SEO VS. PPC: WHICH PROVIDES BETTER VALUE INSURANCE

LEADS?

When marketing for your brokerage, you may have fallen into a common trap while trying to get your treasured insurance leads – the use of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

It’s also one of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make!

When you do the math, you’ll see that the PPC route simply doesn’t make financial sense. This is because for the insurance industry, the PPC rates for search terms are pricey, yet your conversion rate isn’t likely to make up for the high cost.

You can go ahead, pay a premium for each click, enjoy a high

number of leads through Adwords, and think your digital

marketing job is done. Until you realise your brokerage isn’t

growing like you expected – and you’ve spent hundreds, or

thousands on PPC advertising.

Why PPC Will Ruin Your Online Marketing

Take a closer look so you understand the financial black hole you may be putting your brokerage into with PPC.

For typical search terms, Google Adwords charges the following for each click:

● Insurance business liability - $45.07● Independent insurance brokers - $25.02● Quote for business insurance - $27.59● Best insurance rates - $40.98

Take a closer look so you understand the financial black hole you may be putting

your brokerage into with PPC.

For typical search terms, Google Adwords charges the following for each click:

● Insurance business liability - $45.07● Independent insurance brokers - $25.02● Quote for business insurance - $27.59● Best insurance rates - $40.98

Now, for the stark reality. These numbers are for clicks. They

don’t necessarily translate into sales. If you were lucky – and

happen to have a fantastic landing page on your insurance website

– you may be very lucky to generate 1 lead for every 10 website

visitors.

This would be a 10% conversion rate, which is higher than 99% of

insurance websites on the web!

This means at best you would end up paying the following – for every quote!

● $450.70 for every “insurance liability” quote● $250.02 for every “independent insurance brokers” insurance quote● $275.90 for every “quote for business insurance” quote● $409.80 for every “best insurance rates” quote

When you look at these numbers, PPC doesn’t make as much sense. In fact, it could be draining your marketing budget without helping your bottom line.

The Argument for SEO

Using white hat search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques to rank

high on search engines organically, drive traffic to your site, and

generate leads is going to bring you a better ROI than PPC. This is

because your leads are more likely to click on your organic results

over your paid results – 8.5 times more likely.

The Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organisation estimates

that of all search engine dollars spent, 87% goes towards PPC. Only

11% is spent on SEO.

With an informative blog with regular posts, you can build up a

reputation as being a source

of expert tips, info, and

news, helping potential

customers find answers to

all their insurance-related

questions and making a

visit to your site a

worthwhile experience.

This type of brand recognition can not only generate leads, but it can also help to sustain your brokerage's marketing over the long-term. While you will have to put the work in upfront and always continue to maintain your website for search engines,

SEO is an effective long-term approach for digital marketing success.

Your PPC campaigns only last while you pay for them, and then they are gone for good. They do nothing for building your brokerage’s reputation.

Why Use PPC?

Why do marketers invest so many dollars into PPC in the first place if SEO is so

much more valuable?

Because PPC delivers faster results. It will take time to improve

your page ranking and get your brokerage’s site on the coveted

page one of Google. It will also take a lot of work to maintain your

high page ranking. With Google Adwords, your website can be on the

first page right away, putting your business in front of prospective

leads.

PPC can be great for giving your brokerage a quick business boost and is very useful for a business just starting out or if you need to generate

Leads while you are building your SEO. Just keep in mind that using PPC as part of your insurance marketing strategy can be expensive. Make sure your website is optimised and well-set up to help generate leads so when searchers do click on your site, they will be more likely to request a quote.

Is SEO Alone Enough?

You may wonder if just using SEO will be enough to attract

high-quality leads. Nectafy did an experiment on much a pure

inbound marketing strategy can have. From November 2013, to

almost three years later, their traffic grew 3,590%. They went

from having 440 organic visits each month to 16,600!

However, this example is a strong

argument for an SEO only

approach – especially when you

consider that once that organic

momentum has built up, your

return on investment for every

piece of content you publish goes

up dramatically.

When your content that was published three years ago is putting your website on the first page of search results, you may be getting dozens, if not hundreds of free clicks every day. Compare this to the $45.07 you have to pay for every PPC click for 'insurance business liability’.

While you are working on your SEO and establishing your brokerage as an industry authority, PPC is certainly an option to help encourage insurance sales leads. Once you notice how much your pay-per-click advertising costs, you may decide to replace all your PPC with organic search.

Here is a simple game plan for transitioning:

● Optimise your PPC keywords, only using the ones that are bringing in new leads and eliminating those that aren’t working.

● Use the same keywords for both your PPC and content marketing efforts.

● Make a solid effort with your SEO, publishing a long-form article for each keyword.

● As soon as your content ranks, you can stop paying for PPC. You will have started to bring in organic traffic through your SEO.

Driving organic traffic to your site through SEO isn’t easy. It won’t happen fast, and you won’t notice results in a few days, or even in a few weeks.

However, organic search is the only sustainable digital marketing approach for

insurance websites.

With your value-driven content, along with social media marketing and other inbound marketing techniques, you’ll have established a strong presence on the web and will be able to enjoy high quality leads for years to come, thanks to the article you publish today.

Ready to take your organic marketing to the next level and help your brokerage

generate quality leads?

Download our free guide, “Insurance Brokers Guide to Website

Enhancement and Serious Lead Generation.”