A Guide to Effective Facebook Ads for Home Services

Why You Should Be Using Facebook Ads

Running Facebook ads gives home services businesses access to the platform’s over 2 billion daily active users, who sometimes also rely on ads to pick home services businesses.

The social media platform’s array of targeting tools allows local businesses to display ads to specific audiences in their service area. This way, you can ensure that prospects likely to need your services see your ads, boosting ad-spend efficiency.

Running targeted ads on Facebook also lets you appear consistently on potential customers' newsfeeds, building top-of-mind awareness until they need your services. 

Furthermore, Facebook’s ads empower prospects to submit their contact details or learn more about your services without leaving the platform.

Such a seamless process makes Facebook ads a powerful lead-generation tool.

Finally, Facebook ads are very cost-effective compared to other social networks and advertising channels. You can expect a high return for a small investment.

A recent Wordstream study shows that the average cost per click (CPC) across industries on Facebook is approximately $1.01 and is even lower for home services businesses. Conversely, you can expect to pay an average of $5.26 for each click when advertising on LinkedIn.

This makes Facebook a more budget-friendly marketing strategy for small businesses and home service startups.

How to Set Up Facebook Ads for Your Service Business

Here’s a step-by-step process for creating effective Facebook ads that drive leads and conversions.

1. Access Facebook (Meta) Ads Manager

Creating effective Facebook ad campaigns starts with opening a Facebook Ads Manager account, which you’ll use to manage and create your ad campaigns.

The platform also has intuitive dashboards for tracking performance metrics such as reach, impressions, and clicks. Here’s how to create your account:

• Log into your Facebook business page and click "Ad Center" in the left menu. Then, select "All Ads" from the resulting dropdown and click on the "Ads Manager," which will redirect you to the dashboard.

• You’ll see multiple features on the dashboard, such as active campaigns, ad sets, and specific ads. The interface also has features for creating, managing, and reviewing ad performance.

The dashboard also has multiple targeting options and tools for managing your budget to maximize ROI. Take time to familiarize yourself with these different tools; you’ll need that knowledge in the later stages of creating your campaign.

2. Choose an ad campaign objective

You need to pick the right objective to align your ads with your business goals. As you’ll discover below, each objective is tied to a different business outcome.

• Brand Awareness introduces your services to prospects who don’t know about you. This objective is perfect for broadening your reach and making potential prospects aware of your brand and services.

• Lead Generation is built to collect prospect contact information using forms. Use this objective if you want to run retargeting ads on other channels or follow up on leads using other channels.

• Traffic is tailored towards generating traffic for your website, landing page, and social media handle. It’s majorly a brand awareness play.

• Engagement is meant to boost your post’s reach so people other than your followers see it. Like traffic, it’s perfect for building brand awareness and increasing engagement.

• Conversions prompt visitors to a hyperlinked asset—a website or landing page—to take specific actions, such as booking a service or requesting a quote.

By carefully choosing your campaign objective, you ensure that your Facebook ads are optimized to meet your specific business goal, whether it’s growing your brand’s presence, generating leads, or driving sales.

3. Define your target audience

The next step is to define your target audience using Facebook’s targeting tools. This ensures your ads land in the feeds of the right users—people who need or use your services.

You can define your target audience in two ways: using custom audiences or lookalike audiences.

Custom audiences are built using your target audiences’ demographics—age, gender, geographic location—and psychographics—interests and hobbies. You can also go further by targeting users using interests and browsing behavior.

For example, you can target only homeowners interested in DIY projects if you’re running a painting company. Or you can target only people who visited your website’s booking page without buying.

On the other hand, lookalike audiences are essentially target audiences built from a pre-existing database, such as a list of your best customers. Facebook’s algorithm displays your ads to people who resemble the defined database. This can boost conversions.

Combining lookalike and custom audiences ensures you target the right people, attract high-quality leads, and maximize your ad spend.

4. Set your ad placement and budget

Another essential aspect of running an effective Facebook is strategically picking the right ad placements and budget. 

This ensures that you appear in the areas your target audience frequents and prevents wastage of ad spend.

Facebook’s different ad placement options include the News Feed, Instagram, Stories, and the Audience Network. Judging from Facebook users’ on-platform behavior, home services business owners should focus on the News Feed and Instagram.

Stories, visual-heavy ads, and dynamic ads are other great formats for capturing scrollers’ attention and promoting your services.

Finally, align your budgets with business goals. 

You can start with a conservative budget to test various placements and targeting options. Then, use Facebook Ads Manager’s dashboard to reallocate your budget to the most effective ones and maximize your ad spend.

5. Upload your ad creatives and write compelling ad copy

The creatives and ad copy you pick are essential. They will either attract prospects and demonstrate credibility or push them away.

For starters, use high-quality, non-pixelated images or videos relevant to the ad copy. You can use before-and-after shots to clearly illustrate your expertise and the value of your work to prospects.

Another critical aspect is your ad copy, which should be optimized to your target audience’s needs and pain points and end with a clear call to action (CTA) to prompt action.

Some examples of compelling copy for different Facebook ad campaign objectives:

Here’s how to write compelling ad copy like the examples above:

• Focus on your services’ benefits and how they would help new customers resolve challenges relevant to your business.

