Social Media Ad Solutions
Millions of small business owners have seen just how impactful Facebook Ads can be. Your friends at All Contractor Marketing® have put together this Ultimate Guide to Facebook Ads for Your HVAC business so you have the social media ad solutions you desire. This guide will help you learn to leverage Facebook Ads to drive traffic to your site and reach potential customers. Follow these 8 steps and you’ll be placing effective Facebook ads in no time. We are proud to offer social media ad solutions.
Step 1: Choose Where to Place Your Social Media Ads
There are 3 main places where you can place your Facebook ads:
- On Your HVAC Company’s Fan Page. There are four different types of ads you can place on your company’s Facebook page. These ad types include:
- Promote your company’s “Learn More” button
- Get More Website Visitors
- Promote Your Business Locally
- Promote Your Page
This is the simplest advertising tool on Facebook, but it is the least robust. Note: you can always Invite Your Friends to like your HVAC business’ fan page for free.
- The Power Editor. Although the Power Editor is the most challenging to use, it is the most powerful advertising location available. Consider using the Power Editor if:
- You want to create, edit and upload ads in bulk.
- You need more characters/text than the Fan Page Ads or Ads Manager ads will permit. The Power Editor has no character limit.
- You want to leverage dark posts meaning you want to run ads that won’t appear on your HVAC business’ page.
- The Ads Manager. Most business owners use Facebook’s Ads Manager and we recommend you use it for your HVAC business as well. It’s easier to use than the Power Editor and it has more functionality than the ads available through your Fan Page.
Step 2: Understand Facebook’s Ad Structure
Every Facebook ad campaign has a unique objective. The goal might be to increase website visits, create more brand awareness or promote a new product. Within your marketing campaign, you’ll have one or more Ad Sets. Ad Sets are organizational tools that help you categorize your ads according to audience, budget, schedule and placement. Each Ad Set houses one or more Ads that may differ based on media, format and/or text.
To get started creating a Facebook ad for your HVAC business, click Create Ad while you’re in Ads Manager.
Step 3: Create Your Ad and Choose Your Objectives
After clicking Create Ad, you will be prompted to choose an objective for your campaign. You will need to choose one out of 11 objectives. Most Facebook advertisers choose one of two objectives housed in the Consideration column: Traffic or Engagement. Either of these options would be a good place to start. These objectives can allow you to accomplish a variety of goals. You can increase your website traffic, increase the number of Likes on your Facebook page or Boost a specific post.
Facebook will also permit you to choose one of two different ways to bid for your ad’s placement. You can bid by Auction or by Reach and Frequency. Small businesses, and those who are new to Facebook ads, often choose Auction. We recommend you choose this option as well.
Depending on which objective you choose, a second section may pop-up where you will need to choose a sub-category. These might include Post Engagement, Page Like, etc. Oftentimes, the only thing you need to do is enter a name for your ad campaign.
Step 4: Build Your Facebook Ad Audience
The next step is to build your ad’s audience – the people who will actually see your ad. This is another essential element to building a successful Facebook ad campaign. You will be presented with a number of options to choose from. You can break your audience down by: location, age, gender, interests, language and more. We suggest you create an imaginary ideal client to help you narrow your audience down.
After coming up with a picture of your ideal client, you’ll need to narrow the audience size down further by using the Detailed Targeting section. To properly use this section, we encourage you to think about your ideal client. Once you have a picture of this client in your mind, think about what Facebook pages they might follow. These might include other local businesses, sports groups, or topics of interest. You want your HVAC business’ ads to be shown to users who visit those pages.
You can enter these details one at a time and see how it impacts your ad’s potential audience size. The general rule of thumb is to keep your audience size between 500,000 to 2mil. However, as a local business, your audience may be much smaller – and that’s ok. If you’re in a small town, it isn’t essential to narrow your audience down much at all.
Step 5: Set Your Budget and Your Schedule
The next step is to set your campaign’s budget and also it’s schedule. If you’re new to placing ads on Facebook, we suggest you let Facebook decide where to place your ads. We also suggest you choose a low daily budget, somewhere between $5 to $10. Finally, use the default delivery method, allow Facebook to place bids for you, use the standard delivery time and run your ads all the time.
By using these settings, you’ll achieve somewhat predictable results and you can also scale up after some fine-tuning. We suggest you run your ad for about 2 days and then use the analytics to make some adjustments.
Step 6: Add Your Graphics and/or Video
Other than choosing the right audience, the next most important factor in your ad’s success will be its visual element. We find that graphics or videos that include one or more of these elements perform the best:
- They stir up a positive emotion.
- They show an interesting aspect of the HVAC business or its products.
- They match the messaging in the ad’s text.
- They include the company’s branding and also colors.
- They are high-quality/hi-resolution
Keep in mind, Facebook penalizes companies whose graphics include more than 20% text. Sometimes they won’t show the graphic in the ad at all.
You can choose to use one image for your ad or use a Carousel Ad. Carousel Ads permit you to use up to 10 images. All Contractor Marketing® suggests you create 6 versions of your ad’s graphic and also choose the 1 graphic per ad option. Then, Facebook can do a test run on each of these ads. After 24 to 36 hours, you’ll be able to see which graphic performs best.
If you don’t have high-quality/high-resolution images to use for your ad, don’t worry. Facebook has stock images you can use for free. Just one of the social media ad solutions you need.
Step 7: Add Your Text and Preview the Ad
Once you’ve uploaded your graphic, it’s time to enter your ad’s text and see a preview of the finished product. When you choose the single image ad option, you have a 25-character limit for the headline. In addition, you have a 90-character limit for the text and a 200-character limit for the News Feed description. Since you won’t have many characters to work with, we suggest you follow these guidelines:
- Headline: Use 1 Action + 1 Subject
- Text: Use 1 Pain Point + 1 Solution + 1 CTA
- News Feed Description: Use 1 CTA + Detailed Description of Pain Point + Detailed Description of Solution
We suggest you also leverage the Call-to-Action option. In addition, we also suggest that you run your ads on both the desktop and also the mobile news feeds. Finally, also consider running your ads on the Desktop Right Column and the Audience Network. Within 2 days of initially running your ad, you’ll be able to see which location is performing best. Then, you can shift your campaign’s placement over to that (those) location.
Step 8: Order Your Ad
Once you’ve completed the 7 steps above, review it one last time by clicking Review Ad. If you’re satisfied with how everything looks, simply click Place Order. It may take Facebook up to 24 hours to review and either reject or accept your ad. But, the overwhelming majority of ads are reviewed within 30 minutes. If your ad is approved, it will start running right away. If it is rejected, Facebook will also provide you with a reason.
Facebook Social Media Ad Solutions with All Contractor Marketing®
Facebook advertising is a great option for large and also small HVAC businesses alike. Although it might seem a little daunting, it’s definitely worth investing in. If you need help with your company’s social media marketing plan, give All Contractor Marketing® a call. We provide consultation and also social media marketing services to HVAC companies nationwide. Give us a call today – we look forward to helping your business succeed.