EverQuote Inc (EVER) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. My name is Calvin, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the EverQuote first-quarter 2025 earnings call. (Operator Instructions)

女士們、先生們，下午好，感謝你們的到來。我叫 Calvin，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加 EverQuote 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）

Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Brynlea Johnson. Please go ahead.

謝謝。現在我想把電話轉給布林利亞·約翰遜。請繼續。

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome to EverQuote's first-quarter 2025 earnings call. We'll be discussing the results announced in our press release issued today after the market closed. With me on the call this afternoon are Jayme Mendal, EverQuote's Chief Executive Officer; and Joseph Sanborn, EverQuote's Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝。下午好，歡迎參加 EverQuote 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。我們將在今天收盤後發布的新聞稿中討論宣布的結果。今天下午與我一起參加電話會議的還有 EverQuote 的執行長 Jayme Mendal；以及 EverQuote 的財務長 Joseph Sanborn。

During the call, we will make statements that refer to our business that may be considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws, including statements concerning our financial guidance for the second quarter of 2025. Forward-looking statements may be identified with words and phrases such as expect, believe, intend, anticipate, plan, may, upcoming, and similar words and phrases. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be considered our views as of any subsequent date.

在電話會議中，我們將做出涉及我們業務的聲明，這些聲明根據聯邦證券法可能被視為前瞻性聲明，包括有關我們 2025 年第二季財務指導的聲明。前瞻性陳述可能由諸如預期、相信、打算、預期、計劃、可能、即將發生等詞語和短語以及類似的詞語和短語來表示。這些聲明僅反映我們截至今天的觀點，不應被視為我們任何後續日期的觀點。

We specifically disclaim any obligations to update or revise these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from our expectations. For discussion of those risks and uncertainties, please refer to our SEC filings, including our annual report on Form 10-K and our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

我們明確表示不承擔更新或修改這些前瞻性聲明的任何義務，除非法律要求。前瞻性陳述受各種風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與我們的預期有重大差異。有關這些風險和不確定性的討論，請參閱我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件，包括我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-K 表年度報告和 10-Q 表季度報告，這些報告可在我們網站的投資者關係部分查閱。

Finally, during the course of today's call, we referred to certain non-GAAP financial measures which we believe are helpful to investors. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures was included in the press release we issued after the close of market today, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

最後，在今天的電話會議中，我們提到了一些非公認會計準則財務指標，我們認為這些指標對投資人有幫助。我們在今天收盤後發布的新聞稿中包含了 GAAP 與非 GAAP 指標的對賬，您可以在我們網站的「投資者關係」部分查閱。

And with that, I'll turn it over to Jayme.

接下來，我會把話題交給 Jayme。

Thank you, Brinlea, and thank you all for joining us today. Building on the momentum we generated last year, we once again achieved record performance across our key financial metrics in Q1. Our team continues to execute remarkably well, and as carrier profitability remains healthy, carriers remain hungry for growth. This backdrop positions us to deliver continued progress throughout 2025.

謝謝你，Brinlea，也謝謝大家今天加入我們。基於去年創造的良好勢頭，我們在第一季再次在關鍵財務指標上取得了創紀錄的成績。我們的團隊繼續表現出色，由於營運商盈利能力保持健康，營運商仍然渴望成長。這一背景使我們將在 2025 年繼續取得進步。

As I mentioned on our last earnings call, over the course of last year, we streamlined our vision to become the number-one growth partner to P&C insurance providers by efficiently delivering one, better performing referrals; two, bigger traffic scale; and three, a broader suite of products and services. As we execute with a renewed sense of focus on these priorities, we continue to make notable progress.

正如我在上次財報電話會議上提到的那樣，在過去的一年裡，我們簡化了我們的願景，即通過高效地提供一個表現更好的推薦，成為財產和意外傷害保險提供商的頭號增長合作夥伴；二是交通規模較大；三是產品和服務更加廣泛。當我們以新的意識關注這些優先事項時，我們繼續取得顯著進展。

Let me start with our competitive positioning. Differentiating our marketplace through higher performing referrals is foundational to becoming the top growth partner to insurance providers. To do this, we rely on our scale and technology, which enable us to leverage a data advantage through the use of AI throughout our traffic and distribution systems.

讓我先從我們的競爭定位開始。透過更有效率的推薦來區分我們的市場是成為保險提供者的頂級成長合作夥伴的基礎。為了實現這一目標，我們依靠我們的規模和技術，透過在整個交通和分銷系統中使用人工智慧來發揮數據優勢。

I have previously mentioned our machine-learning traffic bidding platform, which has been instrumental in growing traffic and improving profitability. We are now extending these ML-bidding capabilities to our customers through our Smart Campaigns product, which is gaining wider adoption and which improves carriers' performance in our marketplace. In one recent example, a customer's campaign performance improved by over 40% through the adoption of Smart Campaigns.

我之前提到過我們的機器學習流量競價平台，它在增加流量和提高獲利能力方面發揮了重要作用。我們現在透過智慧行銷活動產品將這些 ML 競價功能擴展到我們的客戶，該產品正在獲得更廣泛的應用，並提高了營運商在我們市場上的表現。在最近的一個例子中，透過採用智慧行銷活動，客戶的行銷活動績效提高了 40% 以上。

As we deliver strong performance to carriers and agents, they reward us with both more budget and higher bids, which in turn supports continued traffic growth. This flywheel is working as intended, and we once again expanded provider budgets to set a new high watermark for P&C quote request volume and revenue in Q1.

當我們向承運商和代理商提供出色的服務時，他們會以更多的預算和更高的出價來回報我們，從而支持持續的流量成長。這個飛輪正在按預期運轉，我們再次擴大了供應商預算，為第一季的 P&C 報價請求量和收入設定了新的高水位。

Finally, as we scale, we continue to benefit from more data, which feeds our AI-driven systems, enabling still further improvements in customer performance. Customers remain our top priority. From our position as a large, high-performing, trusted marketplace partner, we are focused on expanding relationships with customers into adjacent growth areas.

最後，隨著規模的擴大，我們將繼續受益於更多的數據，這些數據為我們的人工智慧驅動系統提供信息，從而進一步提高客戶績效。客戶仍然是我們的首要任務。從我們作為大型、高效、值得信賴的市場合作夥伴的地位出發，我們專注於將與客戶的關係擴展到相鄰的成長領域。

For example, we have been working to build a one-stop growth shop for local insurance agents. As we develop and roll out value-add features and products on and around our core leads offering, we are accessing more agent budgets and expanding the ways we can help agents grow. In Q1, we achieved several milestones in our effort to broaden these customer relationships with our paid products per agency increasing 25% year over year in March.

例如，我們一直致力於為當地保險代理人打造一站式成長商店。隨著我們圍繞核心銷售線索開發和推出增值功能和產品，我們正在獲得更多代理預算並擴大幫助代理商成長的方式。在第一季度，我們在擴大客戶關係方面取得了幾個里程碑，3 月每家代理商的付費產品數量年增了 25%。

And we are doing this with increasing operational efficiency through expense discipline, continued investments in simplifying our technology platforms, and applying AI to automate work. Recent advances have accelerated our rate of development and enabled us to ship new features and products in weeks or months, which in the past may have taken quarters. These new features build on our data and technology advantage to further reinforce our competitive moat.

我們透過嚴格控制費用、持續投資簡化技術平台以及應用人工智慧來實現工作自動化來提高營運效率。最近的進展加快了我們的開發速度，使我們能夠在幾週或幾個月內推出新功能和新產品，而過去可能需要幾個季度。這些新功能利用我們的數據和技術優勢進一步增強了我們的競爭優勢。

We are confident that as we continue to execute on our strategy and emerge as P&C insurance providers' number-one growth partner, our goal of EverQuote becoming a $1 billion-plus revenue company is in sight. The roadmap to accomplish this goal is becoming increasingly clear, and we are making the requisite investments to support it. It's an exciting time for the EverQuote team, and we look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year.

我們相信，隨著我們繼續執行我們的策略並成為財產和意外傷害保險提供者的頭號成長合作夥伴，我們的目標是讓 EverQuote 成為一家收入超過 10 億美元的公司。實現這一目標的路線圖越來越清晰，我們正在進行必要的投資來支持它。對於 EverQuote 團隊來說，這是一個令人興奮的時刻，我們期待向您通報我們全年的進展。

I'll now turn the call over to Joseph to discuss our financial results.

