Insurance PPC has traditionally been heavily centred around Search, and understandably so. Search has always been one of the most powerful advertising channels available to insurers.
Someone searches for car insurance, home insurance, business insurance or learner driver insurance and they’ve told us exactly what they’re interested in. We can put an appropriate message in front of them at almost exactly the moment they’re considering buying.
There’s a reason insurers spend so much money on paid Search, but there’s also a reason it can be so expensive. By the time someone searches for an insurance product, they’ve effectively announced their intent to every insurer, broker, aggregator and lead generator competing in that auction.
If Search is working profitably and there’s more profitable demand available, I’m certainly not suggesting we stop capturing it. But what happens when the next customer becomes increasingly expensive to acquire?
We can optimise bids, refine search terms, build better landing pages, improve conversion rates, strengthen our conversion data and work on Quality Score. They’re all things I’d recommend looking at. But there’s another question worth asking:
What if we could reach some of those customers before they started searching for insurance?
Someone searches for car insurance, home insurance, business insurance or learner driver insurance and they’ve told us exactly what they’re interested in. We can put an appropriate message in front of them at almost exactly the moment they’re considering buying.
There’s a reason insurers spend so much money on paid Search, but there’s also a reason it can be so expensive. By the time someone searches for an insurance product, they’ve effectively announced their intent to every insurer, broker, aggregator and lead generator competing in that auction.
If Search is working profitably and there’s more profitable demand available, I’m certainly not suggesting we stop capturing it. But what happens when the next customer becomes increasingly expensive to acquire?
We can optimise bids, refine search terms, build better landing pages, improve conversion rates, strengthen our conversion data and work on Quality Score. They’re all things I’d recommend looking at. But there’s another question worth asking:
What if we could reach some of those customers before they started searching for insurance?
Search Captures Demand. It Doesn’t Have To Be Where The Journey Starts.
One of the mistakes I see in paid media is expecting every channel to perform the same job. Search is exceptionally good at capturing expressed intent, which is one of the reasons it plays such an important role in insurance PPC. YouTube and Demand Gen give us something different. They can put us in front of relevant audiences before that intent has fully developed.
That doesn’t make one better than another. It means they have different jobs.
For an insurer, that’s particularly interesting because the need for insurance is very often triggered by something else happening in someone’s life:
That doesn’t make one better than another. It means they have different jobs.
For an insurer, that’s particularly interesting because the need for insurance is very often triggered by something else happening in someone’s life:
The insurance search can therefore be relatively late in the journey. So rather than only asking, “What are people searching when they need our insurance?”, we can also ask, “What are people doing before they need our insurance?”
That’s where things get interesting.
That’s where things get interesting.
Find The Signals Before The Insurance Search
Google’s audience capabilities allow us to think beyond somebody explicitly searching for the insurance product we’re selling. Custom segments, for example, can use search behaviour, relevant URLs and apps as signals to help identify potentially relevant audiences.
There is an important distinction here. Adding a URL or app doesn’t necessarily mean targeting people who have visited that exact website or used that exact app. Google can use those inputs to identify people who browse similar websites or use similar apps. Search terms can also be used to reach people who have searched for those or similar terms on Google properties.
That creates some interesting possibilities.
Take a learner driver. They might be searching for driving lessons, provisional licences, theory tests, driving-test waiting times or suitable first cars. We could also use relevant driving-school and learner-driver websites as audience signals, alongside theory-test and learner-driver apps.
We haven’t waited for somebody to search for “learner driver insurance quote”. We’ve identified signals suggesting that an insurance requirement may be coming.
But that doesn’t mean the next thing they should see is “GET A LEARNER DRIVER INSURANCE QUOTE TODAY.” They’re probably not there yet.
Instead, imagine an advert saying “Learning to drive? See what getting on the road could really cost.”
It could lead to a useful calculator covering driving lessons, tests, buying a first car, tax, fuel, servicing and insurance. Insurance is part of the conversation, but it isn’t necessarily the opening sales pitch. When they’re ready, getting an insurance quote becomes a logical next step.
Reaching someone earlier doesn’t mean asking them to buy earlier.
There is an important distinction here. Adding a URL or app doesn’t necessarily mean targeting people who have visited that exact website or used that exact app. Google can use those inputs to identify people who browse similar websites or use similar apps. Search terms can also be used to reach people who have searched for those or similar terms on Google properties.
That creates some interesting possibilities.
