Facebook Ads For LOCAL Businesses: 5 Keys To Success

0:00Hi guys, it's Ben Heath from Lead Guru and in this video I'm going to talk about Facebook ads for local businesses and specifically I've got five keys to success that you should really pay attention to and really try to implement in your Facebook ad campaigns. Because when you're running Facebook ads for a local business, whether it's your own, whether it's for a client, you need to do things differently to when you're running Facebook ads for a national or international business and if you try and use some of the national or international business best practices, your local ad campaigns are just going to fail. So I think this could be a

0:30really business if you if you are running Facebook ads for a local business. Before I get into that, before I get into steps, just want to quickly ask for you to smash that like button, click that thumbs up, that'd be very much appreciated and really help me out and of course subscribe to my YouTube channel if you are new and haven't done so already. Okay, so I'm in an in an example Facebook ad account here. I'm going to create an example campaign because I think that's probably the best way to demonstrate um how this, you know, some of the some of the keys to success that I'm going to

0:56talk about when it comes to Facebook ads for local businesses. Now I'm not going to focus on all the various elements of a campaign. I've got lots of videos showing you how to create campaigns. I want to focus on the five keys to success and the local business specific stuff. So I'm going to go to the asset level, I'm going to click edit

1:11and I go down to the location targeting. And I'm going to demonstrate a bit of an example here. So obviously it's defaulted to the UK because that's where I'm based, but I'm going to put in a specific location in the UK, Cheltenham, which is a city one of the UK the one in England, which is city near where

1:28I live. And for those of you who aren't aware of the geography of the UK, it's over here in the west of England. Now you can see that the default for Cheltenham plus 25 miles is 1 million people is the total number of Facebook and Instagram users in that location. Now a lot of local businesses can't really advertise 25 to to a city plus 25 miles. That's really that's far for a lot of businesses. You know, if you're like a restaurant or something like that, people are unlikely at least not regularly to want to travel 25 miles. They're going to go to places much closer to home. So, let's say we

2:05narrow that down to to 10 miles as an example. Well, that takes our potential audience down to 300,000 people. Now, when I zoom in, you'll see that we've got Cheltenham here, which is what I'm selecting. We've also got Gloucester here, which is a reasonable size city here in the UK that's fully included. Now, you may need to narrow this further and say, "Actually, Gloucester doesn't I don't want you know, cuz people aren't going to travel from Gloucester to my restaurant, my whatever in Cheltenham, my accountancy practice, my you know, whatever happens to be." Um I just want to advertise to Cheltenham, so you need may need to narrow this further. And by

2:34doing that, what you'll see is that your potential reach over here on this side is going to just get smaller and smaller and smaller. But, let's just assume we can do this. We can do Cheltenham plus 10 miles. Now, you'll see that our audience has got 300,000 people in it. Right now, that's with no detail targeting options, that's with no uh narrowing down of age or gender. You can see we've got all genders, we've got 18

2:58plus. If you try and add in things like detail targeting options and make this really specific, you are going to run into problems and make your audience too small. So, if I select this for example, and let's say I wanted to advertise to business page admins. Okay? That's an audience that I advertise to. So, those are business page admins, those people who are admins of business pages on Facebook, a great audience for me to target often when I'm advertising my own Facebook ads agency because who do I want to reach? I want to reach people that are actively marketing on

3:28Facebook probably not doing it properly. Um and we can see that if we add that in, um for some reason, our potential reach uh here we go. I've got detail targeting expansion. If I deselect that, you'll see our potential reach has gone down to just 4,300 people. That is it. That is far, far, far too small an audience to advertise

3:48to. If I was advertising to business page admins nationally in the UK or even internationally, which I often do. Say the UK, US, Canada, something like that. This audience is going to be absolutely fine. It's going to be plenty large enough. It's going to be hundreds thousands, maybe even in the low millions. Um if I do that. But on a local basis, I absolutely cannot get away with adding a detailed targeting option that is that

4:12small. You can see look the size here. There are 40 almost 45 million people business page admins across the world. But there's only 4,300 in this little area. Okay? So that is absolutely key thing to make note of. If you go with regular targeting information and practices, you will over narrow your audience. So what I will often do when it comes to advertising a local business is A, test this. So test just

