Facebook Ad & Boosted Post Guide for Lead Generation
Many franchisees are testing out simple Facebook ads or boosted posts to generate leads, so we wanted to provide you with a more comprehensive guide with some best practices around running paid ads. While we have yet to see paid Facebook advertising produce a steady flow of direct leads that turn into sales, we believe there are some opportunities based on the small scale successes seen throughout the network.
This guide will provide direction and best practices for the different ad types and how to set them up, the makeup of a great ad (including creative, copy and call to action’s (CTA), setting up audiences, budget recommendations, sales process follow up and nurturing leads.
If you do not feel comfortable running paid Facebook ads yourself after reviewing this guide, please get in touch with Scorpion who can run these for you (North America & UK). Note that there will be a management fee charged.
Ad Centre Walkthrough
The Ad Centre is where you can set up your Facebook Pages. Check out the video below to get a quick walk through of the Ad Centre.
Ad Types
There are different types of ads that you can run through Facebook with different ‘objectives’, but for the purpose of this guide we’re going to focus specifically on Lead Ads and Direct Message Ads. The reason is that you can clearly track your ROI as leads are delivered to you directly through Facebook.
Direct Message Ads
A Direct Message Ad encourages people to contact you directly through Facebook Messenger.
Make sure you have an Instant Reply set up - click here to see how >>
Lead Ads
Lead ads allow you to collect information from prospects directly from mobile ads. Instead of sending traffic to a landing page where people manually fill out a form and press submit, they click on the ad, their information (name & email) is pre-populated, and they hit submit. All within the Facebook platform. Note: You cannot boost a post as a lead ad.
A Lead Ad Form should include the following fields:
-
Name
- Email
- Phone Number
- How soon do you need tutoring?
- When is the best time to contact you?
Note: Also make sure to include the Tutor Doctor Privacy Policy in your form. The above video shows you where to add this in the lead form.
How to Download Your Leads from Facebook
The Makeup of a Great Ad or Boosted Post
Your Offer
The offer or ‘hook’ in a Facebook ad can be important to increase your click through rate and conversion. As the ads are targeting people higher up in the sales funnel, you need to have something that will pique their interest and want to learn more. Think about what offers have worked well for you in the past. Some offer ideas include:
- 2 Free Hours of Tutoring Upon Enrollment
- 30 minute free trial session
- XX% discount on online tutoring
Creative
The creative is the image or video you use on your ad or boosted post. You should use creative that has very clear messaging, speaks to a pain point of the consumer you’re targeting, and is eye-catching.
Facebook 20% Text Rule: When boosting a post or running an ad, your graphic can only contain 20% text or less, otherwise Facebook may reject your ad.Use Facebook’s Text Overlay Tool to check your image before posting >>
Click below to check out the creative already available.
If you’re putting together your own creative, you must send this to marketing for approval before using.
Learning from our testing on Facebook: both stock and illustration have worked well, but one important aspect of creative is that we found 'sadder' imagery that connects with how parents/students may be feeling gleaned better results. Keep this in mind when deciding on the creative you are using in your ad. Copy
Your ad copy is also very important, and because your ad or boosted post will not link to a landing page with additional information, it’s even more important to provide clear, well-written information outlining why Tutor Doctor is the solution for someone. Below are some examples:
Parents, we know you need a break right now. Luckily, our personalized online programs for children stuck at home provide:
• More structure in children's lives
• Time management and organizational skills
• Personalized school support from local tutors
• Some needed time off for the parents!
Set your children up for more independence and set yourself up for less stress. Hit "Sign Up" to get started today 👇
Overwhelmed with managing your child’s education? We can help!
• Organize the school day with the help of a professional coach
• Keep your child on track with the local curriculum and hand in homework on time
• Some needed time off for the parents!
Set your children up for more independence and set yourself up for less stress. Hit "Sign Up" to get started today 👇
Kids falling behind in school this year? There is something you can do about it.
Keep your children on track for their grade level with Tutor Doctor's personalized tutoring program.
Just hit "Sign Up" to get matched with a local tutor perfect for your child's needs!
