Shauna ThoresenCEO & Founder at Social Waves Media

Medicare Ads: Should I run ads to all the states I’m registered in or just start in 1 state→ AEP Q8

22 Oct 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:57

In this YouTube monologue, Medicare agent Shauna Thoresen answers a common question about whether agents licensed in multiple states should run online ads across all states or focus on a single state or city. She advises that for a new campaign, agents should place all licensed states in a single ad set to give the advertising algorithm a broad audience and collect performance data quickly. She then explains how agents can later create state‑specific or hyper‑local ad sets—e.g., a Florida‑focused ad with beach imagery or a Tampa‑area ad—to better resonate with local seniors, especially if the agent lives in that state or is running a seminar/workshop. Shauna emphasizes that unless the agent wants strong local branding, the initial all‑states approach is most efficient. She ends with a call‑to‑action for viewers to ask lead‑generation questions and follow her for more marketing guidance.

Chapters

I'm a Medicare agent that is licensed in multiple states. Should I be running ads to all states, or should I start with just one state or even a city to start? This is a really good question. By the way, my name is Shauna. I teach agents how to generate their own exclusive leads, and right now I'm answering questions about lead generation, focusing specifically on AEP and Medicare. And agents ask me this all the time. When you are first launching your very first or newer campaign, You want to give the algorithm as many people as possible to start finding the right demographic. So most cases, I would recommend that you put all of your states that you're licensed in in one ad set, and then we run the ads to all of them to initially collect some data. But there is a benefit if you want to kind of take it one step further, or if there's a state that you live in that you're more closely aligned with, it can make sense for you to move that state. So let's say Florida, move it out of there of the ad set that has most of them. And then we can run ads that speak directly to Florida seniors. So we can have a nice sunshine background, a nice beachy theme. We can have it where it looks like Key West, and then we can say something like, attention Florida seniors, or if you live in Florida, or even get down granular, if, if you live in the Tampa area and so on. Now, if you are running a seminar or a workshop to a specific area, you definitely want to do that because you want to make that ad copy be like so specific to that specific area where they know it is for them. But for most cases, if you are not going to be making your ads so specific to that state, or you're not trying to brand yourself so specific to that state, when you're first launching your ad campaign, it makes sense for you to put all of your states together for you to initially get some data. Now, if you have a question about lead generation, then make sure to drop it below. And if you're interested in learning more about how to own your marketing and own your growth, my account's for you. And I hope that I'll see you in my next video.