While Google Ads are fantastic for capturing highly motivated customers who are often ready to make a call, Facebook ads allow you to hit people who have a need but haven't developed the intent to actually go searching for a solution. A well constructed ad showing up on their Facebook feed as they sit on the lounge can often be the nudge they need to get going.
Where Facebook ads really shine is in how highly customisable they are, allowing you to show customers a mixture of videos, pictures and text using a variety of powerful campaign types.
You can adjust just about every element of your Facebook ad campaign from who you show the ad to, what area they live or work in, their age, their interests and whether they own a home or not amongst many others.
If you have a Facebook page set up for your business, running a simple Facebook campaign is relatively simple, however it's also easy to burn your budget running poorly presented or targeted ads, so before you launch your first campaign here are some tips to help you avoid the common mistakes many businesses make.
"An ad with no call to action is like a nail without a hammer...sharp but useless. "
The most important first step in setting up your Facebook ad campaign is coming up with a good offer, something you will present to a prospect that will grab their attention and encourage them to do something, whether it be pick up the phone, start a conversation via messenger or fill out a call back form.
For roofers some good offers include:
A good tactic to employ when coming up with offers is to incorporate urgency. Nothing motivates a fence sitter like a time sensitive discount or deal, often just putting a deadline or limited to X customers on an offer can make it more appealing.
Facebook is a social platform and most people's feeds are jammed with photos and videos, so in order to grab people's attention (we call this 'stopping the scroll') your images or videos have to stand out.
While there are no guarantees, some good guidelines on which media will work best include:
Like offers, images are one of the most important and easy elements to test. Running multiple ads to the same audience and just varying the image or video will quickly give you the data you need to work out which ones are winners.
Running an ad with no targeting is like putting up a billboard on a busy road. It will certainly be seen by some of the right people, but it will also be seen by countless people who have no interest or ability to buy your services.
Unlike a billboard however, Facebook charges you for every person that sees your ad so it makes sense, given how powerful their targeting options are, to show your ads only to the people who are most likely to buy from you.
Some things you can think about when deciding on targeting:
Another very powerful targeting tactic is to create a look-a-like audience using past customer data. A Look-a-like audience takes the attributes of people from an email list and uses these attributes to find similar people in your target area. This can be extremely powerful, however you'll need to have minimum of 100 past customer records to get started.
Once you've worked out who to target you can start fine tuning your copy and images. For example if your target audience is older or more conservative, avoid using words and phrases that they wouldn't use. Likewise with images, if your local area is predominately made of homes with steel roofs, show off your best steel roof projects.
You want to grab your audiences attention but you also want to make them feel comfortable and that you 'get them'. People tend to buy from people like them, so through your ads make sure you demonstrate that. If you're targeting an older or younger audience for example make sure you don't use language or images that they may not understand.
The 'hook' in a Facebook ad is the three lines of text that browsers immediately see before clicking on the 'read more' button. In these three lines you need to create enough curiosity in the reader to get them to stop what they're doing and take the time to read about your company and offer.
The quality of the hook will dramatically change the cost of the leads you generate, so it's important you spend some time on it. We suggest brainstorming at least 5-10 ideas before picking 2 winners that you can try in your next campaign.
Here are a few examples to get you started:
When we run lead generation campaign the word 'cohesion' comes up a lot in our brainstorming sessions.
Cohesion in an ad campaign is all about giving the prospective customer a feeling of comfort when they see your ad, read the copy and finally click on the ad to take you up on your offer.
Make sure that your landing page uses similar words and phrases to those used in your ad. Make sure if you promoted a certain offer in your ad, you present the same offer on your landing page. Also be sure to let your customers know exactly what the process is, are they booking a phone call, who will call them, when, what information do they require etc...this will increase your conversion rate and make your leads easier to talk to when you phone them.
Now that you have your offer, hook and images or videos ready, you can now proceed to getting your Facebook campaign set up.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or would like to discuss how our digital marketing strategy just for Roofers can benefit your business, schedule a free call with us here.
Use the buttons below to jump to Chapter 4 where we get into the next key strategy in an effective Roofing marketing strategy - Local Search Engine Optimisation.