Take a learner driver. They might be searching for driving lessons, provisional licences, theory tests, driving-test waiting times or suitable first cars. We could also use relevant driving-school and learner-driver websites as audience signals, alongside theory-test and learner-driver apps.
We haven’t waited for somebody to search for “learner driver insurance quote”. We’ve identified signals suggesting that an insurance requirement may be coming.
But that doesn’t mean the next thing they should see is “GET A LEARNER DRIVER INSURANCE QUOTE TODAY.” They’re probably not there yet.
Instead, imagine an advert saying “Learning to drive? See what getting on the road could really cost.”
It could lead to a useful calculator covering driving lessons, tests, buying a first car, tax, fuel, servicing and insurance. Insurance is part of the conversation, but it isn’t necessarily the opening sales pitch. When they’re ready, getting an insurance quote becomes a logical next step.
Reaching someone earlier doesn’t mean asking them to buy earlier.
The Same Principle Works Across Insurance
Think about someone buying their first home. Their behaviour might involve mortgage calculators, searches around deposits and stamp duty, property portals and first-time buyer content long before they search for home insurance. Property websites such as Rightmove or Zoopla could also provide useful URL signals when building relevant custom segments.
Rather than advertising home insurance immediately, perhaps we offer “Buying a home? Calculate the costs beyond your deposit.” That could cover mortgage fees, surveys, conveyancing, stamp duty, moving costs and buildings and contents insurance.
Or consider someone becoming self-employed. They might be researching how to register a company, the differences between becoming a sole trader and setting up a limited company, renting commercial premises or employing their first member of staff. Relevant business startup, accounting and government resources could provide further audience signals.
Instead of immediately selling public liability or other business insurance, perhaps the proposition is “Starting a business? 10 things to have in place before you start trading.” Insurance becomes one useful part of something they already care about.
The same idea applies to someone researching van finance or buying their first work van. Searches around van finance, used vans, the best vans for particular trades or the costs of becoming self-employed could all provide useful signals. Relevant van marketplaces and trade websites could potentially add another layer.
Rather than immediately advertising van insurance, perhaps we offer “Buying your first work van? Calculate the true monthly cost.” Finance, fuel, maintenance, tax, depreciation and insurance can all form part of the calculation.
The principle is the same in each case: the best audience for an insurance product may not yet be looking for insurance.
Rather than advertising home insurance immediately, perhaps we offer “Buying a home? Calculate the costs beyond your deposit.” That could cover mortgage fees, surveys, conveyancing, stamp duty, moving costs and buildings and contents insurance.
Or consider someone becoming self-employed. They might be researching how to register a company, the differences between becoming a sole trader and setting up a limited company, renting commercial premises or employing their first member of staff. Relevant business startup, accounting and government resources could provide further audience signals.
Instead of immediately selling public liability or other business insurance, perhaps the proposition is “Starting a business? 10 things to have in place before you start trading.” Insurance becomes one useful part of something they already care about.
The same idea applies to someone researching van finance or buying their first work van. Searches around van finance, used vans, the best vans for particular trades or the costs of becoming self-employed could all provide useful signals. Relevant van marketplaces and trade websites could potentially add another layer.
Rather than immediately advertising van insurance, perhaps we offer “Buying your first work van? Calculate the true monthly cost.” Finance, fuel, maintenance, tax, depreciation and insurance can all form part of the calculation.
The principle is the same in each case: the best audience for an insurance product may not yet be looking for insurance.
What If They Search For You Instead?
This is where the economics of insurance PPC become particularly interesting.
Suppose we wait until someone searches for “learner driver insurance”. We’re now competing with every insurer, broker, aggregator and lead generator interested in that customer.
But imagine that several weeks earlier they watched one of our videos, used our first-driver cost calculator or downloaded our first-car checklist. Perhaps they’ve subsequently encountered the brand again through another campaign or piece of content.
When their insurance requirement becomes immediate, there’s at least the possibility that their behaviour changes.
Perhaps they don’t search for “learner driver insurance” at all. Perhaps they search for the brand they already know. Or perhaps they still make the generic search but recognise that brand amongst the results.
Either way, we’re no longer necessarily introducing ourselves for the first time at one of the most competitive points in the customer journey.
This doesn’t mean every YouTube impression magically turns into a future branded search. But Google provides measurement such as Search Lift specifically to help advertisers understand whether people exposed to YouTube, Demand Gen or TV advertising subsequently become more likely to search for their brand or product on Google Search and YouTube.