現在我將把電話轉給約瑟夫來討論我們的財務結果。

Thank you, Jayme, and thank you all for joining. I will start by discussing our financial results for the first quarter of 2025 before providing an update on what we are currently seeing in the auto insurance sector and our guidance for the second quarter of this year. Our strong momentum from 2024 continued into Q1 as we again exceeded guidance across all three of our primary financial metrics, total revenue, variable marketing dollars or VMD, and adjusted EBITDA.

謝謝你，傑米，也謝謝大家的加入。我將首先討論我們 2025 年第一季的財務業績，然後介紹我們目前在汽車保險業看到的情況以及我們對今年第二季的指導。我們自 2024 年以來的強勁勢頭延續到了第一季度，因為我們在所有三個主要財務指標（總收入、可變營銷費用或 VMD 和調整後 EBITDA）上再次超出了預期。

In Q1, we delivered the fourth consecutive quarter of record revenue, VMD, and adjusted EBITDA performance. These impressive financial results reflect continued strong operating performance focused on driving expanding levels of profitability. Total revenues in the first quarter grew to $166.6 million, up 83% from the prior-year period and up 13% sequentially.

在第一季度，我們連續第四個季度創下營收、VMD 和調整後 EBITDA 業績記錄。這些令人印象深刻的財務表現反映了持續強勁的經營業績，重點是推動獲利水準的不斷提高。第一季總營收成長至 1.666 億美元，較去年同期成長 83%，較上一季成長 13%。

Revenue growth was primarily driven by stronger enterprise carrier spend, which was up over 175% from the comparable period last year. Our agency operations also grew 22% year over year. Revenue from our auto insurance vertical is $152.7 million in Q1, up 97% year over year. Revenue from our home and renters' insurance vertical was $13.9 million in Q1, up 10% year over year and up 23% sequentially.

收入成長主要得益於企業營運商支出的增加，較去年同期成長了 175% 以上。我們的代理業務也較去年同期成長了22%。我們第一季汽車保險垂直業務的收入為 1.527 億美元，年增 97%。第一季度，我們的住房和租屋保險垂直業務收入為 1,390 萬美元，年增 10%，較上季成長 23%。

VMD increased to $46.9 million for the first quarter, up 52% from the prior-year period. Variable marketing margin, or VMM, which is VMD as a percentage of revenue, was 28.1% for the quarter. As anticipated, VMM was negatively impacted by the one-to-one consent dynamics earlier in the quarter, which then improved as we progressed through the period.

第一季 VMD 增至 4,690 萬美元，較去年同期成長 52%。可變行銷利潤率（VMM，即 VMD 佔營收的百分比）本季為 28.1%。正如預期的那樣，VMM 在本季度早些時候受到了一對一同意動態的負面影響，但隨著我們整個期間的進展，這種情況有所改善。

Turning to operating expenses and the bottom line, we continue to be disciplined in managing expenses and leveraging investments in our technology platform. We have been successful in driving incremental efficiency across our operations as we scale and drive top-line growth, which is expanding our operating leverage.

談到營運費用和底線，我們繼續嚴格管理費用並利用對技術平台的投資。隨著我們擴大規模並推動營收成長，我們成功地提高了整個營運的效率，從而擴大了我們的營運槓桿。

In the first quarter, we reported net income of $8 million, which includes a non-cash charge of $7.9 million related to divesting our remaining P&C Director Consumer Agency assets to settle an outstanding legal matter with the former owners of PolicyFuel, an acquisition we completed in August 2021. Excluding this charge, we would have reported record net income of $15.9 million in Q1. Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 was a record $22.5 million compared to $7.6 million in the prior year period.

第一季度，我們報告的淨收入為 800 萬美元，其中包括 790 萬美元的非現金費用，與剝離我們剩餘的 P&C 董事消費者代理資產有關，以解決與 PolicyFuel 前所有者的未決法律問題，這是我們於 2021 年 8 月完成的收購。如果不計這項費用，我們第一季的淨收入將達到創紀錄的 1,590 萬美元。第一季調整後的 EBITDA 達到創紀錄的 2,250 萬美元，而去年同期為 760 萬美元。

We delivered strong operating cash flow of $23.3 million for the first quarter, ending the quarter with no debt, and cash and cash equivalents of $125 million, up from $102.1 million at the end of 2024. Cash operating expenses, which excludes advertising spend in certain non-cash and other one-time charges, were $24.4 million in Q1.

我們第一季實現了強勁的經營現金流，達到 2,330 萬美元，季末沒有債務，現金和現金等價物為 1.25 億美元，高於 2024 年底的 1.021 億美元。第一季的現金營運費用（不包括某些非現金廣告支出和其他一次性費用）為 2,440 萬美元。

Before turning to guidance, I want to provide an update on our current outlook for the auto insurance industry. We believe that the long-term thesis of insurance advertising spend shifting to digital channels remains firmly intact. While tariffs could place some upward pressure on claims costs in the second half of this year, we remain optimistic that the benefits that we are seeing from the auto insurance recovery will continue throughout the year.

在提供指導之前，我想先介紹一下我們對汽車保險產業目前的展望。我們相信，保險廣告支出轉向數位管道的長期論點仍然堅定不移。儘管關稅可能會對今年下半年的索賠成本造成一些上行壓力，但我們仍然樂觀地認為，汽車保險復甦帶來的好處將持續全年。

Based on discussions with our insurance partners, carriers broadly remain focused on growing policies in force and have healthy underwriting profitability margins, which provides them with a reasonable cushion to absorb potential inflation and claims costs. A softer macroeconomic environment could also benefit carriers with fewer miles driven leading to lower claims costs.

根據與我們的保險合作夥伴的討論，保險公司大體上仍然專注於增加有效保單，並擁有健康的承保盈利利潤率，這為他們提供了合理的緩衝來吸收潛在的通貨膨脹和索賠成本。較弱的宏觀經濟環境也可能使行駛里程較少的承運人受益，從而降低索賠成本。

Now turning to guidance for the second quarter of 2025, we expect revenue to be between $155 million and $160 million, representing 34% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. We expect VMD to be between $45 million and $47 million, representing 26% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. And we expect adjusted EBITDA to be between $20 million and $22 million, representing 62% year-over-year growth at the midpoint.

現在談到 2025 年第二季的指引，我們預計營收將在 1.55 億美元至 1.6 億美元之間，中間值年增 34%。我們預計 VMD 將在 4,500 萬美元至 4,700 萬美元之間，相當於年增 26%。我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 將在 2,000 萬美元至 2,200 萬美元之間，中間值年增 62%。

As mentioned last quarter, we plan to increase investments in our technology, data assets, and AI capabilities during the second half of 2025 to drive continued operational efficiency and strengthen EverQuote's long-term competitive moat. As we make these strategic investments, we expect to be disciplined in balancing incremental operating expenses to generate adjusted EBITDA margins at or near current levels.

正如上個季度所提到的，我們計劃在 2025 年下半年增加對技術、數據資產和人工智慧能力的投資，以推動持續的營運效率並加強 EverQuote 的長期競爭優勢。在進行這些策略性投資時，我們期望嚴格平衡增量營運費用，以產生達到或接近當前水準的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。

In summary, our performance reflects our steadfast commitment to strong execution and a clear strategy, as we delivered record results across all of our key financial metrics. As we further scale, we will continue to invest in building long-term competitive differentiation in our marketplace. Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, we believe that the strength and resiliency of our operating model will position EverQuote to drive continued growth and profitability.

總而言之，我們的業績反映了我們對強有力的執行和清晰策略的堅定承諾，因為我們在所有關鍵財務指標上都取得了創紀錄的成績。隨著我們規模的進一步擴大，我們將繼續投資於在我們的市場中建立長期的競爭差異化。展望今年剩餘時間，我們相信，我們營運模式的優勢和彈性將使 EverQuote 能夠推動持續成長和獲利。

Jayme and I will now take your questions.

傑米和我現在將回答你們的問題。

(Operator Instructions) Maria Ripps, Canaccord Genuity.

