When local businesses are looking for new customers, they often look at social media as an end-all be-all tool that they can use for free advertising.
On more than one occasion, I’ve encountered ideas similar to:
- “Don’t I get business just from posting on social media?”
- “Isn’t paid social media advertising for big brands with a lot of money?”
And these are used as reasons to keep the status quo (usually meaning they either barely post on social, or they ignore it altogether).
So, I wanted to talk about one of these areas — paid social ads — and how they can indeed help laundry businesses big and small.
The truth is that many social platforms, most notably Facebook, have started to decrease the reach of organic posts. Users want to see content from their friends and families, not so much your business.
That means that social media platforms like Facebook will really only show content from businesses who have paid for it. Businesses who share content and don’t do anything to promote it are often left in the dust.
The answer then is to become a business that pays to play – by running social media ads. This article will walk you through why you’d want to run ads on social media, how to create ads for Facebook and Instagram, and a few tips to ensure sure your ads are seen by the right people.
Why Would A Laundry Business Need Ads On Social Media?
People on social media are looking for baby pictures and cat videos, right? Wrong.
These days, users on social media are looking for everything. They are especially looking for local businesses with reviews from others in their community.
That means you must, at the very least, have a social media presence. You’ll want to ensure that all of your information — such as hours and location — is correct on your social media profile so that anyone who finds you via that listing has accurate information.
However, you shouldn’t rely on users finding you via searches only. By promoting your content or running ads, you can get your business shown to a defined audience that is ideal for your laundry business.
Facebook has many targeting options available – and you can layer these different options to create the best audience for your business. Consider only looking at people who live near your business who have an interest in laundromats or laundry services. You could also include or exclude those who have already interacted with your business.
Another great targeting option for local businesses are lookalike audiences. This is the method of creating a new audience that looks like people who have already interacted with your brand.
How to Set Up Your Facebook Ads For Laundry Service Advertising
The first time you set up a Facebook ad, it can be a little overwhelming. Once you do it a time or two, you’ll be a pro – and this guide will help.
Step One: Set a Goal
When you begin setting up a Facebook ad for your laundry service advertising, you’ll need to think about what your goals are for your ads. There are many different goals, but for your laundry business, you’re likely looking for people to come into your location and do their laundry.
As a general rule, your goal is going to fall into one of four categories:
Setting this goal now — before you even build the ad — is essential, because it’s going to ensure you stay focused and create the right kind of laundry service advertising.
Step Two: Launch Facebook Ads Manager
Go to facebook.com/ads to get the Ads manager. You’ll need to login with the account associated with your business page if you aren’t logged in already.
The dashboard should look like this:
Of course, the more ads you run, the more fleshed out it will be. I don’t run a lot of ads from my personal account, so this is pretty barebones (like yours will be starting out!)
To get started, you’ll simply click on the big green button that says “Create” – and as your laundry service advertising agency, we’ll walk you through the rest.
Step Three: Choose an Objective for Your Laundry Service Advertising Agency
You’ll have to choose an objective for your campaign when you begin creating an ad with your laundry service advertising agency. The number of objectives has grown tremendously over the last couple of years, but you’ll notice they fall into roughly the same categories as the goals I mentioned above. That’s because y when choosing an objective, it should align with your laundry service business goals.
For example, you might choose a conversion objective, such as “Get people to visit your shops” or an awareness objective like “reach people near your business.” You might also consider setting up an ad for each objective and determining which one works the best for your business.
For this illustration, we’ll just pick the “Conversions” option:
Step Four: Define Your Audience and Set Your Advertising Budget
Once you’ve selected an objective for your laundry service advertising agency to hit, you’ll be able to pin down your audience and budget. This is where things start to get real for your ad efforts.
You’ll first be prompted to enter audience information and your budget. As we discussed above, there are many different options for layering different criteria to create the ideal audience for your laundry service advertising.
However, a key part of your ad is audience targeting. Facebook gives you a ton of options, including location, age, gender, and lookalike audiences for your laundry service advertising agency to work with.
You’ll want to clarify these options as much as you can, so you know your ads will be served to the audience that you need.
You’ll also want to decide on a daily or lifetime budget.
If you choose daily, your ad will spend approximately that amount every day. Keep in mind that it can go slightly over that amount. Lifetime budgets are better when you have a clear end date in mind for your campaign, but can be used in any situation.
Step Five: Build the Ad
One of the best parts of Facebook’s Ad Manager is that you can see a preview of the ad as you build it. You can use images or videos for your ad and even text to get your message across. If you have a post on your Facebook page that performed particularly well, you can also use that as a basis for your laundry service ad campaigns.
If you’re creating a new ad, there are many types to choose from. If you choose a carousel ad, you can use multiple pictures to make your laundry service advertising efforts more engaging.
There are also single image ads, single video ads, slideshows, and canvas ads your laundry service advertising agency can help you choose from. Slideshow ads create videos from several images, and canvas ads combine images and videos.
For local businesses, single-image ads are likely the most popular for general laundry service advertising efforts You may want to use an attractive image of your storefront or one that communicates any promotions you might be running.
You’ll also be able to review the ad as you create it. Laundry Service Advertising is still an expense, and reviewing the ads helps ensure everything looks just right. I’ve set up a fake ad for illustration purposes:
Step Six: Choose Where Your Laundry Ad Displays
Once you’ve created your ads, you can see what it will look like in different placements and exclude any that don’t make sense. In general, it is best to leave more placements on because that way, your ad has a higher chance of being served to and seen by your audience. As you become more sophisticated, you or your laundry service advertising agency might test different placements to determine which types give you the best return for your investment.
Kicking Off Facebook Ads
Once you’ve selected the who, the when, the what, and the where – you’re done and your laundry service advertising campaign can start in earnest. After you confirm, your ad should start showing. You may have to wait up to 24 hours before any information about clicks or conversions become available. If you don’t see any activity after 2 or 3 days, you may need to adjust your audience to make it bigger, so that more will see the fruits of your laundry service advertising labor.
We hope this guide made Facebook ads seem easier for your laundry business than you might have thought.
Facebook ads can be a great way for local businesses to build brand awareness and increase their sales through a successful laundry service advertising campaign or with the help of a laundry service advertising agency
