Facebook Ads For Contractors: A Complete Guide

Facebook ads for contractors are a reliable way to get leads and customers interested in paying for their services.

This makes facebook an excellent way for contractors to expand their business, but it can take a lot of time and effort.

Facebook advertising offers a unique and cost-effective way to reach potential customers efficiently. It allows you to speak directly to your potential customers and increase your online visibility in ways that traditional marketing can’t.

By leveraging the power of Facebook ads, contractors can create engaging ad campaigns to help speak directly to their ideal customers and boost lead generation.

Do Facebook Ads Work For Contractors?

The short answer is yes.

For contractors, Facebook ads is a powerful tool that has proven to be highly effective as a marketing tool for countless businesses. Contractors are no different.

To ignore the impact it can have on your business would mean leaving money on the table, and nobody wants to do that.

When set up the right way, Facebook ad campaigns can gain huge returns and even save you some money by stopping you from wasting your marketing spend on campaigns that don't get you results.

Benefits of Facebook Ads For Contractors

In the ever-changing world of digital marketing, it can take time to figure out where to start.

With Facebook advertising, contractors can find many opportunities to get a consistent flow of new leads and gain more customers. 

Here are some ways it works in your favor to secure the growth of your contracting business

Targeting & Reach

Facebook has built a fantastic system that enables you to get your ad in front of the right prospects. With Facebook's interest targeting, you can narrow down and control who will see your ads. 

You can narrow your targetting by:

Interests - Target based on recent online activity, interests, and hobbies of your ideal customer

Behaviors - Show your ads to p[rospects based of their tendencies based on their past purchases or what device they are on 

Location - Local or national, you can create ads targeting anyone in your service area.

Demographics - Freedom to choose the best audience for your contractor business based on gender, age, education, job title and more

Connections - Target prospects that have already interacted with your business. You can use them in your campaigns as a starting point or exclude them completely to pull fresh customers into your business's ecosystem.

Find out more about your Facebook ads targeting options by clicking here.

Budget Management

The last thing you want to do as a business owner is spending money without getting any returns. 

Facebook understands that and lets you limit how much money each campaign will spend by allowing you to specify a daily or lifetime budget for your campaigns.

Setting your campaign budget is valuable because knowing how much you will spend on ads daily will make planning your monthly advertising budget much more effortless.

It also enables cost-effective spending.

Controlling which campaigns your money goes to allows you to stop spending money on poor-performing campaigns and put that money into campaigns that are getting you the right results instead.

Track Campaign Performance

The insights you get on your campaigns from the data they collect are invaluable in eliminating all the guesswork that goes into decision-making.

• Conversion Rate (CR), 
• Click-Through-Rate (CTR), 
• Cost per Result (CPR), 
• Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)

These are just a few metrics we keep an eye on to ensure our accounts always perform at their best.

Focusing on metrics like these help you understand where your campaign stands and where changes will need to be made to get the most out of your Facebook ads campaign.

Campaign Flexibility

A strong marketing campaign always has a well-defined goal. It's important to know what your goal is before you begin creating your campaign.

Whether your goal is lead generation, brand awareness, or expanding engagement with your brand, Facebook offers a variety of options to choose from to build a campaign with your goal in mind. 

Building An Unbeatable Facebook Ads Strategy for Contractors

Why don't most contractors see success with Facebook ads?

1. They have bad ads or ad setup
2. They don't do their research
3. They aren't making sure the right people see their ads

Getting Started

You would only start a big project with a good plan. 

Treat your Facebook advertising campaigns the same way.

Don't go in blind. Here is a list of things to keep in mind as you plan out your campaign

• Lead with a compelling offer

• Know your audience

• Use relevant copy

• Don't underestimate the power of remarketing

Lead With A Compelling Offer

The right offer will help you stand out among your competitors. 

You might offer anything from discounts on your services to free consultations. It depends on what kind of contracting services you offer. 

Then follow it up by crafting a message that will resonate with potential customers and get them to take action.

No matter your offer, you must ensure it's high-value and as simple as possible. You want to make it easy for your prospect to pick up the phone.

Know Your Audience

To maximize the effectiveness of your ad, you will need to be as detailed as possible about your intended audience and their specific needs.

Knowing your audience and why they are in the market is essential.

Remember that most people aren't scrolling through their Facebook feed looking for something to buy. This is why narrowing down your target market will increase the chances of your ad reaching the right people.

A little research on your audience will go a long way.

Here are some questions to think about:

• Are you an affordable contractor or more high ticket? 

• What highlights of your business set you apart from your competition? 

• Are you a local business, or can you serve a more extensive area?

• How will your service make a customer's life better?

• Which demographics (age, gender, education, job title etc.) do I want to target?

Knowing the answers to these crucial questions will play a big part in deciding what to target. 

As a contractor, you want to focus your campaigns on homeowners, not renters. Owners with a higher income generally give you a greater return on your investment.

Use Relevant Copy

Your ad copy is the first point of contact with your business for most people who see it, which will be why they choose to call you after that. 

When creating your advertisement copy, ensure you speak directly to the customer you want. Be as specific as you can about your offer.

Ensure your photo or video is engaging and captures your audience's attention for more than a few seconds. 

