As of December 2017, Facebook boasted over two billion monthly users. As a business, this provides an opportunity to directly engage with target audiences via its sophisticated advertising platform, where you can target potential customers based on their interests and web activity, as well as psychographics and demographics.
In a nutshell, Facebook ads can deliver eye-catching imagery, valuable content and calls-to-action – all tailored to your ideal customer profile.
But if you’re new to the advertising platform – don’t worry – we have spoken to some industry experst and found some top tips that will help you use Facebook ads to their full potential:
Target audience
Develop a profile for your target audience using demographics and psychographics. Demographics are characteristics such as age, gender, education and relationship status, where Psychographics include hobbies, spending habits and personal values. Once you’ve identified your preferred clientele, tailor your ads to fit around them.
You can also target via geographic locations, reaching potential customers within a defined radius of your salon.
Choose an objective
Your ad can be categorised into three areas: awareness, consideration and conversion. Do you want to encourage potential clients to “like” your page? Do you want to engage with clients on a personal level? Or do you want to prompt potential customers to click on a post that will send them to your website?
Either way, these objectives can gain a user’s attention, earn their trust and loyalty and then convert them into paying customers.
Awareness
The best way to make people aware of your business is by advertising content that relates to your services and is interesting to your target customers.
If you create content that your followers are already used to seeing on their news feed, sharing it as part of an ad won’t feel unnatural. The right content will encourage potential and existing clients to interact with you.
Use one of Facebook’s reach ads to achieve maximum views, as well as to track brand visibility and user engagement.
Consideration
Demonstrate your expertise through content, such as an article that highlights why your products/services are the best on the market. You want potential clients to trust you as an expert in your field and consider using your services. This stage includes:
- Traffic: Increasing traffic to your Facebook page, website or app can increase engagement
- Engagement: Create an ad that includes brand specific information to increase likes, comments, shares, event responses and offer claims
- App installs: Send users directly to the app store to learn about your salon services
- Video views: A useful and eye-catching way to highlight how your business works
- Lead generation: Collect valuable information from interested users
- Messages: Let potential clients contact you directly through Facebook Messenger
Conversion
Once you’ve established a more targeted audience that is genuinely interested, create an ad that sells your services and includes a call-to-action, such as “Call for a free consultation”.
A call-to-action button can either direct potential clients to your website or get them to contact you in some way. You can capture their contact information quickly this way too, helping you build a loyal customer base.
Placement & budget
Decide whether to show your ad on mobile, desktop or both. If you choose both, Facebook will allocate funds based on where it thinks it will perform best. Remember, most people use Facebook on their phone, so make sure your ad and website are mobile-friendly.
Depending on your budget, decide how long your ad will run for and how many people will see it each day. Your daily budget can start at just £5 a day and can be increased at any time.
Scheduling
You can run your ad continuously or set a start and end date. Ensure you choose a schedule that fits with your budget and allows enough people to have time to click on the ad before introducing a second and third ad.
Format
Facebook ads can be published as a single image, a carousel of multiple images, a single video or a slideshow. Choose a format that will blend in with your target audience’s current news feed and display like a post from a friend, so it’s not out of place.
Remember…
Although Facebook ads are an important component of your marketing strategy, they’re not the only aspect of this social platform that you should use.
Once you have gained potential clients through ads, it’s important to continue to engage with them on a regular basis. While it might be nice to get some quick sales, a service-based business such as a salon requires personalised relationship building in order to be successful.
Have you secured new clients via Facebook ads? Let us know what you think by commenting on our Facebook page.
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