time reading the content 64% of visitors read multiple sections of the CMEC content, showing that they are looking for advice. This is the first Avoider Mindset group who have shown they are willing to spend time trying to resolve their situation, rather than looking for a quick fix or complaining Generally happy to use the forum to voice their opinions and concerns Large uplift in Strugglers contacting partner directly A good market to reach for the impartial content because their mindset group suggests they are looking for an impartial site to seek advice and are willing to engage proactively and without too much persuasion from the ad copy. 6

6. Campaign Aim 6.1 The overarching aim is to encourage compliance, because compliance will prevent future arrears. We also want to support clients to take action to put in place an arrangment to pay off outstanding arreas and create new paying behaviours to prepare them for 2012 Phase 2 implementation when tougher enforcement powers, including charging paying parents will be brought in (subject to parliamentary agreement). We would like the agency to make creative suggestions around audience segmentation, message content and call to action. 6.2 Insight has revealed that clients are less trusting of government messaging than that of other organisations. Therefore, we will host content on two partner websites (to be decided later). Using partners tone and voice to whitelabel our content ensures that the messenger is a trusted source of the information. For example, CMG has worked with partners such as Dad.info, Wikivorce and Mumsnet. 6.3 The aim of this campaign is to build on what we learnt during the previous PPC trial about message resonance and engagement and extend the trial to cover different target audience, to understand what works best for each of our client audience groups. 6.4 The partners will be decided through competition. Paid search will commence 5 th August 2013, with a proposed 4 month test period. A fixed daily budget will be in place through the test period with a total CMG budget of c 15,000. This will be used to generate referrals through pay-per-click paid search, including set-up via digital agency and keyword purchase. Both phases (partner 1 and 2) will be dealt with via one agency. 6.5 The campaign will have two consecutive phases. Phase 1 with the first partner organisation will go-live and remain for a 2 month period. During this time we will learn and adapt the strategy, to improve performance and influence the campaign with the second partner organisation. Phase 2 will learn from phase 1 and run for a further 2 month period. This will ensure we are putting the right messages out, to the right audience, in the right places and can learn and improve and get best value for money. It also ensures that the two phases aren t using competing search terms. 6.6 Digital Media organisations are invited to submit a proposal to undertake this pay-perclick advertising campaign. (Previous campaign evaluation will be provided to the supplier after contract award). 7. Objectives 7.1 The following high-level objectives have been set: Arrears Strategy Communication Objective By October 2013, increase CSA clients understanding of at least one way of making a child maintenance arrangement work. Pay-per-click Trial Communication Objective By October 2013, two or more new partners carry online support content, developed in partnership with the Child Maintenance Group. Inputs Number of planned clicks 7

Outputs: Opportunities to see message Out-takes: Number of clicks on adverts, visits to key content goals, time spent on content, bounce rate Intermediate Outcomes: Number of click through to call to action, number of people visit multiple pages By end of trial period, increase understanding of what messaging is successful in driving traffic to content hosted on partner sites and what is most used/engaged with. 8. Budget 8.1 There is a maximum budget of c 15,000 (excluding VAT) for this campaign. The department is looking for expertise in digital advertising and key word buying, including intelligent analysis of the campaign as it develops. 8.2 The supplier must provide a robust proposal of how it will meet the needs of the requirement and provide a cost effective campaign. The supplier must be mindful of providing value for money and therefore be able to justify each cost element. 9. Proposal and supplier requirements 9.1 The following information should be included in the proposal: understanding of the brief and demonstrate an understanding of the following: o Key word buying o Ad Position o Cost-per-click o Click-through rates o Ad-message strength and ability to adapt to changes o Adwords Performance o Partnership working (to obtain partner sites digital metrics) o Support for partners to tag key content goals. o End-to-end digital journey. description of the approach the names and experience of the project manager and technical support how the campaign will meet the DWP security standards a detailed timetable full costings. 9.2 The proposal should also specify who will be responsible for the different stages of this project (e.g. key word search, advert development, testing, and optimisation) and should provide detail of the input into the project that will be provided by each named person. 9.2 The successful supplier will be required to demonstrate how they will ensure the ads are innovative and engaging and compete with negative search terms, using different strategies. The supplier will also need to provide evidence of how they demonstrate their strategy for dealing with click fraud, to ensure the department is obtaining best value for money and accurate campaign evaluation. 8

