Are you a tradesman looking to generate leads? Well, you’re in the right place.
This no-fluff guide provides you with the exact steps to set up, manage, and optimise your Facebook ad campaigns.
Sound good? Then get ready to expand your client base and grow your trade’s business with Facebook advertising.
Why Facebook ads are crucial for tradesmen
You might wonder, “What’s the importance of Facebook ads?” Facebook leads ads for tradesmen can:
- Reach a whopping 71% of UK adults
- Provide incredible targeting tools to reach specific areas and demographics
- Lead to a significant increase in brand visibility
How Facebook ads differ from other advertising methods
Facebook ads are a different beast altogether. Facebook and Instagram ads can be tailored to target audiences at various stages of the marketing funnel, making them highly effective for tradesmen, or a trade business looking to reach potential customers with specific needs.
Unlike traditional media with its fixed exposure limits, Facebook ads provide tradesmen with a scalable solution to increase their reach and attract a larger customer base through paid campaigns.
Setting Up Your Facebook Ad Campaign
Before you begin, it’s important to understand the fundamentals of how to run Facebook lead ads…
Start by selecting an ad type that aligns with your goals, such as traffic ads for landing page visits, conversion ads for tracking conversions, or Facebook lead aáds for (you guessed it) generating leads directly on Facebook.
Carousel and video ads are also an effective method for showcasing contracting services in a visually engaging format.
But wait, there’s more!
When targeting for a local ad campaign, avoid over-narrow targeting in small areas. Instead, use Facebook’s targeting system to reach the entire town, city, or region. This approach allows for optimal data gathering and campaign optimisation.
Creating a Facebook Business Page
A dedicated Facebook Business Page is vital for presenting your work and efficiently interacting with potential clients. When setting up your Facebook page, it’s essential to include a clear bio and display the logo in the profile picture. And be sure to choose a cover photo that represents the brand, customers can instantly recognise your business.
A well-placed call-to-action (CTA) button beneath the cover photo can significantly enhance customer engagement. It’s like saying, “Hey, over here! This is what you need to do next!”.
Defining your target audience
After setting up your Facebook Business Page, the next step is to identify your target audience. The ideal target audience size for Facebook to collect essential data is at least 100,000 people within the ad’s target area. You can specify multiple criteria such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Marital status
- Income
- Industry
- Job title
Remember, avoid over-targeting in local areas. This allows Facebook to optimise ads based on broader criteria while using exclusion to prevent audience overlap. Tradesmen can utilise location targeting to focus on specific geographical areas and behaviour targeting to reach potential customers based on past purchase behaviours and device usage.
Selecting the right ad format
Having identified your target audience, the next course of action is to choose the most suitable ad format.
Carousel ads and video ads are among the ad formats known to work well for contracting businesses. Why? Carousel ads allow you to showcase multiple products or services in a single ad, encouraging user interaction.
Video ads are effective in creating brand awareness for trade businesses. Collection ads enable tradesmen to feature a central image or video along with a collection of smaller images, streamlining the buying process within Facebook.
But how do you know which is the right format?
Choosing between video and image ads should be determined by the campaign’s goal, such as opting for video for brand awareness and images for driving landing page traffic.
Crafting Compelling Ad Content
After choosing the appropriate ad format, the next stage is creating engaging ad content. Your ad content should prioritise the potential customer’s benefits over the product or service features.
Also, a value proposition that is clear and compelling, such as exclusive discounts or unique service benefits, can significantly improve engagement and conversion rates for an ad campaign.
Confused? Don’t worry, we’ll break it down further.
Writing attention-grabbing headlines
Headlines are the first thing people see in your lead ad. They can be the difference between a user scrolling past or clicking to learn more. Here are some tips for creating effective ad headlines:
- Incorporate questions to resonate with the audience’s challenges and suggest your service as the solution
- Showcase the added value of your product or service in the headline
- Use a conversational tone that speaks directly to the reader
Craft headlines that create a sense of urgency using strong action words and articulate your unique selling proposition to stand out.
Avoid headlines with overly promotional language to prevent being flagged by Facebook’s spam filters, thus ensuring better ad reach.
Using high-quality images and videos
Short videos with text overlays or subtitles attract 20% more clicks than image ads. Subtitles are a critical element for Facebook videos as the majority of content is watched without sound.
Facebook recommends the following for video ads:
- Keep them to 15 seconds or less for quick audience capture and compatibility with Instagram Stories and in-stream placements.
- Export videos in H.264 with AAC audio in MP4 or MOV format.
- Consider the appropriate aspect ratio for the ad placement.
Including clear calls-to-action (CTAs)
A clear CTA can significantly increase your ad’s effectiveness. Here are some tips for creating a killer offer and incorporating a clear call to action:
- Incorporate a clear call to action in your headline.
