It's nothing new, we're in the era of social media... And if you're reading this blog right now, it's likely because you clicked on a Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter link!
Every year, we're seeing record amounts of business generated with social media, and even entire companies being built and operated on various Social Media platforms.
This chart represents the amount of ad-spend on social media platforms increasing every single year! And this trend is expected to continue.
With this mass migration, many local businesses are being left behind, and their traditional marketing strategies are starting to fade.
So today, let's answer the question, how can local businesses use Facebook advertising to generate more valuable leads and grow through the next decade and beyond!
Step 1: Create A Facebook Business Manager
Now, this may sound self explanatory, but it's surprising how many businesses I consult for, don't actually have a Facebook Business Manager set up!
In this new era, it's a must have! Your Facebook Business Manager is where you can create/manage your Facebook Page, view your page analytics, run paid advertisements on both Facebook & Instagram, and many more useful tools for your business!
If you still haven't created a Business Account with Facebook, and set up your page + ads manager, you can click here to do that! It's as simple as following the steps.
Step 2: Create Facebook Page + Ads Manager
a.) Facebook Page
Hopefully, you already have a Facebook Page set up for your business! It's your digital identity. In many cases this is the first glance a prospective customer will get at your business, so it's important to have your logo, a clean banner, and regularly posted content on your feed!
The more information, better looking, and more content your Facebook page has, the more likely a customer is to do business with you! Put in the extra effort to make your page nicer than your competitors.
b.) Ads Manager
The ads manager is where you can create and run paid advertisements. This is really important to have set up for the next section of this blog. If you've been "boosting" posts, it's time to upgrade to the ads manager for more control, targeting, and ad objectives.
Setting up the ads manager can be done in the "business settings" tab once inside the business manager.
Step 3: Creating An Offer
Creating an offer is essential to generating leads on Facebook. Chances are, you are already implementing some type of offer in your business now! For example, our offer here at Aspect, is a free strategy consultation, where we'll help any business map out their digital marketing plan in 30 mins!
Once you have an enticing offer, that will provide value to your prospective customer, it's time to set up a landing page for that offer.
Step 4: Landing Page
Having a great landing page is critical in turning Facebook traffic, into high value leads for your business. Your landing page should "sell" your offer.
The key aspects to a great landing page are that it's clean, well designed, easy to digest, and outlines the benefits of your offer! The goal of the landing page is to collect information such as name, email, & phone number from the people visiting that page, in exchange for the offer you created!
ex: "If you want a free 30 minute marketing consultation, submit the form below"...
Step 5: Creating An Ad
Now it's time to create an advert for your offer! This is the picture, or video you will promote in order to let people know about your amazing offer, and get them to click onto your landing page.
In today's day, Video is KING... Having a high quality 20-40 second video is going to convert the best on Facebook & Instagram. Here's a few things to keep in mind.
Get to the point, people have short attention spans
HD quality always, Facebook wants only the best content
Don't "Sell" people don't want to see an infomercial
Client First focus on how your offer can bring them value
Show Testimonials, people need social proof
Step 6: Run Ad To Your Target Audience
You have a great offer, a landing page, and an awesome video ad... Now it's time to show your ad to your target audience.
This is where 99% of advertisers fail, and end up wasting money. It's important to only show your ad to people who are actually interested in your product/service!
Using ads manager, you can target your specific location, as well as interests, that will help you identify who is your target audience.
example: A local gym will want to target people in their surrounding zip codes, as well as people who are interested in exercise, healthy eating, weight loss, running, weights, etc...
If you need help targeting your ideal audience, book a free consultation with us! We'll help you identify exactly who, and how to target your ideal customers.
Step 7: Optimize Your Ads
The most important step to Facebook advertising success is optimization... Using the ads manager analytics, you can see the data on WHO is converting into leads, and WHO is not.
You can also see which videos/pictures are working the best vs the ones that are not...
Start cutting out losing audiences, losing ads, and losing ad copy, and start scaling up the ones that are profitable! Our proven optimization system is what has single handedly allowed us to drive profitable results for all of our clients to date!
Conclusion:
Facebook ads are a MUST HAVE for all local businesses today. A good strategy, can provide your business with a consistent stream of high quality leads, and put you ahead of your competitors.
It takes a bit of trial and error, but if you follow these 7 steps, you will be on your way to a profitable Facebook Lead Generation strategy in no time!
If you'd like to save the time and money involved in learning how to run ads, creating landing pages, and driving leads, our team has developed a proven strategy that delivers GUARANTEED results... And we'd be happy to talk to you for free on a strategy call!