How to Get Maximum Conversions on your Facebook Ad Campaigns with Ad Scheduling
It was the year 2014, when Facebook launched Facebook ad scheduler. Marketers were in two minds about the new feature and wondered whether it would work or not. Those who wanted to control the amount of time that their ad ran were really happy. But, finding the best day to run the Facebook ads was dicey. Thus, Facebook ad scheduling for contractors needs patience and data. If you are wondering how to save dollars and get excellent results from using Facebook ad manager, you are at the right place.
Social media for construction companies has changed over the last few years, and every brand is concentrating on humanizing it with personal and relatable posts. After setting up a business account, a construction brand has to start with advertising to drive sales, and for FB ads, scheduling them for a profitable ad campaign is crucial. Before deciding to use Facebook Ad scheduling, a contractor should know what kind of Facebook ad will work for his business.
A Facebook ad that can work wonders will not happen in a jiffy. It will take time. So to create a successful ad; first, you need to understand which ad type would work best. There are four ad types to choose from. And, if you are confused, go with multiple variants of the ad and do a split test. Some tools will help you with the split test. We have covered it at the end of this blog.
Know how to do a split test for the perfect ad
If you are creating Facebook ads for business, then there are mainly four ad types, and contractors can benefit from all of them.
1. Banner ads
These are rectangular ads that are there from the beginning. These basic ads are everywhere in your newsfeed and look like any other feed. If you are starting with Facebook advertising, it’s advisable to try banner ads first.
2. Lead ads
Lead ads can get tricky, but since Facebook has the name, email, and other details of its users, the automatic fill makes it easy for the new user to put information on the ad. As a contractor, you can use it to create a list of possible clients. Lead ads are also great when you don’t have a dedicated landing page allowing sign up.
3. Carousel ads
Carousel Ads are pictures in a series, that help the prospect understand a product or service better. These ads are also perfect for allowing customers to engage with a brand. Contractors can use it for storytelling through images like showcasing the fantastic work they have done on a particular project or house.
4. Video ads
Video ads make an interesting Facebook advertising option. There is no denying that most people enjoy seeing the process of construction. The most amazing example of this is the popularity of JCB digging videos. So a video ad can do the trick for you, but keep it short with a focus on your “call to action”. A digital marketing agency for construction companies can provide you with good designers for video ads.
Read more: Why and How to use Social Media for a Construction Company to reap benefits
How to do Facebook Ad Scheduling for Contractors and Save Dollars
It has been a common notion even after Facebook launched ad scheduling, that running ad campaigns 24×7 will fetch more leads since the ads reach a large audience. It is incorrect for a marketer to think that all their potential customers will see every ad that they push out.
A wise social media/Facebook ad marketer will spend their budget wisely by running Facebook ads on a schedule. First, decide on campaign objective, area (location), and target audience. Since you are a contractor, finding your right audience and area is easy. You need not do interest targeting, instead focus on addresses, zip codes, and radius for your ad.
For example, if you want to grab attention for new remodeling leads in Florida, you need to type in Florida, select your state as Florida, and your target location is set. Using zip codes is useful for capturing small businesses, small-time contractors, and homeowners. By putting your address and selecting the area within the radius, you will quickly be able to target the customers located very near to you.
How to schedule an ad set?
You can schedule your ad set to run on any day at any specific time, but only with the option lifetime budget. As per FB, when the ad set is scheduled, it must run for at least one hour. Here are a few pointers you shouldn’t ignore:
1. To understand when your audience is most active on Facebook, use Page Insights. If you can’t figure out when your target audience is online on FB, you will face a setback.
2. The ads appear in the audience’s time zone. Create a separate campaign for each time zone to see how people are responding to each. Well, this is totally optional.
3. Created ads will start running only after Facebook reviews it. It takes 24 hours and sometimes a bit longer for each ad to be reviewed. Even if you have scheduled the ad to start running immediately, it will go live only once it has been reviewed. So, there is no short cut to the process.
4. Facebook will control your ads and deliver it as per the time that you schedule.
Facebook here explains how to schedule an ad set:
What is the best day to run a Facebook ad
Ah! Here comes the most tricky part of Facebook ad scheduling – how to decide the best days and the ideal timings to run a Facebook ad to save dollars. As per available data, user engagement with ads does not happen over weekends. It happens in the evenings and early morning of weekdays, which is when most people are online.
Recently, while running an ad campaign, we noticed that all the conversions were happening in the evening and late-night. So, we decided to change the ad schedule as per this data, and we witnessed a drop in our Facebook advertising cost. Earlier it was $5.47 per conversion, and later is was $3.45.
However, the above example might not work for all. So, one needs to understand first the business, then industry and the customers mean the target audience. In order to understand this, will give you an example of online retailers who benefit the most during the beginning and the middle of the month because of the “the paycheck effect”. It’s so simple to analyze.
Likewise, for contractors, a period after the heavy rainfall, storm or snowfall can prove to be an excellent time to go on in overdrive with ad scheduling. And, if you are a construction firm who is into conducting seminars, then ads have to run one month in advance to get a decent number of registrations.
Tools that will help you with Facebook Ad campaign and scheduling
You might be quite gung ho about Facebook advertising and as a business owner don’t mind spending more to see success. But that’s not all. Facebook advertising for contractors is not easy and one might end up spending money with no effective strategy as every step needs to be backed by data. Here are some important tools simplifying Facebook advertising for construction folks:
1. Qwaya
You have probably never heard of Qwaya before. Well, this is one of the most popular tools for creating Facebook advertising campaigns. Many social media marketing experts prefer Qwaya because it allows A/B testing.
2. AdEspresso
AdEspresso is favored by social media experts who prefer a simple and clean interface. The plus point about this tool is that it has customizable dashboards with detailed metrics. If you want to understand your numbers better, this is the tool you should use.
3. Hootsuite Ads
If you are somebody just starting with Facebook Ads, then Hootsuite can be of great support. The tool assists you in defining goals for better results. Use Hootsuite to create ads without wasting much time.
Conclusion
For the smashing performance of your ad campaigns, Facebook Ad scheduling for contractors needs to be done with some work and consistent monitoring of data. Keep in mind the following points to schedule and decide the best timings and days to run your ads:
What are the days when you get the most sales?
Do you know your low-traffic hours that see minimum to no conversions?
When do you receive the highest number of email sign-ups?
Which days and what timings are popular among your readers for your posts?
Answering the questions mentioned here will help you a great deal in scheduling your ads. Meanwhile, remember to also use Page Insights. This section is handy for the required data. Facebook Ad scheduling is hard work with consistent monitoring of campaigns and is data-driven. If you are acting upon seeing the numbers, then the chances are low that you will fail.
Social Media promotion and marketing is the need of the hour. With ever-growing 1.09 billion users, your business needs to be at the top of the game with social media presence. CMGurus, with its expertise in construction marketing services and solutions, will support you in establishing your social media marketing goals and ad campaigns.