In this YouTube video, Shauna Thoresen, CEO and founder of Social Waves Media, addresses insurance agents who wonder about the quality of Facebook leads. Drawing on her experience running millions in ad spend and working with agents since 2022, she explains that Facebook ads sit at the top of the funnel—they generate leads, not clients. She distinguishes cold leads (people who have never heard of the agent) from warm leads (those who have prior brand exposure) and argues that most Facebook leads are cold and need to be nurtured before they will answer the phone. Shauna discusses common pitfalls such as bait‑and‑switch giveaway funnels and mismatched ad copy versus landing page offers, and she recommends honest, value‑driven offers like free consultations, webinars, or lead magnets that align with the ad promise. She shares her own strategy of offering a free training on lead generation, emphasizing that not every captured lead will convert immediately, and stresses the importance of a systematic nurture workflow—email sequences, CRM tagging, and consistent value delivery—to build the know‑like‑trust factor. Throughout, she acknowledges the trust challenges both marketers and agents face, encourages agents to view leads as humans rather than products, and concludes that lead quality is ultimately determined by the message that attracts them and the system that follows up. The video ends with a call for comments, a request to subscribe, and a reminder of upcoming speaking engagements at insurance conferences.
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If you've ever wondered, are Facebook leads any good? What's the quality of Facebook leads? Why don't Facebook leads answer whenever I call? Or you're interested in learning strategies about how to convert online leads into actual clients, this video is for you. If we haven't met yet, my name is Shauna. I'm the CEO and founder of Social Waves Media. I've been specializing in paid ads and social media lead generation since 2016, and in 2022 is when I started working closely with insurance agents through my course, Insurance Click to Close, and my membership, the Inner Circle. Now I want to share, you can meet me in person because I'm going to be speaking at 3 upcoming insurance conferences. So you will hear me speaking at the Senior Market Sales, Sales Forum and the 7 Figure Medicare Summit coming up in June. And then I will also be the keynote speaker at the URL Insurance Group's Medicare Connections Conference in September. So make sure to comment below if I'm going to see you at any of those 3 events. So let's jump right into the conversation. What's the quality of Facebook leads? Are Facebook leads actually any good? To be honest with you, when I first entered the insurance space in '22, I had already managed millions of dollars worth of Facebook ad spend and worked with numerous different clients in lots of different industries. And I had never been asked the question before, are these leads any good? It was actually kind of surprising to me the language that insurance agents use whenever they were talking about leads. Like, I had to back up and be like, are we talking about real humans here? Are we talking about just like a product? And I guess if you're purchasing a lead, you are viewing that person kind of as like the product that you're getting. So you want that product obviously to perform well and to have good ROI on it. So I kind of understand now, But in the beginning, it kind of surprised me how binary agents would talk about leads, if they're good or if they're bad. I want you to take a moment and just think about your own behavior whenever it comes to if you're potentially interested in a product. So I'm going to use my own business as an example. I now am a course creator. I have a course, Insurance Click to Close, and I want you to buy it if you're an insurance agent. I want you to purchase my course, but I also understand that if I just run a few ads that I'm not instantly going to get people that are going to trust me enough in order to invest in my course. I myself have invested in many different courses to help propel my own career, and I've had some that were really good and awesome, and I've had others that sucked. I also understand, so I'm sure you've had the same experience. I'm sure you've invested in courses that have burned you and didn't deliver on what they actually said that they would. So I understand you should be suspicious of course creators that have something to sell to you. You should. The other thing is I also understand that as a marketer, I have a little bit of an uphill battle because there are a lot of shady marketers out there, especially in your space. Let me just be honest, especially in your space. Some of the things that I have uncovered that are kind of standardized practices have really surprised me, and that's why I'm so passionate about putting the power back in your hands. But I get it. Like, you shouldn't trust marketers whenever you very first hear them speak. So I have a little bit of an uphill battle. So when I am trying to generate my own audience, you guys, insurance agents, I want to build that know, like, and trust factor with you. I want you to get a little taste of if you like my style or if you hate my style, because you need to know that before making the decision of using your hard-earned money And your trust into me. You, on the other hand, as an insurance agent, you have a little bit of an uphill battle as well. You know that there are a lot of shady insurance agents that don't really care about making the best decisions for their clients. It doesn't matter which line of business you're actually in. There have been scams that I have seen at the agent to the client level all over the place that I'm sure you're aware of. There's also lots of big companies that make these big promises, or especially in '22, '23, '24, whenever it was all of those like $500 gift card, or I've even seen like a $6,000 Social Security check type of ad