Industry Guide · 16 chapters · first chapter coming soon
Google Ads for Insurance Agencies: A Car Insurance Click Can Cost $150. Make Sure It Buys a Policy.
An insurance agency bids against carriers with national budgets, lead sellers that can pass one shopper to several agents, and comparison sites advertising car insurance at $29 a month. One agency may sell auto, home, life, commercial and Medicare coverage, each with its own buyers, prices and rules. These sixteen chapters build a Google Ads account in the order we build them, using real searches, websites, ads and customer reviews from one example market, the Cleveland-Akron area. Your numbers will differ. The method works for independent and captive agencies anywhere in the US.
Auto, Home, Medicare and Business Policies Sell to Different People. Build the Account Around That.
New account? Chapter 1 comes first. Each chapter uses the setup from the ones before it.
Measure
Count every call and quote request, then send back the policies you bound and what they pay
Send Back the Bound Policy
Questions vs Quote Shoppers
The Bundle Math
Build
One ad group per line of coverage, bids set by hand, and ads written from what customers praise
One Page per Line
Carrier Names Out
The New-Driver Long Tail
Home vs Renters Bids
Ads That Sell the Shopping
Launch
The Google defaults to change, and the states your license covers, before the first click
Ads Inside Your License
Scale
Wider campaigns once Search shows which policies sell
Performance Max Without a Client List
The Home Buyer Audience
Local Services Ads in Two States
AI Max and Medicare's "Free" Rule
Insurance
Bonus chapters: Medicare ads, captive agents and commercial lines
Bonus: Medicare Ads
Bonus: Captive Agents
Bonus: Commercial Lines
The Rollout, Month by Month
The order matters as much as the campaigns. Each step waits until the one before it has taught Google something.
Isolation and brand
Exact match on the quote and agent searches you know turn into policies, plus your agency name in a campaign of its own.
Exploration
Broad match with a target CPA once the account logs about 30 quality conversions a month. Busier accounts get there sooner.
Performance Max
The usual pace, not the rule. It waits for about 30 quality conversions a month, held steady.
Demand Gen, Local Services Ads and AI Max
Video for people about to buy a home, Local Services Ads tested in the two states that offer them to agencies, and AI Max last, with Medicare wording fenced in.
How to Use This Guide
Starting a new account?
Read in order. Sending the bound policy back to Google comes before the first keyword.
Chapter 01 →Captive agent?
Read the captive agent chapter first. Your carrier's rules come before any Google setting.
Chapter 15 →One example market
Examples come from insurance agencies around Cleveland, Akron and Canton, described as we found them. Your numbers will differ; the method is the same.
Chapter 05 →Google Ads for Insurance Agencies
Carriers Can Outbid You on Every Search. Customers Still Review the Agent, Not the Carrier.
We've run paid ads for 25+ years and seen just about every way a budget goes sideways. Get on the phone with someone who does this every day. Bring your questions, your numbers and your skepticism. You'll hang up knowing what we'd do, whether you hire us or not.
Or see how our Google Ads management works.