[Whitepaper] How Australians Search for Travel Insurance - SEO

HOW AUSTRALIANS SEARCH
FOR TRAVEL INSURANCE
Understanding search opportunities
and potential for travel insurance online
An In Marketing We Trust white paper by Kirsten Tanner

Introduction
Methodology
Summary
Trends in the Travel Insurance Market
The Most Dangerous Countries for Australian Travellers
Niche Markets
King of Competition
Travel Insurance Brands
Who Gets the Most Links?
Demographics
Linguistics
Devices: Mobile
Launching Your Campaign
About In Marketing We Trust
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
2IN MARKETING WE TRUST - How Australians search for travel insurance

We determined what the Australian
people are searching for within the
confines of the travel insurance
industry and took a look at demo-
graphics and linguistics for you to
better understand your target audi-
ence.
We also took a close look at the
niche markets within the travel
industry and analysed the big brand
names in the space so that you can
get a feel for your competitors, learn
from them and ultimately outper-
form them.
We inspected peoples preferred
devices and explored seasonality
trends, identifying the best possible
time for you to plan and launch that
next campaign.
With a steady incline in the searches
for travel insurance throughout
Australia, we thought it would be
interesting to explore the online
travel insurance space and develop
key insights into the industry. We
took a close look at some of the
major trends in the travel insurance
space.
We’ve delved into global events and
analysed their impact on the market,
we took a look at the year on year
trends and the ‘travel insurance’
search forecast in Australia.
INTRODUCTION

Keyword, trend, demographic and
competitor data has been collected
using a combination of sources and
that information has been thor-
oughly analysed to identify key
categories and insights into the
online travel insurance space.
Key events, seasonality and plat-
form trends were analysed to iden-
tify patterns and gain insight into
the industry. Analysis of the
keyword data set was used to
develop a linguistic report of the
market and to further understand
the language Australians use when
they search.
Search volumes were analysed to
discover and explore the key cate-
gories within the travel insurance
industry and develop a better
understanding of niche markets
within the sector. Competitors were
ranked by their performance in
natural search for the online travel
insurance market as a whole and
within niche categories.
Data was recorded in July 2014 and
gives analysis of information from
months to years prior, indicated
within each segment of the paper.
Natural search rankings were
recorded in July 2014 and may have
changed by the time this report is
published.
METHODOLOGY

SUMMARY
Australians are most often searching for
domestic travel insurance
There are a number of specific travel insurance
niches, the most popular being ‘senior travel
insurance’, which presents a space for smaller
brands to enter the market
Almost 90% of ‘travel insurance’ searches are
being conducted on desktop computers as
opposed to mobile devices
The Australian market is heavily dominated
by generic travel insurance search terms,
meaning consumers are unaware or not sure
of the more specific policies
Searches for ‘travel insurance’ have been steadily
increasing over the past decade
The most popular finance-related search term
is ‘cheap’, aside from generic travel insurance,
Australians are most often searching to ‘compare’
travel insurance

38%
37%
18.9%were coming from travellers in the US
(compared to 13% recorded the previ-
ous year), followed by Thailand
(18.23%) and Indonesia (16.27%)
SNAPSHOT OF THE
AUSTRALIAN TRAVEL
INDUSTRY
Corresponding with our most popular finance-related search term, Austra-
lians are looking for ‘cheap’ travel insurance. Grant Waldeck, spokesper-
son for comparethemarket.com.au said “Alarmingly we do see many
travellers booking their policy based on price alone.”
Overseas arrival and departure data shows that Australians took 8.2 Million
international trips over the 12 months, ending February 2013
InsureandGo’s most popular destination for travel insurance is Asia, selling
35% of all policies to Asia in 2013, with a rise of 2.94% from the previous
years recordings
Travel Insurance is often a last minute purchase for many customers “In
2013 we found that approximately 35% of all the policies we sold were from
customers whose departure date was either the same day or within the next
2 days.” – Sebastian Kaisin, General Manager of InsureandGo
of all claims were related to
smartphone theft and damage
were related to medical expenses with
gastroenteritis the most frequent
condition followed by food poisoning
and physical injuries from a slip or fall
Most frequent claims
in 2013

40
50
60
70
80
90
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Prospective
TRENDS IN THE TRAVEL
INSURANCE MARKET
If we take a look at the chart on the
right we can clearly see how searches
for ‘travel insurance’ have gradually
increased and have fairly consistently
been on the rise over the past 10 years.
Number of searches for ‘travel insurance’ over the past 10 years
Medical costs
and volatile
conditions push
Australians to
choose safety
average number of
research per months
x1000
Year on year trends