- Use strong imperative verbs at the start of your CTA
- Personalise the CTA based on the audience segment to deliver a clear message
Enhance the CTA by provoking emotion or enthusiasm, showcasing the benefit of acting through the CTA, and exploiting FOMO with time-sensitive offers. Grab audience attention and maintain interest by being bold and provocative in your CTA copy, experimenting with different post formats, pinning important posts, and regularly adding new creatives to the campaign.
Optimising Your Facebook Ad Campaign
With your Facebook ad campaign in motion, the next step is to optimise it. Once your conversion campaigns are running effectively, Facebook will refine targeting to find new users likely to convert, ensuring your ads reach a more receptive audience.
Let’s get into the nitty-gritty…
Monitoring ad performance
You should closely observe key metrics such as Click-Through Rate (CTR), Cost Per Click (CPC), and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Additional performance metrics that should be observed include the total number of conversions, Cost Per Result, and Result Rate (Conversion Rate) to assess the success of an ad campaign.
Delivery metrics, which encompass Impressions, Cost Per 1000 Impressions (CPM), and Frequency, offer insights into the ad’s reach and the audience’s exposure to it. Monitoring ad frequency is essential to avoid audience oversaturation, which can lead to decreased engagement due to ad fatigue.
A/B testing
Ever heard of it? Don’t worry, it’s not that complicated. Essentially, A/B testing allows advertisers to compare different ad variations to see which one yields a higher conversion rate or overall better performance. Key aspects to vary during A/B testing include:
- Ad creatives
- Headlines
- Call-to-action buttons
- Targeting criteria
To accurately measure the impact of changes, it’s crucial to keep other variables constant while testing one specific aspect of the ad. CTAs should be tested to determine which ones drive more clicks and conversions, thereby allowing the ad to be optimised based on performance data.
Adjusting your ad spend and targeting
For optimising ad campaign results, it’s vital to consistently modify ad spend according to performance data, confirming that the budget is allocated to the most efficient ads and targeting opportunities.
How? Utilising automation tools for ad spend optimisation can lead to more efficient allocation of resources, adjusting the budget and targeting to enhance ROI.
Targeting Facebook ad campaigns based on the marketing funnel stages can improve the ad’s efficiency, from attracting cold customers to converting hot leads. Custom and Lookalike Audiences enable retargeting to past clients or website visitors and reaching new potential customers similar to existing ones.
Leveraging Facebook Messenger Ads
Were you aware that specifically, Messenger ads could revolutionise lead generation for tradesmen? Here’s how:
- Facilitating direct conversations via Facebook Messenger, eliminating the need for specific landing pages
- Messenger ads appear as direct messages in users’ Facebook Messenger app
- Fostering an interactive communication environment
- Engaging the target audience effectively
Benefits of using Messenger ads
Messenger ads on Facebook enable tradesmen to:
- Engage in direct conversations with potential customers
- Bypass traditional landing pages and forms
- Communicate directly through Facebook Messenger
- Increase engagement and conversion rates from potential customers
This direct communication has been shown to lead to higher engagement and conversion rates from potential customers, contributing to successful lead generation efforts.
Not only that, but personalised and convenient support can be offered to customers through Facebook Messenger ads, enhancing the customer service experience. Messenger ads can be effectively integrated with existing customer service platforms, streamlining communication and centralising valuable customer data for trade businesses.
Setting up a Messenger ad campaign
Preparing to launch a Facebook Messenger ad campaign? Look no further. To create an effective Messenger ad campaign, follow these steps:
- Create ads with a clear call to action that invites potential customers to send a message.
- Implement rich messaging features such as carousels and multimedia messages to make the ad campaign more engaging.
- Test various ad creatives and offers to determine which resonates most effectively with the target audience.
Integrating chatbots and autoresponders
Chatbots and automation tools can:
- Manage simple inquiries, offering 24/7 customer support
- Engage customers proactively with services such as product comparisons
- Integrate with platforms like Facebook Messenger to enable the collection of customer satisfaction data, aiding in the identification of service improvement opportunities.
By offering a personalised and interactive experience, businesses can enhance customer service and satisfaction. Tools such as Manychat aid in creating and managing chatbots and autoresponders, allowing businesses to respond to customer inquiries efficiently even when they cannot manage a live chat channel round-the-clock.
Summary
Facebook advertising can be a game-changer for tradesmen. It opens doors to a vast user base, allows precise targeting, and offers cost-effective solutions for lead generation. By setting up a Facebook Business Page, defining a target audience, selecting the right ad format, and crafting compelling ad content, tradesmen can leverage the full potential of Facebook advertising.
Monitoring ad performance, conducting A/B testing, adjusting ad spend and targeting, and leveraging Messenger ads can significantly enhance the effectiveness of a Facebook ad campaign. As shown here, in our Facebook lead ads guide, well-executed lead generation ads can yield impressive results, proving its worth as a valuable tool for trade businesses.