that is a very much bait and switch ad in order just to get the user's information, whether that was to unethically flip them or maybe they're just, they're online lead vendors, so they wanna get the cheapest lead in order to sell them to agents. So either way, you as an agent already have a little bit of an uphill battle if they've never heard of you. And I don't know about you, but for me, I'm not willing to give over my information, speak to someone on the phone, and instantly convert into a client with someone that I have never even heard of. So 2 truths before we jump into this even deeper that you need to realize about Facebook ads. Um, and whenever it comes to you potentially building your own brand awareness online, One, Facebook ads live at the top of the funnel. They're the very first step in a customer journey of someone becoming your client. And number 2, Facebook ads do not get you the client. They get you the lead that then you are able to convert into a prospect, and then you are able to convert into an actual client. So what I'm saying is at the very top of the customer journey, when someone is very first considering, uh, learning more about something, That is where the Facebook ads actually live. So if you can hit someone with a pain point, like maybe you're saying the reality is the cost of burial expenses is this price in 2025, or parents, it's not something that you want to think about, but what are you going to do if something happens? It's something that we have to. Or if you're turning 65, there's 3 crucial deadlines. Or if you're a healthy entrepreneur or truck driver, you shouldn't be paying so much out of pocket for your health insurance. I could go on and on and on. You see what I'm saying? Your Facebook ad captures them in a moment, thumps on that pain point a little bit, or presents the benefits. They then give you the information and then you have the ability to take it off platform, which is even more powerful, and convert them. Now there is a little bit of an exception of Facebook actually getting you the client, and that is if you have built some sort of a brand awareness. Where people have heard of you and seen you before. And you do that by posting consistently. This is how most online lead vendors are able to generate leads ethically. I'm not talking about the bait and switch, but ethically for a lower cost. Most of them have created some sort of a branded page that they have invested time and energy into building some sort of a brand around, and then they run ads in that brand name. And then they hand those leads over to you. What they are doing is something that you absolutely can do too. So let's talk about why don't Facebook leads answer whenever you call? Most of the leads that you are going to be speaking to from Facebook are considered cold leads. So the difference between a cold lead and a warm lead— so a warm lead is someone that has seen your brand before, they've interacted with your brand before, Maybe they've been exposed to some of your posts or they've gone to your website, so they're a little bit warmed up. They already know who you are. Like you watching this video right now, you are part of my warm audience because you have interacted with me. You actually know who I am. A cold lead is someone that has never heard of you before, so maybe they are just scrolling through their Facebook newsfeed and they get hit with an ad that has compelling ad copy. That is compelling enough that they're willing to give you their information and convert into a lead. So that is a cold lead. When you get cold leads, especially in today's day and age, many of them need to be warmed up before they are going to fully trust you. In my opinion and my projection of what I feel is going to become the norm is not going to be to triple dial leads as soon as you get them. Think about your own behavior. Me, if I go online and I fill out something trying to get a quote and all of a sudden my phone blows up, it is not something that is exciting to me. I'm not like, yes, I'm so excited to talk to this person that is probably going to sell me something. I want to kind of vet them out. I want to be warmed up and I kind of want to get a feel of if I know, like, and if I'm going to eventually trust them. So when you are running Facebook ads, if the person is not picking up the phone, it is not the ad's fault. The ad is essentially doing its job from getting you the lead. Now, there are definitely things that you can do to increase your chances that a lead is going to talk to you quickly. So one of those things can be the actual messaging. What message are you using to attract the lead? There is some very interesting strategies that I've seen going around out there. I'm going to use this one as an example. It's the giveaway funnel where you run an ad to people in your area and you offer like that you're going to be doing a giveaway or a drawing or something like that. You are probably going to generate leads for pretty darn cheap. You're going to get a lot of contact information. What's probably going to happen is very few of those people are actually going to be interested in whatever line of business you are trying to sell them to. What's also not going to happen is they're not going to build up the know, like, and trust factor with you as an agent. Versus if you are willing to just spend a little bit more on your lead and have a message that is honest, compelling, straightforward, builds a little bit of that trust, then it's going to start you off on the right foot from the very beginning. The second thing is you want to make sure whatever your offer is, like let's say it's either a free consult or let's say you're going to be giving them a, uh, like Medicare 101 webinar or you're you're going to be giving them a lead magnet, like a free guide. You have to make sure you actually deliver with what is actually in the ad. I see so many agents run ads and they use the button that says get quote, and one of two things happen. One, they