Shauna Thoresen breaks down two costly mistakes in insurance lead gen: running ads on Audience Network and Reels instead of Facebook/Instagram feeds, and using multiple CTAs instead of one clear path to registration. Meta's default settings optimize for e-commerce sales, not webinar signups.
Chapters
10 ways lead generation is changing in 2026, part 8. And this one is crucial for you to know if your goal is to generate leads or get people registered for like an online webinar, a seminar, like Medicare 101, annuity, IUL, estate planning, and so on. And that is knowing which ad optimizations are right for your goals and which ones are wrong for your goals. And I'm gonna tell you the 2 biggest mistakes that not only individuals, but marketers and even large established agencies are making these huge mistakes whenever their goal is to generate leads or get someone to register for an online webinar. You see, here's the deal. Meta wants to serve your ads always in all ways, and they're going to have all sorts of different optimizations, suggestions, Advantage Plus things that aren't always the right decision whenever your goal is to generate leads. Now, they are good if you're trying to sell a physical product. So e-commerce, like let's say we're selling a lipstick, but what's going to work for selling that lipstick is a completely different approach than what's going to work whenever your goal is to generate a lead. So the 2 biggest mistakes are one, not controlling the placements. When you want to generate leads, you do not want your ads being shown on Audience Network, which is platforms outside of Facebook, or 2, ads on Reels. Those are whenever you're watching a Reel, sometimes a little ad will pop up. Those are wonderful for e-commerce. Like if I was just shopping and looking at a lipstick and now I'm watching a video about a baby elephant and all of a sudden the little lipstick pops up, that makes sense for me. But if I'm interested in potentially learning about annuity and then a tiny little thing pops up that says like free annuity workshop, that's not going to capture my attention. You don't want that placement for lead generation. 2, and this one, lots of people are making this mistake, and that is sitelinks. So if you've ever seen these ads and they look really cool and professional on the platform where we've got the actual ad and then underneath it we've got multiple different links to different parts of that person's business, like maybe book a consult, call them, about them, testimonials, and so on. We don't want those for lead generation or completed registration. We want the user to do one thing, click on the link and sign up for my thing. That's it. Now again, if I'm selling a lipstick and the ad is of a red lipstick, but I'm more interested in pink, it might make sense for them to have sitelinks underneath it and show me other products like different colors, different variations. Now they're going to get me to do what they want me to do. Click on the link, check out their products. Not good for lead generation. So really understanding what you are spending your money on whenever it comes to Meta is going to be the biggest differentiator between if you are wasting your money and just letting them spin, spin, spin, or you're using in a smart strategic way that is growing your pipeline. For more lead generation tips, make sure to follow.
