Insurance is one of the most competitive spaces in Google Ads, and a lot of agency budgets go to people who just wanted their carrier’s claims number.
TL;DR Split personal and commercial lines into separate campaigns. Build commercial campaigns around the industries you actually write. Block carrier login, billing and claims searches on day one. Track calls and quote forms, and send each click to a page that matches the search.
Old name, same problem
Plenty of agency owners still call it AdWords. Google renamed it years ago, but the problem with AdWords for insurance agencies has not changed: the clicks are competitive, and the account will happily spend money on searches that were never going to become a policy.
Structure fixes most of that. A clean account spends on people shopping for coverage, not people trying to pay a bill.
Split the account by line of business
Personal and commercial buyers search differently, decide differently and need different pages. Keep them apart.
| Campaign | Who is searching | Keyword themes | Landing page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal auto and home | Households shopping or switching | car insurance quote, home insurance agent near me, homeowners insurance quote | Personal lines page with a short quote form |
| Bundles and umbrella | People who already have coverage and want better | home and auto bundle, umbrella insurance agent | Bundle page that explains how an independent agent shops it, if you are independent |
| Commercial by industry | Business owners in a specific trade | contractor insurance, restaurant insurance, landscaping business insurance | Industry page written for that business |
| Commercial core coverages | Owners who know what they need | general liability insurance, workers comp insurance, commercial auto insurance | Coverage page with a call to talk to a commercial agent |
If you only write personal lines, skip the commercial campaigns. If commercial is where your agency makes its money, give it most of the budget and attention.
Commercial campaigns work best by industry
A commercial insurance Google Ads agency setup that works usually starts with industries, not coverage types. A roofer does not think in policy forms. They think “insurance for my roofing company.”
Pick the industries your agency already knows well and has carriers for. Build an ad group and a landing page for each one. The page should show you understand that business: the risks they worry about, the certificates their customers ask for, the questions they get from general contractors or landlords.
That specificity is what makes a business owner call you instead of a national quote site.
Negative keywords save the budget
Insurance accounts attract a lot of service traffic. People search a carrier’s name to log in, pay, file a claim or find a phone number. None of those people are shopping.
- Carrier service: login, pay bill, payment, claims, claim number, customer service, phone number, app
- Job seekers: insurance agent jobs, hiring, salary, career, licensing exam, pre-licensing course
- Research only: definition, what is, meaning, wiki
- Wrong product: health insurance, dental, pet, travel, life, if you do not write them
Then review the search terms report every week. Add negatives as you find them. This is the single habit that separates a lean insurance account from a wasteful one.
Check your compliance rules before you write ads
Insurance advertising has rules. If you are a captive agent, your carrier may require approval of ad copy, logos and landing pages. Independent agents still need to watch how they use carrier names and trademarks.
I am not giving legal advice here. Just check your carrier agreements and your state’s advertising rules before launch, and keep a record of what you ran.
Track calls and quotes, not clicks
Most insurance leads either call or fill out a quote form. Track both, and count only the real ones.
On calls. Use call reporting on your ads and a call tracking provider with dynamic number insertion on your website. Set a minimum call length so hang-ups and wrong numbers do not count.
On forms. Track the thank you page, not the form page. Keep the form short. Name, phone, email, what they need coverage for. Collect the full details on the call.
On follow-up. Speed matters. A quote request that sits until tomorrow often goes to whoever called back first.
Ads, Local Services Ads and organic work together
Google Ads is not the only paid option on the page, and it should not be your only plan. Your Google Business Profile, reviews and website pages keep working when you pause the ads. I wrote about how Local Services Ads compare with organic SEO if you are deciding where to put your effort.
The setup I like best runs ads for the lines an agency wants to grow, and builds organic pages for the questions clients ask every week.
What to do today
Open your Google Ads search terms report and look for carrier names, login and claims searches. Add every one to a negative list. Then check where your commercial ads send people, and if it is the homepage, that is your next fix. You can see the full picture of how I work with insurance agencies, or start with the free Receipt.
Want it handled for you? Run the free audit or book a 30-minute call.