INSURANCE MARKET
Global event : Boston bombing
Global events often have an effect on
what people are searching for so we
thought it would be interesting to take
a look at a couple of global events
both positive and negative and see
what kind of impact they had on
search volumes within the travel
insurance space.
as you can clearly see from the chart
aside, searches for ‘travel insurance
usa’ are at the highest point over a 12
month period within the 4 months
following the Boston Marathon
bombings that occurred on April 15,
2013.
0
1 000
1 500
2 000
2 500
3 000
3 500
Jan
13
Feb
13
Mar
13
Apr
13
May
13
Jun
13
Jul
13
Aug
13
Sep
13
Oct
13
Nov
13
Dec
13
Jan
14
Fev
14
Mar
14 14
Apr
14
May
Boston
Bombing
(April 15, 2013)
Number of searches for ‘travel insurance USA’ over the last 12 months
How global events
affect peoples
behaviour and reshape
the insurance market

INSURANCE MARKET
Global event : World cup
The 2014 world cup has also clearly
impacted searches for ‘travel insur-
ance’ with searches for ‘world cup’
increasing dramatically, while at the
same time searches for ‘travel insur-
ance’ also increased.
This can also be noticed in search
volume for ‘travel insurance brazil’
which increased substantially in May
2014, corresponding with the dramat-
ic increase in ‘world cup’ searches at
that time.
Positive
events can
also clearly
impact short
term trends
0
200000
400000
600000
800000
1000000
1200000
Jan.-14 Feb.-14 Mar-14 Apr.-14 May-14
Jan.-14 Feb.-14 Mar-14 Apr.-14 May-14
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Number of searches for ‘travel insurance Brazil’
Number of searches for ‘World cup’
Number of searches for ‘travel insurance’

INSURANCE MARKET
Australians want domestic
travel insurance
While most Australians are
searching for generic travel insur-
ance, many are also searching for
travel insurance for a specific
geographical location. By under-
standing which areas Australians
are most interested in, you are
better able to target your product
offerings, marketing campaigns
and website optimisation.
In the map below we can see how
search volumes for travel insur-
ance by Australians varies across
the world. The darker the colour,
the more people in Australia are
searching for travel insurance in
that region. We’ve also listed the
top 10 locations Australians are
searching for within the travel
insurance space.
Australians prefer
English speaking or
Asian destinations
Asia, Philippines, Malaysia, Fiji and Ireland (equal 10th)
Australia
United States
Bali
New Zealand
United Kingdom
Europe
Thailand
India
Canada, South Africa and Singapore (equal 9th)
Asia, Philippines, Malaysia, Fiji and Ireland (equal 10th)
TOP10
destinations
forAustraliantravellers

INSURANCE MARKET
Australians want domestic
travel insurance
· Australia 1930
· USA 670
· Bali 620
· New Zealand 440
· United Kingdom 300
· Europe 260
· Thailand 210
· India 170
· Canada 70
· South Africa 70
· Singapore 70
· Asia 50
· Philippines 50
· Malaysia 50
· Fiji 50
· Ireland 50
Search volumes of travel insurance by Australians

THE MOST DANGEROUS
COUNTRIES FOR AUSTRALIAN
TRAVELLERS
As insurance is generally taken out to cover
risk, we thought it would be fascinating to
determine the search trends associated
with countries deemed riskier than
average.

THE MOST DANGEROUS
COUNTRIES FOR AUSTRALIAN
TRAVELLERS
Locations determined as unsafe
Afghanistan
Chad
Iraq
Central African Republic
Yemen
Average
search
volume has
been deter-
mined over a 12
month period
from June 2013 to
June 2014. These
are the top 5 place to
visit
We looked at the number of
Australian searches looking
for travel insurance for the
locations determined unsafe
and classified as ‘do not
travel’ by smarttraveller.gov-
.au. These locations are as
follows:
Afghanistan
Central African Republic
Chad
Iraq
Libya
Mali
Niger
Somalia
South Sudan
Sudan
Syria
Yemen

NICHE MARKETS
Segmenting the market is important
in order to understand and better
target and serve potential customers.
We have categorised the top niche
markets in the Australian travel
insurance search space.

