Insurance search drives Google Advertising Revenue

What are the most searched terms on Google – and more importantly – which search terms provides the greatest revenue for search engines?  The answer to this comes as no surprise – Insurance!!

I have come across an interesting story with the subtitle  “Where is Google making its money?”. This is the best confirmation of of how extremely competitive internet marketing has become for insurance companies. Insurers are willing to pay a very expensive premium to find business leads and the potential to conclude insurance contracts with our online community!

On the Car Insurance Blog we have discussed this battle for keywords in a post titled “Is the bidding war on trademarks and car insurance keywords about to erupt?”

In this post we also provided some insights as to why these insurance keywords are so expensive. We would like to quote:

“How much does it cost for insurance companies to gain the top search results? [Paid search]

This exact question was asked and the answer provided in a Google search result. I would like to share a brief and simple version of the answer:

“There is not a specific amount that you can pay to gain the top spot or a specific way to ensure a particular spot.

It isn’t a simple auction. The auction is closest to a CPM (cost per thousand) auction. Imagine that each advert has a specific click through rate. Each advertiser pays so that the CTR times the Average Cost Per Click generates the CPM. Google ranks the adverts with the highest CPM at the top.

What you will end up paying also depends largely on the industry and what you are advertising – and how competitive that market is.

If you are in very competitive market such as “mortgages” or “car insurance” you are likely to have many, many competitors, nearly all of whom will want to be on the first page, if not in the top spot. In this scenario, you are almost certain to have a much higher CPC (Cost Per Click) in order to be competitive in the ‘auction’.”

Conclusion and Advice

The battle for insurance advertising is not expected to reduce in intensity. In the insurance industry we find new players and products daily. As more people transact via the internet, insurers will become even more focused on making their products “find -able” or “search-able”.

For insurers to survive in this highly competitive industry it is not important just to play the game – They need to win!!

Also view:

Searched keywords about car insurance in South Africa

Finding the very best car insurance quotes with caution