（操作員指示）Maria Ripps，Canaccord Genuity。

Great. Thanks so much for taking my questions, and congrats on the strong quarter. So you touched on the second-half trends a little bit here, understanding that you're not providing guidance for the second half. But is there any additional column maybe you're able to share in terms of the sort of maybe broader expectations or some of the dynamics in the second half, especially sort of given the potential impact of auto tariffs? And do you think that sort of carrier profitability is are structurally healthier now to manage through any macro volatility in the near term?

偉大的。非常感謝您回答我的問題，並祝賀本季業績強勁。所以你在這裡稍微談到了下半年的趨勢，但你並沒有為下半年提供指導。但是，您是否可以分享一些關於更廣泛的預期或下半年的一些動態的補充內容，特別是考慮到汽車關稅的潛在影響？您是否認為，目前這種運營商的獲利能力在結構上更加健康，能夠應對短期內的任何宏觀波動？

Thanks, Maria. This is Jayme. Yes, I think the general outlook for carrier profitability is favorable. Across the board, we continue to see broad-based, healthy underwriting profitability. And it's not just carriers at their profitability targets. In many cases, some of the big carriers are sort of overshooting their profitability targets, so they have less --

謝謝，瑪麗亞。這是傑米。是的，我認為營運商獲利的整體前景是良好的。總體而言，我們繼續看到廣泛、健康的承保獲利能力。實現獲利目標的不僅是營運商。在許多情況下，一些大型航空公司的獲利能力已經超出目標，因此他們--

Meaningfully, they're operating meaningfully below their target combined ratios, which sets up this dynamic of them obviously being interested in leaning into growth right now. And we're seeing that in some of the market recovery that has occurred so far this year and we expect to further develop into the balance of the year. And it also creates a bit of cushion. Should there be any loss pressures created by the tariffs? Joseph, do you want to expand on the tariff piece any further?

值得注意的是，他們的營運狀況遠低於目標綜合比率，這表明他們目前顯然有興趣實現成長。我們看到今年迄今市場已經出現復甦，我們預計這種復甦將在今年年底進一步發展。而且它還能提供一些緩衝。關稅是否會產生虧損壓力？約瑟夫，你想進一步討論關稅問題嗎？

Sure. To give you a little context, I guess, we think about the second half. Let me start with the first half, just to recap, to give you some basis as we look into the second half. So obviously, Q1, really strong quarter. The momentum we had starting with auto recovery in 2024 continued into 2025. Our guide for Q2 second quarter has 34% growth top line at the midpoint, so again, another strong quarter.

當然。為了給您一些背景信息，我想，我們來考慮下半部分。讓我先從上半部開始回顧一下，為我們研究下半部提供一些基礎。顯然，第一季確實表現強勁。2024 年汽車復甦以來的勢頭將持續到 2025 年。我們對第二季的預期是中點成長率為 34%，因此這又是一個強勁的季度。

What I would note, as we've talked about in our February call, is as the auto carriers are starting to get into more normalized levels of premium increases. We're expecting growth to moderate for us as well in just the broader span. So if you think about the second half of this year, we've made that comment before, and our February comment will reiterate that in this call.

我想指出的是，正如我們在二月的電話會議上所討論的那樣，汽車運輸公司的保費成長開始進入更正常的水平。我們預計，從更廣泛的角度來看，我們的成長也會放緩。因此，如果您考慮今年下半年，我們之前已經做出過這樣的評論，並且我們二月份的評論將在本次電話會議中重申這一點。

The other thing I would note, if you think about the second half, just compared to where we were last year if you think about the comps, first part of last year, we had in Q1, you had $91 million in revenues driven really by a few carriers coming on as auto recovery started. That took a step up in Q2 and then a significant step up in the second half of the year to around $145 million, $150 million. So that impacts the comps in about the second half of this year.

我還想指出的是，如果你考慮下半年，與去年同期相比，去年上半年，我們在第一季度實現了 9,100 萬美元的收入，這主要是由於汽車業開始復蘇，一些運營商也開始盈利。這一數字在第二季度有所上升，然後在下半年大幅上升至約 1.45 億美元、1.5 億美元。因此這將對今年下半年的業績產生影響。

Just with that context, the other piece I would say with regards to tariffs, how that could impact the business, here's what we know today. As Jayme said, the carriers are generally quite healthy. And as they think about tariffs when this came out in early April, you had the carriers, just like everyone else, sort of pausing to say, what does this mean? How should we assess the impact on our business?

基於這樣的背景，我想說的另一點是關於關稅，以及關稅將如何影響業務，以下是我們今天所知道的。正如傑米所說，攜帶者通常都很健康。當四月初這項政策出台時，當他們考慮關稅時，營運商就像其他人一樣，停下來思考，這意味著什麼？我們應該如何評估對我們業務的影響？

What we've heard from the carriers since then is they remain focused on growth. Their underwriting margins are quite healthy. And they would also note that their ability to absorb increase in inflation and claims costs should tariffs impact auto parts in the second half of the year. They have more cushion to absorb that now. They're quite healthy.

從那時起，我們從營運商那裡聽到的消息是，他們仍然專注於成長。他們的承保利潤率相當健康。他們還會注意到，如果關稅在下半年影響汽車零件，他們吸收通貨膨脹和索賠成本增加的能力。他們現在擁有了更多的緩衝來應對這項挑戰。他們非常健康。

Contrast that, Maria, say, with 2022 within, when there was a significant increase in cost for the carriers from a much more precarious health from an underlying perspective, today, it's quite different. So if you look to the second half of the year, I would say it's very much similar to what we had with what we talked about in February. So the same views, same look at seasonality. I think tariffs will continue to monitor and see how that changed things. But at this point, based on everything we know, carriers seems to be proceeding as planned with their wanting to grow and adding policies and force.

相較之下，比如說，在 2022 年颶風瑪莉亞來襲時，航空公司的成本將大幅增加，從根本上看，航空公司的健康狀況也更加不穩定，而今天，情況就大不相同了。因此，如果你展望今年下半年，我會說它與我們二月談論的情況非常相似。因此，觀點相同，對季節性的看法也相同。我認為關稅將繼續受到監控，並觀察其如何改變現狀。但目前，根據我們所知道的一切，航空公司似乎正在按計劃擴張，增加政策和力量。

Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you. And then can you maybe talk about how the industry has responded to the [located FCCU] regarding one-on-one consent? I believe you were planning to maintain the requirement for at least a portion of your traffic. Can you maybe update us on that and also talk about whether some of your competitors have implemented this practice?

知道了。這非常有幫助。謝謝。然後，您能否談談業界對 [定位 FCCU] 一對一同意的反應如何？我相信您計劃維持至少一部分流量的要求。您能否向我們介紹一下這一情況，並談談您的一些競爭對手是否已經實施了這種做法？

Yes, so as far as the requirement goes, the requirement no longer exists. And so we continue to persist in sort of the same environment we were in before that one-to-one consent rule change. So everybody had cut over for a couple of weeks and then effectively rolled back those changes.

是的，就要求而言，該要求不再存在。因此，我們將繼續堅持在「一對一同意規則」改變之前所處的相同環境。因此，每個人都切換了幾個星期，然後有效地撤銷了這些變更。

As I mentioned in the February call, there were things that we learned through the process of testing our way into one-to-one consent that sort of confirmed certain hypotheses around our ability to improve quality and performance for our customers by virtue of preserving certain amount of exclusivity on portions of traffic and things like that.

正如我在二月的電話會議上提到的那樣，我們在測試一對一同意的過程中學到了很多東西，這些知識在某種程度上證實了某些假設，即我們能夠通過保留一定程度的流量獨家經營權等來提高客戶的質量和性能。

So we have mechanisms that we did a lot of testing around in preparation for one-to-one consent, which remain in place today, even absent one-to-one consent being required. I can't really speak to exactly how all the other companies in the space have responded. I would say on the surface level, it looks like most have just reverted back to their prior state. Like us, I'm sure there may be some nuance under the covers with some of those experiences. But for the most part, it looks like the industry has largely reverted to the pre-one-to-one state at this point.

因此，我們對機制進行了大量的測試，為一對一同意做準備，即使不再需要一對一同意，這些機制至今仍然有效。我無法確切地說出該領域的其他公司是如何回應的。我想說，從表面上看，大多數人似乎都恢復到了之前的狀態。就像我們一樣，我確信其中一些經歷背後可能存在一些細微差別。但總體而言，目前看來該產業已基本恢復到一對一之前的狀態。

Got it. Thank you so much for the color.

