Video summary
The core issue addressed in the video is that many insurance agents and marketers fail because they are advertising the wrong way, often resulting in high costs per click or zero leads despite targeting the right audience. The speaker argues that if an ad does not get clicked by the correct demographic, the problem usually lies with the ad itself rather than the budget or platform settings. A common mistake is creating polished but ineffective ads without sufficient experience, leading to premature shutdowns of campaigns after only a few days due to perceived lack of results. The transcript emphasizes that successful advertising requires patience and a willingness to scale up budgets once proof of concept is established, rather than abandoning efforts too early when initial impressions are low.
To succeed, marketers must focus on three critical components: precise targeting, compelling ad creative, and a cohesive landing page experience. Targeting involves ensuring ads only reach relevant demographics, such as showing Medicare ads only to individuals over 64 in specific states, while the ad creative must immediately hook the viewer's attention within the first few seconds. The speaker notes that generic or overly polished graphics often fail with older audiences who prefer more authentic messaging, and suggests using direct language like "If you're over 64 and live in Michigan" to create a personal connection. Furthermore, the landing page must feel like a seamless extension of the ad, avoiding distractions like mixing Medicare and life insurance topics on the same page, which can confuse visitors and reduce conversion rates.
The video also highlights the importance of simplifying the user journey and qualifying leads effectively to save time for advisors. Instead of using long surveys that discourage completion, successful funnels often use a single clear call-to-action, such as booking a call or filling out a simple form, while still maintaining quality through verification steps like phone checks. The speaker shares an example where a simple ad shared by one person generated tens of thousands of views and leads from unexpected locations, proving that shareability and relevance are key. Additionally, the transcript illustrates how leveraging AI tools to research high-converting page structures can significantly outperform manually built sites, provided the campaign is given enough time to gather data and prove its effectiveness before making drastic changes.
Ultimately, the conclusion is that even with advanced tools like AI or professional marketers, the fundamental element of a great ad is its ability to grab attention instantly and make sense to the viewer. Many agents struggle because their ads do not resonate within seconds, causing them to waste money on clicks that never convert. The speaker encourages agencies to seek help from experts who can tweak small aspects of their strategy to achieve massive impacts on their bottom line, regardless of whether they are small operations earning hundreds of thousands or large firms making tens of millions. By refining the ad message, ensuring brand consistency across platforms, and trusting the data over initial impressions, insurance agents can finally break through the noise and generate consistent leads.
Read the full video transcript
If you're targeting the right people,
and they're seeing the ad, but they're
not clicking, or your cost per click is
like $12,
the ad sucks.
And in most cases, for most people,
that's the actual problem. I'm not
saying it is, but if you made it
yourselves, and you haven't have
experience with this,
>> How long does it have to run, and what
do you need to be tracking?
Because we've run ads, we don't really
know what we should be tracking.
>> Yeah.
>> But then we're getting no results, so
our feet get cold, and we shut
everything off.
>> Yeah.
>> So we don't even know how long we should
be running ads, what our ads be
>> How long do you normally run, and how
much you normally spend?
>> Where did you get the ad idea from?
>> Most of them she creates our ads.
>> Okay. That may be good.
>> had We fired three marketers in the last
year and a half.
>> Yeah. Every marketer says they're
amazing, and they're going to do a good
job.
Including me.
>> But you know, I think we've done uh
Medicare, and a final expense ad, and we
may run it 5 or 10 days at what, 10
bucks a day?
>> Yeah.
>> Or something like that, and we don't
know what we're doing.
>> Sure. Sure.
>> You know, I
20 to 30 30 to 40 dollars a day, and
still
Yeah, get nothing.
>> No leads?
No leads? So [clears throat] So let you
guys think about it, okay? I think think
it's a answer I think the Could you hear
the question a little bit where they're
like, okay. So I think this will help a
lot of people in the room if I can touch
on that. So a lot of a lot of times we
don't Well, for one, um
I like that you're starting with a lower
budget, cuz you can learn a lot with 10
bucks. You can learn a lot with 50
bucks. You can learn with 100 bucks.
Like like for road shows, we start out
50 bucks a day,
and we build, and we try to get revenue
ahead of ads. And then we slowly scale
it up, but we want proof, right, that
it's working. And some markets do better
than others. So So we start a little
slow. But what most people struggle with
is if you think about it, there's
different [snorts] pieces of the
process. So, you've got
you've got
the targeting.
Right? The targeting is very important
because who is going to see the ad? Is
it the right target? Uh so, in this
example, if you're doing final expense
ads,
you shouldn't show it to a 35-year-old.
