Should you be using Facebook ads?

I get this question a lot.

The short answer: yes.

The long answer: read on.

Facebook Ads for Operators

While Facebook ads are important and useful,I rarely see them done correctly. Like Google Ads or any other marketing work, if done incorrectly, they won’t work for you. 

If you’ve ever heard someone say, “Google Ads doesn’t work,” that means you didn’t do it correctly.

If you’ve ever heard someone say, “Facebook ads don’t work,” that means you didn’t do it correctly.

Same with LinkedIn ads or any other ad platform. Anything will work if you know the basic fundamentals. I’ve seen LinkedIn campaigns that weren’t using any fundamentals. This misses the power of these platforms.

Recently, I was talking to a company I used to work with. He showed me one of his Facebook ads. It was funny. It was a dog talking in a funny voice about the different services he offers his clients. That was the ad. His number was on the bottom of the screen.

There were so many things wrong with this. I mentioned a few things. But, it’s one of those things where all I can do is make recommendations based one what I can see that works. I’m never going to tell someone it’s stupid and won’t work. But I was very confident it wouldn’t work.

There are several reasons why.

Why Your FB Ads Aren’t Working

There are a few common problems with FB ads that I see both inside and outside our industry. Keep in mind that there are basic components that make up any Facebook or social ad. These four elements are:

1. The ad itself
2. The image
3. The ad copy
4. The target audience

Let me explain some of the common problems related to those elements. You may be making these mistakes:

• AD MISTAKE: NO OFFER. The ad doesn’t offer anything. It may be entertaining but it doesn’t give any value or offer anything that incentivizes someone to take action.

Many of you have probably seen my FB ads. I always say something like, “find out how my company achieved this result.” I offer a writeup or case study for free that highlights what I offer. I’m giving something away for free in exchange for their email address or information. That’s what you have to do. You need to give people something. Many times that’s a discount.

Example of a Targeted Offer

You think about your audience. Say you’re marketing to brides. You could create a resource that provides info about “Transportation on your wedding day” or “5 Things you need to know about booking a limo for your wedding day.” There is only value and benefit to doing this. First, you can add the copy to your website. Second, you’re creating an offer that will serve as a lead magnet and can be connected to your ads.

• AD MISTAKE: NO CONVERSION TRACKING. You have to have conversion tracking set up. It may work but it could work 5-10x better if you set this up.

Conversion tracking is incredibly valuable. When you have conversions, the algorithm tracks the similarities between these people. It builds an audience for you by harvesting thousands of data points. When this is set up, the algorithm has what it needs to work. It can then find similar people to serve the ad to, which reduces your cost per lead.

• AD MISTAKE: NARROW TARGETING. If an ad is targeted to a narrow audience, you’ll overlap interests and not be able to track leads.

I often hear people say that they know exactly who their client is. When you whittle down the list of who you’re serving ads to, say to 5,000 people or so, your ads will stop working. The audience will get played out and not full of viable leads anymore.

Tip for Retail Transportation Companies

You may be trying to book a party bus or stretch limo. There are plenty of offers you can make. You may be able to offer a percentage discount. You could book four hours get the fifth hour free. Keep in mind: I don’t recommend offering a 5-25% discount. That doesn’t get people excited. Sometimes it works but the leads can get expensive.

Think outside the box. Maybe you can offer a free bottle of champagne. You can always test with different funnel strategies: write one offer in an ad and drive to a landing page. Then, once it’s downloaded, have the reply contain a second offer that motivates them to call right away.

• AD MISTAKE: NO RETARGETING. You should be running ads that get both cold leads and warm leads, or people who have previously shown some interest in your business.

People who have seen your advertising may or may not have converted. Retargeting can be a very inexpensive way to get leads.

Create FB Ads That Perform

Let’s turn the common mistakes around and give you marching orders for how to create FB ads that perform for your business. To avoid these mistakes and generate leads from your social ads, you need to:

1. Offer something
2. Track conversions
3. Expand targeting
4. Retarget

Here’s the heart of this: focus on mastering one platform at a time.

The difference between social ads and PPC or even SEO is that people aren’t searching for you. Social ads are served to people who are doing other things online. They aren’t actively looking for you. That is why you have to incentivize engagement differently.

Be sure to subscribe to the Limo Marketer YouTube channel to get more insight and info like this on how to make ads that perform for your business.