知道了。非常感謝你提供的顏色。

Thanks, Maria.

謝謝，瑪麗亞。

Jason Kreyer, Craig Hallum.

傑森·克雷爾、克雷格·哈勒姆。

Wonderful. Thank you, guys. Appreciate you taking the questions. I'm wondering just ask about VMM. You're guiding to a little bit of a step up and curious if you can quantify how much the impact was in Q1 from TCPA. And then as we look forward, just in terms of AI and ML, are you seeing any of that benefit BMM yet? Or when do you expect that to kind of drive a little bit more tailwinds to those rates? Thank you.

精彩的。謝謝你們。感謝您回答這些問題。我很好奇，只是問有關 VMM 的問題。您正在引導一點點進步，我很好奇您是否可以量化 TCPA 對第一季的影響有多大。然後，當我們展望未來時，僅就人工智慧和機器學習而言，您是否看到其中對 BMM 有任何好處？或者您預計什麼時候這會為這些利率帶來更多的順風？謝謝。

So thanks, Jason, for the question. Appreciate it. So as you noted, Q1, we had BMM 28%, a little over 20%, 28.1%. As you noted, our guide implies a step up to sort of a little over 29%. As you look at Q1, it's hard to specifically break out what was one-to-one and what was not one-to-one, in part because our traffic operations are not so divided between. It's a shared resource between our enterprises and our agencies, so it's hard to break it out.

所以，謝謝傑森提出這個問題。非常感謝。正如您所說，第一季度，我們的 BMM 為 28%，略高於 20%，為 28.1%。正如您所指出的，我們的指南暗示將上升至略高於 29%。當你看第一季時，很難具體區分哪些是一對一，哪些不是一對一，部分原因是我們的流量運作並沒有那麼分散。這是我們企業和機構之間的共享資源，因此很難將其分開。

That being said, if you were sitting in our seats right now in the company through the first week and the first part of the quarter, you would see VMM margins were much lower, and we knew a lot of the things we were doing around getting ready for one-to-one, and then trying to unwind it once we had the change in late January.

話雖如此，如果您現在坐在我們公司的第一席位上，經歷第一周和本季度的第一部分，您就會發現 VMM 利潤率要低得多，而且我們知道我們正在做很多事情來為一對一做好準備，然後在 1 月底發生變化後嘗試解除它。

So we started to see as we progressed through the period, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we started to see VMM improve and get to levels where we're starting to look into Q2 reflecting in our guide. And as we look through the remainder of the year, I guess, on VMM no difference than what we said in our February call, which is we see VMM margins sort of in these high 20 range. And we'll see it sort of -- we think it will stay in that zone throughout the remainder of the year. And then, Jayme, do you want to add the second part?

因此，正如我在準備好的發言中提到的那樣，我們開始看到隨著這一時期的進展，我們開始看到 VMM 有所改善並達到我們開始在指南中研究第二季度所反映的水平。當我們展望今年剩餘時間時，我想，VMM 與我們在 2 月電話會議上所說的話沒有什麼不同，即我們看到 VMM 利潤率在 20% 左右。我們會看到它——我們認為它將在今年剩餘時間內保持在該區域。然後，Jayme，你想加入第二部分嗎？

Yes, so with respect to the impact of some of the AI or ML efforts and the benefit of those to VMM, I think you'd expect to see those in two places over time. The way we think about the impact of implementing AI and ML solutions, number one is, I think there's use cases that we've begun adopting these technologies into really drive operational efficiency. And so examples of that are AI tools that will make the workforce more productive, that allow us to do a particular body of work with fewer people.

是的，因此，關於某些 AI 或 ML 工作的影響以及它們對 VMM 的好處，我認為您會期望隨著時間的推移在兩個地方看到它們。我們思考實施人工智慧和機器學習解決方案的影響的方式是，首先，我認為我們已經開始採用這些技術來真正提高營運效率。例如，人工智慧工具可以提高勞動力的生產力，讓我們用更少的人來完成特定的工作。

Then there's a set of applications that are more customer oriented that are really meant to improve customer outcomes. So with respect to the VMM line specifically, I think the place that we'd point to where we've seen some of the impact and will continue to see more is in the traffic bidding technology. So that's an ML bidding platform that's used by our traffic operations. That's the tool that has taken a body of work that used to consume a team of 15 to 20 people down to five-ish people.

然後有一組更以客戶為導向的應用程序，其真正目的是改善客戶結果。因此，具體到 VMM 線路，我認為我們已經看到一些影響並將繼續看到更多影響的地方是流量競價技術。這就是我們的流量營運所使用的 ML 競價平台。這個工具可以將過去需要 15 到 20 人團隊才能完成的工作減少到 5 人左右。

So there's more of the operating efficiency piece, but it's also allowed us to bid more precisely for traffic and that's where we have more control over -- and it's really helped us preserve and expand VMM. So that would be an example of where you sort of see it hit in both places, and I think there's a number of other use cases and applications that we will continue to develop that will affect us on the VMM line. But I think, actually, more of the impact will start to flow through also in terms of the operating efficiency as we adopt more tools and automate more of the work.

因此，它更專注於營運效率，但它也使我們能夠更精確地競標流量，而這正是我們能夠更好地控制的地方——它確實幫助我們維護和擴展了 VMM。所以，這就是您在兩個地方都能看到它發揮作用的一個例子，而且我認為我們將繼續開發許多其他用例和應用程序，這些用例和應用程式將會影響我們的 VMM 系列。但我認為，實際上，隨著我們採用更多工具並實現更多工作自動化，營運效率方面也將開始產生更大的影響。

Thank you, guys.

謝謝你們。

Thanks, Jason.

謝謝，傑森。

Zach Cummins, B. Riley.

康明斯、B.萊利。

Hi, good afternoon. Joseph and Jayme, congrats on the strong results to start the year. My first question, I'm just curious around the agent channel. Can you talk about just some of the results you're seeing there, especially after you've rolled out your new platform on the agency side?

嗨，下午好。約瑟夫和傑米，祝賀你們今年取得了良好的開端。我的第一個問題，我只是對代理商管道感到好奇。您能否談談您在那裡看到的一些結果，特別是在您在代理商方面推出新平台之後？

Sure. The agent business is healthy. It continues to be a part of the distribution landscape where we feel we have meaningful advantage over others. It had healthy growth, 20%, 30% growth this quarter. And that's after a challenging start where we rolled out one-to-one consent and then rolled it back. Our focus there is really on deepening relationships with agents.

當然。代理業務健康。它繼續成為分銷領域的一部分，我們認為我們比其他人擁有明顯的優勢。本季度實現了健康的成長，成長了 20% 到 30%。在我們開始推行一對一同意制度並隨後撤銷這個制度之前，我們經歷了一段充滿挑戰的時期。我們的重點其實是深化與代理商的關係。

Our vision is very clear. We want to build this one-stop growth shop for local insurance agents, and we intend to do that or have begun to do that by rolling out value-add features and products basically right on top of and around the core leads offering. We're starting to get some real traction with this.

我們的願景非常清晰。我們希望為本地保險代理人打造一站式增長商店，我們打算這樣做或已經開始這樣做，透過在核心銷售線索產品之上和周圍推出增值功能和產品。我們開始在這方面取得一些真正的進展。

I think we're beginning to access more agent budget as a result. We're certainly expanding the ways in which we help agents grow. And I think it's also enabling us to build deeper relationships with the carriers who support these agents. So it's a big strategic focus area for us, one that we continue to invest in and we're making good progress with.

我認為我們因此開始獲得更多的代理預算。我們確實正在擴大幫助代理商成長的方式。我認為這也使我們能夠與支持這些代理商的承運人建立更深的關係。因此，這是我們的一個重大戰略重點領域，我們將繼續對其進行投資，並且正在取得良好進展。

Understood. And my one follow-up question, maybe geared towards Joseph. I know there's no formal guidance in the second half of the year, but just given your base case assumptions, are you assuming any pickup from more challenged states like California or New York or meaningful pickup from other maybe lagging carriers that really haven't come online? Just curious what's in your baseline assumptions versus what could be potential upside levers for the model.

