FOR INSURANCE BROKERS

Insurance is a 90-day in-market cycle. Your media should know that.

Insurance buying happens in narrow windows — renewals, new household milestones, claims. By the time a prospect is searching, they’ve already chosen the broker they’ll quote. Njord models a budget that captures the in-market window AND maintains the shortlist layer that gets you considered before the trigger.

THE PROBLEM

Two windows. Most budgets only fund one.

WINDOW ONE · 90 DAYS

The harvest window.

The narrow stretch when prospects are actively shopping — renewal date approaching, a new home closing, a claim that didn’t go well. High-intent, expensive, competitive. Most brokers spend 100% of their budget here. The math doesn’t work long-term.

WINDOW TWO · THE OTHER 9 MONTHS

The shortlist window.

The months in between, when prospects aren’t buying but are quietly building their list of who to call when they are. Skip this and the harvest window costs more, every year. Mental availability is a long-cycle category’s biggest profit lever.

$74/lead

INSURANCE T2 MEDIAN · WORDSTREAM 2026 · N=13,474

THE NUMBER TO BEAT

The category median for paid search + paid social + display.

Your Better tier typically lands 8–15% below the median — the math is in the channel mix and the brand floor, not the bid strategy. The model anchors against this benchmark, then optimizes around your real CPL where you have it.

THE OUTPUT · AT $18K/MO FOR AN INDEPENDENT P&C BROKER

What an insurance plan reads like.

Illustrative figures — modelled against the WordStream 2026 T2 median ($74/lead). Your inputs would shift them. Independent brokers in SWO typically land within ±15–20% of these numbers.

ILLUSTRATIVE PLAN · INDEPENDENT P&C BROKER · $18K/MO BAND ±19%

PROJECTED CPL $68.40 ▾ 7.6% vs. WS T2 median

PAYBACK 5.8 mo net of brand layer

Search 45% Brand 22% Meta 18% Display 15%

WHAT YOU GET

A media budget tuned to the insurance cycle.

Cycle-aware mix

Search-heavy near the trigger, brand-layer-on for the 9 months in between. The split is anchored to the long-cycle in-market cap (Brand Reset 2026) — not a guess.

Modelled CPL

Checked against the WordStream Insurance T2 median. The model surfaces channels under the median, flags ones over, and tells you which to scale.

A brand floor that earns its keep

eSOV anchored to your category, modelled at 20% of total spend for long-cycle categories. Below that, you forfeit the shortlist. Above that, the math says it compounds.

QUESTIONS FROM BROKERS

Three things brokers ask first.

Does this fit independent brokers, or only big agencies?

Built for independent P&C brokers specifically. The model honours how your book actually grows — net-new policies, retention, cross-sell into your existing book. Agency-sized accounts get more granular cohort modelling; brokers your size get the same engine, sized to your real budget.

We already run Google Ads, Local Services Ads, and carrier-supplied marketing. Does this conflict?

It layers on top of what you already run, not against it. The model maps your current spend, shows where dollars are working (LSAs at the renewal trigger, Search for the in-market window), where they aren’t (display impressions with no attention quality), and where the brand layer pays back even when Search alone looks like it’s working on weekly reports.

If LocaliQ runs the media, do we keep our brand?

You stay the brand. LocaliQ is the execution arm — creative names your firm, your team owns the relationship, campaigns run under your accounts. The plan is the structure; the brand is yours. The reason this is a consulting engagement, not a white-label takeover.