Insurance Websites

[byepolar]

I read that the average CPC for "health insurance" was $16.15. I'm new to Adsense, so this is kind of confusing. Does that mean I get $8.07 if someone clicks one of my ads on a health insurance page?
Even at 25 percent, it's still around $4.

If I build a health insurance page, and I am assigned health insurance keywords for Adsense, will I immediately start getting between $4 and $8.07 per click?

This seems kind of strange.

[netmeg]

I have one site that has been running a lot of insurance ads lately - the payout seems to be somewhere between $1 and $2 per click. For whatever that means.

[moTi]

Does that mean I get $8.07 if someone clicks one of my ads on a health insurance page?

If I build a health insurance page, and I am assigned health insurance keywords for Adsense, will I immediately start getting between $4 and $8.07 per click?

good news: revenue split is not 50/50, but about 70% for you.
bad news: you most probably will get no more than a few cents for your health insurance clicks. why? because you were only chasing for expensive keywords and missed the most important issue: building a website with substantial unique content that is actually useful for your visitors and delivers highly interested potential customers to your advertising partners. google don't like the "easy money"-approach. you will rightly get smartpriced into oblivion, because your low quality clicks likely don't convert for the advertisers.

[ken_b]

I read that the average CPC for "health insurance" was $16.15.

Here's the thing, that might be the average for the search network but not anywhere close to reality for the content network.

Advertizers can bid seperately for the content network and from what I've read, most bid less for the content network than for the search network.

[jomaxx]

The problem is, the areas that pay the most tend to have intense competition and limited public interest, and therefore it's extremely hard to get legitimate traffic to those sites and to get people to click. Catch-22.

BTW I have one section of one site with primarily insurance-related content. I'd put the expected earnings per click at more like 50c to a dollar. (That's for a real site with relevant content and targeted, high-quality traffic.) It sounds like a lot (heck, it IS a lot), but unless you are a very smart workaholic, you can very likely make more money flipping burgers.

[humblebeginnings]

I read that the average CPC for "health insurance" was $16.15.

I read that huge green bugs from mars have landed and they are eating all of our Brussels sprouts;-)

But to stay on topic. What you have read means that the maximum bid for some insurance related keywords could very well be $16,15.
But the CPC bidding model is a complex system. It doesn't mean that anybody is actually going to get $16,15 per click.

In reality it goes like this:

1 - Advertiser A wants to make sure his ad is at the top spot. So he bids $100,- for the keyword "insurance widget". So do you get an average of $100,- per click? Nope, because...

2 - Advertiser A is only charged 1 cent more than the second highest bid. Advertiser B is the second highest bidder, he "only" bids $9,99 per click. Meaning that advertiser A is only charged $10,-. So do you get an average of $10,- per click? Nope, because...

3 - Advertiser A is charged $10,- per click in case his ad is clicked on Google search. Most advertisers bid much lower for clicks on the content network, meaning publishers like you. His bid on the content network might very well be only $1 per click. So do you get an average of $1,- per click? Nope, because...

4 - Google gives a discount to advertisers if their ads are displayed on websites that do not convert (result in sales) very well. It's called "smart pricing". Many publishers are smartpriced. Let's assume smartpricing cuts the publishers revenue with 50%. So do you get an average of $0,50 per click? Nope, because...

5 - Google is generous and is known to give publishers 70-80% of advertising revenues. So do you get an average of $0,40 per click? Nope, because...

6 - Many other ads are displayed on your site. You don't get to display the "high paying" ads all the time because the other gazillion publishers want a piece of the "insurance widget" cake too. For many ads on the content network the maximum bid is only $0,10, or less. When these bids follow the previous 2 steps, in some cases only $0,01 per click remains. So do you get an average of somewhere between $0,01 and $0,20 per click if you decide to make a website about some "high paying" topic? Yes, that's very likely...

The lesson most of us have learned is to make content about things we like and things we know a lot about. Regardless of the maximum bids. In the end, that will pay you best.

[Angelis]

I read that the average CPC for "health insurance" was $16.15.

Try nearer $2-5 on search network.

[Hobbs]

very well said HB
I like the new you, seems like dutch cafe "Brownies" have a good effect.

[OptiRex]

Great post HB...bookmarked for future reference:-)

[humblebeginnings]

Hobbs, Opti, thank you very much. I get some of my energy and inspiration from a serious afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream every now and then. I know it's a bit weird for a dutchy, but as it seems you folks abroad can't stay away from Gouda cheese...

[ska_demon]

FWIW I see about $0.50 - $1.50 per click on my UK insurance specific site. I have no idea what that means with regard to CPC, CPM, ROI, EPC (whatever the hell that lot means ;oP). All I know is I built the site for various other reasons and I get a few dollars here and there from Adsense.

Ska

[netmeg]

(My site with the insurance clicks, by the way, has absolutely nothing to do with insurance [insofar that it's about a recreational activity that could definitely be hazardous to your health if not done properly] - but it's location specific, so I keep getting ads about various types of insurance specific to my state.)

[leolapinos]

my car site has a section for insurance and the payout is indeed higher from that channel, but still between 20 and 1.50 as far as I can see. No goldmine... yet :)