Marketing pool maintenance companies using Facebook Ads can be challenging. However, you don’t have to jump into the deep end completely unprepared. Hi, my name is Francisco. I am the owner of a Digital Marketing company called Planet Marketing. We specialize in Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and remarketing. Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of businesses. Some of them have been pool maintenance companies. Today, I will show you how to effectively market such a business on Facebook. This article has the following sections;
Are Facebook Ads Worth it for Pool Maintenance Companies?
Facebook ads have really taken off over the past few years. But are they a worthwhile proposition for pool maintenance companies? If you ask around, you are likely to come across many businesses expressing disappointment after embarking on one Facebook ads marketing adventure or the other.
The main issue that people encounter here is that Facebook has a problem with search intent. What does a person that goes to Facebook want? Are they looking to buy a product or service? The answer is no! You just need to compare with Google to see what we are talking about here.
When somebody goes to Google and searches for “pool maintenance company near me,” they are much more advanced along the purchasing chain. They are truly looking for a pool maintenance service. So, chances are high that if you appear at the top of search result, you will win over their business.
The same cannot be said of Facebook Ads. Most people go to Facebook to chat with friends and family. They go there to watch the latest pranks involving poodles. With such important things to do on the platform, any ad that you throw into their face without careful thought will likely fall flat.
So, there are huge challenges when it comes to marketing businesses on Facebook. It’s a challenge that’s present whatever your type of business. However, that does not mean Facebook ads are futile.
In Fact, advertising on Facebook can yield massively positive returns. You just need to know what you are doing. The following are some of the main reasons why Facebook ads make sense for pool maintenance companies;
Facebook Ads can compliment your SEO and Google Ads efforts
Facebook Ads can complement your SEO efforts
Most businesses dream of getting all their traffic via Google and other search engines without having to spend a single dollar. Organic traffic is not just a dream. Most businesses thrive on such traffic. All it take is time and a well build website.
As a pool maintenance company, chances are high that you already have a vibrant website. However, you will have discovered that it can be challenging to get people to the site. The answer is producing great content and doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
However, one devastating fact about the world of eCommerce is that only about 2% of the traffic that you get on your website will convert. The rest leave without taking the desired action. So, what do you do?
You can retarget an audience from your Website
The answer is Facebook Ads. Eventually, everybody ends up on Facebook, right? Right! Your clients are already there. People that visit your site from Google also end up on Facebook. That gives you a second chance to convert them. If only there was a way of tracking their interest on your website and showing them related ads on Facebook?
Well, the good news is that such a thing already exists. All that you need to do is to carry out remarketing. I have previously compared Google and Facebook remarketing. Check out that article if you are interested in the comparison.
Diagram of Retargeting
What I can say here is that remarketing allows you to turn leads from your website into conversions by showing the ads on Facebook. In a way, you will be combining the power of Google and Facebook. The organic traffic that you get on your site from Google can be converted because you get the opportunity to make a second pitch on Facebook.
Facebook Pixel
Remarketing on Facebook works using what’s referred to as the Facebook Pixel. It’s essentially code that you install on your website that allows you to track visitor activity. Perhaps they landed on your site and browsed through your weekly pool maintenance service.
However, instead of filling in their details, they left without converting. If you have installed Pixel, this interest will be noted. The next time that the individual visits Facebook, they will be shown your ads urging them to complete the sign up process.
Through remarketing, you can boost your conversion rate by up to 400%. So, this is something that’s important. Once you have started advertising on Facebook, you need to sign up for retargeting via Pixel. That you can really maximize on the performance of your ads.
Facebook is a big platform
Find more statistics at Statista
Another reason for creating Facebook Ads for pool maintenance companies is the fact that Facebook is so vast. At the time of writing this article, it had a daily active user base of over 1.87 billion. That figure is constantly growing. You can check out the current statistics in the above graph from Statista.
The point here is that whatever your audience, chances are high that you will be able to find it on Facebook. Remember that Facebook collects a lot of information about its users. As an advertiser, you can take advantage of this to find relevant people with your ads.
Facebook Ads are affordable
You can create Facebook Ads for as little as $1 a day. That’s pretty affordable. So, you don’t have to worry about overspending when advertising on the platform.
That’s particularly the case for pool cleaning services. In most instances, these businesses are rather small and they do not have quite enough to carter for expensive marketing.
So, they will be looking to make savings wherever possible. In that case, Facebook Ads are the right digital marketing option for you.
You can run your own Facebook Ads
That’s a major plus for pool maintenance companies. If you own one, it’s possible for you to learn how to create your own Facebook Ads.
Again, it all has to do with limiting your spending. Perhaps you are a college student supplementing your income by maintaining pools in your neighborhood.
In that case, you can use this article to learn how to create your own Facebook Ads. You can also sign up for my DIY Facebook Ads marketing course to get videos and other materials to help you sharpen your skills.