10. Deliverables 10.1 The successful supplier will be expected to attend an initial meeting in Leeds to discuss the tender and project start up, as well as attend a final presentation of findings. The supplier is expected to maintain regular contact and provide progress reports to the DWP research project manager throughout the project. Exact details of when progress should be reported on will be discussed and agreed at the start up meeting. 10.2 The key deliverables of the campaign will be: 1. Strategy and planning to include audience segmentation (avoiders/struggling/new groups), key word analysis, identifying targets, creative advertising copy, campaign set up for both partner phases. A face to face meeting in Leeds will be held at the end of this stage to give go ahead for campaign delivery. 2. Campaign delivery 4 month PPC advertising campaign over 2 consecutive phases (2 months per partner, 4 months in total). The campaign will be reviewed weekly through telekits where proposals to optimise the search will be discussed to ensure best value for money (cost per click). 3. Evaluation Evaluation will take place throughout the period of the campaign, with a final evaluation report required at the end of the project. The report should outline final cost per click rates; click numbers, ad performance and ongoing tracking of the content once paid search ends to track traffic over time once. The report will be presented in Leeds to the communications team, including recommendations for future. Activity Strategy and Planning Campaign Delivery Evaluation Timings End July Mid August Phase 1 Mid August October Phase 2 Mid October Mid December Mid December (before Xmas leave) 11. Costings 11.1 Costings in the proposal should include all overheads and should be itemised under the following headings: project management and professional time; key word analysis and recommendations; key word buying; campaign administration; secretarial and administration costs; travel and subsistence; stationery, postage, telephone, fax; overheads; evaluation/recommendations, and VAT (if applicable). 11.2 Proposals should set out the daily fee rate of each member of the project team and the number of days allocated to each team member, by type of activity. 9

12. Project and contract management 12.1 The campaign will be overseen by Claire Cyprien in CMG. The contactor must supply a nominated account manager to oversee the campaign and be the central point of contact for any issues. 12.2 The contract will be managed by the Group s Commercial team supported by Louise Briggs, Head of Customer Relationship Management, with delivery managed by Claire Cyprien, Strategic Communications Manager. DWP staff will be responsible for sign-off of deliverables and associated payments. 12.3 The supplier will be required to deliver to their delivery plan which will form the basis of regular discussions. A weekly progress conference call/meeting will be held to discuss progress against the plan, explore and shape new approaches to meet the key performance indicators described in the objectives, ensure activities are complementary to the DWP s own communications plans, resolve issues and help ensure the project deliverables are meeting the expectation of the DWP. 12.4 A weekly report recording progress should be provided. This report should record progress against each stage, milestone, budget line, issues, risks and dependencies. It is understood that for some stages it is not yet possible to record milestones due to interdependencies with the impact of the previous stage. 13. Contract and Contract Terms Contract terms 13.1 The contract that the Group proposes to use is attached in Terms and Conditions document (the Contract). By submitting a response, suppliers are agreeing to be bound by the terms of this ITT and the Contract without further negotiation or amendment. Contract Period 13.2 The contact period will run from 26 th July 2013 23 rd December 2013. The Contract will be let via Government Procurement Service (GPS) website using the Creative Solutions, Execution and Related Services framework agreement (RM988) Lot 3. 13.3 Following the successful commissioning of the agency, account managers will work directly with the DWP in the day to day management of the campaign. Contract Payment 13.4 Payments will be made in stages linked to the delivery plan of the following deliverables: 1. Strategy and planning Phase 1 (Partner 1) 2. Campaign delivery Phase 1 (Partner 1) 3. Evaluation Phase 1 (Partner 1) 4. Strategy and planning Phase 2 (Partner 2) 5. Campaign delivery - Phase 2 (Partner 2) 6. Final campaign evaluation and recommendations (both phases) 10

