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Intro
We Broke Down These 10 Facebook Ads Mistakes in a Video Too — Watch Here:
I've been running Facebook ads for contractors for the past 6 or 7 years now, and during that time I've seen many mistakes, and made many mistakes myself.
Here are 10 common mistakes contractors often make when running Facebook ads, why they make them, and what to do instead!
Let's dive in.
10 Mistakes Home Service Companies Make with Facebook Ads
Mistake #1: Asking too many qualifying questions
Imagine you have an old AC system that you know you'll have to replace soon. That being said, the weather is still mild, so there's no urgent need.
You get home from a long, exhausting day at work and have dinner with your family. Then you hop on your recliner and start scrolling through social media.
As you're scrolling, an ad catches your eye: "Get a new HVAC system now, and pay over time with monthly payments!"
It looks like a good deal, so you click on the ad, only to be met with 5 questions you need to fill out before entering your contact details.
You're tired and you don't feel like it, so you click away and tell yourself you'll reach out to the company later. You forget.
Contractors often have good, attention grabbing ads, but lose leads because they ask way too many qualifying questions. Even though it might be a great lead, you're asking them to do too much work up front.
You really only need 1-2 questions on your lead forms to get better quality leads and filter out spam and robots. You can ask things like:
-Do you own the property?
-How soon would you like to start with a contractor?
This helps filter your leads, and improve the algorithm to get in front of the right prospects, without creating too much friction.
Mistake #2: Advertising multiple services in one ad
To save time, it's tempting to throw out an ad that lists all your different services. It might say "Call Ronny's Home Service for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, etc!"
There are two main problems with it:
1. It makes it harder for the algorithm to get in front of the best leads.
Facebook partially decides who to show ads to based on their recent activity. If someone has been looking at HVAC companies online, your ad for HVAC services is more likely to pop up. Adding too many different services may hurt your overall ad performance.
2. It sends the wrong message, and that message is "we're looking for any type of work we can get!"
In my experience, this tends to result in people reaching out about random odd jobs they need done. If that's what you want, great. But chances are you are advertising so that you can get specific types of projects with high profit margins.
Splitting out your campaigns by the type of home service, or remodel project, is a better way to go to help you get more leads, manage your ad spend better, and get the type of work you actually want.
Mistake #3: Narrowing down your audience with too many different criteria
When you target homeowners on Facebook, you might make lots of assumptions about your best customers:
-they're rich
-married
-they live in certain zip codes
-they're over 50
-they're part of the local country club
-they have an active interest in home improvement
-etc
The temptation then becomes to use Facebook's many different targeting options to force it to target only the most premium candidates.
Here's the problem:
Every time you add a new criteria, you drastically slice down your potential reach, AND miss out on great prospects. If someone never updates their marriage on their profile, for instance, Facebook will exclude them from targeting.
In my experience, adding all that criteria narrows down the audience too much. Rather than getting better quality leads, you might get no leads.
The good news is that Facebook's algorithm uses AI to automatically try and get your ads in front of the right type of person. Good messaging, and details in the body of your ad, will automatically help Facebook do the targeting for you.
Focus on your messaging, add 1-2 good qualifying questions, add relevant images, and you're good.
Mistake #4: Using only one ad to target a huge area
Facebook ads are getting more and more competitive. Homeowners are likely to click on only the ads that are most relevant to them.
The problem with targeting a whole state or several counties with one single ad, is that it doesn't feel very local to the homeowner.
Sometimes you might need to do this at first, if you're limited on time, or you want to test out some general concepts first.
But in our experience, hyper local campaigns targeted to towns and even neighborhoods, provide a big boost to lead quality and quantity.
To do this, pick 10-15 of your highest value towns and neighborhoods, with ads that call out that specific area.
For example, your ad could say something like: "Hey [TOWN] neighbors! We're looking for more projects to do here!"
You might be surprised at how much your results improve.
Mistake #5: Only using ad graphics
Ad graphics can work, especially when there's a really good offer - but in so many cases, we've seen authentic images work better!