• Demonstrate urgency using time-limit discounts and exclusive access to services to encourage users to take action immediately.

• Run a/b tests with multiple copy and visual combinations and allocate more resources to those that resonate more with your target audience.

By carefully crafting your ad creatives and copy, you can effectively communicate the value of your services, engage potential customers, and drive action.

6. Review and launch ad

The last and most important step is reviewing your campaign to identify errors and ensure you comply with Facebook ads’ guidelines. Here’s a useful Facebook ad review checklist:

• Confirm if the targeting options you’ve chosen align with your target audience. Scrutinize each option side-by-side with your ideal customer profile.

• Compare the budget you’ve set with your overall marketing budget so you don’t exceed your financial limit and have to pause the campaign midway.

• Review Facebook’s guidelines for each ad format and ensure you comply with them.

• Read your ad copy to verify that it’s clear and compelling. Consider asking a third party without emotional attachment to the copy to help you read it and identify potential kinks.

• Ensure your chosen ad placements reflect the sections of the Facebook app where your target audience spends most of their time.

After reviewing these elements and making any necessary adjustments, launch your ad and regularly monitor its performance to optimize results further.

How to Track Your Ad Performance

Performance tracking helps you identify areas for improvement and optimize your campaign for revenue. The right software tool can significantly streamline this process and reveal valuable performance insights.

Here are key metrics to focus on:

1. Impressions and Reach: They reveal how many people viewed your ads and how many times it was seen. High numbers here indicate good visibility, which can increase the ad’s odds of generating multiple service inquiries.

2. Clicks: Monitoring clicks reveals the audience's interest level and how compelling your ad is.

3. Conversions: This is a vital metric because of its impact on revenue. Track how many clicks turn into inquiries, bookings, or sales to measure your ad’s impact on business goals.

4. ROI: This compares the amount expended on an ad to the revenue it generates. Calculate ROI by subtracting your total ad spend from the sales generated. Then, divide the result by your total ad spend.

Rather than use multiple platforms focusing primarily on leads, use ServiceTitan's Marketing Pro’s detailed analytics dashboards to track your campaign’s revenue.

ServiceTitan's Marketing Pro uses dynamic call tracking to attribute each job booking accurately and resulting revenue to specific campaigns. This helps you measure your ad’s performance using revenue rather than clicks and views.

It also helps marketing managers and agencies justify their budgets and tweak campaigns for better results.

Facebook Ads Best Practices

Unlock the full potential of your Facebook ads with these best practices. 

Create custom landing pages

Custom landing pages contain copy that matches the ad. Such alignment between the ad and the copy facilitates a seamless user experience and helps visitors find what convinced them to click on the ad.

Aligning your landing page with your ad’s imagery, tone, and copy reinforces your messaging and branding, building trust.

Beyond ensuring alignment between your ad and landing page, encourage visitors to take action with a bold and clear CTA. Also, optimize your design and loading speed for mobile devices, which account for most Facebook user sessions.

Incorporate interactive ad elements

Ads with interactive elements, such as polls, tappable texts, stickers, etc., are an excellent way to stand out from competitor ads and capture attention. These elements also improve ad recall and maximize engagement.

You can add surveys containing questions related to your service niche or run Facebook lead ads, which allow users to submit their contact information on the platform. 

Leverage user-generated content (UGC)

Prospects are likely to place more faith in authentic accounts of satisfied customers than in your description of your services. The reason is social proof—a psychological phenomenon that says others like them more influence people.

That’s why user-generated content (UGC) is such a powerful tool.

UGC, such as customer photos, videos, or testimonials, can enhance your ads' authenticity and trustworthiness. It also helps to humanize your company and prove your expertise.

However, when using UGC, ensure it’s from real customers. Also, highlight the customer’s situation before and after using your services via videos or visuals.

Optimize Your Ads for Mobile Viewing

Since most Facebook users access the platform via mobile devices, ensuring your ads are mobile-friendly is crucial.

Your ads should have clear and readable fonts and visuals easily understood on smaller screens. Also, CTA buttons must be wide, and videos must be short to engage busy prospects.

Leverage Technology to Optimize Ad Performance

ServiceTitan’s Home Services Marketing Software can effectively elevate your Facebook ads’ performance.

Its dynamic call-tracking feature can pinpoint which ads are driving calls, allowing you to make precise adjustments to your strategy. 

Meanwhile, its marketing analytics dashboard offers insights into campaign performance, showing the number of leads generated and their quality and conversion rates. 

For instance, identifying high-performing ads and reallocating the budget accordingly maximizes ROI. 

Additionally, creating trackable phone numbers for each ad campaign enables real-time monitoring of responses, guiding you in fine-tuning your approach for optimal results. 

Harnessing ServiceTitan can help you make better data-driven decisions, enhancing your ad campaigns' efficiency and impact.

Now Over to You

Mastering Facebook ads is crucial for propelling your home services company in the competitive online marketplace. Every step is vital for success, from creating engaging ads and custom landing pages to leveraging technology for optimization.

Ready to take your Facebook advertising to a new level and watch your ROI soar? ServiceTitan is here to help.

ServiceTitan is an all-in-one solution home service businesses use to streamline their marketing efforts, from dynamic call tracking to detailed performance analytics. Join thousands of other home service businesses nationwide who already use it.