Want to amass backlinks from trusted media sources that read like endorsements? So did one insurance comparison company looking to support its brand prominence with trust signals from established media. We earned 60+ backlinks in 12 months from top-tier outlets like Marketwatch.
What if your company had 60 trust-throwing spotlights aimed its way?
Our client, an insurance comparison marketplace, knew that trust was the bedrock on which their conversions rested. They also knew that borrowing credibility from sources people already listen to was key in a market where recommendations from others are trusted by 88% of consumers, compared with 50% who put their faith in ads.
The team wanted marquee press acquisition to support brand authority. It also anticipated SEO benefits might flow downstream, but not without backlinks and authority signals won first. After all, insurance is a difficult niche to crack; it’s the single highest paid-search category, with costs per click as high as ~$55. Credibility? It’s step one.
Insurance digital PR case study at a glance
In short: Green Flag Digital ran 8 digital PR campaigns in 12 months for an insurance comparison marketplace that had never tried digital PR. The program earned 59+ links with an average domain rating of 60, including MarketWatch, USA Today and Newsweek. It started as a two-campaign pilot, which is how many clients first test our digital PR agency.
| Client | An insurance comparison marketplace |
| Goal | Test whether digital PR could earn trust signals and backlinks from established media |
| Program | 8 campaigns in 12 months: a two-campaign pilot, then a 9-month renewal covering six more |
| Links earned | 59+ with an average domain rating of 60 |
| Formats | City rankings, surveys and other data-led campaign types |
| Coverage highlights | MarketWatch, MSN, USA Today, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest |
Problem: a smaller brand in the most expensive search category
The insurance comparison industry is a bloody battle for lead generation. There are countless heavyweights investing tons of resources in marketing, and gaining traction for smaller brands is tough.
Our client came to us with the goal of launching a new digital PR initiative to test the waters and see if digital PR worked for them.
Approach: a two-campaign pilot, then six more campaigns
Given that the client was launching a new campaign series and had no prior experience with digital PR, we wanted to experiment with various content formats, subject matter, and beats.
We launched the campaign with a lightning-fast discovery project and a two-campaign pilot program. We saw outstanding results on the first campaign, and minimal results on the 2nd, which is typical for creative campaigns – being both an art and a science.
We renewed our contract with the client for a 9-month term, covering six additional campaigns. We doubled down on the city ranking formats that typically work well, while also experimenting with survey campaigns and other campaign types.
Results: 59+ links at an average DR of 60 in 12 months
Across a 12-month period, we launched 8 separate campaigns and landed 59+ links with an average DR of 60.
Standout coverage highlights:
- Marketwatch
- MSN
- USA Today
- Newsweek
- Reader’s Digest
Summary
Journalists love seeing data-backed stories with a creative angle to support their own storytelling, and the opportunity to build trust here is huge. Insurance touches the lives of all readers and adds the chaos of fast-changing economic dynamics and laws. The bottom line: People want grounded, trustworthy partners in this relevant, perplexing space.
Reach out to dive deeper into how we might partner to buttress your credibility in the insurance space, too.
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How the 12 months unfolded
| May 2024 | Kickoff, with one week of accelerated discovery and a first round of campaign ideas |
| May to August 2024 | Two-campaign pilot with a goal of 20 links. The first campaign earned 18 and the second earned 2 |
| October 2024 | The client renews for nine months. The first month is a fresh discovery round |
| November 2024 to July 2025 | Six more campaigns: city and state rankings, a consumer survey and a state map |
| July 2025 | The final campaign lands in USA Today, MSN, MarketWatch and Reader’s Digest, and the program wraps |
Not every campaign worked. One state map earned no links at all, and one ranking earned a single placement. The city ranking formats carried the program, which is why we leaned on them in the renewal.
Tools and data sources
The consumer survey ran on Pollfish. Rankings and maps were built in Flourish and Datawrapper, and we used Ahrefs to check the authority of each linking site. The rankings drew on public data: the Census American Community Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics price and employment data, Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities, CDC data, Gallup and Numbeo. We set one rule with the client at the start: no scraped data.
Frequently asked questions
In this engagement, 8 campaigns over 12 months earned 59+ links with an average domain rating of 60. Results vary by campaign and by industry, so treat that as one real data point and not a promise.
This client started with a fast discovery project and a two-campaign pilot. That was enough to see whether the channel worked before committing. After the pilot, they renewed for 9 months and six more campaigns.
No. In the pilot, the first campaign produced outstanding results and the second produced minimal results. That is typical for creative campaigns, which are part art and part science. Running several campaigns and testing formats spreads the risk.
City ranking formats performed well here, so we doubled down on them during the renewal. We also tested survey campaigns and other campaign types across different subject matter and beats.
Trust drives conversions in insurance, and paid search is costly. The Nielsen and WordStream figures cited above show that recommendations are trusted far more than ads and that insurance clicks can cost around $55. Coverage in trusted outlets borrows credibility that ads cannot buy.
Appendix: Companies in Insurance Comparison
Zooming out, here’s a brief overview of related companies in the business insurance comparison and general insurance comparison categories.
Business Insurance Comparison
- Insureon
- Simply Business
- NetQuote
- BizInsure
- NerdWallet
General Insurance Comparison
- Insurify
- Nerdwallet
- Policygenius
- MoneyGeek
- WalletHub