SEM (or Pay-Per-Click) is a valuable source of keyword-specific traffic to your site. Whether you are an agency with a new insurance website looking to jump-start search traffic, an existing agency that has seen SEO traffic level off due to seasonality, or are simply looking to increase awareness in your brand, SEM is another valuable tool in your digital marketing toolbox.

Using the right keywords in your SEM strategy is critical to getting in front of the search engine users who are looking to purchase insurance. How can you be sure that you are using the right terms? It’s simple – create a keyword list that targets customers in all phases of the purchasing consideration process.

A good SEM strategy can’t rely solely on the broad terms usually associated with an insurance marketing campaign. SEM keywords like “car insurance,” “auto insurance” and “home insurance” are amongst the most competitive (and therefore expensive) terms in all of paid search marketing. With a limited SEM budget, a few clicks on these terms can (and will) exhaust your desired daily spend fairly quickly. They are expensive because they are the terms that are being searched most heavily on Google. They are also, however, keywords that fall at the top of the purchasing funnel – indicating that their interest is more closely related to “awareness” rather than “action.”

In search marketing, as you get further down the purchasing funnel, the more valuable the customer is. Someone searching on a very broad term like “insurance” (awareness) is much less likely to purchase insurance than someone using the keyword “get Florida auto insurance” (action). A good SEM strategy will utilize a mix of keywords that fall in all phases of the purchasing decision funnel.

The result is a campaign comprised of keywords that will:

• Drive search traffic (awareness)
• Target specific consumer buying behavior (interest/desire)
• Appeal to search engine users who indicate that they are ready to purchase (action)

Can you think of some action-based SEM keywords that would attract customers, not just visitors, to your site?