NICHE MARKETS
Generic Travel Insurance
Senior
Cruise
Student
Pregnancy
Pre Existing Conditions
Backpacker
Multi Trip
Ski
This tree map displays the relative
popularity of each niche market
within the travel insurance space.
Generic ‘travel insurance’ searches
make up approximately 91% of
searches by Australians within the
sector and generic ‘holiday insur-
ance’ searches in last place,
making up approximately only 1%
of the market. Therefore more
specific niche markets make up the
extra 8% of the online travel insur-
ance space.
This clearly shows that the vast
majority of Australians aren’t sure
exactly what type of travel insur-
ance they are looking for and/or
they don’t know what type of insur-
ance is available. This implies that
there is great opportunity within
the travel insurance space to
educate travellers on what type of
insurance is best suited to them.
The vast number of Australians
searching to ‘compare’ travel insur-
ance also backs this up.
The vast majority of Australians are not
specific while searching for travel insurance,
instead opting for a generic product

KING OF
COMPETITION
Determining where you’re placed in the Australian
travel insurance market and knowing who your
competition is, is important in order to compete,
optimise your website and grow your customer
base.
By knowing and understanding your competition
you can learn from them, observe their tactics and
ultimately, outgrow them.

KING OF
COMPETITION
The Whole Travel Insurance Market
Travelinsurancedirect.com.au Comparethemarket.com.au Auspost.com.au Budgetdirect.com.au Nrma.com.au
The graphics below display who
the market leader is in each travel
insurance group. The overall
travel insurance king in the online
space is undoubtedly travelinsur-
ancedirect.com.au with the
number one ranking for the gener-
ic ‘travel insurance’ search term.
It’s interesting to note that within
the related ‘travel insurance’
search terms ‘travel insurance
direct’ is the second most
searched for phrase within the
sector by Australians with an aver-
age 22,200 searches monthly.
The overall travel
insurance king
in the online space
is undoubtedly
travelinsurancedirect

KING OF
COMPETITION
Senior travel insurance
Cruise travel insurance
Seniors.com.au
Good2gotravelinsurance.com.au
Artog.com.au
Aceinsurance.com.au
Insureandgo.com.au
Travelinsurancedirect.com.au
Pocruises.com.au
Insureandgo.com.au
Comparetravelinsurance.com.au
Travelinsuranceaustralia.com.au
Seniors travel insurance is the largest of
the niche markets, representing approxi-
mately 4.5% of all related niche search
terms. This niche market is dominated by
a mixture of specialist and generic web-
sites, however ultimately ruled by the
specialist insurer, the Australian Seniors
Insurance Agency.
Within this niche market space, smaller
and newer travel insurers will find it easier
to compete, with large websites including
travelinsurancedirect.com.au only rank-
ing 10th. This opens up the market for
new brands to carve out a niche.
‘Cruise travel insurance’ is the second
most popular niche market with over
1,000 Australian searches per month. The
overall king of the market, travelinsur-
ancedirect.com.au is also the leader of
cruise travel insurance, while the more
specific pocruises.com.au comes in
second.

KING OF
COMPETITION
Student travel insurance
Travel insurance Pregnancy
Statravel.com.au
Insureandgo.com.au
Studentflights.com.au
Mozo.com.au
Medibank.com.au
Columbusdirect.com.au
Essentialbaby.com.au
‘Student travel insurance’ is the third
most popular of the niche search terms
and is dominated by generic travel insur-
ance websites and student-specific travel
insurance websites alike.
‘travel insurance pregnancy’ is another
popular search term within the market
and is perhaps the most open niche
market to new competitors as the 5th
website is not even an insurance brand
but a pregnancy and baby forum.

KING OF
COMPETITION
Travel Insurance Pre Existing Conditions
Backpacker Travel Insurance
Suresave.net.au
Insureandgo.com.au
Nib.com.au
Findaninsurer.com.au
Allianz.com.au
Insureandgo.com.au
Itrektravelinsurance.com
Worldnomads.com.au
Every month there are approximately 540
Australians searching for travel insurance
for pre existing medical conditions. This
niche market is dominated by generic
travel insurers and insurance information
websites.
‘Backpacker travel insurance’ is dominat-
ed by many of the big names in travel
insurance, including Travel Insurance
Direct and Insure and Go but also makes
room for category-specific travel insur-
ance brands in 4th and 5th place.
InsureandGo saw an increase of 5.7%
in policies that included medical
screenings for travellers with pre-exist-
ing medical conditions in 2013.

