In this instructional video, Shauna Thoresen, founder of Social Waves Media, explains the mandatory compliance requirements for insurance advertising on Meta platforms under the newly designated Special Ad Category for financial products. She outlines how activating this category alters campaign settings by removing certain targeting options (e.g., zip code, gender, age) while retaining control over state, city‑radius, interest targeting, placements, and ad messaging. Shauna details the specific lead‑data fields that are permissible (name, email, phone, state, and a custom non‑restricted question) and enumerates prohibited fields (gender, marital status, birthday, age, zip code, address, health information). She warns that non‑compliant data collection can trigger ad rejections, account suspensions, and even IP‑level bans. The core of the video presents four proven strategies for success within these constraints: (1) hyper‑specific, location‑tailored messaging; (2) age‑breakdown performance analysis and optimization in Ads Manager; (3) conditional logic forms in Instant Forms to filter unqualified leads; and (4) lead magnets (checklists, guides) to increase click‑through rates and lead capture. Shauna emphasizes the massive audience on Meta (14.4 M users 65+, 3 B overall) and urges agents to adopt compliant practices to protect their business longevity. She directs viewers to an extended deep‑dive video, invites questions, and encourages subscription.
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If you are running insurance ads, it is imperative that you are compliant under Meta's special ad category. Now, in this video, I am very briefly going to break down what is the Meta special ad category, how it changes the campaign both on the inside and also what you are now allowed to compliantly collect. And I'm going to share with you the best practices and strategies that I'm seeing work in your space right now. If we haven't met yet, my name is Shauna. I am the founder of Social Waves Media, and I specialize in teaching insurance agents how to become fully self- efficient at generating their own exclusive leads. I teach that all inside of my course Insurance Click to Close. Now in this video, I'm not going to have a lot of fluff or explanation. I'm going to jump right into what this actually means for you as an agent because it is extremely important that you are compliant with this. I am seeing individual agents being banned from advertising from not following this properly, so I want to make sure that I get the information out there. But if you are an agent that really likes to know all of the details, I do have an extended video that really dives into this and breaks it all down that hopefully we'll be able to link to right here that you can go check out. So what is the Meta special ad category? What you need to know is that insurance now falls under the financial products, which is a Meta special ad category, and that is something that you absolutely have to select and turn on at the campaign level. Now, this special ad category was created in order to protect certain demographics from being discriminated against whenever it comes to things like housing, career opportunities, loan opportunities, and on. It also was created to have more regulation when it came to political ads. And for whatever reason, Meta decided that insurance— and yes, that means all lines of business, even things like Medicare and final expense and things like that that are only accessible to a certain demographic— it means that all insurance products now must declare that they are under a special ad category at the campaign level. What does this change? We are gonna dive into 2 distinct parts that the special ad category changes. We're gonna start with what it actually changes on the campaign of what you're able to target and not target anymore. And then we're gonna jump into what you are allowed to compliantly collect. And this one is super duper important that you are starting to be compliant with. So whenever it comes to at the campaign level, the moment that you toggle on that Meta special ad category, it instantly removes certain targeting options. So let's focus on what you can still control. You still can control the state. So that means that you are able to control and only get in front of users that are living in the states that you're licensed in. So that's great news. You can target a city plus a 15-mile radius. So if you wanna do a more localized ad, you absolutely can. There is still some interest targeting options available. Uh, the last time I was in the Ads Manager, there was insurance, there was life insurance, and there were some other interests that you could definitely put in there. You still can control the placements or where your ads are actually served. And then the most important one is you can control the messaging. Now, whenever it comes to what you cannot control anymore, you cannot control the zip code, you cannot target a specific gender, and you cannot control the age. So that means that the ad set is automatically going to be set to serve to 18 through 65+. Now I do want to throw in there, I understand why this was a really big concern, but I'm here to tell you that I have seen that the right content is still going to get in front of the right user if you are utilizing the right messaging. This is something I really dive into the details whenever it comes to the other video, but I just want to let you know, within the first 1,000 to 3,000 impressions, if you have the right messaging in your actual ad, it is still being served to the right age demographic. So that is great news. Now let's talk about what information you are allowed to collect and what information you are not allowed to collect, both at a form level or if you are sending traffic to a landing page. Now this one is super important, so lean in and listen to the words that I'm saying. You are allowed to ask for their name. You can ask for their email address. You can ask for their phone number, and you can ask for the state that they live in. In addition to that, you can ask a custom question as long as that custom question is not asking for some non-compliant information. Now, this is a really big one. The items that you cannot collect— you cannot ask for these things when you are running a Meta ad. You cannot ask for the gender. You cannot ask for the marital status. The birthday, the age, the zip code. I know that one hurts. Address or any other health-specific information. Now there are agents right now that are running ads and even lead vendors that are running ads that go to landing pages that still ask for some of this information like the zip code, the birthday, all of these other things. It's not compliant. And I will tell you, I can honestly tell you I have done my due diligence on this. I have met with Multiple different Meta reps. I have climbed the ladder inside of