Have you tried advertising on Facebook and feel like you just threw away your money?
In this article, I’ll explain to you why Facebook Ads can work for local businesses and how you can use them to drive new customers into your shop.
One of the biggest things I see local businesses struggle with when it comes to effectively using Facebook ads to grow their business is not providing value or having a clear offer.
Before running any Facebook promotion, you’ve got to have a clear-cut strategy that will take your target audience from becoming aware of your business to engaging with your business, getting them to submit their details and finally becoming a paying customer (and hopefully a repeat one).
As a local business biggest advantage of digital marketing is the ability to target people who are actually interested in your product or service within a certain area of your business or people who have interacted with your website before, this means when you are deciding to run Facebook ads you need to make sure you are giving your audience value and great offer for them to take action.
For example, let’s say I own a roofing company.
To attract clicks from people who are interested in roofing, or have a problem that we can solve, our roofing company could offer a free piece of content to get them to click on the ad for exchange of their contact details.
We could also create number of 60 seconds video ads giving people value on different questions they might be asking or showing them recently completed roofing project or telling them why they need to get their roof inspected every 5 years for example. We can also add special discounts to anyone who has watched the video.
What this is doing is showing the local community that we are the experts in the local area just because we are providing customer with so much value and trying to help them make an informed decision.
Tips for Creating a Facebook Ad That Converts
When writing your ad copy, you need a strong value proposition. Think about what separates you from the competition. Our value proposition might be that our roofs come with 25 years guarantee.
Once you know your value proposition, align every marketing message with that “one thing.” In your ads, clearly, state or imply your value proposition, and make your offer strong enough for the user to follow up with your desired action.
It’s pretty simple to add a call to action to a Facebook ad; you simply select a call-to-action button. To go the extra mile, include the call to action in your post as well.
Just remember people are on Facebook because they want to watch funny videos, see what their friends and family are up to or look at memes. That’s why Facebook Ads require us to provide an incentive to get people to click on the advert.
So, what is the best incentive to not only get people to click but also get clicks from people who are truly interested in buying from you?
A bloody great offer they cannot refuse!
For exchange of their contact details or hard earn cash.
This means that in addition to generating new business you’re also growing your email list.
This is extremely helpful because you own your email list and it’s not influenced by the decision of other businesses. Email marketing still remains one of the most powerful marketing tools any business can use to generate new sales for its business. Once your email list is big enough you can add this list into Facebook and use it for remarketing to get your warm leads to see your Facebook Ads.
This is a strategy any local business can do.
Get creative with your offer while always keeping your business goals in mind and experiment to figure out what works.