You don't need professional quality pictures. You can take cell phone pictures of your guys working on a unit, or before-and-after pictures of a unit you replaced. Or, maybe just pictures of your team in uniform.
High quality graphics or professional photos aren't necessarily what's going to get people to buy. It's about getting them to stop scrolling with an authentic photo, so that they actually read your ad and see the value.
If you haven't already, test some authentic photos and see how well they work.
Mistake #6: Not including an obvious offer
HVAC, plumbing, electrical services, and roofing aren't services people WANT to spend money on, they are services that people NEED to spend money on. Eventually homeowners will search and find someone to do the work, but plenty will procrastinate as long as they can.
That procrastination is the opportunity for generating leads with social media ads. You can get in front of them first, before they go and google someone.
But to get them to reach out - you've got to put something out there that piques their interest. And since people really don't want to spend the money on home services, financial incent`ives are usually what works best.
These financial incentives could be:
Financing offers
Discount offers
Lowest price guarantee
Free repair or discounted repair
HVAC System Tune-Ups
Etc.
If you try to run a basic ad for home services that says "get a free quote!" - in most cases, you'll have trouble getting leads. Include some type of offer and make it obvious, to get people to stop scrolling and reach out to you.
Mistake #7: No follow-up call to action
In most campaigns, after submitting their information, leads are met with a generic "Thank You!" page and a promise that they will be called.
However, your job isn't done when the person submits their information - you still need to call, schedule, and sell that customer. You can use the next part of the funnel to make the rest of your job easier!
On the end of the lead form, you could have:
-A link to a company video that tells your company's story, shows projects, and shows happy customers
-A picture of the person who will be calling them
-A picture of the owner with his family and description of the company mission
-A link for the customer to pick a specific day and time to receive their call - when will they make themselves available to talk to the company?
-A link for the customer to call now - if they'd like immediate service!
You can get a much better ROI from your Facebook ads by putting some more effort into the second step of the funnel.
Mistake #8: Only running "call now" ads
Sometimes contractors run ads that are optimized for phone calls, because they don't want to have to chase form fill leads. While this is understandable, it's simply not how social media advertising is geared to work.
When people go on Facebook, they're likely in relaxation mode. It's a lot easier to submit your information so that you're contacted later, rather than commit to a phone call right then and there.
If you have good follow-up - you're likely to get much more leads and better ROI overall, by optimizing for form-fill leads.
As a happy medium, you could include the phone number somewhere in the ad, or at the second stage of the funnel (after they submit their information). This can help you ensure you're not missing prospects who are ready to move forward now.
Mistake #9: Incorrect follow-up for social media leads
One big mistake contractors make with Facebook leads is treating them exactly the same as a Google lead.
Leads who come from Google are high intent, ready to talk to someone now, and will probably move forward with someone quickly - whether it's you or not.
So if you don't get ahold of a Google lead within the first few days, there's a good chance you'll lose them.
Facebook leads are different. They are near the end of their buying journey, almost ready to buy, but they're not quite in "get it done" mode yet.
To schedule Facebook leads, you'll need to extend the duration of your follow-up a bit. You'll want to call and text plenty within the first week, then continue to follow up each week after that.
Mistake #10: Giving up too soon
According to a survey by NapoleonCat, approximately 74.5% of the United States population is on Facebook.
If you've tried Facebook leads before, and haven't had good success, it's tempting to believe that your customers just aren't on Facebook.
What's more likely, is that the way your ads were being run, or the way you followed up with the leads, wasn't done in a proper way to generate a healthy ROI.
Your customers are on Facebook - it just takes testing, time, and consistency to know how to attract them.
Conclusion
There are many different ways to run Facebook ads. It may take some time and consistency to find what works for you, but I believe Facebook ads can ultimately work for any type of home service business.
I hope this list of 10 mistakes to avoid helps you!
If you'd like to work with Service Allies to run Facebook ads, schedule a demo today.
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