TL;DR
- Most insurance ads fail because they play it safe, generic pain points and feature lists don’t grab attention.
- To actually improve your ads, focus on non-obvious pain, real emotion, and a strategic appeal to the reader’s ego.
- Combining all three triggers makes your message stand out, connect faster, and attract the right clients without increasing ad spend.
- If your ads aren’t stopping the scroll, it’s a messaging problem, not a budget one. Fix the message, and the results follow.
Why Most Ads Fall Flat (and How to Improve Your Ads Starting Today)
If you want to improve your ads, stop looking at your CTR and start looking at your messaging and creative. Most of the time, the problem isn’t the platform, the budget, or the targeting, it’s that the ad itself just doesn’t hit hard enough to make anyone care.
That’s the uncomfortable truth. The headline sounds safe. The image looks fine. The copy checks all the boxes. And still… crickets. Maybe a few weak leads. Maybe some clicks that go nowhere. And at some point, you start wondering if this whole paid ad thing is just a money pit.
Here’s what nobody tells you: the best way to improve your ads is to stop focusing on what you want to say and start dialing in on what your audience feels but doesn’t say out loud.
In this post, we’re getting straight to it. There are three simple but brutal triggers that will improve your ads fast:
- Hit on non-obvious pain points
- Use emotional momentum
- Speak directly to ego
They work in any industry. They don’t require new platforms or more budget. And once you start seeing them in action, you’ll wonder how you ever ran ads without them.
Let’s break each one down.
Trigger #1: Hit on Non-Obvious Pain Points to Improve Your Ads
Here’s the thing, nobody’s reacting to “save money” anymore. That pain point has been squeezed dry. If your ad starts with something generic like “protect what matters” or “get the coverage you need,” it’s already invisible.
To improve your ads, you’ve got to stop pitching the pain everyone expects and start digging into the pain they didn’t know they had until you said it.
The real magic happens when someone reads your ad and thinks, “Wait… that’s actually me.”
Not “I need insurance,” but “I’m sick of wasting half a day chasing down documents just to quote someone who ghosts me anyway.”
Not “we help small businesses,” but “if one more client tries to pay you late and smile about it, this is for you.”
These are specific. Uncomfortable. Real. And most importantly, they’re unexpected.
When you go after the less obvious frustrations, you trigger what marketers think they’re doing with “pain points,” but never actually pull off: emotional tension. That moment of recognition. The eyebrow raise. The scroll pause. The click.
This is what improves your ads without changing a single setting in your campaign.
It makes the same budget work harder because now your message isn’t blending in, it’s poking the bruise no one else is talking about.
Action Item:
Pull up three of your recent ads. Highlight every line that refers to a pain point. Now ask: is this something everyone says… or something only your ideal client would recognize and feel in their gut? Rewrite one of them today with a pain point that would only make sense to someone deep in the problem. Then run it and compare the results.
Trigger #2: Emotion Drives Response, Use It to Improve Your Ads
If you’re trying to improve your ads without emotion, you’re basically bringing a butter knife to a gunfight.
Facts don’t sell insurance. Emotion does. And yet most agents play it safe, listing coverages, carriers, and policy features like they’re reading off a menu. Meanwhile, the agents who actually get attention are out here making people feel something.
That’s what moves the needle.
You want people to stop scrolling? Hit a nerve. Get under their skin. Tap into something they’ve been trying to ignore. Emotion isn’t soft, it’s strategic.
Think about what really drives action:
- Frustration: “Why does every agent disappear after the first call?”
- Fear: “If something happened tomorrow, would your family know who to call, or would they be digging through emails?”
- Pride: “Smart business owners don’t wait until renewal to clean up their coverage.”
It doesn’t need to be dramatic. It just needs to be human.
Here’s the thing, your prospects aren’t robots shopping by rate. They’re real people trying to make smart decisions without feeling stupid, scammed, or stuck. If your ads can reflect that, you’ve already separated yourself from 90 percent of the industry.
Emotion gives your message weight. And weight makes it stick. That’s how you improve your ads in a way that actually leads to action.
