How To Use Facebook To Get Avalanche Leads!

Given I’m in the “marketing coaching” game, I often hear business owners (many who are franchisees) moaning over the poor results of their “social media” advertising endeavours.

Time & time again, I hear tales of woe regarding “pay-per-click” advertising failures on platforms like Facebook & Instagram.

And most of the time, my response to the business owner is “the online platform is fine – it’s your ads that stink!”

Facebook & other social media platforms are all about “ENGAGEMENT” – in other words, you need to “engage” people via “non-salesy” dialogue before inviting them to consider your product or service. 

Doesn’t matter whether you’re a franchisee or a regular business owner, the name of the game in this communications sector is “ENGAGEMENT”.

Let me make a couple of things really clear:

a) You Can Be Laser-Targeted:

Facebook & Instagram are the most laser-targeted advertising channels the world has ever seen, delivering MASSIVE opportunities to all of us business owners.

Unlike TV, radio, newspapers, billboards & magazines, these social media platforms allow us to “pinpoint our target audience” precisely & therefore enjoy minimal wastage in our advertising.

Whereas on Channel 9 today, your “expensive wrinkle cream” ad might have a 50% wastage factor (due to half of the viewers being too young for that product), your same ad on Facebook can zero in on women 45yrs+ who live in a wealthy suburb & drive a prestige car.

The opportunity for all of us biz owners IS INSANE……never before have we been able to laser target our “most profitable” audience.

b) Your “Creative” Is Vital:

If you put “rubbish in, you’ll likely get rubbish out” – in other words, your “creativity & strategy” are VITAL ingredients when it comes to your Facebook or Instagram ads.

Remember, your ad needs to attract attention by either “solving someone’s problem” or by “wowing your audience” with an incredible, “engaging” invitation (note the word “engaging”).

People are attracted to BENEFITS, so stop promoting THE FEATURES of your products or services.

My business, www.theinstituteofwow.com spends a reasonably high amount of money on social media advertising – predominantly Facebook & LinkedIn.

And because of this, we’ve worked hard at developing a model that delivers us a somewhat predictable ROI.

And we’ve devised this “formula” through good old “testing & fixing” – experimenting with countless different ad-sets (headlines, body copy, images, videos, carousel slides, voiceovers, captions & so forth). 

And as a result, we’ve developed a “system” that delivers us & our clients “avalanche leads” more often than not.

I’m not saying the formula is foolproof – as there’s always “variables” in all industries – factors that effect the result of any ad campaign, online or offline.

But we’ve found THIS system to have a high success rate - & our business & many of our clients have certainly benefitted from it “big time”. 

We’ve called the formula “THE ENGAGEMENT CODE” & it consists of the following components:

a) Identify precisely WHO “your most profitable audience” is - so you can look for more people ONLINE who look like them! In other words, use Facebook’s “lookalike audience” facility properly.

b) Position yourself (or your company) as THE EXPERT – people are attracted to “experts”, just ask Gordon Ramsay! And people pay MORE to “experts” – because they are trusted advisors.

c) Create a WOW FACTOR & stop people from scrolling - & take their eyes OFF the price!. McDonalds have been doing this for decades with their “free toy” in the Happy Meal box!

Harvey Norman does it with “2 Years Interest Free”.

Kellogg’s have also been doing it for 50 years – with the FREE TOY in the cereal box. What’s your “wow factor?”

d) Create videos that look like “native posts” – in other words, they look “real & down-to-earth” – NOT Steven Spielberg quality.

When your marketing on social media, remember it’s called “social” – so you have to treat the audience as if you were having a casual “first-time” chat at a BBQ with someone.

In a social setting like that, you wouldn’t talk to people in a “salesy-type” fashion & start screaming “SELL MESSAGES” to them.

You’d likely be far more casual & inviting – so you need to create a similar ambience with your communications on Facebook etc.

Don’t make a glossy, Hollywood style video – be “real” & watch the engagement skyrocket.

e) Plant emotional seeds in your ads – ie: provide a “problem/solution” scenario, but in a conversational style way.

So if you were promoting a headache tablet for example, you’d create a video that showcases mum coming from the school pick-up run, exhausted & tired.

Then she’d take a tablet with a glass of water & boast that 15 mins later, her headache has disappeared…….ie: Problem/Solution.

f) Test “teaser ads” via quizzes & contests – attract interest from your audience by offering a reward for completing a survey or quiz – or via a “contest” with a good prize incentive.

I had an “aluminium fence company” as a client & their efforts with Facebook advertising were resulting in almost zero leads.

Their target audience were home owners with an old paling, wooden fence – probably living in a house that was 20, 30 or 40 years old.

But because the company was simply showing “an aluminium fence” in their Facebook ads, the response was woeful.

So when the business became a client of ours, we flipped the campaign on its head & ran ads promoting a contest called “The Ugliest Back Fence In Australia!”

The campaign understandably was laser targeted into “older postcodes” & the prize was a brand new aluminium fence up to $5,000 value (which of course only cost the company a small portion of that).

Home owners simply had to take a photograph of their “falling down fence” & post it to the aluminium fence’s Facebook page.

And whammo! The campaign resulted in 2 years’ worth of leads in just 3 days of Facebook advertising!!!

We made a gazillion prospects “GLOW IN THE DARK” - & they even provided “proof” that their backyard wooden fence was crappy!!

Now whenever that fencing company wants to get more leads, there’s a proven “formula” they can follow – ie: they can turn on “the customer tap” whenever they want – via a creative, laser targeted Facebook campaign!

We now devise similar Facebook campaigns for other businesses across many industries.

A “Kitchen Renovation” company attracted 6 months of warm leads in just one week through a Facebook ad campaign I created.

Understandably, their target audience were predominantly owners of older homes, where it was more likely they’d need a new kitchen.

So our FB ad campaign targeted owners of older homes & they were invited to “vote for their preferred kitchen design” (we showed them 2 options, A & B) for the chance to win a $10,000 kitchen makeover.

Again, the clever campaign resulted in an avalanche of fast leads – indeed, an insane amount of warm prospects.

It really is easy to get prospects to “GLOW IN THE DARK” when you know how!

And of course, in both the case of the aluminium fence firm & the kitchen renovator, the businesses followed a systemised “follow-up” procedure (which we designed for them), contacting all of the Facebook ad respondents & offering a “special deal” via phone calls, SMS & email.

Remember, “the money is in the list!”

So there you have it – the Facebook Engagement Code (which can also be used on “other” social media platforms), your “herbs n spices recipe” to making “pay-per-click” advertising work for your business.

Doesn’t matter WHAT type of business you operate – services or products – this “code” can work for you IF your “creative” is right.

Facebook Live broadcasts is another powder-keg “leads stimulant” & if you or a member of your team is comfortable in front of the camera (your smartphone), it’s a juggernaut in terms of attracting leads.

But it’s a whole subject by itself, so I’ll cover this is a future article.

Just remember, when you are using social media for promoting your products or services, if you want to get the best result, firstly nurture relationships through “ENGAGEMENT” tactics. 

DON’T look like a salesman!

Here is a video where l talk about how you have to get creative to get your FB ads to work!

Contact us at [email protected] if you’d like to add some WOW to your business!