Nick Berry

Paid Advertising Playbook: How Independent Insurance Agencies Should Use Google, Facebook, and YouTube Ads

TL;DR

Use Google Ads only for high-intent, local keywords with simple landing pages and track real leads (60+ sec calls).
Run Facebook/Instagram ads with first-party data, meme-style creatives, and filtered lead forms to pre-qualify prospects.
Use YouTube ads to build trust with local video content that boosts Google and Facebook results.
Ads only work with tight tracking, fast follow-up, and scaling once cost per qualified lead is proven.

A Paid Advertising Playbook That Doesn’t Waste Your Budget

Most insurance agencies are lighting money on fire with paid ads.

They boost random Facebook posts, run Google campaigns full of broad match keywords, and send traffic to some clunky page their website guy threw together back in 2018. Then they wonder why nothing works.

Paid ads can drive a steady stream of qualified leads, but only if you treat them like a system, not a slot machine. That’s what this paid advertising playbook is about. No guesswork. No guru fluff. Just a clear breakdown of how independent insurance agencies should actually use Google, Facebook, and YouTube to get real results.

If you’re tired of chasing clicks that don’t convert and leads that never pick up the phone, keep reading. This is the paid advertising playbook I wish someone handed me years ago, back when I was dumping money into ads that felt more like hope than strategy.

We’re going to walk through each platform, show you where to play and what to avoid, and lay out the only metrics that matter. It’s not flashy, but it works.

Let’s start with Google, the one place where intent still means something.

Paid Advertising Playbook for Google Search

Most agencies blow their Google budget in the first week. Not because the platform doesn’t work, but because they treat it like a digital billboard instead of a precision tool.

Here’s the deal: Google Search is your highest intent channel. People aren’t scrolling. They’re searching. That means if someone types “home insurance quote near me,” they’re ready to talk. But only if your ad shows up clean, clear, and targeted.

Where to Play
Stick to what is most profitable. That means local home and commercial insurance. Focus on your local area, exact and phrase match only. No broad match. Ever. You’re not trying to get “insurance” traffic from someone 90 miles away looking for pet coverage.

Use keywords that scream intent:

“Home insurance quote near me”
“Commercial general liability insurance small business”
“Business insurance for contractors [your city]”

Where to Avoid
Auto and life might look tempting, but don’t take the bait. Click costs are high, competition is fierce, and you’ll drown in junk leads. You’ll spend $40 to talk to someone who’s just comparing rates because their auto rates jumped $3 a year.

What No One Tells You
Just because someone clicks your ad doesn’t mean they’re a dream client. In fact, many Google leads are coming in hot, not shopping early, not relaxed, not looking for a relationship.

They’re reacting.

They just got a cancellation notice. Their rates shot up. They forgot to pay and now their coverage is gone.

They want help fast, and they don’t want to chit-chat.

You can absolutely close these leads, but you better know what kind of fire you’re walking into. Set your team up to respond quickly and ask the right questions, otherwise, you’re back to burning cash.

How to Set It Up
Your ads need to do three things:

Get calls. Use call extensions. Push people to phone, not just forms.
Show you’re local. Add location extensions, don’t pretend to be national when you’re not.
Collect just enough. Short quote forms. Three fields: phone, email, ZIP. That’s it.

Now, here’s where most agencies screw it up: they treat every call like a win. Wrong.

Only track calls that last over 60 seconds as conversions. If someone hangs up before that, it wasn’t a lead. It was a wrong number or a tire kicker.

Landing Page Rules
Don’t send traffic to your homepage. Build one page per line of business, home, work comp, etc.

That page should:

Load fast
Say exactly what you do in plain language
Ask for the minimum info (again: name, phone, email, ZIP)
Make it feel like help is right around the corner, not some faceless call center

When to Scale
Don’t add budget because you think it’s working. Scale only when your cost per qualified lead is consistent, and your team can handle the volume. Not before.

Throwing more money at a half-broken funnel just turns small problems into expensive ones.

Bonus Time: Make sure you’re targeting your agency name in an exact match search also, put $5 a day budget on it. Worst case scenario you’re forcing your competitors to spend some money. Best case scenario, you’re showing up at the very top of Google.

Extra Bonus Time: The same things we’re talking about here also work for Bing!

Action Item:
Pull your last 30 days of Google ad spend.

If you’re using broad match, pause those keywords today.
If you’re tracking all calls as conversions, switch to 60+ second calls only.
And if you’re sending paid traffic to your homepage, stop. Build a separate page for your top line of business this week.

Paid Advertising Playbook for Facebook and Instagram

Most agents are still trying to run Facebook ads like it’s 2017. Boost a post, write “Call us today!” in the caption, and send the leads to a landing page that looks like it was made on geocities. That era’s dead.

Targeting is wide. Tracking’s fuzzy. Retargeting is weaker than ever. But if you know how to play it, Facebook and Instagram can still feed your pipeline, you just have to do the filtering yourself, before the lead even clicks.