明白了。我的一個後續問題可能是針對約瑟夫的。我知道下半年沒有正式的指導，但僅根據您的基本情況假設，您是否認為加利福尼亞州或紐約州等面臨更多挑戰的州會出現任何回升，或者其他可能真正尚未上線的落後運營商會出現有意義的回升？只是好奇你的基準假設是什麼以及模型的潛在上行槓桿是什麼。

Sure. So thanks for that quick question. So I guess when I think about the model, not much changed since what we had in February, which is California and New York were not online in expectations. They were going to come online. That seems to be still the consensus right now as we get feedback on the market and talk to our carrier partners. So that's one wild card. I think with regards to the other side is -- so that could be something that came on sooner, maybe to the positive side.

當然。感謝您提出這個簡短的問題。因此，我想，當我考慮這個模型時，它並沒有太大的變化，就像我們在二月的情況一樣，加州和紐約州並沒有達到預期。他們即將上線。當我們獲得市場回饋並與營運商合作夥伴交談時，這似乎仍然是目前的共識。所以這是一個未知數。我認為就另一方面而言——這可能是更早發生的事情，也許是積極的一面。

I think on the tariff question is the one that's come up a lot. I addressed it in our previous question with Maria, but I think that is one we'll just sort of watch. And in our minds, the industry is quite healthy, seems to be able to absorb some level of increases, and especially the levels that are being talked about right now. But obviously that could change, and we'll sort of watch that.

我認為關稅問題是經常出現的問題。我在之前與瑪麗亞的提問中提到了這一點，但我認為我們只需要觀察一下。在我們看來，這個行業相當健康，似乎能夠吸收一定程度的成長，尤其是現在所談論的水平。但顯然這種情況可能會改變，我們會密切注意。

But we remain optimistic that the auto recovery that's started in the first half of the year will continue, even with these dynamics going on in Washington. So there's really not a lot of change in our outlook from what we had in the start of the year. I guess the last thing on other carriers, there's really no new news updates on the new carriers coming on that were not previously with us in any meaningful way in Q1.

但我們仍然樂觀地認為，即使華盛頓出現這些動態，今年上半年開始的汽車業復甦仍將持續下去。因此，與年初相比，我們的前景並沒有太大變化。我想關於其他運營商的最後一件事是，對於即將推出的新運營商，實際上沒有任何新的新聞更新，而這些新運營商之前在第一季都沒有以任何有意義的方式與我們聯繫過。

Understood. Well, thanks for taking my questions, and best of luck with the rest of the quarter.

明白了。好吧，感謝您回答我的問題，並祝您本季剩餘時間一切順利。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

Thanks, Zach.

謝謝，扎克。

Ralph Schackart, William Blair.

拉爾夫·沙卡特、威廉·布萊爾。

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Jayme, in the prepared remarks, you talked about your data advantage and machine learning in terms of the traffic bidding on the platform. And then you talked about Smart Campaigns gaining adoption. Maybe just give us a sense of where you are in that adoption. And as more adopt the Smart Campaigns product, what kind of impact does that have on the overall platform?

午安.感謝您回答這個問題。Jayme，在準備好的發言中，您談到了平台流量競價的資料優勢和機器學習。然後您談到智慧行銷活動正在獲得採用。也許只是讓我們了解一下您在收養過程中所處的位置。隨著越來越多的人採用智慧行銷產品，這會對整個平台產生什麼樣的影響？

Yes, sure. Thanks, Rob. So we think that just the volume of consumers that shop with Everquote enables us to build a real advantage in the scale of data that we have. So we process. There are tens of millions of auto and home insurance quote requests per year. There's a lot of consumer data, provider data, and consumer-provider match data and outcome data that we get from those engagements. Now the Smart Campaigns product that you described is something that we're building on top of the proprietary data that we have. you can sort of think about it beginning as the traffic bidder.

是的，當然。謝謝，羅布。因此，我們認為，僅使用 Everquote 購物的消費者數量就能讓我們在擁有的數據規模上建立真正的優勢。因此我們進行處理。每年有數千萬份汽車和家庭保險報價請求。我們從這些活動中獲得了大量的消費者數據、提供者數據以及消費者-提供者匹配數據和結果數據。現在，您所描述的智慧行銷活動產品是我們基於我們擁有的專有資料而建構的。您可以將其視為流量競標者。

The beginning of it comes from the traffic bidder that we built for ourselves. So for a while now, we've been talking about this sort of ML bidding platform that we use in our own traffic operations, which has really enabled us to manage traffic very effectively with more sort of granular and accurate predictions around the value of each unit of traffic and automating a lot of the bidding. And we've benefited quite a bit from that.

這一切的開始來自於我們自己搭建的流量競價器。因此，一段時間以來，我們一直在談論我們在自己的流量運營中使用的這種 ML 競價平台，它確實使我們能夠非常有效地管理流量，對每個流量單位的價值進行更細緻、更準確的預測，並實現大量競價的自動化。我們從中受益匪淺。

So with Smart Campaigns, effectively what we're doing is we're taking that capability, we're sort of repackaging it, and making it available as a product to the customers who bid into our auctions. And without fail, when a customer adopts Smart Campaigns relative to managing their own campaigns, we see an improvement in performance. And that improvement will vary based on, the customer and how effective they were before they adopt Smart Campaigns. But by virtue of turning it over to us, we see improvement in their performance as they compete in our marketplace.

因此，透過智慧廣告活動，我們實際上所做的就是利用該功能，對其進行重新包裝，並將其作為產品提供給參與我們拍賣的客戶。毫無疑問，當客戶採用智慧行銷活動來管理自己的行銷活動時，我們會看到績效的提升。並且這種改進將根據客戶以及他們在採用智慧行銷活動之前的有效性而有所不同。但透過將其移交給我們，我們看到他們在市場競爭中的表現有所改善。

And so the reason I sort of called it out this quarter is I think we've gotten sort of critical mass adoption on this product. The feature set is sufficiently did well develop at this point, and the number of customers is meaningful, that we're beginning to sort of see it make an impact. So it's an exciting product for us. I think it fits squarely within the strategy. It builds directly on our data advantage and the application of AI or ML tooling in this case to improve performance for providers, should get us more budget, should get us more data, should allow us to keep improving performance.

我之所以在本季度提出這一點，是因為我認為我們已經獲得了該產品的臨界大規模採用。目前，該功能集已經充分開發，客戶數量也很可觀，我們開始看到它產生影響。所以這對我們來說是一款令人興奮的產品。我認為它完全符合該戰略。它直接建立在我們的數據優勢和 AI 或 ML 工具的應用之上，在這種情況下，它可以提高提供者的效能，為我們帶來更多的預算，為我們帶來更多的數據，讓我們能夠不斷提高效能。

Okay, great. That's really helpful. And then just a follow-up question. Obviously, auto care spend is returning, and that revenue segment is doing quite well. But as you think about kind of the home and renters' opportunity, does that allow you to kind of focus on this a little bit more, that auto is in recovery mode and growing really nicely? Maybe kind of talk about the products that you have within that business line and sort of just overall thoughts of scaling that revenue line. Thank you.

好的，太好了。這真的很有幫助。然後只是一個後續問題。顯然，汽車保養支出正在回升，而且該收入部分錶現相當不錯。但是，當您考慮房屋和租屋者的機會時，這是否可以讓您更多地關注這一點，即汽車正處於復甦模式並且發展得非常好？也許可以談談您在該業務線內擁有的產品以及擴大該收入線的整體想法。謝謝。

Yes, sure. So yes, home remains a focus for us. We were encouraged last quarter to see the underlying combined ratios beginning to improve for carriers in the homeowners' products. Unfortunately, in Q1, we also had the wildfires, which led to significant cat losses. And home was somewhat disproportionately impacted by that one-to-one transition and rollback.

是的，當然。所以是的，家仍然是我們關注的焦點。上個季度，我們很高興地看到，房主產品承運商的基本綜合比率開始改善。不幸的是，第一季我們也遭遇了野火，導致了大量損失。而國內則在某種程度上受到了這種一對一轉變和回滾的嚴重影響。

So we had some muted growth for home in the first quarter, but we expect it to return to higher growth in Q2. And it remains an area of focus. I think the carrier appetite, if it follows the course that we saw with auto insurance, as those underlying combined ratios remain healthy, we do expect to see more carrier demand flowing through over the course of this year and into next. And it will probably take some time for the market to fully recover but we do expect to see continued growth in-home.