13.5 The bids/plans should outline how staged payment would work in terms of the phases mentioned above. 14. Invitation to Quote (ITT) approach Written response 14.1 Responses should, unless otherwise agreed, be word-processed using a font of no less than 12 point. DWP reserves the right to reject responses if they are incomplete or received after the deadline shown below. 14.2 Suppliers should answer all questions accurately and concisely in the order they are presented in the ITT and within the permissible word count. 14.3 Supporting information should be clearly referenced to the relevant question within the ITT. Suppliers are instructed not to include any standard sales literature. 14.4 Answers and all supporting information should be legible and provided in English. 14.5 Documents/files should be split or zipped to ensure that they do not exceed 8Mb in size. Documents/files over 8Mb will be blocked by DWP firewalls. 14.6 The supplier response will be checked for initial completeness and compliance before evaluation. 14.7 The evaluation panel may seek further clarification from the supplier to assist in the evaluation. 14.8 Responses should be marked Protect - Commercial and sent via e-mail to: Government Procurement Service (GPS) e Sourcing website with a copy to : This section has been redacted under the exemption set out in section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which covers personal information of third parties. by 28 th June 2013 14.9 For evaluation purposes suppliers should ensure financial information can be extracted from the quality response of their bid. Requests for clarification 14.10 Any requests for clarification should be made by e-mail to GPS with a copy to This section has been redacted under the exemption set out in section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which covers personal information of third parties., for receipt no later than 21st June 2013 clearly stating in the subject matter of the e-mail request for clarification. Responses will be provided within three working days wherever possible. 14.11 DWP will provide responses to requests for clarification to all suppliers. Responses will not identify the originating supplier. Suppliers must notify DWP if they wish DWP to treat a request for clarification as confidential. If, in the opinion of DWP, the content of a request is not considered to be confidential DWP will inform the supplier who will have an opportunity to withdraw the request for clarification. 14.12 Any clarifications received from suppliers will be treated in confidence subject to DWP s legal obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 11

14.13 DWP may need to seek further clarification from suppliers during the ITT process. Timescale 14.14 DWP proposes to follow the timescales outlined below. Whilst every effort will be made to keep to this timetable, strict adherence cannot be guaranteed and DWP reserves the right to change these dates at its discretion. 14.15 The successful supplier is expected to be able to begin work on this project immediately upon appointment. Suppliers are asked to provide a detailed timetable from project set up to final reporting based on their recommended approach. Activity Date ITT published on website 13 th June 2013 Question and answer period 14 th June 21 st June 2013 ITT response returned 28 th June 2013 Evaluation of ITTs and internal approval 1 st 12 th July 2013 Suppliers notified of outcome 15 th July 2013 Contract awarded 29 th July 2013 Project start up meeting in Leeds 31 st July 2013 15. Evaluation criteria 15.1 Proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria 1. Ability to understand and interpret the requirement: Demonstrates a good understanding of the campaign requirement. Demonstrates good understanding of the policy area. Demonstrates a good understanding of the audience and understands the particular issues and sensitivities associated with these groups. Maximum Word Count for ITT Response 2000 Words 2. Methodology: Provides a sound methodology for undertaking key word search analysis. Provides a sound methodology for further audience segmentation, building on the strugglers/unable and avoiders/unwilling to pay segmentation. Provides a sound methodology to purchase appropriate key words, proving cost effective campaign management that is refined on a regular (daily/weekly) basis using an experiment, test and respond approach. Provides details of their creative strengths to support DWP in the development of engaging content. Provides a sound methodology for ensuring successful Ad Position, using a test and learn approach. Provides a sound methodology to ensure maximum value is obtained through cost-per-click and click-through rates, refining costs downwards on an ongoing basis to achieve lowest cost-per-click rates. Good knowledge of digital insight, showing understanding of the full end-toend digital journey including call to action. Maximum Word Count for ITT Response 3000 Words 3. Experience and capability Successful delivery of behaviour change campaigns using pay-per-click. Successful use of behaviour change messaging/ad placement, using nudge techniques. Weighting 15% 30% 20% 12