Meta to say I need written documentation of what information is allowed to be collected and what isn't. And I do actually have that confirmed with them. You cannot ask for their gender, marital status, birthday, age, zip code, address, or any other health information. So I promise you, if you could, I would be shouting it from the rooftops. But eventually their bots— it's already starting to happen. Will crawl those landing pages. And if you are running a special ad category, but you are asking for information that is not compliant, mm-hmm, then you're gonna get your ads rejected and you could eventually get your account shut down. Now, if you really want some more information on diving into that, again, I have that more extended video, but for now I just wanna make sure that you know you can't ask for that information on an ad. Once they're in your CRM, once they're in your system, you can send them an email and say, hey, there are plans available that Uh, could save you out-of-pocket costs based on your zip code. So please gimme your zip code. You can do whatever, but when it comes for asking for information through an ad on the platform, those things are a no-go. So let's talk about what strategies are currently working, and I'm gonna share 4 with you right now. Number 1, specific messaging. You want to make sure that your messaging in the ad is super duper specific. Those ads that are super duper generic that are just like, hey, I have life insurance, do you want it? Or like, hey, uh, It's time to look at your Medicare plan. Those aren't working as well as super specific messaging, such as if you're turning 65 in 2025, there are specific dates you need to know. Uh, if you're a parent, this isn't fun to think about, but you must protect your family. Did you realize that the average funeral costs this price? So that very specific messaging that calls out a specific demographic, even getting down to the ad level. For example, if you are targeting, let's say Texas, Alabama, and Florida, let's say those are the states that we're running ads to, making ad creatives that are specific to those states. I use as an example a lot putting the Texas flag as kind of the background to my ad and then having something that says, Texas residents, there may be new health insurance plans in your area that lower your out-of-pocket cost. And then for Florida, maybe I would put a Sunshine State, attention Floridians, There are new burial plans that are available to you in your area that I have access to, or whatever it is. Making your ad super specific to the demographic and even super specific to the location makes it feel more personal, custom, and it is going to capture the attention of the right individual. 2, optimizations based on age breakdown. In the Ads Manager, you are able to click on a tab and you're able to break down the metrics, and you want to break down your metrics based on age because the reality is we want things like the link click-through rate. We want that to be super high for the right demographic. Like if I'm running a Medicare ad, I want to see the 60+ be a high link click-through rate. When it comes to looking at 30-year-olds or 20-year-olds or 40-year-olds, I want to see a super low, terrible link click-through rate. The reason why I want to see such a difference in how my metrics are performing and make optimizations based on that is because your ad inevitably is going to get in front of 18 to 65+ year olds. The algorithm is going to test all of the different demographics, and if they start showing it to these people over here and it's like people are not clicking on it, they're not interested, they're getting off the platform after they see your irrelevant ad, and then these people over here are clicking on it, interested in it, converting into leads, the algorithm is going to pay attention to that and get the right content in front of the right user. Yes, they want to get you the type of conversions that you're looking for. But the reality behind it is it's in their best interest to serve relevant content to their users. So they also are trying to do that as well. Number 3, logic forms. When you are utilizing the Instant Form on the backend, there is the ability to use a conditional logic form, and that puts up a barrier where you're able to ask a question. If a lead answers one way or a user that's coming through, it stops them from becoming a lead. If they answer another way, they move through and become a lead. One, that helps you filter out unqualified individuals. And 2, the algorithm starts paying attention to this person clicked on the ad, but they didn't become a lead. This person did, and they did become a lead. I'm gonna start sending the content more towards people like this. And number 4, last but not least, lead magnets. If you're not sure what a lead magnet is, I do have a video that is up that talks about lead magnets, utilizing something like a checklist, a guide, Makes it very easy to pique that curiosity in a user and make them be interested enough to click on your ad, give you their information, so that way you're able to grow that prospect list that you can then warm up, nurture, and convert. At the end of the day, it is imperative for you to be compliant. Look, Meta is a platform that will forever be changing and evolving, but let me tell you, it is where the users are. 14.4 million active users over the age of 65. 3 billion active users whenever it comes to overall, that is where your audience is at. So do not make a silly mistake and try to trick the system because it's not going to work. It might work for a minute, but it's not going to work for too long. And here's the deal, Meta is not jacking around anymore. Back in the day, they used to reject a few ads. If you kept trying to publish them, they would shut down your ad account, and then it was very easy for an individual just to create a new ad account. Those days are going away. I'm seeing now they give you a couple of warnings, and if you continue to make the same mistakes that the bot is seeing that you're a repeat offender, they are very quick to shut down your ad account and to block you from advertising at an IP address level and at an individual associated with your driver's license level. I've seen it happen far too many times to agents that were well-intended. Or agents that happen to be working with the wrong marketer that made too many uncompliant mistakes that they ended up getting the entire team banned. So just don't do that. I genuinely care about you and the longevity of your business. My goal is to empower you to be able to take full control over your lead generation. So if you have any questions, drop them below. If you want more details, go check out that other video. And if you are interested in this type of content, go ahead and click that subscribe button. It costs you nothing. It means the world to me, and I'll see you in the next video.