Start With First-Party Data
Facebook’s best weapon right now isn’t interest targeting, it’s your own list. Upload your leads, past quotes, and current clients. Build lookalike audiences off those people, and lock them into tight ZIP code targeting around your best neighborhoods. You can either use a pin drop and a 1 mile radius or target the best zip codes in town.

This doesn’t just help Facebook learn who to show your ads to. It keeps your spend focused on real opportunities, not someone 40 miles away who’s just browsing while standing in line at Target.

Pre-Qualify in the Copy, Not After the Click
Let’s call this what it is: broad targeting means you’re going to attract a mix of people, and a lot of them won’t be a fit. That’s why you need to filter right in the ad itself.

The trick? Make the wrong people scroll past. Make the right people stop cold.

Try lines like:

“Own a home in [city] and sick of premium hikes?”
“We help business owners with 2–50 employees in [city] get affordable coverage.”
“Did you just get a crazy renewal notice? Might be time for a checkup.”

These aren’t clever. They’re clear. And that’s what qualifies.

Memes and Meme-Style Video Are Crushing Right Now
If you’re not testing memes, you’re behind.

The scroll is brutal. Your face-to-camera video isn’t going to win unless it grabs attention instantly, and memes are winning that first second.

Run meme graphics with clear local hooks:

A screenshot of a rate increase with a funny caption
A side-by-side of “Before switching agents / After switching agents”
Insurance-adjacent trending formats (yes, even using that viral cat or that SpongeBob text)

Even better? Meme-style videos with subtitles, snappy pacing, and humor that’s just edgy enough to feel real. Not corporate. Not safe. Not fake.

Pair the meme with strong copy and a filtered form, and you’ll get better leads at half the cost.

Set Up Lead Ads With Built-In Filters

No more name + email = lead. That’s just collecting noise. In addition to contact details ask two simple qualifying questions:

Property type or business category
Policy renewal date or coverage need

Bonus Tip: Lead Forms has a new feature to verify phone numbers.

This one move cuts your wasted time in half. Your team should only talk to people who can buy, not just people who clicked.

Follow-Up Still Wins the Game
Every great ad dies if your follow-up game is weak.

What actually works:

Immediate SMS and email (within 5 minutes)
Live call on day 1 and day 3, during working hours only
A 10-day drip with a human tone and clear next steps

You don’t need a fancy nurture sequence. You need to sound local, be fast, and follow through.

Test Simple, Local Offers
Skip the buzzwords. Stick with offers like:

“Home policy checkup for [city] homeowners”
“Commercial coverage review for small businesses”
“Bundle and save quote from a real local agent”

You’re not selling insurance in general. You’re offering help with a specific problem in a specific place.

The Goal
You’re not chasing clicks. You’re building a predictable pipeline of pre-qualified leads. And with targeting as broad as it is, your ad copy and creative have to do the filtering upfront.

Meme it. Name it. Filter it. Follow up fast.

Action Item:
Create one meme or meme-style video ad this week.

Use a real local hook or inside joke
Write copy that calls out your ideal client clearly
Set up a lead form with two filters (property type and renewal date)
Launch to a 1% lookalike audience layered with ZIP code targeting around your top-performing neighborhoods

Paid Advertising Playbook for YouTube

Let’s clear something up, YouTube isn’t where your leads start, but it’s often why they close.

Most insurance agents ignore it completely because it doesn’t spit out form fills like Facebook or Google. But that’s missing the point. YouTube is where trust gets built at scale. It’s the quiet multiplier that makes everything else work better.

Think of YouTube as Air Cover for Your Brand
When someone clicks your Google ad or sees your Facebook offer, they’re going to look you up. If all they find is your Google Business listing and a basic website, you’re just another agency.

But if they find a short video of you explaining coverage, or a testimonial from a real client in your town? Now you’re a real person. Now they trust you.

YouTube doesn’t replace your other campaigns, it makes them stronger.

The Winning Creative Stack
Don’t overthink production. Your iPhone and a lapel mic are enough. The key is matching your videos to the stage of the buyer’s journey.

Here’s what to run:

6-second bumper ads
- Pure awareness. Think: “Serving [City] homeowners since 2004.” Done.
15–30 second skippable ads
- One simple message with a clear CTA: “Need better coverage for your small business? Get a local quote today.”
60–90 second explainers or testimonials
- Real clients talking about real problems you helped them solve. Or you walking through a common issue (like roof age or claims history) in plain language.

The Content Doesn’t Have to Sell, It Has to Reassure
This isn’t about being an influencer. It’s about showing up like a pro.

When someone’s comparing quotes, they’ll remember the guy or gal from YouTube who didn’t sound like a robot.
If your competitor has a polished site but zero video presence, you just pulled ahead.

Who to Target (and How)
YouTube targeting isn’t about keywords anymore. It’s about audiences:

ZIP code targeting to stay local
In-market audiences for home, commercial insurance
Custom segments built from your search campaigns (this is how you follow someone across platforms)
Channel-based targeting, yes, you can run ads in front of specific YouTube channels

That means you can show your ad to people watching content from:

Real estate agents
Mortgage lenders
Business finance channels
Local news or community-focused creators

If your ideal clients are hanging out on those channels, you can show up right before the video starts.

