How to Effectively Optimize Facebook Ads

Insurance social marketing is a valuable tool in the digital marketplace. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow insurance businesses to connect with new audiences. Of the many social media platforms available, Facebook stands out as the premier channel for social marketing campaigns. In this guide, we will explore how to leverage the power of Facebook ads to get the best return on investment for your insurance social marketing efforts.

The Power of Facebook

Since its launch in 2004, social media platform Facebook has grown to dominate the social media landscape. Today, over 1.5 billion users visit the platform every day, and that number is only growing by the week. Adults aged 65 and over are the fastest-growing segment on Facebook; this demographic group is a prime target for insurance social marketing. How important are Facebook ads in your digital marketing toolbox? Consider:

• 93% of social media marketers turn to Facebook Ads first.
• Ad impressions on the platform outrank all other social media channels.
• Advertisers spent over $25 billion on Facebook Ads in 2019.
• A single Facebook Ad reaches nearly 2 million users on average.
• Facebook Ads resulted in 36 billion phone calls to U.S. based businesses alone in 2019.

If your agency is not yet using Facebook Ads to reach new customers, you may be missing out on a prime opportunity for brand awareness and business growth.

Optimizing Facebook Ads: Planning and Building Your Campaign

Digital marketers know that ad campaigns without direction rarely have the desired impact. For insurance businesses, the first part of achieving your marketing goals with Facebook Ads is to identify your objectives. Who do you want to reach? What performance metrics do you want to hit? Why are you choosing Facebook over other marketing channels? The answers to each of these questions can help inform the next part of the Ads puzzle – developing the ads themselves.

Facebook Ads generally fall into four categories:

• Reach – getting your Ad in front of as many people as possible.
• Brand awareness – building your brand by targeting the groups most likely to respond to your ads.
• Traffic – driving visits to your company’s website or other online destination.
• Engagement – boosting the interaction with your customers to build loyalty and trust.

For your given objectives and needs, your ads must be tailored to specific audiences. Each of the four categories require different approaches. For example, a brand awareness ad may focus on the attributes and benefits of using your agency products and services, while an engagement ad helps to tell the story of your business and why it is the ideal solution for viewers’ insurance needs.

The Importance of Audience Targeting

Your audience on social media channels like Facebook may not be one discrete group. Insurance customers have different needs, different preferences, and are at different stages in their lives. By understanding that a one-size-fits-all approach rarely produces results in Facebook Ads, your insurance social marketing efforts can become more focused on segmented audiences.

Thankfully, Facebook offers marketers a wide range of tools for identifying specific audiences. You are able to choose groups based on:

• Age
• Location
• Language
• Interests
• Gender
• Behavior preferences

Remember that delivering the information and details specific audiences need is the key to creating conversions. With Facebook Ads, you are able to drive potential customers to take the next step in the purchasing funnel, driving business growth at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.

Choosing Facebook Ad Options

Facebook Ads are versatile, allowing insurance social marketing campaigns to reach a wide range of audiences. To achieve the best return on your Ads investment, consider two critical factors: format and frequency.

Ad formats have expanded from text-based or graphical forms and now incorporate downloadable content and video content. Video is the format king in recent years, and the engagement rate Is impressive at just over 6%. Facebook Ad videos are incredibly cost-efficient, costing only a fraction of other advertising channels. Consider adding video content – either prerecorded or live streams – to boost engagement with your agency.

How often should Facebook Ads be run? While there is no single answer to this question, Facebook conducted a study in 2016 that two Ads per week captured 95% of the total brand lift in a given campaign. Running only one Ad captured 80% of the brand lift. The key here is to be consistent, running ads on a regular schedule. For insurance social marketing, a single well-crafted ad each week can help propel your business to new levels of growth, while two may push that growth even higher. The rate of return declines as ad frequency increases; overwhelming your audiences with too-frequent ads can harm your prospects.

Insurance social marketing with Facebook Ads is a powerful and efficient way to build your agency’s brand while sharing details about your products and services. With the tips above, a few clicks of the mouse, and a modest budget, you can get the most out of your next social media ad campaign.

About Agency Tsunami

Agency Tsunami is the digital marketing division of Neilson Marketing Services, who has provided the insurance distribution sector with innovative marketing and communication solutions for over twenty-five years. With our Agency Tsunami program, we have implemented an integrated marketing strategy that includes optimized, professional websites supported by high-quality SEO and Social Media for hundreds of insurance retailers and wholesalers. Our goal is to help your insurance business perform and generate new opportunities. Give us a call at (800) 736-9741 to learn more about how we can do that for you.