We all know that, but maybe we don't
know how to execute on that, right? Or
Medicare, you shouldn't show it to
somebody that's 59.
Right? Unless they're on disability, it
doesn't matter, right? So, but there's a
very small pool, right? So, targeting.
Then,
you have the actual advertisement.
Right? So, so what is the actual
advertisement? So, if I'm targeting the
right audience, so for for for Medicare,
I might I might be targeting people in a
certain state that are ages 64-plus.
Okay? That's good. Well, in the
advertisement,
does it catch their attention and hook
them, especially if it's a video, in the
first
second, two seconds, three seconds,
right? And most advertisements, let's be
honest, from even other marketing
companies or that we make ourselves, and
this may or may not be true, okay, are
terrible.
Terrible.
Now, we think it's got to be perfect and
polished. That's not always true,
either.
Like uh uh uh a senior is less likely to
respond to an AI graphic.
Right? They're They're reading the
newspaper. You know what I mean? Like
like So, so who is your audience and
what should you be And if I if I'm doing
if I'm doing an advertisement, if I'm
doing a video,
I would say,
"If you're over 64 and you live in
Michigan, listen up."
Like
Oh.
So, when we do when we do ads,
"Hey, if you're an insurance agent and
you live near Boston, this is for you."
They're like, "Oh, he's actually
speaking to me." Right? So, very
important.
>> Cody, I want you to
tell me about this. This is that
happened last week, crazy crazy.
[snorts]
So, I have this ad that talks about the
Medicare savings program, right?
>> Mhm.
>> Put that out in about five states.
I got 200 impressions, 10 bucks a day.
All of a sudden
somebody shared it.
>> Mhm.
>> They came to my site to my my Facebook
page. It got 51,000 views.
>> Wow.
>> I'm like, "What in the world?"
>> Wow.
>> I'm in Atlanta. Listen, I'm in Atlanta.
Y'all know, right?
>> Right.
>> Yes.
>> I'm in Atlanta.
I'm not even licensed in Wyoming.
A guy messaged me from Wyoming.
>> Wow.
>> [laughter]
>> And that's just from somebody sharing
the ad.
>> Somebody shared the ad.
>> Yeah.
>> That That
Check Check You know what that means,
right?
>> You need to get another license.
>> Not [clears throat] me.
>> Yes. So, so okay. So, in that example,
though, like you can You can make it
where the advertisement is shareable or
not. Now, in this example, I like people
that were able to share the
advertisements unless I'm only doing a
local Medicare seminar in Atlanta. Then
it's like there's no point in sharing
the advertisement. But, in your case, if
you can help them get a license, you can
allow the ad to be shared or not. You
can turn that off in the settings,
right, of the ad. Now, because what
happens is though you go from the
advertisement to okay, we're feeding
them to the actual we'll just call it
the actual site, right? The actual page.
Okay? What does that look like?
Um how does it start? So, like all of
our stuff, we're always looking at what
is the headline?
What is the sub headline?
Right? What What
What are the bullet points? Because all
of this that's on the site
has to [snorts] directly relate to the
ad and it has to directly relate to the
people that are going to be And it's got
to all be a cohesive. So, they've got to
Yeah, smooth. So, they've got to You got
to be a targeting the right person.
They've got to see the ad. They've got
to go to site and it's got to feel like
the same. So, a lot of times what I see
is I see ads and then I go to the site
and I'm like, this feels like a totally
different company. It doesn't make any
sense. The brand's different. I I don't
get it, right? Or or it's Medicare, but
then it starts talking about um
life insurance also on the page. That's
a distraction. One.
One. So, like one lead type. One. A lot
of times even for ads
I mean, events would perform even better
probably if we just had one ticket.
One simple form. One simple outcome.
Like the simpler the better. Then you go
from, okay, what are they actually
filling out?
What are they Are they booking a call?
Are they filling out a form? Are they
calling? What's the barrier to entry?
The more questions you ask, the better
the lead's going to be, but the less
likely people are going to fill it out.
Okay? So, if I had So, so like annuity
leads, we ask We have a 15-step survey.
They're really good. At the beginning of
the form, we actually ask a question
that says, "Hey, do you have at least
$100,000 or more in investable assets
excluding your home?"
And if they put no, they're kicked out
of the funnel. This is not for you. So,
we have more people that kicked out of
the funnel than actually go through it,
right? But advisors don't want to waste
their time. So, it works. They love it.
Also, not only are they asset qualified,
in our case we use phone verification,
too. To where the we text them the
six-digit code, right? From the phone
verification tool.
