Ask any insurance agent about their least favorite part of their job and they are bound to say, “cold calling.”
Making one call after another using the same old, tired script quickly gets boring. What’s worse? Producing zero decent leads after a long day of calling.
If you’re tired of prospects not answering your team’s calls—or getting hung-up on—consider Facebook ads. They have the potential to be a game changer.
In this article, we’ll examine how insurance agents are cashing-in on Facebook ads, provide a step-by-step plan for creating effective Facebook ad campaigns, and give you some great examples of Facebook ads that produce results.
biBERK gets right to the point with a call-to-action (CTA) headline.
What is Facebook advertising for insurance agents?
Surely, you’ve browsed around Facebook when suddenly an ad caught your eye. Facebook ads for insurance agents are paid ads that businesses like yours display on Facebook.
Did you notice the ad promoted the kind of product you’re normally interested in? That’s no accident. Facebook has an automated Ad Manager that allows advertisers to set parameters, so ads only display for people with a propensity to take interest.
If you offer a product that appeals to married people who are homeowners and own cars, you can specifically target the audience with Facebook ads. If you have a life insurance product for a specific demographic of people, Facebook ads for insurance agents will sniff-out qualified leads for you.
10 reasons why Facebook ads produce leads
Lots of ads pop up every time you pull up your Facebook page because advertisers are getting results. If you’re searching around for any kind of insurance product, you’re apt to start seeing ads for the same insurance product on Facebook. See, tiny bits of code track the websites you visit.
I’ve collected data to show you how prominent Facebook is and why ads on the channel for insurance agents are so effective:
- Facebook is the world’s largest social media network.
- Around 2.89 billion people spend time on Facebook daily.
- All 2.89 billion people need some type of insurance, and you have the potential to reach them.
- 56% of the people who visit Facebook are on the hunt for information.
- Mobile ads generated 94% of ad revenue in Q2 in 2019.
- As of Q3, 2020, Facebook had over 20 million advertisers.
- Facebook ads for insurance agents deliver a good value for your marketing dollars.
- Facebook ads provide the highest ROI of all paid ad channels.
- Your future customers are also on Facebook, as the platform has an annual growth rate of 57%.
- Facebook ad campaigns are measurable.
You don’t need a marketing expert to create your first Facebook ads campaign. Setting up a Facebook ad campaign is easy.
10 steps for creating effective Facebook advertising for insurance leads
Facebook designed its Facebook Ads Manager platform to be user-friendly. Even if you don’t consider yourself tech-savvy, the following step-by-step approach can help you quickly create an effective Facebook Ads campaign.
- Set up a Facebook Ads Manager account
Your Ads Mangager account is your hub where you’ll manage all your ads and campaigns. It’s also where you’ll find analytics to monitor your metrics so you can track performance, assess your results, and adjust your campaigns.
Be aware that you will not be able to access your Ads Manager account through your personal Facebook page. You can only access it through your business Facebook page. If you do not have a business Facebook page, you will need to set one up first.
2. Create a new Facebook Ad campaign
A dashboard appears when you log into your Ads Manager account. You’ll see a snapshot of all your ad campaigns and individual ads. You can even create sets of ads and get data for them. Just choose the tab for a new ad campaign, ad set, or ad, and click the green button marked “create.”
3. Choose the objective
The Ads Manager will allow you to choose from the following 11 objectives:
- Brand
- Conversions
- Catalog sales
- Engagement
- App installs
- Video views
- Lead generation
- Messages
- Store traffic
- Reach
- Traffic
Choose objectives aligned with your business and marketing goals. Bear in mind the Facebook Ads platform will charge you per action for conversion-related objectives such as sales. You will get charged separately for the number of impressions you get for exposure-related objectives such as views or traffic.
4. Give your campaign a name
This is an important step because you can easily set up A/B testing, and by naming each campaign, you will know which ads are performing better. At this point, you can also set up A/B testing by clicking on the “create A/B test” field.
After you create campaign A, you simply create a duplicate version of the first campaign to create a B version. You’ll also need to name your ad set.
5. Establish an ad budget and schedule your campaign
Facebook helps you manage your budget by allowing you to set a daily limit on ad spend. They will pace your ads to display throughout the day. Alternatively, you can set a lifetime budget for a longer period, and Facebook will pace your ad spend over that timeframe.
6. Create a target audience or a lookalike audience
To start, you may want to create a custom audience. Click on “create new” and select from choices such as Facebook users in your company’s contact database, those who use your platform, or those who visited a page on your site.
You can also segment your audience by age, gender, and language. You can include or exclude cities by size. Once you make your selections, the Ads Manager will give you a ballpark of your audience size. Finally, you can narrow your audience by checking various demographics and by who they already know on Facebook.
7. Decide where you want your ads to appear
Until you get more familiar with the platform, it’s generally best to select “automatic placements.” Facebook will simplify the task by placing your ads on their various media properties including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the audience network. Once you get more comfortable with ad campaigns, you can toy around with manual placements that give you more control.
8. Design your Facebook ad
The platform will ask you to input text, headlines, colors, images, media, and other specifics. You can create an entertaining video or slideshow. The preview tool will give you a look at your final design. When you are finished creating your ad, simply click on “publish” to launch your ad.
9. Monitor your ad campaigns using your dashboard
Facebook suggests you monitor the following metrics:
- Performance
- Engagement
- Videos
- Website
- Apps
- Events
- Clicks
- Other settings (start date, objective, delivery, bid, etc.)
Start with the most relevant metrics to get the scope of your ad performance.
10. Set up reporting for customized reports
To create custom reports and access them through your email, follow these steps:
- Click on “Analyze and Report” on the main menu.
- Click on “Ads Reporting” and then “Create Custom Report.”
- Select a report and open it.
- Select “Save As”, name your report, and check “Schedule Email.”
- Continue following the prompts to change or confirm your reporting preferences.
Congratulations! You have successfully created Facebook ads for insurance agents bound to generates leads
How to design effective Facebook Insurance ads
Think about your primary goal.
- What do you hope to accomplish?
- Are you looking for more leads and sales?
- Do you want to keep your brand visible so current clients will keep coming back and refer others?
- Are you launching a new product?
- Do you have a promotion?
- Are you hosting a special event?
Next, think about how you can deliver a value-based message. You will want make it ultra-clear how your product helps.
Finally, consider how you can give your ad impact using negative space, provocative content, and compelling images. Concise, short text work best.
Want to understand the specs? Facebook has ad specs for image ads, video ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads, and collection ads you need to be mindful of.
Examples of eye-catching Facebook insurance ads
Let’s look at examples of eye-catching Facebook Ads…
The most glaring thing about this ad its use of white space. Nothing distracts you from the company branding or the message. The ad caters to SMBs and the company offers all forms of business insurance.
Trusted Choice decided to tell their story in a photo. At a glance, consumers learn that the company offers boat insurance, and they do not want customers to miss a day on the lake. A clickable CTA would make this ad perfect.
The correlation this ad draws between covering your property and your livelihood is visionary. One look at this ad and it is easy to envision having a secure covering over you that provides with safety and security. The CTA is prominently placed in the center of the ad.
This ad features an attention-grabbing message. It also sends a message to young people that now is the time to buy life insurance.