KING OF
COMPETITION
Multi Trip Travel Insurance
Ski Travel Insurance
Multitrip.com.au
Insureandgo.com.au
Auspost.com.au
Gbe.com.au
Good2gotravelinsurance.com.au
Insureandgo.com.au
Worldnomads.com.au
Ski-insurance.com.au
‘Multi Trip Travel Insurance’ is dominated
by the category-specific, multi-
trip.com.au while the rest of the top 5
positions are made up of the overall big
names in the industry.
‘Ski Travel Insurance’ is made up of a
mixture of the big name brands and more
category-specific sites. Interestingly
Insure and Go is in 2nd place and features
in the top 5 of all the niche markets with
the exception of ‘travel insurance preg-
nancy’.
According to a Roy Morgan Research
Survey, a decade ago approximately 4
out of 5 Australians seeking a skiing or
snowboarding holiday chose domestic
locations. Today, almost half head
overseas with popular destinations
being New Zealand, North America,
Europe and Japan.

TRAVEL INSURANCE
BRANDS
While brand marketing and off-line messaging
play a vital role in driving online traffic, search
volumes for generic terms such as ‘travel
insurance’ are approximately 10 times higher
than branded search terms with the exception
of ‘travel insurance direct’ at just 5 times
under ‘travel insurance’.

TRAVEL INSURANCE
BRANDS
The graph below shows Australian
monthly search volumes for branded
travel insurance terms. Interestingly,
high street brands feature heavily in
the top 10, while the ultimate king of
the market, Travel Insurance Direct, is
an online only brand.
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
Insurance
Travel
Direct
Medibank Covermore Southern Aami Bupa Allianz Nrma Gbe Racv
22200
8100
8100
6600
6600
6600
6600
5400
5400
4400

WHO GETS THE
MOST LINKS
The amount of natural inbound links to a
travel insurance site shows just how well
that site performs in providing information
and resources, as people and other site
owner’s link to their top picks within the
space. As a result, the more quality links a
site has pointing to it, the higher it will
rank in search results.

WHO GETS THE
MOST LINKS
Auspost
Compare
the Market
Budget
Direct
Travel
Insurance
Direct
NRMA
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 140000 160000 180000
Within the travel insurance space Australia
Post comes out on top, however we can
assume that many of these links are not
actually related to their travel insurance
products. The top 5 are a mixture of travel
insurance-specific brands and non-travel
insurance specific brands.
BACKLINKS

DEMOGRAPHICS
Obviously, understanding the demographics
of your potential customers is important to
better target your market, online messages
and content.

DEMOGRAPHICS
Short or Long Term Stays?
96%
4%
Short term stays Long term stays
According to the International Move-
ments 2012 study conducted by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics the vast
majority of travelling was for short
term stays (less than 1 year).

DEMOGRAPHICS
Age groups 2002
2007
2012
According to recent
research conducted by
SureSave, Generation Xers
are the riskiest travellers
with 34% of 30-39 year
olds opting to travel
unprotected.
According to the same study, the
top travelling age group for Austra-
lians is 50-54 at 9.4%. The peak age
group is slowly rising over time. In
2002 the peak age for international
travel was 45-49 but rose to 50-54 in
2012.
In the graph below you can see the
percentage of Australian travellers
in each age group and how the
number has changed within a
decade. 0-4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
5-9 10-
14
15-
19
20-
24
25-
29
30-
34
35-
39
40-
44
45-
49
50-
54
55-
59
60-
64
65-
69
70-
74
75+
% of Australian
travellers
age groups
Percentage of each age group in Australian travellers

DEMOGRAPHICS
Gender
The ratio of male to female Australian
departures is slowly evening out over
time with short term resident depar-
tures being 121 males in 2002 (the
number of male departures per 100
female departures) and just 111 males
in 2012.
The highest gender ratios were found in
the 40-44 age group in 2002 with 158
males and 2012 with 129. The lowest
ratios were recorded within the 15-19
year group in both 2002 with just 85
males and 2012 with 81.
2002
2012 53%male
55% male 45% female
47%female

LINGUISTICS
Creating a better understanding of the language and
phrasing Australians use when searching for travel
insurance is essential when wanting to rank highly in
search results.
By matching the language, keywords and phrasing on
your site with the language Australians use when
searching, you are far more likely to rank well for those
same queries.