4:37advertising to everyone in your area. Have one of your ad sets that's just advertising to everyone in the area. And um and don't worry about being too specific. Basically, allow Facebook to work it out. The second thing I will do is I have another ad set where I target everyone everyone in but I don't add any detailed targeting options. Instead, I narrow down by age and sometimes gender if you're really you know, if your customers are really heavily skewed male or female. Okay? But I might narrow down by age. So I might say go with, you know, we're only interested in, I don't know, homeowners. We think they're going

5:08to be 30 plus. And then you add that in and you're taking down to to 210,000 people. Okay? That'll be another ad set. If you are advertising in a local area that has a much larger population, so I've obviously chosen as a as a as a place. But it we're fairly country sidey over here in in Gloucestershire. Um if you I was in London, for example, well, then I could um I could afford to narrow down much further with my audiences because I'm starting with a much larger population base. Um so for example, that's where I may be able to add in a detailed targeting options, but I would still be

5:41using the broader detailed targeting options. So instead for my own my as an example, instead of going with business page admins as my targeting, I could go with um people interested in digital marketing. Much broader category, going to have a lot more people in it, okay? So, that's the first key to success is the targeting. Test open in your area, maybe just have another ad set narrowing by age and or gender, and then only if you're operating in a place with a large large population, do you go ahead and

6:12and add in your your detailed targeting. Very very important. It's the most important thing when it comes to running ads for local business. The amount of ad campaigns I've seen for local businesses where someone's clearly watched a tutorial, maybe even you know, one of mine on on Facebook about targeting, they've added in, you know, an interest targeting option or two, and advertised it to a local area, and you see their audience and there's 15,000 people in it. You think that's way too small. I can't really give you a number on the perfect audience size for a local business, because as I said, it depends how many people are in your

6:42area. If you're, you know, in the middle of Wyoming, and your town that you're advertising to has only got 15,000 people in it total, well, I can't say that you need to be advertising to 100,000 people, because there just aren't that many people there. So, it really depends on your area. Follow the principles I've just laid out here, and it should really help your Facebook ad campaigns for local businesses specifically. Okay, so that's key to success number one. I've got a notes

7:10here so I don't don't forget them. Key to success number two is to refresh your ad creative more frequently than you otherwise would. So, let's say for example, I am advertising to this 210,000 person audience. I'm going to run into ad fatigue issues and have a situation where everyone in my audience has seen my ad a bunch of times, much faster than if I'm if I'm advertising nationally or internationally, again because the populations are so much larger. What does that mean? Well, that means that ad fatigue, which I talked about extensively and I have videos on and I'll include one in the video description in case you

7:45you want to check that out if you think you have ad fatigue issues. But ad fatigue is going to set in much, much faster. So, whereas if I was running a national campaign in the UK, I might be looking to add in new ads. That's what I mean when I say refresh ad creative. So, let's say I'm coming to ads. I've got one ad running or three ads running. By refresh ad creative, I mean pause the underperformers, add in new ads, and run

8:06alongside the best performers. Basically, you're keeping things fresh for your uh prospects. With a national campaign, I may be doing that once a month, okay? With a local campaign, I mean, maybe once every 2 months. It depends on your budget, of course. With a local campaign, I might do that twice as often. Might do it once every 2 weeks, maybe even once every week. It becomes more important because

8:28ad fatigue is going to happen faster. So, that's something to that's an important key to success that yes, takes time, takes effort, but is well worth doing if you're running ads for a local campaign. You cannot just run the same ad, most likely, for months on end. You probably have to refresh more often than that, okay? That's one

8:45thing to to really keep in mind. So, those are in a sense what I would call two disadvantages of local business advertising, advertising on a local basis, is your audiences are small, therefore you run into ad fatigue, and therefore you can't be super specific with your targeting. Now, I want to talk about taking advantage of some of the natural advantages you get with running Facebook ads for local businesses because there

