It’s quite possible that if you’re an insurance agent reading this article, you’ve been buried in work for what seems like forever. The hard market has many agencies scrambling, and many are simply just surviving at the moment.
It will get better, but it would be no surprise if you’ve been completely missing what’s been going on with Google, (and search in general) over the past year and a half.
TLDR; millions of websites worldwide are losing a sizable chunk of their organic search traffic because of Google’s Ai overviews, which provide instant answers to billions of different informational search queries. These instant answers give the user no real reason to click through to a website for the answer, hence the term “zero-click“.
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In fact, it was reported in 2024 that close to 60% of all web searches do not result in a click to a website. That’s a staggering number that is no doubt higher at the time of this article being published.
Zero-click searches have long been a problem well before Ai overviews were introduced, but it’s at the point now where many businesses are in crisis mode, trying to figure out how to make up for the loss of traffic that once drove real revenue to their business.
The reality is, search has never been more fragmented.
Search behavior is changing
Google is still the reigning king of search with nearly 90% market share, but more and more consumers are experimenting with large language models (LLM) like ChatGTP, Claude, Perplexity (my current favorite), Manus, and Google’s own Gemini to get more conversational answers to their questions.
And those are just a few of them. It seems like a new LLM is released every month now.
So this begs the question, how can a business still leverage its website when its organic traffic continues to shrink with no end in sight?
If you asked 20 different marketers this question, you’d likely get 20 different answers.
Marketers who specialize in only paid traffic would shout “run ads!”, and the never ending supply of SEO charlatans would no doubt tell you to double down on link building and other SEO tactics.
But my response to this question is this:
Organic search traffic is not the “messiah”
Organic traffic has been, and always will be just ONE way to generate revenue with a website. It’s one channel out of many channels that could generate traffic and leads.
But WAY too often business owners (and marketers alike) have tunnel vision, assuming that SEO/organic is the only way to use their website and generate revenue online.
I’ve heard people say things like “what’s the point of a website if it’s not ranking #1?”.
While on the surface this seems like a sensible take, it’s a narrow minded way of viewing things. You have to see the bigger picture when it comes to your website, market competition, and the current climate of search.
The reality is, ranking #1 (or even top 5) for anything of value in the insurance industry is not easy, (if not impossible) for most insurance agencies.
It also doesn’t guarantee anything. If you look at the current search results, you have to scroll past sponsored results (ads), Ai overviews, carousels, Reddit threads, people also ask section, video packs, and other SERP features.
We are in a world were ranking #1 in organic means being towards to the bottom of the page. Search results are becoming more and more dynamic, and increasingly visual.
Understanding Your Search Competitors
Want to rank #1 for “best pet insurance for 6 year old Labrador retrievers in Joplin Maryland”? That might be attainable because it’s far less competitive of a keyword.
But most agency websites will never have the domain authority to overtake national carriers and government websites who are 3,000,000 backlinks, and 3,000 articles ahead of them.
It’s similar to a small bootstrapped startup trying to compete with Google or Microsoft. Can they make some noise, and gain some traction out of the gate? Sure.
Can they actually take down a goliath? There is less than a 1% chance that would happen.
Trying to compete in search with brands who are 10 years ahead of you is not a wise decision for most small businesses.
This is why I say that paying for organic SEO and/or link building is usually a losing proposition for most insurance agencies.
Note: Local SEO is a completely different story. That is the low hanging fruit for insurance agencies. What I’m talking about is organic, a.k.a., the blue links that appear below all other SERP features.
There are some exceptions to what I’m saying here, but ranking #1 in the organic results for competitive keywords is an arms race that most agencies can’t keep up with, both financially, and from a sheer execution standpoint.
The competition alone makes it an uphill battle, but when you factor in that 60%+ of searches don’t even result in a click, and consumers are adopting alternative search tools in mass, the ROI of paying for organic SEO in the current climate would surely be in the negative for most insurance agencies.
Remember at the end of the day, digital marketing is about generating new customers, not just having pretty looking analytics.
How To Leverage Your Agency Website In A Zero-Click Environment
With that in mind, there are many different use cases for a website, and many other ways to drive revenue, without organic search traffic.
1.) Referral Generation
If you interviewed 5,000 agency owners, there’s a good chance that all 5,000 of them would tell you that referrals are the lifeblood of their agencies. Referrals are the best source of new business for any business, not just insurance agencies.
And using your website to generate referrals is a great low cost way to generate more revenue, while strengthening relationships with your centers of influence.
So how would you do this with your website? Keep your eye out for our next blog article 😉
2.) Google Ads Campaigns
When you compare SEO to PPC, they both have the exact same objective — to get you more real estate in search results. There is however a misconception about SEO, that its free or low cost, and/or once you rank, you will always rank and get free traffic forever.
Neither are true.
SEO cost money just like PPC, however PPC works MUCH faster, is more scaleable, and more flexible than SEO.
This is why I’ve been telling anyone who will listen to me that if you’re going to win at the “game of Google”, its going to be with ads. If you think you’re going to game an ad platform like Google for consistent free traffic, think again.