That’s a much more interesting way of thinking about upper-funnel advertising than simply looking for cheap impressions. We’re not just asking what the impression cost. We’re asking whether reaching someone earlier influenced what they did later.
Search captures intent. Great upper-funnel advertising can help shape where that intent goes next.
Suppose we wait until someone searches for “learner driver insurance”. We’re now competing with every insurer, broker, aggregator and lead generator interested in that customer.
But imagine that several weeks earlier they watched one of our videos, used our first-driver cost calculator or downloaded our first-car checklist. Perhaps they’ve subsequently encountered the brand again through another campaign or piece of content.
When their insurance requirement becomes immediate, there’s at least the possibility that their behaviour changes.
Perhaps they don’t search for “learner driver insurance” at all. Perhaps they search for the brand they already know. Or perhaps they still make the generic search but recognise that brand amongst the results.
Either way, we’re no longer necessarily introducing ourselves for the first time at one of the most competitive points in the customer journey.
This doesn’t mean every YouTube impression magically turns into a future branded search. But Google provides measurement such as Search Lift specifically to help advertisers understand whether people exposed to YouTube, Demand Gen or TV advertising subsequently become more likely to search for their brand or product on Google Search and YouTube.
That’s a much more interesting way of thinking about upper-funnel advertising than simply looking for cheap impressions. We’re not just asking what the impression cost. We’re asking whether reaching someone earlier influenced what they did later.
Search captures intent. Great upper-funnel advertising can help shape where that intent goes next.
Don’t Just Rent The Audience, Build One.
There’s another opportunity here too. Earlier-stage advertising doesn’t have to result in either an immediate quote or nothing. If we’ve created something genuinely useful, we can potentially give someone a reason to identify themselves.
– A learner driver could ask us to email their cost calculation or first-car checklist.
– A home buyer could save their home-buying cost calculation or receive a moving checklist.
– A new business owner could download a startup checklist, while a tradesperson could email themselves their work-van cost calculation.
With the appropriate consent and privacy arrangements, that can begin to create a first-party relationship rather than leaving every interaction anonymous.
Instead of:
Ad → quote or nothing
we can potentially create:
Ad → useful content → website audience → signup → continued communication → insurance consideration → quote → policy
That has value beyond the initial advertising interaction. Someone who has given the appropriate permission can potentially be communicated with directly as their requirement develops, while website behaviour can help us build audiences that can be reached again through paid content distribution and amplification.
First-party data can also potentially support advertising through tools such as Customer Match, which allows advertisers to use customer data that has been shared with them to reach and re-engage audiences across Google.
The important point isn’t simply that we’ve collected an email address. We’ve potentially turned a paid-media interaction into a relationship that can continue beyond the original impression or click.
Now our upper-funnel investment isn’t simply buying impressions. We’re potentially building an audience we can communicate with as their requirement develops.
– A learner driver could ask us to email their cost calculation or first-car checklist.
– A home buyer could save their home-buying cost calculation or receive a moving checklist.
– A new business owner could download a startup checklist, while a tradesperson could email themselves their work-van cost calculation.
With the appropriate consent and privacy arrangements, that can begin to create a first-party relationship rather than leaving every interaction anonymous.
Instead of:
Ad → quote or nothing
we can potentially create:
Ad → useful content → website audience → signup → continued communication → insurance consideration → quote → policy
That has value beyond the initial advertising interaction. Someone who has given the appropriate permission can potentially be communicated with directly as their requirement develops, while website behaviour can help us build audiences that can be reached again through paid content distribution and amplification.
First-party data can also potentially support advertising through tools such as Customer Match, which allows advertisers to use customer data that has been shared with them to reach and re-engage audiences across Google.
The important point isn’t simply that we’ve collected an email address. We’ve potentially turned a paid-media interaction into a relationship that can continue beyond the original impression or click.
Now our upper-funnel investment isn’t simply buying impressions. We’re potentially building an audience we can communicate with as their requirement develops.
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Don’t Take A Search Message And Stick It On YouTube
Finding the right audience is only half of this. The creative has to make sense for the stage they’re at and the environment in which they’re seeing it.
– Someone searching Google has initiated the interaction. They’ve effectively said, “I’m interested in this.” Our advert can respond directly to that intent.
– Someone watching a video about something completely different hasn’t asked us anything. We’re interrupting them, so we need to earn their attention. Even within YouTube advertising, the viewing environments can be radically different.
– Someone scrolling through Shorts on their phone is not having the same experience as someone watching YouTube on a Smart TV. The creative shouldn’t pretend they are.