9:08are advantages to be had. So, the first is that you can tailor your ad copy and your messaging to that local market, okay? So, let's say I was advertising in West London. I could start my ad copy with West Londoners, you know, West Londoners, check out this new restaurant that's opened on X, Y,

9:28and Z Road. When someone's scrolling through their Facebook newsfeed, they're used to seeing national, international based ads. They don't really mean anything to them. Don't speak to them on a personal level. If someone calls out to you by your location, that's going to grab your attention a lot more. That's going to resonate with you. Especially if they then go on to talk about anything local, like a local, uh, feature, um, or a local, you know, like a West Londoner, "We've just opened thingy restaurant in the middle of, you know, Hammersmith. Go ahead and check it out." Um, things like that, okay? Um, and that's going to not only grab their

10:03attention in the first place cuz they're going to see West Londoner and go, "Oh, I'm a West Londoner. This is obviously for me. I'll check it out." But it's also going to mean something when they you start talking about a certain area or a certain street or a certain whatever. Local businesses are often going to obviously have a usually have a location, otherwise you wouldn't be advertising locally. And you can tell them about that. It's going to mean

10:22what? It's going to be more impactful. Um, and that does help. So, make sure you take advantage of that. You can even use images of local things. You can refer to perhaps local events that are up and up and coming. You know, I gave this example before, but it's a good one. I spent a few months in in Calgary, um, in the run up to the Stampede, which is like this big rodeo event, um, that they

10:42do every year and it's it's awesome. It's great fun. And before the Stampede, you can see all the banners and posters and all sorts of talking about it, marketing it. Well, if I was advertising in Calgary in the run up to the Stampede, which I imagine hasn't hasn't happened this year, unfortunately. But if I was doing that in the run up to the Stampede, um, I could reference that. And it's going

11:02to resonate with my target audience. It's going to be that connection there. We both get that this thing's about to happen. Okay? Um, so take advantage of that. That's something to really do. Do it in your ad copy, maybe even in in your imagery, uh, if if you're showing local streets, local things, that makes

11:16a big difference. Okay. Key to success number four is that testimonials carry more weight with a local business than they do with a national or international business. Now, if I see a testimonial for someone that is in Florida and they've bought something and they said, "Oh, it's fantastic. It worked really well for me." Okay, well that means something. It's useful. But me personally, I live in the west of England. If someone, you know, I just gave the example of Cheltenham. If someone from Cheltenham said they used it, that's probably going to carry a bit more weight. I mean, arguably it shouldn't, but it does. It does with people. It means more. You cuz

11:47you go, "Oh, this product or service is likely to work for me because someone very similar to me has had a great experience with it." And that's what the local element helps connect. An absolute, if you want to just turn that up to to to 11, is to if you can get a local figurehead or a local celebrity to use your product or service and then endorse it. Like you might have a local celebrity who's been to your restaurant and loved it. And you can include that in an ad. You might have, maybe even a politician or like a mayor of a town or something that can talk about, you know,

12:17this, go ahead and check out this event or this uh hair salon or whatever it is. They do great work. That can that can again can really help resonate and just take it to that next level, if possible. So, I'm not normally a big fan of including testimonials and things like that in ads. I tend to find that it doesn't deliver the improvement people hope it will. But actually on a local basis, it has more of an impact and is something that I'm I'm much more willing to recommend that I've seen good results with. So, so go

12:46ahead and and give that a go, basically. Put some testimonials in your ad copy. And make sure you tell the people that that testimonial is from someone that is local to them. Do the same maybe on your landing pages and things like that, okay? So, that was key to success number four. Key to success number five for Facebook ads for local businesses is that

13:06time is your friend. Because the word of mouth and brand awareness, the effect that that has, is magnified when you're advertising on a local basis. So, let's go back to our ad set level here. Let's assume we're advertising to 210,000 people. Now, if I'm running an ad campaign and spending a reasonable budget, I will be putting my ads in front of probably the majority, let's say half those people,