In an age where everyone is constantly scrolling through their feed, having a strong "scroll-stopper" is a great weapon to have in your arsenal.

Don't Underestimate The Power Of Remarketing

Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is a powerful strategy that can help contractors reach potential customers who may have already visited their website but have yet to take action. 

Through Facebook ads, you can remind visitors about your services and encourage them to take advantage of your offer or introduce them to a new offer.

Remarketing allows contractors to remain top-of-mind with their target audience. 

Using a custom audience is the best way to take full advantage of remarketing campaigns.

This feature lets you build lists of your audience and people that have interacted with your Facebook business page or website.

For example, you can create a custom audience of leads who aren't yet paying customers. Facebook will collect that data and put it in a list for you. 

You can then take this list to use in a remarketing campaign that gives them an extra discount or presents them with a different, more enticing offer.

Building A Campaign In Facebook Ads For Contractors

Creating a marketing campaign from scratch can seem daunting. But understanding the different parts of a Facebook ad campaign can make things seem less intimidating.

There are three levels to a Facebook ad: Campaign, Ad Set, and Ad.

Campaign Level

The campaign level is where you will always begin. This is where you tell Facebook the goal of your campaign.

Choose carefully because these options make a difference in your campaign results. 

If the primary goal of your campaign is to generate leads for your contractor services, don't pick the traffic goal. This will only flood your landing page with as much traffic as possible without getting you any conversions.

Instead, pick the Conversions goal to let the Facebook algorithm know that you are looking specifically for people that will become leads for your business.

Ad Set Level

You manage your campaign's budget and targeting at the ad set level.

Budget

Your marketing budget will determine the daily budget you set. 

Facebook will only spend your daily budget, so it's essential to give it enough to find your customers.

A good amount to start with is $20. After a couple of days, if you are still waiting for leads or notice your budget isn't spending at all, then it's time to increase it.

Sometimes getting no leads or your budget, not spending could mean your budget needs to be higher to match the cost per lead of your niche.

If this happens, try increasing your daily budget by $5 and letting the ad run for another couple of days. And keep repeating till your campaign starts getting results, then optimize from there.

Targeting

This is where you will let Facebook know who wants to see your ads.

You can also use this section to exclude an audience you don't want your ad to target, which can be a valuable tool if you use it right.

For example, if you want to retarget anyone who might have already seen your ad but didn't turn into leads, you don't want people who did turn into paying customers to see that ad. You can create a custom audience of your current customers and exclude them.

When your remarketing campaign runs, you will save money on customers you already have and have fresh prospects seeing your ads.

You can use the targeting options to use one of your existing audiences or go after a new audience.

Existing Audience

Using existing audiences is excellent for running ads directly to people already in your business's ecosystem.

You can use this existing audience to create different custom audiences of people who have already interacted with your business. 

You can also use this to create a Look-A-Like (LLA) audience, an audience of people most likely to engage with your brand created from one of your custom audiences.

New Audiences

This option is great for going after cold audiences.

You can target by location, age, gender, interests, or language. 

This is where it's essential to understand who your ideal customer is. Using these targeting options, you can specify your ads' demographic.

Ad Level

This is where the magic happens! On the ad level, you enter all the parts of your ads that people will see.

Here you can enter your ad text, headline, description and image or video - depending on which one you want to use.

Facebook Ad Strategy For Contractors

Facebook offers a range of targeting options that help you reach potential clients. 

You can generate high-quality leads with the right strategy without compromising your budget.

Campaign Segmentation

We recommend focusing on campaign segmentation to maximize your results with Facebook advertising.

This means keeping things separate and organized.

It might be tempting to run all of your ads under the same campaign, but we strongly advise against this.

It might seem easy initially, but it will get confusing as you publish more ads.

Naming Conventions

As you create different campaigns, ad sets and ads, you need to name them something you will remember. 

The best practice is to label it after the goal of that campaign with the date it was created. 

For instance, a lead generation campaign created in December could be named: Lead Gen - December 2022.

There is no right or wrong way to label your campaigns. Just make sure you remember them.

Audience Segmentation

Your audience will grow as ads run, and like campaign segmentation segmenting your audience will make your life easier.

Here are a few ideas of lists you can segment your audience by

• Leads

• Users following the business's Facebook page

• Have visited your website

Also, if you have an email list of your customers, you can upload that list to Facebook and use it to run ads specifically to people on your email list.

Get a CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

A CRM combined with your Facebook ad campaigns creates automation solutions that will help ensure the most effective outreach efforts while saving time and energy.

With features that allow you to track customer interactions, plan campaigns, and analyze customer data, contractors will have everything they need to generate leads almost seamlessly. 

The automated features also help streamline the lead generation process, making it more efficient and allowing your business to spend less time manually leading prospects through your sales process and more time growing your contractor business. 

Additionally, you will benefit from customer data insights that a CRM provides, enabling you to target potential leads better to increase conversion rates. 

By investing in a CRM system, contractors can save time and better understand their customers so they can tailor their Facebook marketing strategies accordingly.

Facebook Ads can be a significant asset to contractors if used correctly. 

With the right strategy, these ads can help contractors reach their target audiences and drive more leads. By understanding facebooks campaign structure, available targeting options and focusing on creating engaging content, contractors can ensure their Facebook Ads are successful.