因此，第一季國內市場成長較為緩慢，但我們預期第二季國內市場將恢復更高的成長。這仍然是一個關注的領域。我認為，如果承運商的需求遵循我們在汽車保險中看到的趨勢，而這些基礎綜合比率保持健康，我們確實預計今年和明年將有更多的承運商需求流入。市場可能需要一段時間才能完全復甦，但我們確實預期家庭市場將繼續成長。

Okay, great. Thank you.

好的，太好了。謝謝。

Thanks, Ralph.

謝謝，拉爾夫。

Mayank Tandon, Needham.

梅揚克·坦登，尼德姆。

Thank you. Good evening. Congrats, Jayme and Joseph, on a strong quarter once again. A couple of questions. First and foremost, Jayme, could you talk about the penetration of the budget within your top five customers, for example? How much more headroom to grow with them versus growth coming from new carriers coming online? How do you think about the long-term opportunity within the existing client base and the newer carrier that you don't have today that you could bring on over time?

謝謝。晚安.恭喜 Jayme 和 Joseph 再次取得強勁業績。有幾個問題。首先，Jayme，您能否談談您的前五大客戶的預算滲透情況？與新業者上線帶來的成長相比，它們的成長空間還有多少？您如何看待現有客戶群和目前尚不具備的、可以隨著時間的推移而帶來的新營運商的長期機會？

It's a good question, Mayank. And I might kind of break -- I might segment out the customer base into a few different segments to try and answer it. On the one hand, you've got this sort of agent-based carriers. And with those captive carriers -- and they represent a good chunk of the market, call it roughly a third of the premium out there. With these carriers, we're really limited only by our ability to continue to grow our local agent base, and so that's more of an operational and go-to-market sales marketing constraint.

這是個好問題，Mayank。我可能會打破這種局面——我可能會將客戶群分成幾個不同的部分來嘗試回答這個問題。一方面，你有這種基於代理的承運人。這些專屬保險公司佔了很大一部分市場份額，大約佔了保費的三分之一。有了這些承運商，我們真正受到的限制只是我們繼續擴大本地代理商基礎的能力，因此這更多的是一個運營和進入市場的銷售營銷限制。

We think that through the introduction of some of the new products that we've talked about, and continuing to focus on having best-in-class performance on our leads, we'll be able to continue growing the agent base and further penetrating that share of wallet. So we don't really see any natural constraint there at the carrier level.

我們認為，透過推出一些我們談到的新產品，並繼續專注於在我們的潛在客戶上實現一流的表現，我們將能夠繼續擴大代理商基礎並進一步滲透到錢包份額。因此，我們確實沒有看到在營運商層面存在任何自然限制。

Then I go to the other end of the spectrum, which is kind of like the big digital-savvy carriers. These are the ones that represent a lot of the budget that's in market today in terms of digital advertising. And there, in many cases, we're really operating without set budgets, per se. So these carriers will effectively buy as much traffic, as many referrals as they can get, subject to hitting certain efficiency targets as it relates to their ad spend.

然後我轉向另一端，它有點像精通數位技術的大型營運商。就數位廣告而言，這些代表了當今市場上的大量預算。而且，在很多情況下，我們其實並沒有設定預算。因此，這些業者將有效地購買盡可能多的流量和盡可能多的推薦，但要達到與廣告支出相關的某些效率目標。

And so the key to unlocking more budget is driving better performance per unit of traffic that you're sending to them. Hence, our focus and our sort of deep investments in these ML applications to help drive more performance for the carriers. I don't believe we are budget constrained per se. I believe the budget is sort of limited by more efficiency and more performance, and so that's where we're focused. And then you've got these other group of carriers who are a bit less savvy and a bit less sophisticated.

因此，釋放更多預算的關鍵是提高發送給他們的每單位流量的效能。因此，我們的重點和對這些 ML 應用的深度投資是為了幫助營運商提高效能。我不認為我們本身受到預算限制。我認為預算會受到更高效率和性能的限制，因此我們將重點放在這些方面。而另外一些業者則不那麼精明，也不那麼老練。

And there, historically, we've run into budget limitations. Again, it ultimately comes back to performance. And for them, I think we are just working with the industry to evolve, and that means building integrations from our site to theirs. It's all the basic blocking and tackling that will allow these carriers to actually get performance, so hit their LTV-to-CAC targets in acquiring traffic through our channel. And that's the one where, today, I think we wish it would perhaps move faster, but it will evolve over time.

從歷史上看，我們曾經遇到預算限制的問題。再次，它最終還是回歸到了性能上。對他們來說，我認為我們只是在與行業合作發展，這意味著建立從我們的網站到他們的網站的整合。所有基本的阻止和解決措施將使這些營運商能夠真正獲得效能，從而透過我們的管道獲取流量，實現他們的 LTV 到 CAC 目標。今天，我想我們希望它能夠發展得更快，但它會隨著時間的推移而發展。

And I think that all of that will help these carriers develop more performant digital funnels. And as and if we do, there will be ample budget there as well. So from our perspective, we've made this decision to really focus on the P&C market in part because it's very, very large. We don't perceive there to be budget constraints that are holding back our growth per se. And therefore, I think we're just focused on addressing the kind of key leverage points that will enable us to continue unlocking more budget year after year.

我認為所有這些都將幫助這些營運商開發更有效率的數位管道。如果我們這樣做，那裡也會有充足的預算。因此，從我們的角度來看，我們決定真正關注財產險和意外險市場，部分原因是該市場規模非常大。我們並不認為預算限製本身會阻礙我們的成長。因此，我認為我們只是專注於解決那些能讓我們年復一年繼續釋放更多預算的關鍵槓桿點。

That's a very helpful color. Appreciate that. A quick follow up for you, Joseph. Capital allocation, obviously, you're in a very good spot with your balance sheet and cash flow. What are you thinking in terms of priorities for use of cash?

這是一種非常有用的顏色。非常感謝。約瑟夫，我快速跟進你的情況。資本配置，顯然，您的資產負債表和現金流處於非常有利的位置。您對現金使用的優先順序有何看法？

Sure. So thanks, Mike, for the question. I'd probably say this. When we think about cash, I'd probably highlight three things. The first is, you'll see our cash is $125 million. It's cash we built at the end of Q1. We'll continue to add to that difference. So we still have high cash converting with EBITDA [in there over time]. And I think how that's impacted, how we operate business is significant.

當然。所以，謝謝麥克提出這個問題。我可能會這麼說。當我們考慮現金時，我可能會強調三件事。首先，你會看到我們的現金是 1.25 億美元。這是我們在第一季末累積的現金。我們將繼續擴大這一差異。因此，我們的 EBITDA 現金轉換率仍然很高[隨著時間的推移]我認為這對我們的經營方式有何影響至關重要。

So I would highlight, as we think about making -- as we think about the investments we make organically in the business, around our technology, our data assets, our AI capabilities, we're increasingly looking at longer-term time horizon investments, the things we would not look at 12, 18 months ago. We were looking at investments 12, 18 months ago. We were ahead. And we actually would not do many potentially high ROI opportunities, because at times the money was just too high. We just couldn't take that with a thin-bound G&A.

因此，我想強調的是，當我們考慮進行投資時——當我們考慮在業務中、圍繞我們的技術、數據資產、人工智慧能力進行的投資時，我們越來越多地關注長期投資，而這些投資是我們在 12 個月、18 個月前不會考慮的。12 到 18 個月前我們就在考慮投資。我們領先了。但實際上，我們不會去做很多潛在的高投資報酬率的機會，因為有時投資成本實在太高了。我們無法用薄薄的 G&A 來做到這一點。

That has certainly changed in our investment philosophy today, and so I think that's really helpful as we think about making investments to help build our competitiveness longer term. Those investments will be key. That's the first one I'm highlighting on, how the cash is impacting how we operate the business.

這無疑改變了我們今天的投資理念，因此我認為，當我們考慮進行投資以幫助我們長期增強競爭力時，這確實很有幫助。這些投資將是關鍵。這是我要強調的第一點，現金如何影響我們的業務運作。

Second, as we think about M&A, we've touched on, we believe P&C of the year. We can build a really large business. We'll start to look at M&A opportunities we think that fit into accelerating our capabilities and building up those capabilities if we can do it faster through acquisition than through doing it organically.