How to Measure What Matters
If you expect leads from YouTube clicks, you’ll be disappointed. But if you watch the right signals, you’ll see how it boosts performance across the board:

View rate (are people even paying attention?)
Earned views (do they go watch another video after?)
Branded search and direct traffic increases (more people looking for you)
Higher Facebook and Google lead quality (because people know who they’re dealing with)

Bonus Move: Retarget Video Viewers on Facebook
Anyone who watches your YouTube video can become a warm audience on Facebook or Instagram. Drop them into your funnel with a lead ad, now your follow-up will land with 10x more trust.

The Goal
YouTube is about momentum. Visibility. Familiarity. If you’re not showing up there, your competitors will, and they’ll win before the quote even happens.

Action Item:
Record one 30–60 second video this week. Pick one of these:

A simple explanation of a coverage type
A testimonial from a happy client
A “who we help” message filmed at your office

Upload it to YouTube.
Then run it as a skippable ad targeted to:

Your ZIP codes
In-market insurance audiences
Viewers of one or two YouTube channels your ideal clients already watch

Next in the paid advertising playbook: the tools, tracking, and timing that turn random ad spend into a system you can scale.

Tools and Timing in the Paid Advertising Playbook

Here’s the ugly truth: most ad campaigns don’t fail because the targeting was off or the creative missed. They fail because there’s no system to catch the lead once it shows up.

The best campaigns in the world won’t save you if your call tracking is a mess, your follow-up is slow, and your reporting looks like a coloring book.

This is where the grown-up part of paid advertising kicks in.

Only Track What Matters
If you’re counting every call or form as a win, you’re lying to yourself. Not every lead is a lead. Not every call is a conversion.

Here’s what actually matters:

Calls lasting over 60 seconds
Forms with complete info and real contact details
Booked appointments or quote-ready conversations

Use tools like CallRail or Twilio for call tracking, and set up rules so only meaningful calls count. If someone dials and hangs up, that’s not a lead. That’s noise.

Speed to Lead Still Wins
Fast response beats fancy branding every time.

You need an engine that does three things, automatically:

Sends a text and email within 5 minutes of form fill
Triggers a live call attempt on day 1 and again on day 3
Runs a 10-day follow-up cadence that feels human, not robotic

You don’t need a CRM with 9 dashboards and 22 automation sequences. You need speed, clarity, and consistency.

Lead Routing: Manual or Automated, Just Pick One
Whether you assign leads manually or round-robin through your team, the worst thing you can do is let leads sit in limbo. If nobody knows who’s following up, nobody follows up.

Use Slack, Trello, or even a shared inbox, but make it crystal clear who owns the next step.

Reporting Basics That Actually Help You Optimize
Stop obsessing over impressions and click-through rates. Instead, track:

Cost per qualified lead (CPL)
Quote rate per lead source
Closed deals per campaign

Check these weekly. Look for patterns. Did YouTube viewers close faster? Are Facebook leads cheaper but harder to quote? Good. Now you know where to adjust.

Start Slow. Scale Only When It’s Working.
Too many agency owners spend big early, panic when it doesn’t convert, then kill the whole thing. That’s not strategy. That’s gambling.

Start with a small budget per channel. Let the data come in. Watch where the good leads are coming from. Then (and only then) raise your spend, but only in the campaigns that are earning it.

You’re not trying to win the internet. You’re building a system that feeds your pipeline every single week.

The Goal
Your paid advertising playbook isn’t just about traffic. It’s about infrastructure, tight tracking, fast follow-up, clean handoffs, and honest reporting. Without this, you’re throwing money into a black hole and calling it “marketing.”

Action Item:
Audit your lead flow. This week, do three things:

Set up call tracking and only count calls over 60 seconds
Create an auto-response that sends an SMS and email within 5 minutes of any form fill
Assign one person to own every lead for the next 30 days, no “who’s got this one?”

Next up in the paid advertising playbook: pulling it all together so your ads stop feeling like experiments, and start feeling like a real growth engine.

Paid Ads Work, If You Stop Guessing

Paid advertising isn’t magic, but it also isn’t complicated. When you stop throwing money at generic campaigns and start treating ads like part of a system, everything changes.

Google brings the high-intent searchers. Facebook fills your pipeline with filtered prospects. YouTube builds the trust that makes the other two convert. But none of it works without structure, tight targeting, real follow-up, and a plan that doesn’t fall apart the second things get busy.

If you’re serious about building a magnetic agency that attracts the right clients without chasing cold leads all day, this is how you get there.

And if your ads are working but your content isn’t keeping up, or worse, you’re not posting anything at all, there’s an easy next step. Agency Content Engine – Your Done For You Content Marketing Engine fills in the gaps with ready-to-run, story-driven content built for independent agencies like yours. While your ads do the hunting, your content does the attracting.

Paid ads aren’t the whole machine. But they’re the fuel. Now you’ve got the playbook, go run it.

If read all this and you’re just like fuck that, that’s too much work well you’re just the person I created the Paid Ad Commercial Insurance Pilot for.