Okay? And then after that, we're also
like introducing the advisor. Here's
what they look like. Here's who you're
going to be working with. Here's how you
can reach them. We also text and email
that all that to the client. So, we're
trying to introduce and set them up,
okay? Now, but what I see a lot of times
is
in this example, what you're saying is
the targeting is probably fine.
Probably.
The form, if it's an internal lead form
in Facebook or whatever you're doing, is
probably fine. And I could we could even
look at it at some point during the next
couple days if you want me to.
And maybe we even use it as like a live
case study. But I guarantee you
it's most and we can look at the data to
tell us this or you can take the data
like sometimes I'll just send
screenshots of ads and put it in the
cloud and say what do you think, you
know? Like I'll give you an example.
We're doing an event called the
Visibility Blueprint. It's a virtual
event.
We're doing every month and we're trying
to get like 50 to 100 people to
register, nothing crazy.
>> [snorts]
>> For the first two days, it was 27 bucks
to attend. For the first two days
no
tickets.
>> Wow.
>> Only money going out, no money coming in
and I'm like
I thought this was the best virtual
event page we've ever built. What is
going on? The ads are incredible. Like
this is crazy.
Put it in the [snorts] cloud and I said
here's our road show stats. Here's our
Visibility Blueprint stats for a
virtual.
And based on our conversation, I think
we should add Well, should we have two
tickets and two two ticket levels on
there.
And it's funny half people are buying
the higher level ticket again. But I
gave the numbers to Claude. 8% ads
virtual event ads. I gave it to Claude
and said actually the Visibility
Blueprint ads are performing better.
Just give it time.
>> Mhm.
Wow.
>> And it was right. I almost freaking cut
the whole thing and rebuilt it and like
let's scratch this like this sucks,
right?
It is working it's outperforming.
The ad is outperforming your road show
ads.
And your page is already built con- cur-
conversions cuz I worked on building it
with Claude.
And then and I didn't build the page,
Keegan actually built it. But what's
cool about that is I went to Claude and
said find me the best virtual event but
best highest converting virtual event
pages in the world and give me examples.
And then it said based on research and
study and sites and stats and and
influencers, this is the best performing
virtual event page in the world.
>> How long did that take, Claude?
>> Uh
few minutes. Yeah.
Yeah, few minutes. So
>> Was it yours?
>> So so yeah, no I wish it was mine. So
then I'll come back to that. So, then, I
gave it I said, "This page." And I gave
it to Keegan and said, "Build our site
exactly like this."
So, I already knew it was going to
convert. I And then, he's already
telling me the ads are performing
better.
However, I just didn't want to give it
enough time. Now, if it gives enough
time, because what happens is if people
are seeing that if you're targeting the
right people and they're seeing the ad,
but they're not clicking,
or your cost per click is like
$12,
the ad sucks.
And in most cases, for most people,
that's the actual problem. I'm not
saying it is, but if you made it
yourselves and you haven't have
experience with this,
>> Claude did it.
>> Claude did it. Okay, so, which
Good. And a graphic?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. So, is it a How How busy is the
graphic?
Or what How much is on it or
>> It was an ambulance. [snorts]
>> Okay. Okay. So, it might be good.
But,
even if Claude built it, we might see
that people aren't clicking through,
right? Or maybe the you know, um
I'll I'll We'll We'll just say this.
Normally Normally, if Dylan builds it,
it outperforms what AI builds for ads,
specifically. Okay? So, Dylan builds all
my ads. Nobody else does. Okay? Um Now,
but most people, this is where it fails.
That's where it fails is the
advertisement does not get my attention.
And I've got to know within seconds it's
for me,
it's getting my attention, and it's
wanting me to do something.
And it's got to make sense. What you
just saw is us helping an agency scale
their operation much faster, something
that we are very, very good at at this
point, whether that be through our Power
Player Mastermind uh
retreats, whether that be through our
our intensive events live, or whether
that be just helping an agency with
brand awareness and exposure to enhance
recruiting and speed up recruiting in a
big way. Uh we would love to chat. You
can go to scale.kodiakskans.com
to learn more. We can jump on, get to
know you, and the cool thing is like
you're not too small or too big. Like
we've helped small agencies doing
hundreds of thousands a year. We've
helped massive agencies doing uh tens of
millions a year, and it doesn't take
much. Like a some sometimes a small
tweak can make such a massive impact in
your bottom line. And so,
book a call. Let's chat. See how we can
help. Thanks for watching.
Go to scale.codyaskins.com.