Quick answer: Open enrollment is the highest-intent window of the year for insurance marketers. Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 to December 7, and ACA open enrollment opens November 1, so millions of shoppers research and switch plans in a few short weeks. Pay-per-call captures that demand by putting in-market callers on the phone with your licensed agents, and you pay only for qualified calls.
What the numbers actually look like
These are figures from Aragon Advertising's own insurance portfolio, not industry estimates:
- Billable call to policy-sold conversion averages roughly 20% on Medicare and 15% on final expense – rates a web form rarely approaches, and they matter most when enrollment-window demand peaks.
- Representative cost per call runs about $20 for Medicare and $15 for final expense. Judge the season by cost per acquired policy, not price per call.
- We've acquired more than 15 million paid calls for performance advertisers over the past decade, much of it through the annual insurance enrollment cycle.
- Industry-wide, teams manually review only about 5–10% of their calls – most of what gets said on the phone during the enrollment rush goes unexamined.
Independent research from BIA/Kelsey has long shown what we see in our own data: inbound phone leads convert far better than web leads, because someone willing to call about coverage is usually ready to decide.
Why is open enrollment peak season for insurance marketing?
Open enrollment compresses most of the year's coverage decisions into a few weeks. Outside the window, shoppers generally can't change Medicare or ACA plans without a qualifying life event, so demand pools and then breaks open all at once. That concentration of in-market buyers is why carriers, brokerages, and agencies treat the fall as the make-or-break stretch of their insurance marketing calendar.
It also means competition spikes. Every advertiser chases the same shoppers in the same channels at the same time, so click costs climb and inventory tightens. The marketers who win the season aren't the ones who spend the most in December – they're the ones who lock in qualified call volume early and keep their cost per acquired policy under control while everyone else overpays.
When are the Medicare AEP and ACA open enrollment windows?
The two big windows overlap but aren't identical, and planning around both is the core of Medicare AEP marketing and ACA campaign work.
| Enrollment window | Dates | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Medicare Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) | October 15 – December 7 | Medicare Advantage and Part D plan changes for the coming year |
| Medicare Open Enrollment Period | January 1 – March 31 | One Medicare Advantage switch or move back to Original Medicare |
| ACA Open Enrollment | November 1 onward (state deadlines vary) | Individual and family marketplace health plans |
| Medicare Advantage / ACA Special Enrollment | Year-round, qualifying events | Coverage changes triggered by life events |
Two takeaways shape the media plan. First, the AEP and ACA windows run nearly on top of each other in the fall, so demand is densest from mid-October through early December. Second, the calendar never fully empties: the Medicare OEP in Q1, special enrollment periods, and steady final expense demand mean there's qualified volume to acquire year-round. Always verify the current year's exact dates and any state-level deadlines before you finalize spend.
How does pay-per-call fit insurance open enrollment?
Pay-per-call is a performance model where you pay for qualified inbound phone calls instead of clicks or form fills. Affiliates run ads – Google call-only campaigns, "Call Now" social ads, native placements – that prompt a shopper to call a tracked number. The call routes through qualification and connects to your licensed agents, and you pay an agreed rate for each call that meets your criteria. For the full mechanics, see the complete guide to pay-per-call marketing.
Open enrollment is where the model fits best. Choosing a Medicare or ACA plan is a considered decision with tiers, networks, and eligibility questions, and shoppers want to talk it through with a person before they commit – especially under a deadline. Pay-per-call captures that preference: a live conversation with someone already in-market, at the exact moment they're ready to enroll. That's why it consistently outperforms cold web leads during the season, a pattern we cover in five reasons insurance companies should use a pay-per-call agency.
How do you prepare campaigns before the window opens?
The advertisers who clear the season cleanly do their setup in the weeks before AEP, not during it. A practical pre-window checklist:
- Lock your offers and targeting early. Decide which products you're pushing – Medicare Advantage, Part D, ACA, final expense – and the age bands, states, and plan types each campaign should reach.
- Set your qualifying criteria. Define what makes a call billable: minimum duration, geography, hours of operation, and eligibility checks. The agency screens to that bar so your agents only take calls worth taking.
- Staff for the surge. Make sure you have enough licensed agents on the phones during peak weeks. A flood of qualified calls only pays off if someone is there to close them.
- Build the call flow and compliance steps before launch. Consent capture, disclosures, and routing should be tested and live before October 15 – not improvised mid-season.
- Plan an always-on base, then scale into peak. Keep a steady run of qualified calls through the year using final expense and special enrollment demand, then push spend hard into the AEP and ACA windows when intent peaks. That keeps acquisition cost predictable instead of spiking in December.
