Insurance Industry Brings in 24% of All Google Adword CPC Revenue

[BlockO]

Study: Insurance, Loan-Related Keywords Are Google's Cash Cows

I'm not a bit surprised at how competitive the insurance industry is. But I am surprised that the insurance market makes up almost a quarter of google's CPC revenue.

 

[Aaron_4SIGHT]

Re: Insurance Industry Brings in 24% of All Google Adword CPC Rev

It's mostly auto, driven largely by Geico and Progressive. They've disrupted the industry by selling direct based on price, and advertising heavily to drive traffic to their websites. It's killing Allstate. Here's an interesting read about it:

Allstate misses the turn as rivals reinvent auto insurance | In Other News | Crain's Chicago Business

From the article:

When Allstate launched an online sales operation in 2000 under Mr. Liddy, it didn't undercut its agents on price, fearing a backlash from the 15,000-plus salesforce.

"To me, that was the fatal flaw from the get-go," says Jeffrey Lewis, an Allstate vice-president from 1999 to 2004, who helped launch the effort. Mr. Lewis, now retired, says the customer "expectation was, 'If I did all the work myself, I was going to get a better price.' "

Geico and Mayfield Village, Ohio-based Progressive were happy to meet that expectation. During the ensuing 11 years, Allstate's annual online sales reached $700 million, while Geico's surged by $10 billion.

Remember that when a carrier runs a nationwide PPC campaign, they end up making lots of mistakes that drive their costs up. It's hard to make the numbers work, but there are still opportunities.

Aaron