Are you running a residential or commercial painting business and looking for ways to promote your service and bring in more customers?
Facebook ads can be an effective tool in this regard.
With over 2.90 billion monthly active users, Facebook is a great platform to connect with potential clients.
But, you need to get your ad copy, creative, and targeting just right when setting up your campaign to generate quality leads.
Otherwise, you’ll just end up losing money.
In this guide, I will cover everything you need to know on running Facebook Ads for Painters.
#1 Set Goals For Your Campaign
First up, you need to select a goal for your Ad campaign.
For painters, lead generation and conversions are the best Campaign Goals.
Lead generation campaigns will collect lead information from interested users right there on Facebook. It’s great for capturing contact info to follow up with painting quotes.
⚡Also Read: How To Avoid Fake Leads From Facebook Ads
Conversions campaigns are also good but they have a higher CPC cost.
And it does the same thing – contact form submissions or phone calls from the website.
You can also choose Messages as the Goal. These are always great for service businesses and are the cheapest.
It’ll make users send inquiries, requests, or questions directly through Facebook Messenger
IMHO, go with either Lead Generation or Messages
#2 Ad Copy And Creatives That Converts
The success of your Facebook ad campaign will depend a lot on how the content of your ads are crafted and presented.
Ad Headlines And Descriptions
Don’t EVER describe what you do – they already know how painting is done.
Your ad should focus on convincing your prospective customers to choose your service over your competitors.
So, address these questions in the ad copy. What makes your painting service special? What would your customers get for choosing YOU?
Highlight things unique to the service you offer, like your years of experience, quality craftsmanship, range of services, or any advanced training and certifications you have, special rates and discounts, etc…
This helps potential customers to recognise what sets your service apart.
Also use emotional triggers in your copy.
Make your prospects imagine how they would feel after receiving your service, relaxed in their home with the new colorwash, proudly showing off their interior with its new look.
Connect with their emotions!
Call-to-Action
Your ad copy must also include a clear call-to-action.
Tell your potential customers exactly what you want them to do, call now for a free estimate, book a consultation, etc..
Ads Manager has a ton of these CTA buttons to choose from.
Ad Creative
You can use either images or videos – but videos tend to get the most engagement.
If you decide to go with images, put the best paint jobs your service has completed in the form of before and after images.
You can also highlight customer testimonials or emphasize on your unique value proposition.
For videos, you can use time lapses or short videos of your crew on projects to show how skilled and efficient they are. Or you can make one explaining the benefits of choosing YOU. .
A good creative will build credibility and highlight the quality of your service.
#3 Setting Up Targeting
The most important part of your Facebook ad campaign is the targeting.
Since people usually don’t go on Facebook to actively search for painting services, it’s imperative that your ads be shown to those who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
Unlike the ad copy, if you mess this up – you’ll get 0 sales!
Here are some targeting options I recommend trying out:
Note: I have never run Facebook ads for painters, and these are just ideas. Since you know more about the ideal customer, you should be able to come up with better ones.
⚡Also Read: Auction Vs Reach And Frequency
Basic Targeting
What’s the geographical area that your business covers?
Target Facebook users who reside within that area so you don’t waste money showing ads to people outside your service area.
If you want, you can change “People living in or recently in this location” to “People living in this location”.
But rental property owners might not live in the same area, so that’s a thing to consider.
For the age, the 28 – 65 range is good because most should have their own apartments / houses by then and they actually care about maintaining.
Genders – I would go with either all genders or just women.
Demographic Targeting
Think about this. What will be the education, income, profession, type of residence etc of people who are most likely to be interested in what you do?
You can use that kind of information to target too.
Target all home ownership types, including rented homes, family-owned properties, and adult children still living with parents, as all present potential painting jobs.
People planning to move to new homes are also great targets.
Also target people experiencing major life events from marriage to divorce to a new baby, as these often spur renovations.
Interest Targeting
For interests, you can select a wide range of categories surrounding homeowners, home improvement enthusiasts, and design aesthetics.
Start with broad homeowner interest categories like homeownership, household maintenance, lawn & garden care, and DIY.
From there, expand into more specific home improvement interests like:
- Interior design
- Home decoration
- Kitchen remodeling
- Bath remodeling
- Home repair
- Real estate
If you want, drill down even further like historic home restoration or open floor plan living.
You can also target interests related to aesthetic styles – modern farmhouse design, Scandinavian style, industrial style, traditional style, and so on.
You can even target seasonal interests!
Behavior Targeting
Facebook allows you to target people based on behaviors too.
Here are some suggestions on the top of my head:
- Homeowners who have recently viewed home services and contractors
- People actively seeking bids and estimates
- People who have used painting or home improvement services recently
But I am sure you can come up with better patterns.
Lookalike Audiences
A much better way to target people is to let Facebook build a lookalike audience.
You can make one using your previous customer email lists, website traffic (must have pixel connected), or your business Facebook page’s followers.
Facebook will then create new audiences that are very similar to that audience.
However, this works best if you have a 1000+ email list. If you own a new painting business, this might not be a good option.
#4 Ad Placements
I recommend using manual ad placements but you can experiment with automatic too.
Turn off the Audience Network and Instagram options and only select Facebook.
⚡Also Read: Facebook Ads Only Desktop Targeting
Service ads like painting will convert better on these placements:
- News Feed
- Facebook Marketplace
- Video Feeds
Turn off the others for now and experiment on them later.
#5 Optimizing And Analyzing Results
Always run multiple A/B Tests.
Run at least 3-4 different ad variations per campaign and compare engagement, clicks, and conversions between them.
You can experiment with targeting options, ad copy and creative.
And finally, use the detailed analytics on ad sets and review key metrics like cost per lead, click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend.
Then calculate your break-even target costs.
Also shift your budget more toward the ads that work well away from underperformers and delete them.