A vertical mobile video may need to establish the idea almost immediately. An in-feed video needs to earn someone’s decision to watch. Connected TV gives us a completely different creative canvas.
Same customer. Different screen. Different job.
Which brings me to something I think advertisers frequently underestimate.
– Someone searching Google has initiated the interaction. They’ve effectively said, “I’m interested in this.” Our advert can respond directly to that intent.
– Someone watching a video about something completely different hasn’t asked us anything. We’re interrupting them, so we need to earn their attention. Even within YouTube advertising, the viewing environments can be radically different.
– Someone scrolling through Shorts on their phone is not having the same experience as someone watching YouTube on a Smart TV. The creative shouldn’t pretend they are.
A vertical mobile video may need to establish the idea almost immediately. An in-feed video needs to earn someone’s decision to watch. Connected TV gives us a completely different creative canvas.
Same customer. Different screen. Different job.
Which brings me to something I think advertisers frequently underestimate.
A Television Isn’t A Giant Mobile Phone
Connected TV creates a significant opportunity for insurance PPC advertisers. Historically, getting your insurance brand onto the biggest screen in someone’s living room meant buying television advertising. YouTube gives advertisers another route onto that screen, with digital audience targeting and measurement sitting behind it.
Google Ads allows advertisers to target TV screens as a device category, including Smart TVs, gaming consoles and connected devices. For some advertisers, that potentially makes rich brand activity accessible at a very different cost to traditional television advertising.
But there’s a problem. Businesses can create media for the television and then judge it using metrics better suited to a mobile phone or computer.
Someone is sitting ten feet away from their Smart TV. They watch your advert but they don’t click. That shouldn’t be particularly surprising. Yet if we subsequently report that CTV CTR is poor, direct conversion rate is low and Search generates a much better CPA, we may conclude that the CTV activity isn’t working and move the money back into Search.
Every number in that report could be accurate, but the decision could still be wrong.
A television isn’t a giant mobile phone. So why would we measure advertising on it as though it were?
Google Ads allows advertisers to target TV screens as a device category, including Smart TVs, gaming consoles and connected devices. For some advertisers, that potentially makes rich brand activity accessible at a very different cost to traditional television advertising.
But there’s a problem. Businesses can create media for the television and then judge it using metrics better suited to a mobile phone or computer.
Someone is sitting ten feet away from their Smart TV. They watch your advert but they don’t click. That shouldn’t be particularly surprising. Yet if we subsequently report that CTV CTR is poor, direct conversion rate is low and Search generates a much better CPA, we may conclude that the CTV activity isn’t working and move the money back into Search.
Every number in that report could be accurate, but the decision could still be wrong.
A television isn’t a giant mobile phone. So why would we measure advertising on it as though it were?
The Wrong KPI Can Create The Wrong Insurance PPC Investment Decision
This principle extends beyond Connected TV. Before choosing a KPI, we need to understand what job we’re asking the media to perform.
If the purpose of a Search campaign is to capture existing demand and generate insurance quotes, cost per quote and ultimately cost per policy can be extremely useful measures. If the purpose of a YouTube campaign is to introduce an insurer to a relevant audience weeks or months before purchase, immediate CTR probably tells us considerably less.
Google gives us other ways of understanding what happens after video exposure. Engaged-view conversions can help us understand when someone watches an eligible video ad for a meaningful period and subsequently converts, while view-through conversions can identify conversions that occur after someone sees an advert without interacting with it.
For advertisers with sufficient scale and eligibility, Brand Lift can help measure changes in metrics such as awareness and consideration, while Search Lift can help answer whether people exposed to advertising subsequently become more likely to search for the brand or product.
Conversion Lift attempts to answer a different and arguably more important commercial question: did the advertising actually create additional conversions?
None of these metrics is perfect in isolation. That’s precisely the point. The further away we move from immediate response, the less sensible it becomes to judge everything using the same handful of direct-response metrics.
Decide what job you’re asking the media to do, then measure whether it did that job.
If the purpose of a Search campaign is to capture existing demand and generate insurance quotes, cost per quote and ultimately cost per policy can be extremely useful measures. If the purpose of a YouTube campaign is to introduce an insurer to a relevant audience weeks or months before purchase, immediate CTR probably tells us considerably less.
Google gives us other ways of understanding what happens after video exposure. Engaged-view conversions can help us understand when someone watches an eligible video ad for a meaningful period and subsequently converts, while view-through conversions can identify conversions that occur after someone sees an advert without interacting with it.