Getting Set Up
Before we start creating our first Facebook Ads, we need to get set up. There are a couple of things that you are going to need to do beforehand if you are going to be successful in your venture. I have already talked about installing Pixel on your site. Let me repeat that Facebook ads are no stroll in the park. The following tips should help you get there;
Create a Facebook Page
The great thing about Facebook Pages is that they are completely free of charge. That’s important for those on a budget. So, before you start creating paid Facebook Ads, it’s great to know that you have an avenue that allows you to market your pool maintenance company free on the platform.
You can learn more by reading my article on how to best run Facebook business pages. Truth is, every business needs to have a Facebook Page.
Such a Page serves as a meeting point between your business and its customers. You also get to attract new customers using your Facebook Page. The Page is also useful as far as creating custom audiences for your ads is concerned. I will talk more about Facebook Custom Audiences below.
Be clear on your objectives for each ad
It’s possible to have a hundred Facebook Ads running at the same time. That’s something that a lot of business do. But for each of these ads, you need to have clear objectives. What do you wish to achieve? Do you wish to have people contact you directly from Facebook?
Are you looking to create brand awareness? And if you are targeting custom audiences, do you have a landing page ready to turn their interest into a conversion? Perhaps you wish to showcase your catalog direct on Facebook?
Whatever your goal may be, being clear beforehand makes life easy for you going forward. You will see what we are talking about below.
Target Custom Facebook Audiences
Target Custom Audiences for better success in your Facebook ads
I have already talked about Facebook Pixel and how it facilitates retargeting for people advertising on Facebook. One way of assuring success for your business is by targeting custom audiences. A pixel generated audience is an example of a custom audience.
A custom audience is essentially one that’s composed of people who have had interaction with your business in one way or the other. Perhaps they have previously visited your Facebook Page. Or maybe they visited your site. Some could have participated in an event that you hosted on Facebook.
However the interaction occurred, fact is that these people already know about your business. They are, therefore, much more likely to respond positively when they see your Facebook Ads for your Pool Maintenance company. That’s different from targeting completely a new audience.
Add Lookalike Audiences to your Custom Audiences
It’s possible that you don’t quite have enough people in your custom audience. Perhaps you are only getting a handful of visitors to your site every day. Or maybe only ten or so people have liked your Facebook Page. In that case, the answer would be to add lookalike audiences to your custom audiences.
A lookalike audience is one that’s similar to the one that you have created. In this case, it could be composed of people who have liked Facebook Pages for other pool maintenance companies in your area. By targeting these people, you get the chance to have your ads shown to a wider audience.
Creating your Facebook Ads
Those are the preliminaries. They are important, but we now get to the part where we show you how to start creating Facebook Ads for Pool Maintenance Companies. Facebook Ads get created in Ads Manager. That’s where you need to go to get started. You will notice while in there that the process of coming up with an ad has roughly 3 main steps;
- Deciding on a Campaign Objective
- Working on your audience and budget in the Ad Set
- Creating the Ad
Deciding on a Campaign Objective
Choosing a Campaign Objective is your first port of call in Ads Manager. Campaign Objectives relate to what we have already been talking about. Being clear on your goals for each ad helps you here. Facebook provides 11 Campaign Objectives, for which each ad can only have one. The following are the available Campaign objectives;
- Catalog sales
- Messages
- Conversions
- Brand awareness
- Store traffic
- Lead generation
- Video views
- App installs
- Reach
- Traffic
Best Facebook Ads Campaign Objective for Pool Maintenance Companies
Choose a Campaign Objective
I have already noted that a single business can have tens of Facebook Ads running at the same time. But what are the best Campaign Objectives when creating Facebook Ads for Pool Maintenance Companies?
Truth is, there are no prescriptions here. What you choose depends on what you wish to achieve at any given point in time.
Of course, some, such as Catalog Sales, will not work that great here. If you are looking for brand awareness, you can choose the appropriate Campaign Objective. The same applies if you are looking for lead generation.
For this example, we are going to go with Conversions as our Campaign Objective. We will assume that we will be targeting people who have been to our website, but who left without converting. We will give them a price reduction offer to entice them into customers.
The Ad Set
Once you have chosen an Objective for your Facebook Ads Campaign, the next step will be to head over to the Ad Set. This is where much of the audience targeting work happens.
It’s where you define to who you wish to have your ads shown. The Ad Set is also where you set your budget. We will look at some of the most important sections in the Ad Set;
Offer
I noted earlier on that I will be creating Facebook Ads for a pool maintenance company targeting people who have previously visited that company’s website.
These people will be tracked using Pixel. Now, I want to target people who landed on the Pool Maintenance Company’s Catalog page. The company offers daily, weekly and monthly services.