其次，當我們考慮併購時，我們已經談到，我們認為這是年度的財產和意外保險。我們可以建立一個真正大的企業。如果我們能夠透過收購而不是自然發展更快地實現這一目標，我們就會開始尋找我們認為適合加速我們的能力並建立這些能力的併購機會。

I think I'd highlight, as we look at M&A, a couple of things I would consider. First is we focus on how does it help our P&C providers continue to grow their business. That thesis we have of helping them be more successful in growing and acquiring consumers, you can probably think about it. Second would be the financial discipline. Just like we've done with operating the business overall, we are driving towards how does an acquisition add incremental cash flow to the business? That would be the second competitive advantage.

我認為，當我們考慮併購時，我會強調幾件我會考慮的事情。首先，我們關注的是它如何幫助我們的財產和意外保險提供者繼續發展業務。我們的論點是幫助他們更成功地發展和獲取消費者，您可能可以考慮一下。第二是財務紀律。就像我們整體營運業務一樣，我們正在努力探索收購如何為業務增加增量現金流？這將是第二個競爭優勢。

And the third I would say is how does that acquisition fit from a technology perspective, cultural perspective? Is it an asset-light business or an asset-heavy business? I think we could see it leaning towards the former, consistent with what we've made. That would be an M&A. Then the last is -- the third category of cash might be considered buyback. And we've had this question in the past. And I'd say is we'll think about that in the context of all these as we think through capital allocation more fully this year.

第三，我想說的是，從技術角度和文化角度來看，這次收購有何意義？是輕資產業務還是重資產業務？我認為我們可以看到它傾向於前者，與我們所做的一致。那將是一次併購。最後是－第三類現金可能被視為回購。我們過去也曾遇到這個問題。我想說的是，當我們今年更全面地考慮資本配置時，我們會在所有這些背景下考慮這個問題。

But I'd say, in buybacks, we see sort of the potential benefits of obviously reducing share count outstanding and all. We're also mindful that we are still a small-cap company and that could be an impact on the public [position], so we're conscious of that as well. So those are the three things I'd highlight, how cash impacts we think about organic investment, how we think about M&A, and how we think about potential buybacks.

但我想說，在回購中，我們看到了明顯減少流通股數量等的潛在好處。我們也意識到，我們仍然是一家小型公司，這可能會對公眾地位產生影響，所以我們也意識到了這一點。所以我想強調三件事：現金如何影響我們對有機投資的看法、我們如何看待併購以及我們如何看待潛在的回購。

Very helpful. Thank you so much.

非常有幫助。太感謝了。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Jed Kelly, Oppenheimer.

傑德凱利，奧本海默。

Hey, [thanks] for taking my question in a fantastic quarter. Just looking at the guidance, it kind of looks like your operating expenses, so non-traffic acquisition costs, are going to stay relatively flat with the first quarter. Can you give us a sense on how we should be viewing your operating expenses throughout the balance of the year? I assume you have pretty good visibility on that.

嘿，[謝謝]您在這麼棒的季度回答我的問題。僅從指導來看，您的營運費用（非流量獲取成本）似乎將與第一季保持相對穩定。您能否告訴我們應該如何看待您全年的營運費用？我認為你對此有很好的認識。

Sure, so thanks for the question. I guess when we think about Q1, as you were alluding to, we're just a little under $25 million in cash operating expenses, similar to where we're in Q4 and Q3. So in Q2, the guide implies sort of similar levels as well, maybe modestly -- certainly modestly higher than Q1. And I think what I'd say is that reflects, even as we've been making investments, we're conscious of efficiency. It continues to be part of the DNA of the company. Even as we're getting this much stronger recovery, that efficiency is coming into a lot of things we think about.

當然，謝謝你的提問。我想，當我們考慮第一季時，正如您所暗示的，我們的現金營運費用略低於 2500 萬美元，與第四季和第三季的情況類似。因此，在第二季度，該指南也暗示了類似的水平，可能略高 - 肯定略高於第一季。我想說的是，這反映出，即使我們一直在進行投資，我們也意識到了效率。它仍然是公司 DNA 的一部分。即使我們正在經歷如此強勁的復甦，效率仍然會影響我們考慮的許多事情。

As we think about the second half of the year, I talked about in my prepared remarks that we are planning to make incremental investments in the second half of the year, particularly around our technology capabilities or data capabilities or AI capabilities. And we'll be making some investments in the second half to support those areas. Those investments will not yield results this year. Those are 2026, 2027-type return.

當我們考慮下半年時，我在準備好的演講中談到，我們計劃在下半年進行增量投資，特別是圍繞我們的技術能力、數據能力或人工智慧能力。我們將在下半年進行一些投資來支持這些領域。這些投資今年不會產生成果。這些是 2026 年、2027 年類型的回報。

We're still going through the process now to finalize some of our decisions, but we certainly will have some incremental hires in select areas, particularly around technology areas. And then you'll see us also look at how we can partner with third parties potentially to do some of this work as well. So we're looking at both levers.

我們現在仍在完成一些決定，但我們肯定會在特定領域，特別是技術領域，增加一些招募。然後你會看到我們還在研究如何與第三方合作來完成這方面的一些工作。所以我們正在研究這兩個槓桿。

What I think it means from an operating expense level and how we'll manage it is I think it's safe to say that we think about EBITDA margins being sort of added near current levels. We're going to use that same discipline as that we're adding costs in. Obviously, as we progress from Q1 to Q2, we're getting more specificity in terms of how we think about the plans for the second half of the year.

我認為從營運費用水平以及我們如何管理它的角度來看，我認為可以肯定地說，我們認為 EBITDA 利潤率將增加到接近當前水平。我們將使用與增加成本相同的原則。顯然，隨著從第一季到第二季的進展，我們對下半年計畫的看法越來越具體。

And we'll share more as we have -- as we get more -- make some final decisions, we'll start sharing, folks, sharing that with you and others. But again, seeing it building in the second half in these investment areas that we described but sort of still being conscious of driving -- maintaining EBITDA margins at and near current levels.

隨著我們獲得更多的信息，我們將分享更多信息，做出一些最終決定，然後開始與大家分享，與你們和其他人分享。但是，我們再次看到它在我們描述的這些投資領域在下半年有所發展，但仍然有意識地推動——將 EBITDA 利潤率維持在當前水平或接近當前水平。

And when you say EBITDA margins, you mean overall, or are they as a percentage of VMM?

當您說 EBITDA 利潤率時，您是指整體利潤率，還是 VMM 的百分比？

Adjusted EBITDA margins is measured as a percentage of revenue, right? So I think it's probably the simplest way to think about it. It's typically how we refer to them. I think EBITDA -- I know, sometimes, you look at EBITDA relative to VMM, and so I appreciate that. I think framing it relative to revenue is probably the way most folks look at it, so I sort of stick with that in terms of assessing my comments.

調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率是以收入的百分比來衡量的，對嗎？所以我認為這可能是思考這個問題最簡單的方法。這通常是我們對它們的稱呼。我認為 EBITDA——我知道，有時，你會將 EBITDA 與 VMM 進行比較，所以我很欣賞這一點。我認為將其與收入聯繫起來可能是大多數人看待它的方式，因此在評估我的評論時我堅持這種方式。

Okay, so you would expect then your VMM margins to go up as revenue normalized in the back half?

好的，那麼您預計隨著下半年收入正常化，您的 VMM 利潤率會上升嗎？

So I guess what I'd say is VMM margins were 28% in Q1, 28.1%. The midpoint of the guide in Q2 implies just over 29%. And I sort of see it staying in the high 20s as we progress through the year. So that's -- it has not changed from what we said in February. Yes, is it possible a quarter could go higher, just a tick over 30. I guess that's possible.

