If your independent insurance agency is relying on organic reach, you’re probably seeing exactly the return that you’ve invested in - minimal. According to Adweek, the average organic post reaches only 2.6% of your audience.
Short answer: Definitely.
Of all the paid advertising platforms available to small businesses and independent insurance agents, few offer the ROI of Facebook.
First of all, there’s the aforementioned size issue. Nearly one-fifth of the world’s population - some 1.5 billion people - use Facebook today. According to the Pew Research Center, in the U.S. alone 70% of Facebook users access the site on a daily basis. Some 43% of Facebook users access the site several times each day.
Some have argued that Facebook is “graying.” Others have claimed that it’s being buried by upstart social platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. However, 82% of 18 to 29 year olds are actively engaged in Facebook. Facebook is the common meeting ground of Americans of all stripes, colors, creeds, races, ages, etc. It’s highly unlikely that your prospects aren’t on Facebook.
Like most advertising platforms, Facebook is only as effective as the strategist creating the ad campaign. If your strategy has been a one-size-fits-all, traditional advertising campaign, you may be unintentionally breaking the social conventions of the platform. Keep these tips in mind when you’re working on your next campaign.
Focus on finding the right people
You could target all the people, but you’ll have more success if you use Facebook’s highly sophisticated targeting tools to find the right audience. Use Facebook’s Ad Manager to target specific subsets based on location, gender, personal interests, life events, and even purchasing habits.
You can actually target married Millennial women who have recently taken out a mortgage and are interested in insurance. That’s how focused you can be. You can create “lookalike” audiences based on your current clients or create altogether new client profiles to reach previously unexplored segments of the population. The possibilities are limitless.
Create a compelling ad set (or two)
Even with paid Facebook advertising, you’ll have competition. Take time to look at what your competition (or comparable agency’s in other markets) as you’re developing your ad campaign. Be sure that the end product looks modern because an old-fashioned design can be the death of a brand. Include an attention-grabbing and relevant image, short and compelling copy, and a Call To Action (CTA). Facebook provides plenty of options, including: Apply Now, Download, Get Quote, Learn More, Sign Up, and Subscribe.
Track your ad’s performance
Once you’ve targeted your audience and created a compelling ad set, track the ad’s performance through Facebook’s data analytics tools. The Ad Manager will allow you to gain insights into which demographic responds best to which ad, and it now gives you the option to create split tests, elsewhere known as A/B tests, to compare the performance of two slightly different ads to one another.
Adjust accordingly
As you track the performance of your insurance agency’s ads, make adjustments to improve your results. That may be switching out images, rewording, or even re-targeting. Keeping tabs on your Facebook ad spend isn’t just good for business, it’s good for advertising. Unlike traditional platforms, Facebook advertising allows you to constantly fine tune your strategy for the greatest impact.
At AgenciesOnline, we work with independent insurance agencies to develop powerful, multi-platform marketing strategies that’ll keep your agency at the industry forefront. Get in touch today to learn how we do it.