LINGUISTICS
Compare Travel Insurance
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
travel
insurance
compare
compare
travel
insurance
travel
insurance
comparison
travel
insurance
reviews
best travel
insurance
best travel
insurance
australia
travel
insurance
comparison
australia
travel
insurance
comparisons
compare
travel
insurance
quotes
best travel
insurance
reviews
Aside from searching for generic travel insurance
terms, specific brands and niche markets, Austra-
lians most want to compare travel insurance with
9,900 searches per month for ‘travel insurance
compare’. Below we take a look at the top 10
phrases Australians use when searching to com-
pare travel insurance.
average number
of searches per month
Average number
by keywords

LINGUISTICS
Cheap Travel Insurance
Australians are also looking for cheap travel insur-
ance with 8,100 searches per month for ‘cheap
travel insurance’. Here are the top 10 phrases
Australians use when searching for cheap travel
insurance choices.
average number
Average number
by keywords
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
cheap travel
insurance
cheapest
travel
insurance
travel
insurance
quotes
cheap travel
insurance
australia
budget
travel
insurance
travel
insurance
quote
travel
insurance
cheap
cheap travel
insurance
compare
compare
travel
insurance
quotes
cheapest
travel
insurance
australia

LINGUISTICS
Keywords
COMPARE
CHEAP COMPARISON
SENIORSREVIEWS
BEST AUSTRALIA
QUOTE
BUDGETANNUAL
CRUISE
STUDENT
SENIOR COMPREHENSIVE
COMPANIESCOMPARISONS
PREGNANCY
FAMILY MEDICAL
BUY BAGPACKERS
WHAT IS
OVER 70
OVER 80
RATINGSCOVER
ONLINE LONG TERM
MULTITRIP
REVIEWSKICRUISESEASYDISCOUNTUNDER 30
QUOTES
CHEAPEST
Below we can clearly see the most used
keywords within searches. The cloud map
shows the most common keywords used in
search terms by Australians looking for travel
insurance. The larger the word the more
often it is used. The words ‘travel’ and ‘insur-
ance’ have been omitted for the purposes of
this map.

DEVICES : MOBILE
Mobile search is now a huge player in the online
space but how relevant is it to the Australian
travel insurance market?

DEVICES : MOBILE
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
140000
Jun.
13
Jul.
13
Aug.
13
Sep.
13
Oct.
13
Nov.
13
Dec.
13
Jan.
14
Feb.
14
Mar.
14
Apr.
14
may
14
Mobile
Total
While mobile search is certainly
growing, travel insurance searches
are still primarily made via desktop
computer with a total average of just
10.58% of ‘travel insurance’ searches
conducted on mobile devices over
the last 12 months.
InsureandGo
reported that 15%
of their policies were
purchased via tablet
or smartphone in
2013, up 5% from
the previous year.
Share of searches on mobile devices

LAUNCHING YOUR
CAMPAIGN
Understanding seasonal trends in the online travel
insurance space can help you better plan activity
and prepare you for launching your next campaign.
Knowing when your target audience is making travel
arrangements and searching for ‘travel insurance’
helps you to plan and push your campaigns and
content and online and off-line messaging.

LAUNCHING YOUR
CAMPAIGN
Keywords Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Travel insurance
Seniors
Travel insurance
Cruise
Student
Pregnancy
Pre existing
conditions
Backpacker
Multi trip
Ski
In the graph aside we show
the seasonal trends for gener-
ic travel insurance and associ-
ated niche markets. The
seasonal activity has been
calculated by the average
number of monthly searches
over the past two years (June
2012 to 2014).
The colour graph
aside represents the
seasonal trends in
the online travel
insurance space, the
darker the colour
the more searches
there are in that
month.
Seasonal trends

IN MARKETING
WE TRUST
ABOUT
We are an SEO Agency based in Sydney.
Our strength is based on our focus of
straight sales/conversion rather than
rankings or traffic.
We earned our skills working in the
toughest industries in online marketing.
We are an agency by in-house marketers
for in-house teams.
We built this company because we are
determined to be a better alternative
than the average agencies out there. WWW.INMARKETINGWETRUST.COM.AU
+61 2 8966 9287
INFO@INMARKETINGWETRUST.COM.AU
2/40 East Esplanade
Manly NSW 2095, Australia
Graphicdesign:MathieuDegas-m.degas@gmail.com

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