所以我想說的是，第一季的 VMM 利潤率為 28%，即 28.1%。第二季指南的中點意味著略高於 29%。而且我認為，隨著時間推移，這一數字將保持在 20 多歲左右。所以這與我們二月所說的話並沒有什麼改變。是的，有可能四分之一的金額會更高，只要超過 30 一點。我想這是有可能的。

But again, I think the view is we're sort of managing the business to serve in the high 20s. And it will fluctuate a bit here to there based on just the normal traffic operations in a given quarter. And then as we progress through the second half of the year, you'll see more investments coming in. You'll see incremental cash operating expense, and that will impact EBITDA, but we expect we'll still be maintaining EBITDA margins at and near current levels. And again, just EBITDA measured as a percentage of revenue.

但我再次認為，我們管理業務的目的是為了服務 20 多歲的年輕人。而且根據特定季度的正常交通運營情況，它會在這裡到那裡略有波動。隨著下半年的到來，你會看到更多的投資湧入。您將看到現金營運費用增加，這將影響 EBITDA，但我們預計 EBITDA 利潤率仍將維持在當前水準或接近當前水準。再次強調，EBITDA 僅以收入的百分比來衡量。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, Jed.

謝謝，傑德。

Greg Peters, Raymond James.

格雷格彼得斯、雷蒙詹姆斯。

Hey, thanks for taking my call. This is Mitch on behalf of Greg Peters. I want to ask about the trends you've been seeing in the competitive environment over the last 12 months and how you see that changing over the rest of the year. Thanks.

嘿，感謝您接聽我的電話。我是 Mitch，代表 Greg Peters。我想問一下您在過去的 12 個月中看到的競爭環境的趨勢，以及您認為這種趨勢在今年剩餘時間內將如何變化。謝謝。

Thanks, Mitch. So I think the big change in the competitive environment, both on the distribution side and the traffic side, are somewhat similar. And that is the carriers have really stepped back into the market in a big way. And so that has just continually reset the landscape every time a big carrier makes a big change. And you see us reacting and adjusting on both sides.

謝謝，米奇。所以我認為競爭環境的巨大變化，無論是在分銷方面還是在流量方面，都是有些相似的。這意味著營運商確實已經大規模重返市場。因此，每當大型航空公司做出重大改變時，格局就會不斷改變。你會看到我們雙方都做出了反應和調整。

We benefit from the added monetization as a provider of traffic to the carriers. And then we're competing for some of that traffic on the traffic side, and so you'll see some of our acquisition costs come up somewhat commensurate with the increase in monetization. Beyond that, there's nothing really noteworthy that has changed. I will say, as we think about our position in the market, EverQuote has made a decision to really focus on P&C.

作為營運商的流量提供者，我們從增加的貨幣化中獲益。然後我們在流量方面爭奪一些流量，所以你會看到我們的一些收購成本與貨幣化的成長在一定程度上是成正比的。除此之外，並沒有什麼值得注意的改變。我想說，當我們考慮我們在市場中的地位時，EverQuote 已決定真正專注於 P&C。

We think we have differential scale, particularly as it relates to the local agent base. And we think we use technology and data in a way that is unique to us. And so our strategy begins with the performance of our customers, how we use our data and technology to deliver outsized performance through better bidding, better routing. As we do this, we've continued to get more budget, higher bids. That allows us to compete more effectively for traffic. More traffic, more data, more data, more ability to improve performance. That's the flywheel we're after.

我們認為我們具有差異規模，特別是與當地代理商基礎相關的規模。我們認為我們以獨特的方式使用技術和數據。因此，我們的策略始於客戶的表現，即我們如何利用數據和技術，透過更好的競價、更好的路線提供超乎尋常的表現。當我們這樣做時，我們不斷獲得更多的預算和更高的出價。這使我們能夠更有效地競爭流量。更多的流量，更多的數據，更多的數據，更多的提高效能的能力。這就是我們所追求的飛輪。

And right now, all signs are pointing to that flywheel working. We've seen wider adoption of some of our performance-enhancing features, like Smart Campaigns, which we talked about earlier. As a result, we're seeing record budget and revenue this quarter. That's enabled us to acquire record levels of traffic volume, our scale in Q1, and that's giving us more data to optimize. The market landscape is always shifting, but we're confident that we've got the right strategy. And as we continue to execute it, the market share will continue to accrue our way.

現在，所有跡像都表明飛輪正在發揮作用。我們已經看到一些提高效能的功能得到了更廣泛的採用，例如我們之前討論過的智慧廣告系列。因此，本季我們的預算和收入創下了紀錄。這使我們能夠獲得創紀錄的流量水準和第一季的規模，並為我們提供了更多數據來進行最佳化。市場格局總是在變化，但我們相信我們已經有了正確的策略。隨著我們繼續執行，市場份額將繼續增加。

And maybe just to add on to that, to the context from a financial perspective, so revenues were up 13% sequentially in Q1 for us. I think that is favorable relative to what we've seen from others in the market. And I think that's on top of a Q4 that was seasonally up rather than down from Q3. So I think those are signs that from a financial viewpoint, the strategy that Jayme articulated is coming through into the numbers. So I just want to highlight those as well for you.

也許只是為了補充這一點，從財務角度來看，我們第一季的營收季增了 13%。我認為，相對於我們在市場上看到的其他情況而言，這是有利的。我認為這是第四季的季節性上漲，而不是比第三季下降。所以我認為，從財務角度來看，這些跡象表明，傑米所闡述的策略正在從數字中體現。因此我也想向你們強調一下這些。

Thank you for the answers. And you just mentioned the seasonality that you guys had last year. Are you expecting any seasonality in the variable market, high margin this year, the second half?

謝謝你的回答。您剛才提到了去年的季節性。您是否預期今年下半年市場波動、利潤率會呈現季節性？

I think, in general, what I'd say in VMM is we sort of see it in the high 20s for the year. It was 28% in Q1. A little over 29% is implied by the guide in Q2. It will fluctuate sort of in that high 20s zone. Is it possible it could dip over 30% in quarter? It's possible, but I just sort of think in the high 20s is probably the right way to sort of think about it. There's an upside benefit. Maybe a benefit of seasonality is another dynamic in the advertising environment that appears in a given quarter. I wouldn't necessarily say it's a seasonality dynamic on VMM as much as just a reflection of what's going on in the broader advertising environment at a given time.

我認為，總體而言，我認為 VMM 今年的成長速度將達到 20 多%。第一季這一比例為 28%。該指南暗示第二季度的成長略高於 29%。它將在 20 多度的區域內波動。本季有可能下降 30% 以上嗎？這是有可能的，但我認為 20 多歲可能是正確的思考方式。這有一個好處。季節性的好處可能是在特定季度出現的廣告環境中的另一種動態。我不會說它是 VMM 上的季節性動態，而只是反映了特定時間內更廣泛的廣告環境中發生的事情。

Got it. Makes sense. Well, thank you, guys.

知道了。有道理。好吧，謝謝大家。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, Mitch.

謝謝，米奇。

There are no further questions at this time. And with that, I will now turn the call back over to the management for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

目前沒有其他問題。現在，我將把電話轉回給管理階層，請他們作最後發言。請繼續。

Thank you. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We continue to be energized by the progress that we're making here at the new EverQuote, so to speak. We are intensely focused on using data, technology, and AI to help P&C customers grow, and the strategy is bearing fruit. The team's continued execution allowed us to deliver a fourth consecutive quarter of record performance across all three of our key financial metrics.

謝謝。好吧，感謝大家今天加入我們。可以這麼說，新 EverQuote 所取得的進步讓我們繼續充滿活力。我們專注於利用數據、技術和人工智慧來幫助財產和意外險客戶發展，而這項策略正在取得成果。團隊的持續執行使我們連續第四個季度在所有三個關鍵財務指標上都創下了創紀錄的業績。

And the flywheel that I described is turning. As we grow, we're collecting more data. As we apply that data to benefit customer performance, we get more budget and pricing power. And this helps us grow more and around it goes. So right now, as carrier profitability remains healthy, we have a really good backdrop for continued progress this year, and we're looking forward to sharing progress again next quarter. Thank you all.

我所描述的飛輪正在轉動。隨著我們的成長，我們正在收集更多的數據。當我們應用這些數據來提高客戶績效時，我們獲得了更多的預算和定價權力。這有助於我們進一步成長。因此，目前，由於營運商的獲利能力仍然健康，我們為今年的持續進步奠定了良好的基礎，我們期待下個季度再次分享進展。謝謝大家。

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call. We thank you for participating.

女士們、先生們，你們的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。