Marketing on Facebook can be a daunting andintimidating experience.

Should you “friend” your ideal clients and engage with them? Isit better to put ads in their streams? Do both?

In this article we’re going to discuss one very specific andactionable strategy to Facebook marketing. What I think you’ll likeabout it is that it doesn’t take hours to develop, doesn’t requireyou to think of funny or shareable content, and doesn’t involveracking your brain to create something “viral.”

It’s a simple and straightforward strategy that will expose yourmessage to your ideal market and present a relevant message thatdrives prospects to take action.

Related: How to find high-quality prospects with Facebookand LinkedIn ads

My prediction is that once you read this article, your fearsabout Facebook will melt, you’ll approach the medium with moreconfidence, and you’ll want to jump right in!

Want a fast and easy way to get started with Facebook? Wonder ifthere is a successful model out there you can swipe and deploy?Read on.

The commercial lines startup — Facebookstyle

When Kent started his commercial lines agency, he faced severaloptions.

He could call everyone he knew, book some appointments, andwrite some business. From there, he could ask for referrals. Oncethose dried out, he could start looking for local networking groupsor associations to join to make new connections. That’s what mostprincipals of a startup would do.

Another option would be to invest tens of thousands in expensivebranding and a corporate-looking website presence, then sit backand hope it would drive business.

Related: Advertising your agency online? Here are sometips

Or, he could attempt to poach producers from rival agencies withattractive sign-on bonuses and hope they’d bring their businessover to his firm. (And that the legal problems that would no doubtensue could be kept to a minimum.)

Kent did none of those. Instead, he turned to Facebook and useda unique technique I’m going to outline for you in glaringdetail.

This strategy is so powerful that within 18 months ofconsistently using it, Kent’s little three-person team sold itsentire book for a million dollars — cash!

Target your audience

The first step in this plan is to identify your ideal client.

In Kent’s case, the firm had a great product for apartmentbuilding owners that the market could not compete with. So, hedecided to go after real-estate investors and use Facebook totarget them. His first move was to find people who had had “liked”groups related to the subject (i.e., Robert Kiyosaki, DeanGraziosi, House Flipping, etc.).

In your case, you might decide to target specific ZIP codes toreach your precise target, perhaps combined with a certain level ofnet worth.

Let’s say your agency wants to target high-net-worth consumers who are goodprospects for personal insurance or investmentproducts.

You can target people within the city of Chicago, forexample...

…who are between the ages of 45 and 65 and older.

Now, let’s look at some ways of narrowing your target evenfurther.

You can target people by relationship status(single, married, divorced, widowed)...

…or by education level, fields of study, schools attended...orsimply their number of undergrad years.

You can even target people who work at specific companies, holdspecific job titles, work in particular industries or at certainkinds of offices.

And, significantly, you can look at their net worth. In thisexample, I chose somebody with a net worth of $100,000.

After applying sufficient narrowing criteria, you’ll have agroup of people that comprise your target market.

Related: Quick tips to capture and keep more onlineinsurance customers

As you continue to refine your demographics, you'll see thenumber of users you reach diminish. This is a good thing, becauseit means your ad is highly targeted.

Keep in mind, however, that when you're testing ads, you don'twant to use too many different variables. Test within just onecategory or another, so you can determine for sure which types ofads convert best.

Next, I want to find out what type of homes mytarget prospects own.

I'm interested only in people with a home value of $100,000 ormore.

This should be really interesting to you if you sell productstied to life events:

You can target people who have an anniversary within the next 30days, people who are away from their family or their hometown,people who are about to start a new job (a great opportunity toreview their life insurance), people starting a new relationship orengaged in the last year, three months, or six months...even peoplewho have recently gotten married!

If you are interested in health insurance prospects, you can adda fitness and wellness component to your parameters, i.e., thosewho have wealth, a home, and an interest in fitness.

Then you can roll out a group of ads specifically tailored tothose looking to save money on health insurance.

One of my clients on the East Coast uses shopping behavior as acriterion, targeting those who like expensive brands such as Prada,Coach, and Mercedes. Then, he creates specific ads about investingand getting better-quality coverage on home andauto.

Auto insurance selling tips

For those selling auto insurance, Facebook can be a real boon.

Did you know that Facebook integrates with DLX, a massive sourceof information on all of the cars in the United States? This meansyou can even target people who are in the market for certainvehicles!

Related: 5 ways social media can keep insurance agents infront of prospects, clients

So, let's say you want to rule out all those who are looking foran economy vehicle and reach only those in the market for a luxuryautomobile. Thanks to Facebook, you can do that!

You can target people who are new to car shopping. You cantarget by vehicle age and price. You can target people who havepurchased motorcycles, if you offer that coverage. You can eventarget people who are receptive to online auto insuranceoffers.

You really can’t get more detailed than that.

The ideal budget

Believe it or not, you can get started on Facebook with an adbudget of just $5 per day. In the beginning, I recommend $20 a dayjust to generate a bit more traffic. But if you’d rather go slowly,start with $5 or $10. Then, as you start optimizing your ads, youcan ramp up from there.

5 steps to the perfect Facebook ad

Now that you have a handle on targeting and budget, what shouldyour advertisement look like?

A recent Rocket Fuel study showed that the following triggershelped to increase conversions.

1. Don’t mention pricing. Insurance ads thatdon't mention price have slightly higher conversion rates (10%higher) than those that do.
2. Add a face to the ad. This could be yourselfor a stock photo. When used in the right way, a human face madeconversions rise by 200%.
3. Choose images that show the desired results.In our own tests, we found that the highest conversion rates camefrom showing what our product or service could help the customerachieve. So, if you're targeting investment and retirementproducts, you might want to show a couple in their late 50s or 60sembracing and smiling. This will tend to convert more than, say, ashot of an older couple poring over documents or looking at alaptop.
4. Test Red vs. Blue. That same Rocket Fuel studyshowed that ads with red or blue backgrounds had a 20% higherconversion rate than those using any other color. They also hadhigher click-through rates.
5. Use a “call to action” button. Buttons thatsay "Apply Now" have the highest conversion rates of all.

Where should the clicks go?

When building your Facebook campaign, it’s important to givespecial consideration to where you’re going to send your traffic.This might surprise you, but the worst place you can send prospects— the place with the lowest conversion level — is the home page ofyour website.

That’s because, in your ad, you’ve promised a specific benefitor action (i.e. get a quote, download this report, watch a video,etc.). To keep your cost-per-lead low and your ads as effective aspossible, direct your traffic to a landing page where theonly action they can take is the next step in theprocess.

You should be sending traffic directly to a quote page wherethey can download a report or take the next step.

Related: Do's and don'ts of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebookfor advisors

Jeremiah D. Desmarais ([email protected])is a 23-time award-winning financial marketer, TED Speaker andphilanthropist that has been featured on Forbes, CNN, and Worth.His work has generated over two million insurance leads and helpedadvisors in over 51 countries. His #1 best-sellingbook, SHIFT: 201 Instant-Action Proven MarketingStrategies to Sell More Insurance and Financial ProductsNow is available at www.TheShiftNation.com.