Motor policy consumers shown to use search engines as much as aggregator.s
Consumers are as likely to use search engines or direct sites as they are to visit aggregators when searching for motor insurance policies, a study has found.
In the study, carried out by Keynote Systems, participants were told to search for a motor insurance policy on the internet in any way they chose. One third started on search engines, one third on price comparison sites, or aggregators, and one third went direct to insurer or broker sites.
The top three aggregator sites the participants visited were Moneysupermarket, Confused and Gocompare, while the top three insurer sites were Directline, Churchill and the AA.
Participants rated competitive prices, privacy, security and instant online quotes as the most important factors influencing their choice of site.
Privacy and security were rated highly with 91% saying they cared about the confidentiality of their information.
Moneysupermarket and Churchill were named the top two sites for overall satisfaction.
Martin Stern, regional manager EMEA, Keynote Systems said: “What’s interesting here is that of the top two sites for overall satisfaction, one is an aggregator site and the other an individual insurance company, suggesting that customers remain open to both direct and indirect propositions.
“While the importance of achieving prominence in search engine rankings is clear, all insurance sites need to make sure their own site is geared-up to meet the ever-increasing expectations of the visitor from a usability and performance perspective.”
Participants were on average more likely to return to price comparison sites.
Stern added: “While the study clearly highlights the benefits to visitors in comparing multiple insurance offers at the same time, that’s not to say that insurance companies should abandon their own sites.”
Keynote surveyed 500 participants.
