Avoid Vimo

[dmiller90]

We discussed this before but something's up with Google. TX - Joe, will also confirm this.

I had been running PPC for some time now, same keywords, almost the same cost-per-click. I actually have a few campaigns running.

One day I wake up, log in and all of my keywords that had anything to do with shopping for health insurance tripled - I had "warning, you current bid price is too low...."

This was literally overnight out of nowhere and has not changed. The exact same keywords that were costing me $4 to $6 per click now are over $18 to $22 per click. Other agent friends of mine sent me snapshot of their accounts showing $40 per click.

Sorry...something is up with Google's PPC and no one here will possibly know the real story....unless you're a Google exec.

Welcome to the Holiday Season!!! Happening across the Board, Yahoo has increased each bid cost to 25%.

Answer: Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing. Quality Traffic, Quality Leads. Too many people avoid this Gold Mine, feel its too difficult or complicated or too Cheap!!

Change is on the Way, More business owners are learning that SEO is now the priority for their individual websites to gain new customers and leads with consistent results and lowest Marketing cost.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Also, Google's real revenue comes from heavy hitters without our tiny "$50 per day" caps.

My theory is they are giving huge breaks to the bigger players who not only are content rich but also have deep pockets.

I think Google is over dealing with the smaller fish.

And you're dead on - I'm looking to pay someone for SEO but I'm deaf, dumb and blind.

 

[dmiller90]

Also, Google's real revenue comes from heavy hitters without our tiny "$50 per day" caps.

My theory is they are giving huge breaks to the bigger players who not only are content rich but also have deep pockets.

I think Google is over dealing with the smaller fish.

And you're dead on - I'm looking to pay someone for SEO but I'm deaf, dumb and blind.

Health Insurance is one of the Most Competitive and one of the highest bidding markets swith Google and will only get worse.

As you are correct, Too Many Big Players in this Market.

You should not have much competition in your State in obtaining quality results with proper SEO

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

...and it's more important than ever when you get a lead on the phone to ask them how they went about requesting a quote. Some of the affiliates in this environment get down and dirty.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I wonder how Priceline, Orbitz or Travelocity would be doing if people got pummeled with 8 travel agents calling.

 

[Frank Stastny]

Hey Bob, let's see:

Three sales, little to no work = about $350 total premium
One sale, much more time consuming = $350 total premium

I'll take both, just like you did, it all earns commission, it's all good!

And you're right Bob, why people turn down business is beyond me.

Spot on!

Looking back, the only piece of really good advice I received when I started selling insurance was from a very successful guy who had been in this business for a long time.

He said there was only one thing I needed to know about selling insurance, "Write Apps. It doesn't matter if it is a $15 per month final expense app or a $1,300 per month LTCi app. Writing apps is what brings in the money."

I have always done that and it has paid off big time for me. I never think in terms of how much commission I am going to make. My ROI is extremely high because I don't purchase leads and do my own telemarketing.

Working only in the senior market probably makes that a lot easier for me than it is for you guys who sell health insurance to people under age 65.

When I hear a Med Supp company has an increase I simply contact everyone in my prospects database who told me they have that company with I initially called them. When "their company has an increase I can usually save them money and more often than not it results in a new person in my clients database.

I love this business.

 

[dmiller90]

My personal feeling on this is that google is moving away from it's traditional strong support of lead generation in certain sectors, because the users are very dissatisfied with the results. This is true both for sem and seo. Google's long term goal always has to be to keep the searchers happy, and that stands for both organic and paid listings.

Google is very good at detecting a lead harvesting form, and will treat it as such for both seo and sem purposes. Quality score for sites that do not keep visitors long enough and have high bounce rates will continue to fall and the associated costs will continue to rise.

Google is finally incorporating "Universal Search" for ranking results in 2009. Look at the result pages for any search term, and you will notice the arrow and the box with X. This eventually will be the deciding factor for ranking in the future, the days of having the most links are over, Links will still be a factor, Google is increasing its variables to 200 beginning in 2009 for Page Rank---Video will be huge in 2009 as far as ranking.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Sam is dead on - the affiliates who used to have a cash cow by "fooling" people into clicking their links have found their ads all but gone.

High bounce rate = you're done - period. Google, as Sam stated, is becoming more concerned with the user's experience and a bit less concerned with pocketing some quick cash while the user has a poor experience.

This is where agents who live and die on internet leads are going to have a very interesting time in the upcoming years. Diversity and learn to market for your client clients or this is going to get very expensive.

 

[dmiller90]

Sam is dead on - the affiliates who used to have a cash cow by "fooling" people into clicking their links have found their ads all but gone.

High bounce rate = you're done - period. Google, as Sam stated, is becoming more concerned with the user's experience and a bit less concerned with pocketing some quick cash while the user has a poor experience.

This is where agents who live and die on internet leads are going to have a very interesting time in the upcoming years. Diversity and learn to market for your client clients or this is going to get very expensive.

Google has always been concerned with User Experience, just making a difference in ranking now. Like I said before users in the future will be able to adjust their search results they receive, to thier preference and this will be part of the scheme in Google for ranking.

I can only imagine the bounce rate on about 99% Insurance Agents websites, Independent Insurance Agents websites are some of the worse converting sites in the Market.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

In an effort to improve my site's bounce rates it's being redesigned.

One side of the page is going to have my click to call number for people want to speak with an agent. The other part is going to have where they can submit for quotes and no agent will contact them...obviously including me with the exception of one email - but no calls.

I'm going to follow the Ehealth model a bit more and not ask for personal info - want a quote? zip, age, weight, smoker. That's it.

I'm actually trying to position my website which I think can be done with some effort.