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Does Facebook Ads marketing work for bakeries and bakers? That’s a question that I get a lot from people. Hi, my name is Francisco. I am the owner of a Digital Marketing Agency called Planet Marketing. We specialize in Google Ads, Facebook Ads and remarketing. Most bakers that I work with have been doing Facebook ads to some degree. And most have had a limited amount of success. That’s okay. But it’s not enough to take you from an average performer to a top performer. The tips that I give you here are designed to transform the way that bakeries and bakers advertise on Facebook. The goal is to get maximum impact. This post is divided into the following sections;
Why Facebook Ads Work for Bakers and Bakeries
Facebook ads are trending in the digital marketing world at the present moment. But are they the most logical choice for bakers and bakeries. Most people are in doubt about this. That’s the case whether one is talking about Facebook ads for bakers or Facebook ads for restaurants and online stores.
People are not really sure whether or not Facebook ads are an effective tool. Let me be frank with you, Facebook ads have something of a bad rap. The bad press is uncalled for, in my experience, but it’s there all the same. The question many ask is; “Do Facebook Ads work?”
Driving this issue is the question of search intent. To understand what I am saying, we need to compared Facebook Ads with Google Search ads. When a person searches for something, lets say “wedding cake bakery near me,” using Google, they are probably well advanced in the process of planning a wedding.
So, if your ads appear at the correct instances, chances are high that you will get their business. The same cannot be said of Facebook, however. Search intent on the platform is not well defined. People go to Facebook to gossip and not to buy stuff. So, it’s harder to make your pitch.
Having said that, Facebook Ads still work for Bakeries and Bakers. The trick lies in knowing what you are doing. People do like pages related to their interests of the platform. The following are some of the reasons why Facebook Ads are the best option for bakeries and bakers;
You audience is already on Facebook
Find more statistics at Statista
The first factor in favor of Facebook ads is that the platform is so big. As of the time of writing this article, Facebook had over 1.7 billion daily active users. But what does this mean? Well, it simply means that your audience is already on Facebook. You only need to know how to find them. And that’s what I am going to show you in this article.
It’s easy to target your bakery business’ audience
Another thing in favor of Facebook ads is that it’s easy to target the right audience. That’s essential in all Digital Marketing. You don’t want to waste time and money having your ads delivered to people who are not interested in what you do. Facebook has the following audience targeting options;
1. You can target an entirely new Audience
First, you have the option to target an entirely new audience. That’s useful if you wish to expand your baking business’ horizons. Let’s assume that you have set out to create brand awareness with your Facebook ads. Once you have chosen that option, you will then go on to create a new target audience using the following tools;
Location
Where do you wish to have your Facebook Ads shown? Is your reach worldwide or are you restricted to a few blocks around the physical location of your business. Most businesses are localized.
Bakeries fall into this category. Rarely will anyone on the other side of the country come all the way just to visit your business. Maybe if you are into wedding cakes, your reach may be broader, but you are still likely to be restricted to your town or city.
However, there are some bakeries that operate online. These can have a wider reach. It’s possible to have your products delivered to other states as an example. For this example, we will assume that we own a baking business that’s located in Amarillo, Texas. We will set out ads to be delivered 3 miles around our physical location.
Age
When creating a new audience, you also have the option to create ads that are targeted at people within a particular age range. For this example, we will target people who are 20 and above.
Gender
Gender is another tool that you can use to define the target audience for your Facebook Ads. For this example, we will assume that we are advertising a wedding cake service. So, to which gender should we have our ads delivered?
Both men and women? Well, in this case, we will have our ads delivered to women. They are the ones who most make the choice regarding wedding cakes.
Languages
Language can also be used to define an audience for Facebook Ads for bakeries and bakers. For our example, we will live things on the defaults. But you could choose to have your ads shown only to people who speak Spanish, as an example.
Detailed Targeting: Demographics, Interests and Behaviors.
The options give above are great in terms of defining your target audience. However, they are rather broad. If we run with this audience, our ads will be delivered to women in Amarillo who are over 30 regardless of whether they are interested in wedding cakes or not.
Fortunately, we can narrow down on our audience using the detailed targeting section. In this section, Demographics, Interests and Behaviors are used to narrow down on a target audience. For this example, we will target the following people;
- Engaged
- Newly married
- Wedding
2. You can target Custom Audiences
Custom audience sources
The audience that we have just described above is good. However, it’s not going to turn our company into a million dollar business. To do that, we need to take things up a notch. This is what differentiates running Facebook ads for your baker the basic way and doing things the pro way.
