3 “Must Have” Facebook Ads for Plumbers
Advertising on Social Media has come a long way and for contractors, like plumbers, platforms like Facebook and Instagram give you direct access to your target market, right where they are “hanging out”
In fact, the average American spends nearly 2.5 hours per day on social media!
That number is continuing to increase every year. And while teens and younger generations may be moving away from platforms like Facebook, we know that over 75% of Millennials and older (people born in the 90’s+), they still turn to Facebook for their news, to connect with friends and family, and to research and find solutions to their problems (like fixing their plumbing or remodeling their bathroom!)
When we start to put together an advertising strategy for plumbers on Facebook or Instagram, it’s important to look at the buyer cycle – or where is your customer at in their journey to hire you? There are three stages in most buyer journeys so you will need three different types of posts and ads to meet your target market where they are at and nurture them, build trust with them, so that when they are ready to hire a plumber you are the company they want to work with!
Step One: Awareness Ad Campaigns
Before anything else can happen, your future customers need to know about you! How does this happen on Facebook?
- A family member or friend may refer you to them.
- They may see a review posted by someone in their network.
- Someone in their network engages with your posts, so it’s shown to them.
- They see an ad.
For the sake of this article, we will be focusing on ads – but it’s important to see how the ads play a part in the whole awareness stage!
For awareness ads, we recommend keeping it broad and low budget. This is about getting in front of as many people as you can (who fit your target market of course). We recommend running a “likes” campaign telling Facebook that you want to pay when someone “likes” your page. After they’ve “liked” your page – you will be able to engage with them with trust-building posts and nurture them down their buying cycle!
Here is an example of an awareness ad we ran for a septic service company:
Step Two: Consideration Stage (Trust Building!)
In this phase, we are re-engaging with people who already know who you are and have interacted with your plumbing business. Either they already follow your Facebook page, you have their email address, or they visited your website. This way we aren’t marketing to a cold audience. It’s important that before you start this phase you have a large enough audience to market to. It’s ok to spend some time building up your awareness first.
Types of Facebook Ads and posts that do well in this phase are helpful tips and tricks, sharing testimonials, show photos of the work you are doing. The purpose of this stage is to build trust! Buyers today are smart — they know advertising when they see it and they don’t trust traditional advertising! Your effort should be all about building trust with your audience. We see the best success with our clients who post consistent and diverse content. If you are spending too much time figuring out what to post on your facebook page, take a look at our Social Media Vault for Plumbers and Home Contractors. We take the guesswork out of what to post by giving you a monthly strategy and even creating the posts! It’s so affordable too.
Here is an example of a Plumbing Facebook ad that we were running for that same septic service company. We are giving the audience information about what to look, information that is helpful but not overly salesy.
Step Three: Decision Stage (Show me the $$)
Finally, your prospective customer is ready to hire you! We want to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. These ads can be shown to people who visit certain pages on your website, or who have followed your page longer. With these Facebook ads and posts, it’s good to be more focused on sales. Just remember not to make these too prominent on your Facebook schedule. We recommend posting just a few times a month with a sales heavy post.
Here is an example of a Facebook Ad with the same Septic Service company:
Take a look at your target customer and how your plumbing business is interacting with them with each step along the way. If you are looking for help with diversifying your social media posts to add value to your Facebook and Instagram pages, take a look at the Home Pro Vault. There are HUNDREDS of social media posts for plumbers as well as strategy and action plan added every month, so you’ll never have to run to Google or Pinterest again trying to figure out what to put on your pages!
