Paid Search for insurance, or sometimes referred to as online insurance advertising, has had a somewhat bad reputation over the years, one of being ineffective and expensive. If you’ve tried this on your own, you can probably attest to this. While that reputation is somewhat accurate, paid search, or online insurance advertising does have a place in many agencies’ online marketing strategies. The trick to effective paid search is setting realistic expectations and knowing what you’re doing.
Google Adwords
For many, Paid Search means Google Adwords. While Google Adwords is one form of online insurance advertising, it’s not the only one. Google Adwords is a somewhat complex auction method in which you bid for your ad to show up along side, or atop Google Search results. Because insurance is an expensive word to bid on, it’s something we suggest most agents avoid. In case you’re curious, in 2013, insurance related words accounted for 24% of all ads, costing up to more than $50 per click (with no guarantee of even an opportunity to quote).
Social Advertising
Paid search also includes options like Facebook advertising, which can be a great way to target the exact individuals you want with a very specific ad designed just for them, and at an affordable cost.
Would you like to target a personal lines ad to married women in a certain zip code between the ages of 30 and 50 with a household income above $100,000? – Done!
How about an ad targeting Commercial business to business owners in the field of manufacturing with annual revenues between 10-million and 100-million? – Done!
With targeted ads, it’s never been easier to get your brand in front of the right people and at a fraction of the cost of what you might think.
Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn offers advertising options to where you can target market people in certain industries, with certain titles or job descriptions, even people that work at certain companies.
Display Ads and Retargeting
Display Ads and Retargeting is yet another option that can help your insurance agency effectively and affordably advertise online. Retargeting is targeting people that have visited your website at some point in the past. Have you ever notice how when you’ve visited a certain site only to start seeing an ad for their site start to pop-up everywhere you go? Well that’s Display ad retargeting. The idea behind it is that someone has shown an interest in your business in the past and that it’s going to take a few more brand impressions to make them comfortable with moving forward and eventually returning to your website.
As you can see, there are a lot of options available to agencies that are interested in online insurance advertising. Contact Insurance Marketing Partners if you’re interested in learning more about how this can help your insurance agency.