For advertisers with sufficient scale and eligibility, Brand Lift can help measure changes in metrics such as awareness and consideration, while Search Lift can help answer whether people exposed to advertising subsequently become more likely to search for the brand or product.
Conversion Lift attempts to answer a different and arguably more important commercial question: did the advertising actually create additional conversions?
None of these metrics is perfect in isolation. That’s precisely the point. The further away we move from immediate response, the less sensible it becomes to judge everything using the same handful of direct-response metrics.
Decide what job you’re asking the media to do, then measure whether it did that job.
Stop Asking Which Channel Got The Conversion
It’s tempting to think about channels independently. Search generated this many conversions, Demand Gen generated this many and YouTube generated this many. Therefore, we know which one worked but customer behaviour isn’t always that cooperative.
Imagine someone sees an insurance brand for the first time while watching YouTube on their television. A week later they encounter useful content from the same insurer on mobile. They visit the website and use a calculator. Later they search for the insurer, eventually request a quote and go on to buy a policy.
Depending on the attribution and measurement being used, Search may receive a significant amount of the conversion credit, Search absolutely played a role. But did Search create the customer?
Google’s data-driven attribution can consider interactions across multiple Google Ads touchpoints when determining how conversion credit should be distributed, but even better attribution doesn’t remove the need to understand the wider customer journey.
Perhaps a better question is: what combination of activity created the customer? That changes how we think about investment.
Imagine someone sees an insurance brand for the first time while watching YouTube on their television. A week later they encounter useful content from the same insurer on mobile. They visit the website and use a calculator. Later they search for the insurer, eventually request a quote and go on to buy a policy.
Depending on the attribution and measurement being used, Search may receive a significant amount of the conversion credit, Search absolutely played a role. But did Search create the customer?
Google’s data-driven attribution can consider interactions across multiple Google Ads touchpoints when determining how conversion credit should be distributed, but even better attribution doesn’t remove the need to understand the wider customer journey.
Perhaps a better question is: what combination of activity created the customer? That changes how we think about investment.
Higher Funnel Doesn’t Mean Vague Brand Awareness
This is probably the biggest misconception I’d challenge.
It’s easy to think of Search as the targeted, measurable performance channel, while YouTube sits at the other end of the spectrum as somewhere to run a brand video and hope people remember us. But upper-funnel advertising can be considerably more deliberate than that.
We can:
It’s easy to think of Search as the targeted, measurable performance channel, while YouTube sits at the other end of the spectrum as somewhere to run a brand video and hope people remember us. But upper-funnel advertising can be considerably more deliberate than that.
We can:
As we’ve already seen, we can use a much wider set of measurements to understand what happens afterwards.
Done properly, upper-funnel advertising can be every bit as strategic and accountable as Search. It’s simply doing a different job.
Done properly, upper-funnel advertising can be every bit as strategic and accountable as Search. It’s simply doing a different job.
So Where Should You Start?
I wouldn’t start by saying, “We need a YouTube campaign.” I’d start with the customer and work backwards from there.
Ask:
Ask:
Only then would I decide whether Search, YouTube, Demand Gen or some combination of them is the right way to reach that customer.
Don’t Abandon The Auction, Arrive Before It.
Search will continue to be one of the most valuable channels available to insurance marketers. Someone telling us exactly what they need is an opportunity we shouldn’t ignore. But everyone else can hear them too.
When the cost of competing for that demand keeps increasing, the next efficiency gain in insurance PPC might not come from another bid adjustment or another £10,000 added to the Search budget. It might come from understanding what happens before the search.
If we can reach the right people earlier, give them something genuinely useful, introduce our brand and remain relevant as their needs develop, perhaps when they’re finally ready to buy, we won’t have to fight quite so hard to introduce ourselves. They might already know who we are.
None of these automatically mean an agency will perform poorly. However, they should encourage further discussion before making a decision.
When the cost of competing for that demand keeps increasing, the next efficiency gain in insurance PPC might not come from another bid adjustment or another £10,000 added to the Search budget. It might come from understanding what happens before the search.
If we can reach the right people earlier, give them something genuinely useful, introduce our brand and remain relevant as their needs develop, perhaps when they’re finally ready to buy, we won’t have to fight quite so hard to introduce ourselves. They might already know who we are.
None of these automatically mean an agency will perform poorly. However, they should encourage further discussion before making a decision.
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