Create Great Facebook Ads – the Guide For Insurance Agents

Facebook ads can be a powerful way for insurance agents to directly reach prospects and convert them into customers. While it probably shouldn’t be the only channel you rely on, knowing how to create great Facebook ads can help you grow your insurance business. Meanwhile, you can save money that might have otherwise been wasted on ineffective ads. Or, if you can get your ROI high enough, you might be able to justify investing even more in Facebook ads based on the number of insurance customers you get in return.

Creating the best Facebook ads for insurance requires understanding several components, including the rules around ads that pertain to your business, the creative aspect of Facebook ads, and the way in which you measure results to improve over time. So, before you put too much marketing budget into Facebook ads blindly, aim to brush up on your knowledge of how to create great Facebook ads for insurance.

If you want to learn how you can leverage Facebook ads to attract more small commercial property and casualty insurance clients, we can help. Click the button below to learn more.

Know the Rules

Before you get too far into creating Facebook ads for your insurance business, it’s important to know which rules you need to follow. These rules can include a mix of regulations related to your insurance business, data privacy rules, and Facebook’s own requirements for creating ads.

Insurance Regulations

Depending on factors like your location and specific line of insurance, there may be certain advertising rules you need to follow, such as around information that needs to be included and avoiding misleading claims (which you should want to do anyway).

You may not think of these regulations right away due to the speed of creating Facebook ads compared to, say, print ads, but it’s important to consider any insurance advertising regulations that you need to follow. Consult with relevant experts such as an attorney to see what applies to you specifically.

Privacy Laws

Also, be mindful of any non-insurance-specific privacy laws you may need to follow, or at least consider following them as a best practice if they’re not legally required. The specific rules can vary based on factors like your location, so you may want to consult with a relevant expert such as a lawyer. In general, however, try to be thoughtful around respecting people’s privacy, such as by safely storing any data you collect related to your ads and respecting people’s wishes to not be contacted. 

Facebook Policies

Also, keep in mind that Facebook has its own policies around what’s okay and not okay with ads. For example, if your ad links out to a landing page, that page has to be relevant to what’s in the ad copy. You wouldn’t want to bait-and-switch prospects, for example, by creating an ad that has nothing to do with insurance only to then try to sell them an insurance policy on your landing page.

Creating Insurance Agent Facebook Ads

Once you know what the rules are when creating Facebook ads, insurance agents should then aim to optimize their ads by focusing on areas like:

Ad Types

Insurance agents can choose from several different ad formats, which can ultimately affect the success of your campaigns. For example, you can choose a static photo, a video, or a slideshow ad.

Facebook ads for insurance agents can also vary based on the way they’re delivered and the direct outcome they can lead to. Lead ads, for example, can be used as a more direct lead generation tool. When someone clicks on your ad, a lead gen form pops up that comes pre-populated with the contact information they have stored with Facebook.

Or, insurance agents might choose a different ad type, such as link ads, to drive prospects to a landing page. If you don’t think you’d be able to get prospects directly from seeing the ad to completing a lead gen form, such as if you’re advertising about a more nuanced area of insurance that requires more information on a landing page, then a link ad that takes people to another site could be the way to go.

Using a platform like Wheelhouse to set up targeted landing pages for insurance prospects can be a great way to get more out of your Facebook ads.

Visuals

Whether you decide to go with a format such as a static photo, video, or slideshow, you’ll need to think carefully about the visuals you use. Consider what would make your audience stop their scrolling and engage with your ad. A generic stock image might not cut it, so it could be worth it to, say, hire a freelance graphic designer to create something more unique and eye-catching. Take a look at Facebook’s specifications for things like image size before you create graphics. 

Ad Copy

Getting the wording right is also critical to Facebook ad success for insurance agents. Think about what types of ads catch your own attention, especially in a business context, as you craft your messaging. You also may want to work with a freelance copywriter who can help you write ad copy that converts. 

Also, keep in mind that Facebook has recommendations around the text. For example, in a Facebook image ad, they recommend using up to 125 characters of text in the main copy, which isn’t very much. Although you can add more, there’s a risk that the text will get cut off on the viewer’s screen. Plus, you don’t want to bore your audience by being too wordy.

CTA

In addition to the main text in your ad, you also need to nail the call-to-action (CTA). Depending on the action you’re trying to initiate, e.g., clicking through to a landing page or filling out a lead gen form, you’ll likely want to adjust what you say to get viewers to take that intended action. Depending on the type of ad campaign you choose, Facebook offers a variety of CTA copy options you can choose from, such as “Contact Us”, “Get Quote”, or “Send Message”.

Finding Success With Facebook Ads for Insurance 

Designing an ad that’s in the right format, has great visuals, copy and killer CTA is still only part of what’s needed for creating the best Facebook ads for insurance. Agents also need to focus on who they reach with their ads and how they measure results. 

Targeting

One of the great things about advertising on Facebook, in comparison to organic posts, is that with ads you can select a target audience. While those who follow you and engage on your organic posts are the most likely to see your regular social media posts, Facebook ads allow you to target anyone. You can filter by factors like location, age, and interests. You wouldn’t want to spend money having teenagers in Tennessee click on your ad if that’s not who’s typically purchasing insurance policies from you. Instead, you want to target people who would likely be high-quality leads, such as people in your state interested in business and finance. 

Tracking Outcomes

Once you start running Facebook ads, it’s important to track your results to see what’s working and what’s not. That way, you can improve your ROI over time. Facebook Ads Manager, a built-in tool, can help you measure how your ads are performing so that you can then get a sense of whether you need to change direction or not.

Keep in mind that while you can still use the Facebook pixel to track what prospects do off of Facebook, such as buying an insurance policy on your website, recent privacy changes have limited the extent the Pixel can be used. In particular, Apple has updated its privacy options to enable iOS users to opt-out of app tracking.

“As a result of these changes, advertisers running campaigns to iOS 14.5 and later users will be impacted by limitations on data sharing,” explains Facebook. 

If you’d like to learn more about how you can still use the pixel amidst these changes, Facebook offers extensive documentation on its site. 

A/B Testing

One way for insurance agents to improve outcomes without overly relying on things like pixels is to A/B test Facebook ads. You might find that you’re not getting much traction with your ads, but how do you know if that’s because of the copy, the design, or other factors? 

With A/B testing, you can narrow down what’s happening, as half your audience will see one ad and half will see another. So, in one ad you might try an ad that has just five words of copy, whereas another has 10. Then, you can see which one does better. If that doesn’t seem to make a difference, then you can isolate other variables, like testing out two different types of images.

In addition to formal A/B tests through Facebook, you can do your own experimentation. For example, one month you might run link ads and another month you might run lead ads, so you can see which ad type helps your business more.

See How You Do With Facebook Ads for Insurance

While there are many components that insurance agents need to keep in mind to create great Facebook ads, doing this research, analysis and testing can be worth it. As you refine your Facebook ads, you can pull in more high-quality leads. 

From there, using tools like Wheelhouse can help you close deals, such as when prospects click through on an ad to your website, where they can then obtain bindable quotes through the platform.

Facebook ads are not a guaranteed path to success, but they should be part of your overall marketing strategy and can help many insurance agents grow.