get quite a few leads, but then those leads won't talk to them because what they're really actually trying to do is get a free consult with that client. And when someone completes something for a free quote, they're expecting to see a Quote at the very end. The other thing is, if you have something like get quote and then it opens up and it's a scheduler or something that is saying okay, the next step is to request your free consult. There's not synergy with the actual ad versus what the lead form or the landing page says versus what you're actually going to be delivering them. So you have to actually test what that initial offer is going to be. Obviously, OEP, AEP, there is a true like. Ticking time deadline that is happening. So pushing for a free consult makes the most sense then. Final expense, that is a kind of a quicker, decisive product that doesn't take a whole bunch of research. So having a go straight to consult is going to work. If you're looking at something a little bit more in depth like a T65 or annuities or even whole or term, whatever it is in the life insurance space, Many times you need to build a little bit of trust with a prospect. So they either need to have kind of had exposure to your brand a few times before you're asking them to give you that information for a consult, or you can offer a lead magnet. In other words, a valuable piece of content that provides them value and also sets you up as an advisor from the very beginning. Now let's use my business as an example because you can kind of relate instead of thinking about yourself as the person going after the leads, I want you to think about yourself as, as my lead that I'm trying to generate. I run my own Facebook ads right now and well, of course I do, but when I'm running my own Facebook ads, the current offer right now that I'm offering is a free training that educates you, the agent, about lead generation ads. And then of course I share all of the details about my course. I do not expect every single agent that raises their hand and is interested in my online training, to automatically buy my course. In fact, I do not expect every single agent to attend my webinar. I don't even expect every single agent to open the first email that I send. I have an understanding that in that moment in time, I captured that agent's attention with my ad, and now I have their email address. I sent them the free training, but not all of them are going to be clicking on the training. And that's something that I completely understand. Whereas I find in the insurance space, many agents believe they completed the form, they automatically should answer the phone and want to talk to you. But that's not the behavior that you exhibit whenever you complete a Facebook ad. So really be thinking about what your customer journey is with your lead as a real person that's just like you that just happened to click on an ad and has now entered your funnel. So what I do, and I recommend you to do, is if you get on my email list and you didn't convert. So let's say you get leads that raise their hand for T65 and now you're emailing them and they didn't get back to you. Or maybe it's just a general Medicare, you want to do a plan review and they raise their hand, completed the form, and now they're in your system. You've called them, you've texted them, you've emailed them, they're not responding. What should you do? You should put them on your email list. And if you're using a CRM, all you have to do is write one email and send it out to everyone that's on your list. So you should be committing to nurturing your list and warming those people up, especially as you move towards Q4. Then you can start getting in front of them with things like, it's time for your Medicare review. There are many changes that are happening in 2026. You can be one of the very first on my schedule. Here are 3 scams that I'm seeing happening right now in this industry. Here are 3 things that you need to be aware of. Here are 2 mistakes that you need to avoid, and so on. Do you see what I'm saying? If you get on my email list and you've shown that you're interested in potentially learning more about Meta ads from me, but you don't buy from me, the biggest mistake I could make is to continuously hammer you with purchase emails. Buy my course, buy my course, buy my course. That's not going to gain your trust at all. That's going to make you unsubscribe from my list. Instead, I'm going to continue to provide you with value. So you can get a sense of if you know, like, and trust me. And if you do decide that you want to invest in a course, I'm going to be at the top of your list because I have already set the stage for you to understand who I am and how I work. It's the same thing with you. When you get a Facebook lead, take the time to create a marketing plan that allows you to nurture them. You have already spent the money to get their information off of Facebook. You already know that this individual has raised their hand at some point and expressed some interest in what it is you have to offer. Now take a step back and consider what your actual nurture workflow and funnel and marketing plan over the year is going to be to get them to convert into that prospect that will speak to you and then eventually a client. So the next time you hear someone say these leads are great or these leads suck. You know the truth. The leads are actually only as good as the message that attracts them and then the system that is in place to be able to work those leads. Now let me ask you, would you like a breakdown of a nurture system or what is your biggest frustration with generating leads online? What is holding you back from actually utilizing social media? Is it the tech? Is it imposter syndrome? Do you just have no idea what to post? Let me know in the comments. And thank you so much for watching this video. If you've made it this far, please consider subscribing. Costs you nothing and it means the world to me. And I'll see you in the next video.
