Facebook Ads for Local Businesses: How to Generate More Leads
Facebook Ads have emerged as a powerful tool for local businesses to boost their online presence and generate valuable leads. With its extensive user base and targeted advertising options, Facebook provides a unique platform for businesses to connect with their local audience. In this blog post, we'll explore the key elements that can make your Facebook Ads campaign a success.
The Structure of Facebook Ads
Before jumping into creating a Facebook Ad, you must first set up the skeleton of your campaign. There are three parts to a Facebook Ad Campaign:
The Campaign Level: Here you set the tone for what you want to accomplish with campaign objectives. Like generating traffic or brand awareness, or increasing conversions or getting more leads. There is always one campaign, but you can have multiple ad sets and ads.
The Ad Set Level: Here you can focus on the audiences you want to target. Ad sets can have one or more ads.
The Ad Level: Here you have the images and/or videos you want to display to encourage people to take action.
For local business owners, I find that “Traffic” or “Leads” campaign objectives are a great place to start. With Traffic as an objective, you can send people who are interested in your ad directly to a page on your website. With the “Leads” objective, you can have people who are interested in your ad fill out on form on Facebook (or Instagram), or you can direct them to a form on your website.
Using the Right Targeting
Facebook's targeting options are a goldmine for local businesses. You’re able to narrow down your audience based on location, demographics, interests, and behaviors. If you're a bakery in downtown, target users within a specific radius who have shown an interest in baked goods. By refining your audience, you ensure that your ads reach the right people at the right time, maximizing their effectiveness.
When determining what targeting to use, first, you need to consider who your target audience is, where they like to hang out, and what they are interested in. I always recommend testing out 3-5 targeting options. That means you would need to set up 3-5 ad sets, each focused on one specific interest, demographic, or behavior. The great thing about Facebook and its Ad Manager is that while you’re setting up your ad sets, you can see how big a potential audience is. If you see that one of your targeting options has a really small audience, you can adjust and choose another.
Choosing the Right Creatives
In the world of Facebook Ads, visuals speak louder than words. The creatives you use are what people see first. You don’t want to scare potential clients off with a low-quality creative that doesn't make sense to the service or product you’re offering! Capture your audience's attention with high-quality images or engaging videos that highlight the unique aspects of your local business.
For local businesses that have strong before and afters (for example a barber shop customer before and after a haircut) you could create a 10-20 second Reel and use that as one of the creatives for your ad campaign. You should always test 3-5 different ad creatives to see which generates the best results for your business.
There are rules to Facebook creatives and ad copy in general. Make sure to reference the Meta Advertising Standards before diving deep into creating or capturing media for your Facebook ads.
Using Retargeting Tactics
Don't let potential leads slip away! You can Implement retargeting strategies to reconnect with users who have previously interacted with your business. Set up custom audiences based on website visits, engagement with your Facebook Page, or interactions with previous ads. This helps you stay top-of-mind and encourages users to convert, especially if they were just a click away from booking your services.
I recommend separating your Retargeting Campaign from your General Campaign(s). That way you can track the performance of your retargeting efforts.
How to Know if Facebook Ads Are for You
While Facebook Ads offer immense potential, they may not be suitable for every business. Assess your target audience's presence on the platform, your budget constraints, and the nature of your products or services. If your local community is actively engaging on Facebook and your business can benefit from targeted advertising, then it's worth exploring. You can also consider working with a professional to get you up and running with a Facebook Ads campaign to increase your chance of success.
