Searches rise for car and travel insurance

Online searches for car and travel insurance-related products were the most popular in the overall insurance sector in the quarter to January, a new study shows.

Online searches for car and travel insurance-related products were the most popular in the overall insurance sector in the quarter to January, a new study shows.


There were 2.3 million searches conducted online for insurance-related products – an 18% increase on the previous three months, according to the latest quarterly research by search marketing specialist and technology firm Greenlight.


Car and travel insurance saw volume rises of 84% and 2% respectively on October levels while home insurance searches dropped by 34%  


The research found that ‘car insurance’ was the most queried term and was searched 673,000 times in January, representing 28% of all insurance-related searches.


The term was searched for 246,000 times in October, accounting for just 14% of all insurance-related queries.MoneySupermarket was the most visible website in natural search, achieving 81% share of voice. 


Comparethemarket.com climbed up to second place in Greenlight’s league table, while gocompare.com dropped out of Greenlight’s top ten, taking 11th place. Last year the site ranked in fifth place in January, third in March and second in July and October.


The most visible advertisers were MoneySupermarket and GoCompare. Both achieved 60% share of voice in paid search.


The AA achieved 12% visibility, entering the top 60 paid search league table in 18th place, having not featured in October.


Saga was the most visible direct insurance provider with its share of voice increasing by 19%.


MoneySupermarket remained the most followed brand in social media, attracting more than 3,000 new followers to its social media networks since October.


It was also the most interactive brand in January, cumulatively producing 108 posts and tweets. Content included promotions of specific insurance products available on its comparison site for consumers to choose from.