Whether you’ve already dabbled in online advertising or the whole idea intimidates the pants off you, you’ve probably asked yourself:
“Should I be running FaceBook Ads for my Cleaning Business?“
Unfortunately, the answer isn’t an easy “yes” or “no”.
It’s more like a complicated “Probably, but how you do it depends on a whole lot of factors, such as what your goals are and who you are trying to reach.“
Yikes.
To help you sort through the many options and approaches to advertising your cleaning business on Facebook, we’ve outlined the questions you should answer before you hand over your hard-earned marketing dollars to Facebook.
Facebook Ads For Cleaning Business Question #1 - What do you want the ads to do?
Yes, the obvious answer is to bring you new customers.
But there are a few steps in the sales process that have to happen before you’ll have a contract signed and the keys to their office in your hand… so what is that first step?
It may be for leads to…
-
Visit your website
-
Call your company
-
Request a quote on your website
-
Like your Facebook page
-
Send you an inbox message/email
The answer to this question will be what you use to determine how effective your Facebook ads are.
For example, if your goal is to generate interest in your spring cleaning promotion, there are a few things you would want to measure before you could determine if the marketing actually “worked”.
Did you get any traffic to your website? Did you get any leads through your website as a result of these ads? Did you get any phone calls as a result of these ads?
Knowing the answers to these types of questions can go a long way to understanding the value behind your marketing’s effectiveness and whether or not you’re going to continue spending in the future.
Facebook Ads For Cleaning Business Question #2 -
Do you know how you’ll measure success?
Now that you’ve decided what you want your ads to do, it’s important to make sure that you can measure it when it actually happens.
Assuming that your objective is to generate business for your company, let’s review a couple of checks that you’ll want to complete before launching any ads on your Facebook:
Check #1 - Google Analytics is Installed
Make sure that you’ve installed Google Analytics on your website and that your team has access to the account. If you haven’t yet, don’t worry, it’s completely free and very easy to set up.
Simply sign into Google Analytics with any valid Google account to get started.
Check #2 - A Google Analytics “Goal” Has Been Set-Up
Once Google Analytics has been installed on your website, you’ll need to set up at least one “goal.”
A goal is an action you want visitors to your site to take.
For example, If sales leads are your objective, you’ll want to set up a goal whenever someone has filled out the “Get a Quote” or “Contact Us” form on your website.
This step is also very simple to do. Google provides a form to fill out that will guide you through the process:
For tutorial videos on setting up goals visit Analytics Help.
Facebook Ads For Cleaning Business Question #3 - Do you know who you are trying to reach?
For many marketers, targeting a specific audience is a step that is often overlooked.
Many simply launch a “spray and pray” approach hoping that they will reach the right people. This is a major opportunity lost when it comes to Facebook advertising. In fact, audience targeting is one of the key reasons that Facebook ads can be so effective for your cleaning company.
The best approach is to sit down with your team to come up with a “Persona” for your ideal customer.
A persona (from a marketing perspective) is a fictional character you make up based on what you understand about who it is you’re trying to reach. Are they male or female? What role do they hold in the company? What problems do they have?
One helpful tool to help you and your team through this process is Up Close & Persona. Start there to get a firm idea of who you are trying to reach and what is important to them.
From here, use the persona your team comes up with to leverage Facebook’s audience targeting abilities. The more specific you can be, the better chance you have a connection with exactly what it is you’re trying to reach.
Use criteria like geography, age, gender, job title, and even the specific interests you think they may have.
Pro Tip: Make sure to use Google URL Builder to track the specific ads you buy. This will help you understand not only that Facebook helped get them there, but also which of your ads specifically influenced their decision.
Facebook Ads For Cleaning Business Question #4 - Do You Know What They Want to Hear?
The average person is exposed to over 5,000 brand impressions/day.
Wowza.
So, unfortunately, it’s not enough for you to know what you want to say to your target audience.
For your Facebook Ads (or any ad for that matter) to get their attention, you need to know what your audience wants to hear.
The key to this is to dive deep into the heads of your ideal customers.
The best place to start is with your existing customers. Making a quick call and asking them a few questions about why they chose your cleaning company is the best way to get an understanding of what drove their decision to hire you.
Ask what key problems they were trying to avoid when hiring a new company.
Here’s a hint… “quality cleaning services” is not a very specific answer — all customers expect that — what more are they looking for?
Pro Tip: Once you’ve spoken to a few customers go back to your persona and update it based on what you learned from your customers.
Facebook Ads For Cleaning Business Question #5 - Do you know if your ads are working?
Once your ads have run and you’re ready to review the results, make sure to report on only the questions you identified in #1.
This is where the work you did in Google Analytics will pay off. There are 2 reports that you can review to get these answers.
#1: The Goal Overview Report
Under Conversions, go to Goals, then Overview.
This report will show you all the conversions set and their numbers. Be sure to click the Source / Medium section under “Goals” to see how many were from Facebook.
#2: The Assisted Conversions Report
Sometimes when a visitor to your website fills out your lead form, it wasn’t their first visit. Facebook may have been the first impression that was made, but now that your company is known to them, they simply Googled your company and filled out the lead form on a second or third visit.
This report will make sure to show you if Facebook is “assisting.”
Hopefully, these questions, and first steps, will help you and your janitorial company dive a bit deeper into how Facebook can help you improve your business!