Facebook has what are defined as Custom Audiences. Custom audiences are made up of people who have previously interacted with your business in one way or the other. There are many types of custom Audiences on Facebook. Custom audiences can be collected form the following sources;
- Your Website
- App activity
- Customer list
- Offline activity
- Video
- Lead form
- Instant Experience
- Shopping
- Instagram account
- Events
- Facebook Page
- On-Facebook Listings
3. You can target Saved Audiences
Examples of saved audiences
Once you have created your audience, it is saved and it’s possible to use it in future Campaigns for your bakery’s Facebook Ads. In most instances, your audience will be similar from one Campaign to the next. You may only need to modify a few things to get going. Saved audiences save time because the process of creating a target audience can be involved.
4. You have the option to target lookalike audiences
Depending on how big your business is, chances are high that you won’t have enough people in your Custom Audience to make your Campaigns worthwhile. So, what do you do in that case?
Here you have the option to target lookalike audiences. A lookalike audience is similar to an audience that you have already defined. Let’s say you have target people who have been to your Facebook Page.
Lookalike audiences will then be composed of people who have liked other businesses similar to yours in your areas. In this case, that will be people who have liked Pages belonging to other bakers and bakeries in your area.
You can the audience from your website on Facebook
Retargeting is a great way of boosting the performance of your Facebook Ads. I have a previous article in which I compared Google and Facebook retargeting. I noted in that article that remarketing or retargeting is a way of showing people ads that are based on their activity on your website.
Let’s assume that your website has a Wedding Cakes section. If somebody visits this section from Google or from any other search engine, chances are high that they are interested in getting a cake done for their wedding.
Unfortunately, the conversion rate for eCommerce is rather low. You can expect only about 2% of the people who land on your website to become customers. So, how do you improve the odds?
This is where retargeting comes into play. If someone has shown an interest in Wedding Cakes on your website, you can then show them an ad featuring some of your best cakes in this category on your website. But how do you deal determine what people are doing on your site?
Tracking is done using Facebook Pixel
Facebook has a piece of code that is called a pixel that is installed on websites for the purposes of remarketing. That’s how you keep track of visitors to your website and what they are doing there.
Having this option means you get the opportunity to re-target and audience that you would otherwise have lost. It’s a great way of boosting your conversion rate by up to 4 times for some bakers and bakeries that have adopted this strategy.
Facebook Ads are affordable
Can Bakeries and Bakers afford to do Facebook Ads marketing? What if you operate a small mom and pops business out of the basement of your house? Will you be able to pay for Facebook Ads?
Here is the thing; you can boost a Facebook post for as little as a $1 a day. And for that, your post will reach a sizeable audience. Of course, whether or not boosting Facebook posts is work it is another matter all together.
I personally prefer to create real ads. In any case, you can also do a Brand awareness campaign on Facebook for as little as a $1 a day. So, Facebook ads are very affordable. They are well within the reach of even the smallest of businesses.
Creating your ad
Those are the basics of Facebook Ads marketing. In this section, we take a look at how you can start creating your own Facebook Ads. That’s another great thing about advertising on Facebook. You don’t have to be a marketing guru to start doing it yourself. Facebook Ads are created in Ads Manager. The process has 3 steps;
- You need to choose a Campaign Objective.
- Next, you will have to set up your audience and Budget and Schedule.
- You can then create and launch your ad.
Choosing a Campaign Objective for Facebook ads for Bakeries
Your very first step in Ads Manager involves choosing a Campaign Objective. This is an important step. A Facebook Ads Campaign Objective is the definition of the direction in which you wish to have your ads go. Things will be different depending on your choice here. Facebook offers 11 Campaign Objectives form which you can only choose one;
- App installs
- Videos views
- Catalog sales
- Reach
- Messages
- Traffic
- Store traffic
- Brand awareness
- Conversions
- Lead generation
- Engagement
Which Campaign Objective works best for Bakeries?
Choose a Campaign Objective
So, which Campaign Objective should you opt for when doing Facebook Ads marketing for bakeries and bakers. We have already stated that you can do Brand awareness. That’s useful if you wish to get the word out about your business.
You can also opt for Reach if you wish to get to the highest number of people. For this example, we will choose Conversions because we wish to reach people who are most likely to buy our wedding cakes.
Please note that you are not restricted here. Don’t go away from this article saying Francisco told me that I can only use Brand awareness for my Campaign Objective. That’s not true!