Action Item:
Pick a recent ad or headline. Rewrite it three different ways, one that triggers frustration, one that leans into fear, and one that taps into pride. Then ask: which one feels the strongest? Test that one this week. The goal isn’t to be emotional just to be loud, it’s to say something your ideal client actually feels.
Trigger #3: Speak to Ego to Improve Your Ads’ Stopping Power
If you really want to improve your ads, stop trying to convince people, and start letting them convince themselves.
That’s where ego comes in.
Most insurance agents hear “ego” and think arrogance. Wrong target. Ego is that internal voice that says I’m smart, I’m responsible, I don’t screw things up. And the minute your ad speaks to that part of someone’s identity, you’ve got them.
Here’s why this works: no one wants to feel sold to. But everyone wants to feel seen, and especially, seen as competent.
So instead of “Don’t wait until disaster strikes,” try:
- “Most people don’t realize their policy won’t cover them. You’re not most people.”
- “If you’re the type who actually reads the fine print, you’ll want to hear this.”
- “Real business owners don’t roll the dice on gaps in coverage.”
These lines work because they flatter without fawning. You’re not begging for attention. You’re inviting the right people to raise their hand. And they will, because everyone wants to feel like they’re ahead of the game.
Even better, this approach filters out the tire-kickers. When you speak directly to people who take pride in being responsible, thorough, or savvy, the ones who don’t identify that way will scroll past. Good. Let them.
Ads that work are ads that attract the right people and repel the wrong ones. Speaking to ego does both.
Action Item:
Look at your last few ads or email subject lines. Would your audience feel smarter or sharper for clicking? If not, rework one of them using an ego-driven frame: something that makes your ideal client feel like they’re already the type of person who takes smart action. Bonus points if you subtly challenge their identity.
When Triggers Work Together, They Radically Improve Your Ads
One trigger is good. Two is better. All three? That’s when your ads stop looking like ads, and start feeling like something worth paying attention to.
If you really want to improve your ads, don’t just pick one of the triggers and call it a day. Stack them. Mix and match until your message hits like a gut punch.
Here’s how it plays out:
Let’s say you’re targeting business owners who are burned out on bad advice and worse coverage.
You could run something like:
“Most agents push policies without asking how you actually run your business. You’re not most business owners, and you don’t need another cookie-cutter plan. You need someone who’ll actually listen before quoting.”
That single paragraph checks all three boxes:
- Pain: They’re sick of getting quoted like a number, not a business.
- Emotion: It taps into that lingering frustration of not being heard.
- Ego: It speaks directly to people who take pride in doing things differently.
Suddenly, this isn’t just another “Get a free quote” ad. It’s a mirror. And when someone sees themselves in your ad, they pay attention. They click. They reply. They remember you.
This is how you improve your ads without writing a novel, redesigning your logo, or blowing up your budget. It’s message over mechanics. Period.
Action Item:
Take one of your highest-performing ads, or one you thought should have worked, and audit it. Is it hitting on a real pain point? Does it trigger any emotion? Does it speak to the reader’s identity or pride? If you’re missing any of the three, rewrite it with all three triggers layered in. Test that version. Track the difference. This isn’t guesswork, it’s the psychology your competitors are too lazy to use.
The Fastest Way to Improve Your Ads Is to Start Thinking Like Your Audience
Here’s the bottom line, if your ads aren’t converting, it’s not because people hate ads. It’s because they don’t feel like your ad is for them. The fastest way to improve your ads is to stop writing like a salesperson and start thinking like your ideal client. What annoys them? What keeps them stuck? What makes them feel smart, seen, or validated?
When you bake in pain, emotion, and ego, your ads stop being background noise. They hit different. And once you see that shift, you can’t unsee it.
If you want help applying this kind of thinking to everything you post, ads, emails, content, the whole deal, ACE – Launch will get you there. It’s built for independent agents who are ready to stop guessing and start getting seen.
No fluff. No hype. Just real messaging that pulls people in.Now go back to one of your current ads. Read it like someone who’s already ignored ten others today. If it doesn’t stop you mid-scroll, it won’t stop anyone else. Fix that, and watch what happens.