Done right, this turns open enrollment lead generation from a Q4 scramble into a planned ramp. The campaigns are built, the criteria are set, and the call volume scales on schedule.
Is open enrollment pay-per-call TCPA compliant?
Insurance is one of the most heavily regulated verticals in pay-per-call, and the rules keep moving. The TCPA one-to-one consent rule was vacated by a federal court in early 2025 and formally eliminated by the FCC through a final rule in September 2025 – but that does not mean compliance got easy. Insurance, and Medicare in particular, remains tightly governed by consent, disclosure, and CMS marketing requirements, which carry their own annual deadlines and call-recording and disclaimer rules. Verify your current obligations before any campaign goes live.
A serious partner builds compliance into the call flow – vetted affiliates, consent capture, and audit trails – rather than leaving it to chance downstream. There's also a quality gap most buyers never see: industry-wide, only about 5–10% of calls are ever manually reviewed, so most of what's said on the phone goes unexamined. During the enrollment rush, when call volume multiplies, that gap widens. The partners worth working with treat call quality and compliance as core operations, because in Medicare and ACA marketing a single bad call flow is a real liability.
How much do open enrollment insurance calls cost?
Cost per call scales with the value of the customer and how crowded the vertical gets. Here's what representative pricing and conversion look like in Aragon's insurance portfolio:
| Insurance vertical | Representative cost per call | Call-to-policy conversion | Why it performs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medicare | ~$20 | ~20% | High lifetime value; strong AEP urgency |
| Final expense | ~$15 | ~15% | Steady year-round demand; simple, phone-friendly sale |
Expect call prices to firm up as the window approaches and competition intensifies – that's exactly why buying early and treating pay-per-call as always-on protects your economics. The headline number isn't the call price; it's the math underneath it. A Medicare call at roughly $20 converting around one in five beats a stack of cheap web leads that almost never convert. For how insurance compares to other pay-per-call verticals, see the top pay-per-call verticals and why they matter.
How Aragon runs open enrollment for advertisers
Aragon Advertising has been mThink's #1-ranked pay-per-call network for the eighth consecutive year (December 2025 Blue Book), and we've acquired more than 15 million paid calls for advertisers over the past decade – a large share of it through the annual insurance enrollment cycle. We know how the season behaves: when volume peaks, where costs spike, and how to keep qualified calls flowing before and after the window.
We take the time to understand your specific vertical – Medicare, final expense, ACA, auto – then build campaigns and creative around it, set the qualifying criteria you control, and run compliance inside the call flow. The goal is the strongest cost per acquired policy through the season, so your licensed agents spend the busiest weeks of the year closing in-market shoppers instead of sorting dead-end calls.
Getting ready for open enrollment? Talk to our team about qualified inbound insurance calls, or explore our pay-per-call solutions.
By Sarah Fitzgerald. Last updated: June 2026.
FAQ
Why is open enrollment so important for insurance marketing? Open enrollment concentrates most of the year's coverage decisions into a few weeks, because shoppers generally can't change Medicare or ACA plans outside the window without a qualifying life event. That pool of high-intent buyers is why carriers and agencies treat the fall as their make-or-break season.
When is Medicare AEP and ACA open enrollment? Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period runs October 15 to December 7, and ACA open enrollment opens November 1 with deadlines that vary by state. The Medicare Open Enrollment Period also runs January 1 to March 31. Always verify the current year's exact dates before finalizing spend.
How does pay-per-call work for open enrollment? Affiliates run ads that prompt insurance shoppers to call a tracked number, the call is screened against your criteria, and your licensed agents speak with an in-market buyer. You pay only for qualified calls, which captures the season's deadline-driven demand at the moment shoppers are ready to enroll.
When should I start preparing open enrollment campaigns? Set up in the weeks before AEP, not during it. Lock offers and targeting, define qualifying criteria, staff your phones for the surge, and test your compliant call flow before October 15. Keeping an always-on base of calls year-round then lets you scale into the peak without your cost per acquired policy spiking.
Is insurance pay-per-call TCPA compliant during open enrollment? The TCPA one-to-one consent rule was vacated in early 2025 and formally eliminated by the FCC in September 2025, but insurance and Medicare marketing remain heavily regulated by consent, disclosure, and CMS rules. A reputable partner builds compliance into the call flow, but you should verify current requirements before launching.
How much do Medicare open enrollment calls cost? Representative cost is about $20 per Medicare call and $15 per final expense call in Aragon's network, with prices firming up as the window approaches and competition intensifies. The right benchmark is cost per acquired policy – at roughly 20% conversion on Medicare, the per-policy economics stay strong even as call prices rise.