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It’s not always easy for insurance agents to build an audience on Facebook organically. According to a recent Adweek article, only approximately 2.6% of your audience sees what you’re posting at any one time. If you pay for the ads, not only can you guarantee that more people see them—but you can determine who sees them.

The ads people see on Facebook are targeted based on the information they disclose and the things they like. Advertisers can set many different types of filters to determine who sees their ads—including age, demographics, region, gender, interests, and job title. The targeting can be very finely tuned, making it a powerful tool for insurance agents to use for marketing purposes.

One of the more interesting targeting options involves people’s interests—including interest in specific insurance products. You can adjust your ad campaign to target people who have expressed an interest in products such as auto, home, or life insurance based on businesses and pages they’ve liked in the past. You can also target people who have expressed interest in your direct competitors.

Facebook Ads also shows social engagement—so a user will see any friends or connections who have liked your business in the ad. This can provide your agency with valuable social proof.

In addition to Facebook Ads, Facebook offers other paid options such as Boosts and Sponsored pages. Facebook Ad Manager lets insurance agents track how all of these options perform. It’s possible to continuously test your campaigns, make small adjustments to your ads, and see what resonates best—so your investment gets more effective over time.

Of course, it’s not a perfect tool. One drawback of using Facebook Ads is that most of its users are not specifically looking to buy something when they’re using it—as opposed to, say, Google Pay-per-Click campaigns, which target people who are actively using certain search terms to find a specific insurance product. While you may get more targeted coverage for your ads on Facebook, you may generate more clicks in paid search—but it’s worth it to experiment with both.

It’s getting more and more difficult for insurance agents and businesses in general to build an audience on Facebook, but the tools offered by Facebook Ads can be highly effective in driving the clicks and audience traffic you’re looking for. The targeted advertising capabilities make this option worth a try for insurance agents.