Leads for health insurance: how to win big with pay per click

A steady stream of leads for health insurance companies is crucial. Let’s explore how your health insurance business can get more leads through pay per click advertising.

They say you can’t put a price on health. That’s not the case when it comes to private healthcare – and it’s expensive. That’s where your health insurance services come in.

With long NHS waiting lists prompting more people to consider private healthcare, demand for health insurance is on the rise. Between January 2022 and January 2023, three of the UK’s largest UK health insurers collectively added 480,000 new customers. Record numbers of patients used insurance for treatment in 2023.

Demand for health insurance is on the up. Your mission is to make sure enough of this demand finds its way to you.

Let’s take a look at how you can drive significant ROI through pay per click advertising.

Before we dive in…

How about we cover your ad spend? (Seriously.) When all is said and done, you’re looking for revenue. We are a specialist pay per click agency with a laser focus on driving returns – big returns like these – for our clients.

We’re so confident in our expertise that if we like the sound of your business, we will cover your ad spend. So you get more leads, more customers and more revenue – without the financial risk. Intrigued? Let us give you a free proposal.

“Since working with Adbetter, our digital paid media channels have grown to be one of our most consistent generators of high-quality leads. Our lead volumes from paid media channels have increased over 1,400% whilst maintaining a low cost per lead.”

Matthew Fawl, Director, Alesco Investment Property

Health insurance customers are loyal. That makes them valuable.

Customer loyalty in the health insurance sector is relatively high. And financial services as a whole has a median churn rate of just 19% – according to 2022 data.

For your lead generation activities, it means a single conversion could generate revenue for several years. The key is attracting the leads in the first place.

Why paid media is great for attracting leads

Until relatively recently it was common for lead-hungry insurance businesses to buy databases of prospects to reach out to. The problem with that is these databases are often of questionable quality – stuffed with old contact data and ‘leads’ who don’t want to hear from you.

Then there’s the other antiquated methods: television ads (you need deep pockets), print media (zero tracking capability) or good old door-to-door flyering.

But in our opinion, the most effective way to generate reliable leads for health insurance is through pay per click advertising. Here’s why.

It’s super accountable

The clue is in the name. With pay per click advertising, you only pay when someone clicks your ad. And why would they click unless they had a genuine interest in your policies?

Secondly, pay per click platforms give you clear data on how your ads are performing – making it possible to optimise performance over time.

You get your own proprietary data to nurture

With pay per click campaigns you get to gather your own proprietary audience data – yours to interpret and nurture. No bought lists that every single one of your competitors is also targeting.

It’s easy to control your budget
Paid media platforms give you lots of control over your budget. Set daily, weekly or maximum budgets. Pause campaigns whenever you want. And see how every penny is contributing to your results with clear data.

Leads for health insurance: 11 tips for winning big with pay per click

1. Pick the right platform

Essentially this boils down to a face off between Google Search and the Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram).

You can definitely drive leads for health insurance on other pay per click channels (such as TikTok and YouTube). But if you are new to pay per click, Google and Meta are the best places to start driving results.

So which is best? Well, that depends on several factors.

Google Search is fantastic for capturing interest in your services at the point of need – getting your health insurance brand in front of people at the exact moment they are researching a policy.

The downside is that these ads often have a high cost per click. Such is the competitive nature of Google Search for keywords related to health insurance.

A cheaper alternative is to focus on Facebook or Instagram (or both), where the cost per click is cheaper. And while it’s true that users on these platforms wouldn’t be actively seeking your services, with smart audience targeting, you can weed out people who are likely to be interested in health insurance – if not right away then in the near future.

2. Niche down

The way you pitch health insurance to someone in their twenties isn’t the same as the way you pitch it to someone in their fifties. The best performing ads tend to be well targeted.

So it’s best to create separate campaigns for different audience demographics – age being a major differentiator when it comes to health insurance.

3. Choose your audiences

Pay per click platforms give you a dizzying array of options when it comes to choosing the type of people your ad will be displayed to. You can target based on age, location, income level, occupation, hobbies and a huge amount of additional variables.

You can also feed in your own data on existing customers and let the algorithm find lookalike audiences. This works on the premise that your past customers are likely to have some common denominators – such as their age, their income, their hobbies and interests and so on.

4. Take care of your creative

A little irreverence takes some brands far. But health insurance isn’t something to joke around with. People – quite rightly – take their health seriously. And your ad creative should reassure potential customers that you are a professional, capable outfit that will be there when it matters.

Stay away from boring stock photography and create something that is eye-catching, consistent and recognisably yours. It’s also recommended that you include details of your FCA registration in your ad. Either in small print across your image or as part of the ad caption.

The FCA is also very big on clarity of language. “Fair, clear and not misleading” is a phrase that regularly crops up in guidance.

5. Utilise social proof

If you have persuasive trust signals such as a five star Defaqto rating or a high score on Trustpilot, those are excellent additions to your creative to quickly build trust and confidence in a cold target audience.

6. Beware of the regulations

Reading about red tape isn’t fun. But knowing the regulations around the promotion of health insurance can save you a lot of time, hassle and – potentially – money.

Meta is strict with ads related to financial services – and your ad may even be flagged as a Special Ad Category if you are offering to spread an annual premium across monthly payments.

It’s also a good idea to read up on what the Financial Conduct Authority and Advertising Standards Authority have to say about advertising correctly. Don’t have time? Ask us for the intel.

7. Create a lead magnet

Think about the way you engage with pay per click ads. Sometimes they’re all too easy to scroll past. On top of compelling creative, you can provide an extra incentive to click by offering a lead magnet.

A lead magnet usually takes the form of some kind of knowledge giveaway. For instance, you might offer your leads a free telephone consultation, an ebook explaining some key elements of a good health insurance policy or a series of emails explaining how best to compare policies.

The point is to provide something that your lead is likely to find genuinely useful.

8. Test, test, test…

Whatever pay per click platform(s) you use, you will have the option to submit multiple variations of each ad campaign you work up. This is your opportunity to experiment with wording, images, headlines, descriptions and more.

The platform will automatically test these variations – before preferentially serving the variants that are most likely to get results for your business.

9. Be diligent with data

The most important part of your ad campaign is the performance data it gives you. Take the time to interpret it correctly and you will reveal the strategies that are giving you the most success.

You can then double down on the strategies that are getting results, and ditch the stuff that isn’t working.

Test, optimise, repeat. It’s a process that drives better results over time.

10. Track through the funnel

Tracking what’s happening on Google Search or in Facebook is a great start. But for the really big wins, you need to know what’s happening after someone has clicked one of your ads.

This tracking – such as Facebook CAPI – can be tricky to set up. But it’s the key to being able to track customer behaviour throughout your sales funnel.

And when you have that data, you can see how to optimise your campaigns to drive not just more leads, but more sales and revenue over time.

Let us take care of it for you…

Running an insurance business is busy. So let us take care of your paid media activities for you. 

Our service includes everything from creating your ads to comprehensively measuring their performance. And as we said before. We get big results for our clients.

Sounds good? Find out more.

>> Adbetter: officially an award-winning PPC agency

You may also be interested in:

>> Facebook marketing for insurance agents: key elements of success
>> Where to find the best leads for life insurance businesses
>> Is TikTok good for lead generation?