74.3% of insurance search ads mention a price, rate or discount, against 49.4% of all search ads. Half of the ads people see when they search now lead with money, and one in five offers something "free".
Analysis of 1,388 search ads · Bing search results in the US, September 2026
Key Findings
- 1.74.3% of insurance search ads mention a price, rate or discount, the highest of any industry, followed by real estate (66%) and auto dealers (65.9%).
- 2.49.4% of search ads mention a price, percentage or discount in their headline or description, about one ad in two.
- 3.25.2% of search ads use sale, deal, save, off, discount or coupon wording, more than twice the 11.7% that show a dollar amount.
- 4.21.9% of search ads use the word "free", rising to 55.8% of personal injury law ads.
- 5.Accounting search ads mention a price or discount 25% of the time, a third of the insurance rate and the lowest of any industry.
Summary
Search for car insurance and read the ads: a rate, a percentage saved, a "free quote". Search for an accountant and the ads talk about experience, service and specialties instead. The same ad format is used in very different ways depending on how people shop in each industry.
For an advertiser, that pattern decides how an ad stands out. In an industry where most ads lead with price, a price-led ad is one of many and a specific number has to do the work; in an industry where few ads mention price, a clear price can be the difference. Knowing what the rest of the page says is the starting point for writing an ad that gets the click.
Across all industries, 49.4% of search ads mention a price, percentage or discount, and insurance leads at 74.3%. Accounting, higher education and senior care ads mention price the least.
What we measured
In September 2026 we collected the ads shown on Bing desktop search results in the US for keywords in industries from plumbing and dental to insurance and higher education. We used Bing because 421 of its 4,454 results pages showed ads, and Microsoft Ads lets advertisers import their Google Ads campaigns directly, so Bing ads largely mirror the ads advertisers run on Google. After removing repeats, that gave 1,388 unique ads from 711 advertisers.
We tagged each ad's headline and description for prices, percentages and discount wording. An ad mentions a price or discount when it shows a dollar amount, a percentage (including interest rates), sale words such as "deal", "save", "off", "discount" or "coupon", or cheap wording such as "affordable". We tagged the word "free" separately, since a free quote or free shipping is a price claim of a different kind.
Half of search ads sell on price
That is 686 of 1,388 ads. Discount language is the most common form: one ad in four, 25.2%, uses sale, deal, save, off, discount or coupon. Specific numbers are rarer. 11.7% show a dollar amount and 10.8% a percentage, which includes interest rates and APRs.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 1,388 search ads · Bing search results in the US, September 2026
The gap between vague and specific is the opening for advertisers. Twice as many ads say "save" or "deal" as name an actual price, so a concrete figure is one of the few ways to look different on a page full of discount words.
"Free" is the offer of service businesses
21.9% of search ads use the word "free". It clusters in services where the first step is a conversation: 55.8% of personal injury law ads, 36.5% of insurance ads and 31.6% of accounting and HVAC ads use it, in phrases such as free consultation, free quote and free estimate.
Personal injury firms are the clearest case. Their pitch is that the first step costs the injured person nothing, and more than half of their ads say so. A firm that leaves "free" out of its ad is likely to sit next to one that puts it in the headline.
Insurance, real estate and auto ads lead with price
Insurance ads are the most price-led, at 74.3%, followed by real estate (66%), auto dealers (65.9%), banking and loans (56.8%) and plumbing (54%). These are products shoppers compare on a single number: a premium, a rate, a monthly payment or a call-out fee.
Source: Suff Digital analysis of 1,388 search ads · Bing search results in the US, September 2026
At the other end, accounting (25%), higher education (27.9%) and senior care (33.3%) mention price the least. These are services that are hard to reduce to one figure, where the buyer is choosing a relationship as much as a price, so the ads lead with expertise and trust instead.
What this means for search advertisers
If you sell on price, you are competing with half the page on the same message. A specific number ("$89 drain cleaning") stands out more than a generic "affordable", because only about one ad in nine shows a dollar figure. Put the number in the headline, not the description, where it is seen first.
If you do not want to compete on price, make that the angle. In industries where most ads lead with discounts, an ad that leads with speed, a guarantee or review count reads differently. Test a price-led ad against a trust-led ad in the same ad group and let conversion rates, not click rates alone, decide. Our ppc management services start every account by reading the ads already on the page, so new ads say something the competition does not.
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/search-ads-price-discount-mentions">74% of Insurance Search Ads Mention a Price or Discount vs 49% of All Search Ads - Suff Digital</a></p>
Cite this study
Suff Digital. (2026). 74% of Insurance Search Ads Mention a Price or Discount vs 49% of All Search Ads. https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/search-ads-price-discount-mentions
74% of Insurance Search Ads Mention a Price or Discount vs 49% of All Search Ads - Suff Digital - https://www.suffdigital.com/resources/data-studies/search-ads-price-discount-mentions
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