Experience of working with a similar audience. Maximum Word Count for ITT Response 2000 Words 4. Ability to meet key deliverables and timescales Demonstrates the ability to deliver the requirement within the timescales. Provides a detailed timetable from project set up to final reporting. Includes all of the activities set out in the key deliverables section. Maximum Word Count for ITT Response 2000 Words 5. Price and Value for Money This should be clearly differentiated from the cheapest proposal. Suppliers should clearly demonstrate the value that all elements within their tender will add to a successful pay per click campaign. Provides a full cost breakdown and rationale for proposed costs. Demonstrates where cost savings can be made. Offers high quality resource at low cost. Maximum Word Count for ITT Response 1000 Words 15% 20% 15.2 Responses with the exception of Question 5 Price and Value for Money will be scored by the DWP using the following approach: Mark Description 0 Totally fails to meet the requirement 1 Meets some of the requirement, with limited supporting information 2 Meets most of the requirement with reasonable explanation 3 Fully meets the requirements with detailed explanation/evidence in support 15.3 Responses to Question 5 Value Price and Value for Money will be scored on a sliding scale with the lowest priced tender attracting the maximum score i.e. 3 marks. The scoring is set out in the table below: Tender Price Score Lowest 3 Second lowest 2 Third lowest 1 Fourth lowest and thereafter 0 Note in the event of any ties then both prices will attract the relevant score e.g. If two tenders are submitted with identical, lowest prices, they will both receive 3, and the next lowest price will receive 2 and 1 respectively. 16. Confidentiality 16.1 This ITT constitutes confidential and proprietary information of DWP and shall not be disclosed in whole or in part by a supplier to any third party, or to any employees of the supplier, other than those who have a need to know such information for the purpose of responding to this ITT. It shall not be duplicated or used by the supplier for any purpose other than to consider and respond to this ITT. 16.2 The supplier shall not undertake (or permit to be undertaken) at any time, whether at this stage or after any contract award, any publicity activity with any section of the media in relation to this competition or the contract other than with the prior written agreement of DWP. Such agreement shall extend to the content of any publicity. In this paragraph the word media includes (but without limitation) radio, television, newspapers, trade and specialist 13

press, the internet and e-mail accessible by the public at large and the representatives of such media. 16.3 The copyright in this ITT is vested in DWP and this ITT may not be reproduced, copied or stored in any medium without the prior written consent of DWP. This ITT, and any document issued as supplemental to it, are and shall remain the property of DWP and must be returned upon demand. 17. DWP s rights 17.1 DWP reserves the right to: Waive or change the requirements of this ITT from time to time without prior (or any) notice being given by it. Seek clarification or documents in respect of a supplier's submission. Disqualify any supplier that does not submit a compliant proposal in accordance with the instructions in this ITT. Disqualify any supplier that is guilty of serious misrepresentation in relation to the tender process. Withdraw this ITT at any time, or to re-invite proposals on the same or any alternative basis. Choose not to award any contract and/or to terminate this procurement process at any time; and Make whatever changes it sees fit to the timetable, structure or content of the procurement process, depending on approvals processes or for any other reason. 18. Bid costs 18.1 DWP will not be liable for any bid costs, expenditure, work or effort incurred by a supplier in proceeding with or participating in this procurement, including if the procurement process is terminated or amended by DWP. 19. Transparency 19.1 The Government has set out the need for greater transparency across its operations to enable the public to hold public bodies and politicians to account. This includes commitments relating to public expenditure, intended to help achieve better value for money. The DWP is obliged to publish Invitation to Tender documents for contracts with a value over 10,000. In addition, organisations looking to bid for public sector contracts should be aware that if they are awarded a new contract with a value of over 10,000, the resulting contract with the DWP will be published. In circumstances where it can be justified, redactions will be made to contracts before they are published in order to comply with existing law and for the protection of commercial and personal data. 20. Freedom of Information Act 20.1 The DWP is committed to open Government and to meeting legal responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Accordingly, all responses received, and any communication from the supplier, will be treated in confidence subject to the DWP s legal obligations to reveal information in response to questions such as those from Parliamentary Select Committee s, MP s or Prime Ministers questions. 14

20.2 The DWP may also decide to include certain information in the publication scheme which is maintained under the Act. If you consider that any of the information included in your response is commercially sensitive, please identify it and explain (in broad terms) what consequences may result from disclosure if a request is received, and the time period applicable to that sensitivity. 20.3 Suppliers should be aware that if information has been identified as commercially sensitive, the Commission may be required to disclose it under the Act if a request is received. 20.4 Please note that the receipt of any material marked confidential or equivalent by the Commission should not be taken to mean that the DWP accepts any duty of confidence by virtue of that marking. 20.5 Where a response contains personal data of any individuals, the supplier must ensure that the relevant individuals have consented to the inclusion of such data in terms which contemplate and agree that the DWP may be required to disclose and/or publish it. 15