MediaAlpha, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I would like to welcome everyone to the Media Alpha fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press the star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press the star followed by the one once again. Thank you. I will now hand the call over to Denise Garcia, Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Thank you, Bhavesh. After the market closed today, Media Alpha issued a press release and shareholder letter announcing results for the fourth quarter ended December 31st, 2023. These documents are available in the investor section of our website, and we will be referring to them on this call. Our discussion today will include forward-looking statements about our business and our outlook for future financial results, including our financial guidance for the first quarter of 2024, which are based on assumptions, forecasts, expectations, and information currently available to management. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future results or events to differ materially from those reflected in those statements. Please refer to the company's SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for a fuller explanation of those risks and uncertainties and the limits applicable to forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as of today February 20, 2024, and the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update them. In addition, on today's call, we will be referring to certain actual and projected financial metrics of MediaAlpha that are presented on a non-GAAP basis, including adjusted EBITDA and contribution, which we present in order to supplement your understanding and assessment of our financial performance. Non-GAAP measures should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our press release and shareholder letter issued today. Finally, I'd like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and will be made available for replay via a link on the investor section of the company's website at investors.medialpha.com. Now I'll turn the call over to Steve and Pat for a few introductory remarks before opening the call to your questions.

Thanks, Denise. Hi, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. I'd like to make a few observations before turning the call over to our CFO, Pat Thompson, for his comments. After a difficult up and down year, we ended 2023 on a solidly positive note. Our fourth quarter results exceeded the high end of our guidance ranges across the board, driven by stronger than expected growth in our P&C insurance vertical. For the past several years, lingering pandemic-related inflationary pressures created the most difficult auto insurance market in decades. Going into 2024, we're now confident that a sustainable industry recovery is finally underway. During December, we saw a major carrier make meaningful increases in their marketing investments, and this positive trend has accelerated into the new year. Accordingly, we expect first quarter P&C transaction value to nearly double quarter over quarter, far surpassing typical seasonality. And we expect continued growth over the course of 2024 as more of our auto insurance carrier partners achieve target profitability and retrain their focus on customer acquisition. Q4 results in our health insurance vertical were in line with expectations. driven by continued strength in our under 65 business, which was offset by weakness in Medicare, as our partners face headwinds in adapting to recent regulatory changes, as well as medical cost inflationary pressures. We expect these broad trends in under 65 and Medicare to continue in the first quarter. Looking forward, we're optimistic that 2024 is the beginning of great things to come. Our unwavering focus on our partnerships and maximizing operating efficiency during what proved to be an exceptionally difficult market downturn, have laid the foundation for what we believe will be a period of significant top and bottom line growth. With that, I'll turn the call over to Pat.