#TopTip: Use some emojis in your copy to help highlight certain elements. You can find all emojis on your desktop here >>
Call to Action
It’s important that your ad has a very clear call to action. Depending on the ad type you set up, your button will have a specific CTA such as ‘Learn More’, ‘Sign Up’, ‘Message Us’, etc. Also be sure to include a CTA in your ad copy - for example ‘Hit ‘Send Message’ to learn more’.
Audiences & Targeting
You can set up audiences for the types of people you want to target your ads or boosted posts to - this can include locations, demographics and interests. We advise to keep this quite simple - for example targeting parents in your owned territory.
It’s a great idea to set up your audiences in advance. The below video shows you how to do this from the Ad Centre, as well as showing how to set up an audience targeting your specific owned postal/zip codes.
Idea: Set up your audience targeting in a similar way that you would for your lawn sign strategy - for example using Batch Geo to determine areas in your territory where more of your customers are.
Budgets
When setting your budget for these ads, start small. A good starting point is around $50 over 5 days. It’s important to monitor your spend and leads being generated. If an ad performs well (i.e. generates a good number of leads) you can look at running it again. If an ad doesn’t perform well, review the ad to understand why that may be - is your CTA not clear? Is your graphic correct? Is your messaging clear? You can also discuss this with a business coach or send a ticket for advice.
Sales Process Follow Up
Direct Messages
You’ll first be looking to book a consultation through Direct Messenger. If this does not happen, ask for an email address to send them additional information. In both of these cases your goal is to get contact information.
“Hi [name]! Thank you for contacting us, how can we help you today? Ask about student and student needs.
“I am looking for tutoring for my 10 year old son in math”
“We can certainly help with that! Now that school has moved online, a lot of our current families have been requesting additional one-to-one support to add more structure to their child's learning. I would love to learn more about your son’s academic needs to see how we can build a custom program to support him. Can we jump on a call today?”
If they schedule the call, proceed with phone consultation. See Virtual Consultation Package for reference >>
If they have additional questions (price, online platforms etc.), answer those as you normally would and attempt to book the phone call again.
If still not interested, set a future checkpoint and request an email address.
“I completely understand. I’d like to send you some additional resources that I think will benefit you and your family. Could you send me your email address and I’ll get those over to you? We want to support you during this difficult time.”
If you find someone is unresponsive, after a couple of days send another DM to check in. Here are some DM conversation starter ideas:
“Hi [First Name], I just wanted to quickly check in and see how your week is going?”
“Hi [First Name], how are the kido’s doing with their workload? (mine are…)”
“How are you doing? Hope you are well!”
“I just wanted to check in and see if you had any challenges this week”
#TopTip: Another message to send if they are unresponsive is to invite them to your Facebook Group.
Lead Ads
Speed to lead is important here. Ensure you have set up your lead ads to request their email and phone number, as well as ask the question ‘when is the best time to contact you?’. That way you know when to give them a call. It’s important to call first - don’t email. You can attempt to do the consultation on the phone then, or schedule another time for the consultation.
If you find they are not interested, be sure to add them to your email contact list to enter them into a nurturing campaign.
Important: When interacting with the leads from Facebook, be sure to reference the offer in your communications with them if you have used an offer in your ad!
Learning from our testing: Through our sales follow up testing with Facebook Leads, we found increasing the number of touchpoints significantly increased our contact rate with leads. 3 touch point strategy had a 32% contact rate and a 7 touch point strategy (including phone, email and SMS) had a 71% contact rate. This further validates that Facebook leads are higher up in the sales funnel and need more follow up to bring them through the sales process.
Nurturing Leads
As Facebook ads bring people into the top of the sales funnel, you will find that some leads need more information and incentive to work their way through the funnel. This is where email marketing comes in, to nurture those leads to an eventual sale.
For any leads that don’t convert to a sale, be sure to add them to your email marketing platform so you can build up their touch points with your business. These emails could include exclusive offers, new program offerings, and educational top tips.
If you don’t already use an email marketing platform such as Mail Chimp or Constant Contact, it is strongly recommended you set up an account. Learn more about why this is important >>
#TopTip: Be sure to invite all of the leads collected through your Facebook ads or boosted posts to your Facebook Group. This is another great nurturing strategy!
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