Let’s assume that the individuals that we are targeting visited these pages. Most people then leave without signing up because they do not quite agree with the pricing. So, we are going to make them an offer on Facebook that’s designed to get them to sign up.
You can set up an offer for your Facebook Ads
Offers are not available with the default Landing Page View Optimization. So, you need to scroll down to Optimization and Delivery to switch to Link Clicks, Daily Unique Views or Impressions (under Other Options).
From there, scroll back to Offers and toggle the Switch onto the On position. Next, you will need to select a Facebook Page for the Offer. From there, click on the Create Offer button. You will get a Page similar to the one in the screenshot below.
Set Up your Offer
You will now need to set up your Offer. We are going to be offering 20% off the annual fee on all new signings. You should also set an end date for your offer. It may be better here to set it at no more than a week to create a sense of urgency.
Next, you will need to add the website URL where people can redeem the offer. From there, you can specify the number of Offers available. As an example, you could have 50 offers available. Specify whether you wish the offer to be online only or online and in-store.
From there, you need to click on the Notification tab. Once done, scroll down and click on the Create button. You will now see your Offer under Offer in the Ad Set.
Budget and Schedule
This section is there to help you specify the amount of money that you are going to be spending on your Ads per day. I have already noted that Facebook Ads are quite affordable.
Most people wonder how much they should spend on Facebook Ads for Pool Maintenance companies. Frankly, that is something that you are going to have to work out on your own. It depends on your budget, among other things.
I generally advise people to start small. Maybe you can start with $5 per day. See how far that takes you. Increase the amount if there is a chance you will get better results.
Set up a budget and schedule
One thing that you will need to do is to retain control of your spending. You do that by specifying the daily budget for your Ads. Also set start and end dates for your Campaigns.
That way, you wont overshoot your spending. So, if you are spending $5 per day, you will know that in one week, you will have spent $35. You can also set a Lifetime Budget for your ads.
Audience
Who are you targeting with your Ads? The Audience section is very important when creating Facebook Ads for any business. If you get it wrong here, your venture will fail.
Your ads will be delivered to the wrong people and you won’t get anything out of your investment. You have several settings that you can use to define your audience;
A Custom Audience
I have already covered custom audiences above. They are great for targeting people who have already been to your website. As an example, if somebody has visited your website, chances are high that they have a pool and they are looking for cleaning services. Custom Audiences can also be based on the following;
- Website
- App activity
- Customer list
- Offline activity
- Video
- Lead form
- Instant Experience
- Shopping
- Instagram account
- Events
- Facebook Page
- On-Facebook Listings
If you choose Website, you will have to choose the tracking pixel for that particular ad. Remember that we said it’s essential to set up tracking via a Pixel in this instance? That way, you can see what people are doing on your site. You can then use that information to precisely target your audience.
A new audience
You can also target a new audience using the following parameters;
Location
Where is your target audience located? Pool Maintenance Companies are highly localized. They operate within small areas in their communities. Nobody is going to want to hire one from across the country.
Where should your Facebook Ads be delivered?
For this example, we will assume that our business is located in Casa Marina, Key-West, Florida. We will only target people living 5 miles around this area. Having our ads shown elsewhere would be a waste of money.
We will target people living in this location, as opposed to including those that have previously passed through this location.
Age
You can also set your Facebook Ads to be delivered to people within certain age groups. For our example, we will target people between 35 and 55. Your age range will depend on your business and your aims for a particular ad.
Gender
For some businesses, it’s better to target people based on Gender. For this particular example, we will target both women and men.
Detailed Targeting
The detailed targeting section is where you really zoom in on your Target Audience. The people that we have been targeting so far have been rather general. Most of them will probably have nothing to do with pools. For this example, we need to target home owners and pool owners. Delivery of our ads will be narrowed down to people with the following interests;
- Cleaning and Maintenance services
- Owner/Property Manager
- Automated pool cleaner
- Swimming pool
The Ad
Once everything has been set up in the Ad Set, you can now come to the creation of the Ad. The Ad is what people will actually see, so you need to make sure that it has the necessary impact.
Remember, we noted that people are not on Facebook to buy. It’s a bit difficult to break into their minds, but it can be done. You can use catchy images and videos.
When using a video, the clip should be no more than 15 seconds long. If you go beyond that, your ad will appeal to no one. Try to use as little text as is possible. Let the images do the talking on your behalf.
Summary
In this article, I showed you how to create Facebook Ads for pool maintenance companies. I noted that advertising on Facebook can be futile if you adopt the wrong approach. But with the tips that I gave here, you should be able to make it work.
Meanwhile, check out my DIY Ads Marketing Mini Course. You can sign up using the form below. Also feel free to get in touch if you would rather have me set everything up on your behalf. I do Facebook Ads on a daily basis, so I should be able to help you.