In fact, you are free to experiment with your ads to find the right formula. And you can have different ads running at the same time using different or the same Campaign Objectives. It’s up to you.
The Ad Set
In Ads Manager, the Ad Set is your next port of call when doing Facebook Ads marketing for bakeries and bakers. In my view, it’s the most important of all the sections. It’s where you define and refine your target audience. It’s also where you set up your Budget and Schedule. We have already covered elements of this section at the top. Below is some important bit of information that we had not covered;
Budget and Schedule
Define start and end dates for your Campaigns
Many people make the mistake of neglecting to put some thought into this section. What you need to understand is that Facebook retains your credit card information on file. If you run open ended Campaigns, you may get in trouble because they will keep running your ads while deducting money from the account.
It’s important for you to define when you wish to have your Campaigns start and end. That gives you breathing space and allows you to take stock and determine whether or not a particular Campaign has been bearing fruit.
Having a daily budget with start and end dates for your Campaigns is a good way of controlling your spending when doing Facebook Ads marketing for bakeries and bakers. That’s important for small businesses. You can see what I am talking about in the above screenshot. It’s also possible to control spending using Lifetime Budget.
Conversion event location
Conversion events location
Since we have chosen Conversions as our Campaign Objective, we will need to choose a Conversion event location. Where do you wish to have people who click on your ad sent? You have the option to have them sent to your website, to Messenger, to WhatsApp or to an App.
For this example, we have chosen Website as our Conversion event location. What it means is that people who click on our ads will be taken to a landing page on our website. It’s important here to tailor make landing pages for our ads.
If you sent people to your home page where there are products other than the one that they are interested in, they will end up leaving without buying. So, if you are marketing Wedding Cakes, you need to have a page that’s dedicated to Wedding Cakes and nothing else.
You will have to add a pixel to that page to track events. You can see in the above screenshot that we have chosen a pixel. Note that you can have many pixels, depending on what you wish to track.
Anyway, you also need to specify what constitutes a conversion. In our case, we have stated that a conversion is when somebody has added payment information. It’s most likely then that they are going to buy from us. Therefore, Facebook will track adding payment information as a conversion.
The Ad
The next step after setting up your audience and budget in the Ad Set involves creating the ad itself. Needless to say here that this is a crucial step. Your target audience will not see much of the work that we have been doing in the preceding sections.
What they will see is the ad itself. Therefore, it has the important task of having to convince people to take the desired action. We have already mentioned that that’s not really simple. People go to Facebook for important things such as gossiping with complete strangers.
Your ad has the role of impinging into this frame of mind, and that’s not always welcome. You need to be creating to make it work. You are probably not going to get it for a few tries but it can be done.
Ad Formats
Facebook allows you to create single image, video and carousel ads. So, which one should you opt for when doing Facebook Ads marketing for bakeries and bakers? As is the case with the Campaign Objective, I am not going to prescribe anything here.
I do need to mention that your ad needs to be eye catching. That’s not as difficult for bakeries and bakers as it is with other businesses. You can have an ad featuring high quality images of your wedding cakes, as an example.
You can also have a short video of the same. Note here that it’s advisable, according to Facebook, to have a video that’s no more than 15 seconds long. If you go beyond this, you will probably lose your audience.
Opt for Dynamic Ads
We have already noted that there are good Facebook Ads marketing campaigns. Then there are others that are truly great. If you want to fall into this category, then you should go with Dynamic Facebook Ads.
The great thing about Dynamic ads is that they change depending on a person’s interest. Tracking is via a Facebook pixel. Let’s say you are a baker. Chances are high that you won’t be specializing only in wedding cakes.
You will have birthday cakes, anniversary cakes, desserts, baggles and so forth in your catalog. Under normal circumstances, you would have to create an ad featuring each product. However, with dynamic ads, you only need to create one ad and a person will be shown what they are interested in.
Summary
That’s how to do Facebook Ads marketing for bakeries and bakers. In this article, I showed you how to get started running your own Campaigns. Yes, the process can be complicated, but it’s something that you can learn with some perseverance.
Otherwise, feel free to check out my DIY Facebook Ads Marketing Course. It’s designed to compliment the knowledge that you got from this article. The course contains lots of videos and other learning materials.
You can sign up for the mini-course free of charge using the link below. And if you do not really have the time, then by all means, feel free to hire my company’s services. This is what we do daily, and we will be able to help you get up and running with Facebook Ads.