Even if you somehow did rank #1 for a competitive insurance-related keyword, because of all the SERP features (ads, Ai overviews, map pack, people also ask, knowledge panels, etc.) the organic results now appear towards the bottom of the page where fewer and fewer people are scrolling.
If you truly want to show at the top of search results consistently, you have to run ads. Period. Google is a pay-to-play ad network.
We’ve run a TON of very successful PPC campaigns in Google where agencies are generating thousands of dollars in commission each month from a very reasonable budget.
Everything from personal lines, to commercial, and even Medicare lead campaigns for health brokers. Don’t get it confused, Google Ads is the most reliable way to generate consistent traffic and leads from Google Search.
That’s not my opinion, that’s a fact, and its why Google is a trillion dollar company. If PPC didn’t work, Google wouldn’t be one of the largest companies on the planet. They don’t make money from giving publishers free traffic.
If anyone tells you differently, they’re either very naive about how Google truly works, or they’re peddling SEO services lol.
3.) Meta Ads Campaigns (Facebook + Instagram)
We’ve been crushing it lately with Meta Ads for several of our growth focused clients. Meta’s algorithm has never been smarter, and the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is generally lower than what it costs on other ad platforms.
Here is a live shot at one of our clients’ Agency Zoom pipelines (which we can also help you set up properly). It’s filled with leads from the various Facebook ads we’re running for them, as well as organic leads he’s getting from search.
If you’re an agent who wants to generate leads with Facebook at a lower cost, hit us up! We have this dialed in, and it works fast. This client got 3 qualified leads within 48 hours of turning the campaign on, and averaging about 2 leads per day since.
4.) Facilitating Client & Claims Servicing
There are a few really great client app & service portals for insurance agencies, Glovebox being one of them. But for agencies not yet leveraging a tool like Glovebox, using their website to facilitate customer service requests could dramatically reduce emails and phone calls to the agency.
It’s super simple to setup a quick service form, and if your website is with Advisor Evolved, you can route form notifications conditionally depending on what the client needs help with.
Do they just need an ID card? That request can be automatically sent to CSR 1.
Maybe they need a certificate of insurance? CSR 2 will get that notification.
Using your website for customer service may not directly make you money, BUT, it will surely save you time, which is money, so it will definitely save you money!
5.) Content Warehousing + Email Campaigns
If your agency is creating content on a regular basis, a quick link to a blog post or YouTube video could easily result in a new quote request, or other important touchpoint that helps retain existing clients.
Email is a great way to get that content in front of your clients and prospects! And its free!
There are many agents I could praise here for their ongoing commitment to content creation, but Mike Crowley of Crowley Insurance in Syracuse has created so much great content through the years, and is constantly repurposing it for his internal and external marketing initiatives!
When done right, email is a great way to stay top of mind and educate your prospects and clients!
6.) QR Code Marketing
I wrote an article a while ago about guerilla marketing tactics for insurance agents, and this would surely count as one of them.
How many people do you think might scan the QR code thats on the back of your car which then takes them to a landing page quote form while sitting at red lights?
Probably a fair amount! And you could track that URL in Google Analytics to see how many people are visiting that specific page each month.
The the cost to create a QR code magnet is basically free. I’ve seen a lot of people in other industries (roofers, HVAC, other home services) doing this and I have proof that it works and generates real revenue!
If you end up trying this, let me know!
7.) Tech Stack Integration Hub
If your website is with us, you probably know there are a TON of ways you can integrate it with many other insurance-related tools.
Whether is be our direct API integration with Agency Zoom that instantly sends lead data into your CRM, or API integrations with Canopy Connect, or Cover Whale, we strive to build any/all integrations that are available to make our clients’ lives easier and more streamlined.
Aside from API integrations, our websites also integrate with Zapier, making it possible to integrate with thousands of other apps and tools.
If you’re using embeddable tools like raters, forms, chat widgets, applications, or intake tools like Risk Advisor, its never been easier to turn your Advisor Evolved website into the central integration hub for all of your favorite tech tools!
8.) Selling With Video
About 7 years ago, we pioneered a custom insurance video proposal tool (called QuoteVids) that integrates directly into our client sites. Little did we know at the time how big of an impact this tool would have on our clients.
There’s a lot I could cover here on why you should use video to deliver quotes and customer service, but lets just say, if you know, you know.
QuoteVids prints money for our clients and has fundamentally changed the way many of them do business on a day to day basis.
Conclusion
While some people may be concerned with the current state of search and losses in clicks/traffic, I know plenty of other people (including myself) who are far less concerned, because that’s not how they get a majority of their customers anyway.
It really depends on your mindset. Do you want to hunt with a bear trap, or a bow and arrow?
At the end of the day, remember that you’re in sales.
You can’t wait for the right people to find you, you have to find the right people, and there are still plenty of ways to leverage your website, even if Google is cannibalizing a big chunk of your traffic!
Lights, Camera, Insurance: How To Get Started With Video In Your Insurance Agency