Are insurance display ads better for brand awareness or conversions?

[John Snow]

I’ve been curious about this for a while, so I thought I’d ask here. Do insurance display ads actually help get conversions, or are they mostly just useful for brand awareness?

I work with a small project related to finance content, and at some point we started testing display ads. The idea seemed simple enough. Display ads appear across websites, blogs, and apps, so theoretically they should help more people notice your brand. But the real question I kept running into was whether they actually turn into clicks and signups.

One issue I noticed pretty quickly was that display ads behave differently from search ads. When someone searches for insurance, they already have intent. With display ads, people are usually just browsing something else. Because of that, I initially felt like most of the impressions were just… background noise.

A few people in a marketing forum mentioned the same thing. They said insurance display ads tend to work better earlier in the customer journey. Basically, they help people recognize a brand before they’re ready to buy anything. That made sense to me, but I still wanted to see if conversions were possible.

So I experimented a bit. Instead of pushing a direct “buy insurance now” type of message, I tried softer content like guides and helpful resources. The results weren’t explosive or anything, but the engagement improved. Some users clicked through, explored the site, and a few actually came back later through other channels.

What I learned from that small test is that display ads seem to work best when they support other marketing efforts rather than acting alone. Think of them more like a reminder or introduction rather than the final push to convert.

While digging around for more info, I also came across this page discussing finance advertising strategies and examples of how platforms approach campaigns like insurance display ads****.

Reading through that helped clarify something important. A lot depends on how the campaign is structured. Targeting, creatives, and placement all matter more than I originally thought. If those aren’t dialed in, display ads can easily become wasted impressions.

So my personal takeaway is this: insurance display ads are pretty good for awareness, but they can help conversions if they’re part of a bigger funnel. I wouldn’t rely on them alone for direct sales, but they seem useful for getting your brand in front of the right audience repeatedly.

Anyway, that’s just my experience so far. I’m curious if others here have seen similar results or if someone has managed to make display ads convert really well for insurance campaigns.