13:33um on a weekly basis. When people have interactions with businesses that are positive, they obviously tell the people around them. They tell their friends, their family, people who are likely to live local to them. And the the effect of that on a on a on a local basis where someone can be like, "Oh, I went to the new Thai restaurant that opened um in such and such street last week and it was absolutely fantastic." And then if they're telling a friend that and their friend goes, "Oh, you know what? Another friend of mine went to to check that out and they said it was awesome." Or uh my

14:05uncle went there and he he really recommended it. That has a greater weight than if you're advertising over a national or international basis. Those recommendations of people having a positive experience might still be happening, but it's not as concentrated. You're not going to have that like overwhelming, there's a buzz about it in the air and it's being talked about a lot by by local people. You can really establish this basically element of local fame with a business um by advertising on a local basis and consistently doing so. I mean, you know, if I think of, you know, my town, you know, you can mention pubs and

14:36everyone's going to know the name of the pub. Everyone's going to know the name of that restaurant. Obviously, big cities not necessarily the case, but in in in even smallest towns, you mention something to someone who lives there. "Oh, yeah, I know that place. I went there a couple of weeks ago." Da da da. All that sort of stuff. Um so that is really a big big deal for a local business, much more so than a national business. So national business or international advertising campaign, you're going to see much more consistent results. With a local business, you're going to see results improve and improve and improve because the person that sees

15:04your ad, let's use the restaurant example, the person that sees your ad for your new local Thai restaurant, for example, who has been recommended it by two friends over last 3 months and then they see your ad, that's going to have more of an impact and get more like to get someone through the door than um the person who is seeing the ad without any recommendations because you, you know,

15:26your campaign's let's say 2 weeks old. Right? 3 months, 6 months down the line, you see much better results from Facebook ad campaigns for local businesses and I'd really encourage you to to factor that into when you're assessing your Facebook ad campaigns. If the month first month's a bit slow, I would recommend keep going. Provided it's not disastrous, I'd recommend keep going because I think that that brand awareness that gets concentrated, the word of mouth effect that you have in a

15:50local area is um, is really impactful. Okay? So, hopefully those have been useful. Five keys to successful advertising a local business on Facebook. If you implement those, you are likely to see much, much better results than if you do not. Before you go, couple of free things I want to mention. The first is my Facebook is a a free webinar I've created called three killer Facebook advertising strategies to double or more your revenue. And in this webinar, I've basically broken down three sales funnels that you can use, um, that we use all the time as a Facebook ad advertising agency. They've delivered amazing results for our

16:24clients. We've generated millions and millions of dollars using all of these. Very much recommend you check out this webinar. It's completely free. Link is in the video description below. I I I completely break these funnels down, right? So, I show you exactly how to implement them. So, it's a well worth your time to to go through this. And as you'll probably know if you've done any form of online marketing, if you have the wrong sales funnel for your product

16:43and service, it's not going to work. It's no matter how many good your ads are, how good your targeting is, you need the right approach. Whether you're selling a $20 product or a $50,000 service, you need different approaches for those and you need to have the right one for your business. That webinar, free webinar, shows you exactly how to do that. So, go ahead and check that out. The other free thing I want to mention is my Facebook Ads Mastermind group. So, as of the recording this video, we have just surpassed 50,000, uh, members, which is absolutely amazing. One of the biggest community of Facebook advertisers in the world. Um,

17:13would love to have you be part of it. Everyone's able to ask questions, get them answered by experts. It's a really great community full of people that are just looking to help each other out, just like you. Facebook advertisers that want better results. So go ahead and join that, completely free. Link is in the video description as well. We'd love to have you in there and help us get to 200,000, which hopefully

17:33isn't too far away. If that video's been useful, if those tips have been useful, please comment below to let me know. That's always appreciated. Comment below if you've got any questions. I get to I answer as many of those many of my YouTube comments as I possibly can. Please smash that like button if you haven't done so already. That really helps me out and only takes half a second. And of course subscribe to my YouTube channel if you're new and

17:52haven't done so already. I release Facebook advertising related content usually twice a week, not always, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less, but that's what I aim for. So yeah, lots of more useful free stuff coming your way. Thanks a lot guys. Best of luck with your Facebook ad campaigns and I'll talk to you soon. Bye for now.

18:08Bye.