Why are my life insurance ads costing so much per lead?

I have been running life insurance ads for a while now, and I keep coming back to the same question. Why does the cost per lead feel so high compared to other finance offers? Every time I look at my numbers, the clicks are there, but the leads feel expensive. I figured I was not the only one dealing with this, so I wanted to share what I noticed and what slightly helped me lower CPL for life insurance ads.

At first, I thought the problem was just competition. Life insurance is crowded, and everyone is chasing the same audience. But after talking to a few people in forums and testing things myself, I realized it was not just about how many advertisers are out there. It was more about how the ads were set up and who they were actually reaching.

One big pain point for me was lead quality. I was getting leads, but many of them were not serious. Some people were just curious, some did not understand what they signed up for, and others never picked up the phone. Paying for those leads hurt, especially when you are trying to keep CPL under control. It made me question if life insurance PPC even made sense for smaller budgets.

What I tried first was changing the messaging. Earlier, my ads were very general. Things like secure your family future or affordable life cover. They sounded nice, but they were too broad. Once I made the message more specific, the clicks dropped a bit, but the leads improved. I started mentioning age ranges and intent like people looking to compare policies or understand premiums. That alone filtered out a lot of low intent traffic.

Another thing I noticed was where the ads were showing. Search traffic felt strong but expensive. Display traffic was cheaper but risky. With life insurance display ads, I saw many accidental clicks at first. After tightening placements and excluding obvious low quality sites, things got better. Display still needs patience, but when it works, the CPL can be lower than search.

Landing pages were another quiet issue. Earlier, I was sending people to a page that tried to explain everything about life insurance. It was long and heavy. When I switched to a simpler page with one clear form and fewer distractions, conversion rates improved. People in insurance ads do not want to read a full guide. They want clarity and a quick next step.

One lesson that surprised me was timing. I tested running ads all day, but leads coming late at night rarely converted. When I limited ads to working hours and early evenings, CPL went down slightly. Not a huge change, but enough to matter over time.

I also learned not to chase volume too fast. When I tried to scale quickly, CPL went up. Slowing down, watching patterns, and making small changes helped more than aggressive scaling. Life insurance advertising rewards patience more than speed.

What worked for me might not work the same way for everyone, but the pattern was clear. Better intent beats more clicks. Smaller changes add up. And not every lead is worth chasing. Advertising for insurance is less about clever lines and more about matching the right person with the right message at the right time.

I am still testing and learning, and CPL is not perfect yet. But it is more stable than before. If you are struggling with high costs in life insurance ads, try stepping back and looking at quality instead of volume. Sometimes lowering CPL is not about spending less, but about wasting less.