Facebook ads for coaches? There is a divide when we talk about using it for online coaching. Half of the coaches will say that it is a scam, that it will not work. They will recommend you grow your followers organically. On the other hand, some successful coaches and entrepreneurs are raving about Facebook ads change their business. So, which one is true?
When it comes to marketing your business online, social media is the cornerstone of everything we do. How do we put ourselves out there and how we do it will matter to get the best results. Facebook Ads are the fastest way to reach more people and build your community online. Imagine waking up in the morning and seeing your followers grow a hundredfold overnight.
In this article, we will explore the idea behind paid traffic and how you can apply them to your coaching business. Here, we will discuss Facebook ads and what it can offer you. Plus, you are going to get the insider tips and tricks to utilize the complicated algorithm that Facebook is using to get the best possible results. Without further ado, let us jump in.
What are Facebook Ads?
In a world of insanely busy social media, where everyone has a message to deliver, and everyone is a coach or a guru, it hard to gain subscribers organically. It takes a long time unless you are picked up by an influencer. If you want to wait for ten years, then be my guests.
But, if you want to speed up your growth, that’s where paid traffic gets you. In Facebook ads, you are going to target your audience and put your message in front of them. It will do all the heavy lifting while you are doing other jobs that need your time or sleeping (yes, you need to rest).
Why Facebook? Among the social media platforms, Facebook has the highest number of subscribers. By the end of 2019, it has 2.45 billion monthly active subscribers and retains its position as the most prominent social network worldwide.
If Facebook would be a country, it is the most populous. This massive popularity, combined with the ease of entry and one-of-a-kind targeting, is the most obvious choice for coaches who wants to reach clients.
There are two types of ads that are running on Facebook: sponsored ads and right-hand column ads. Sponsored ads are the ones that you see while scrolling your feed and appear as prominent as the posts from close friends.
The right-hand column ads appear at the right column of the Facebook feed. These are smaller and cannot be scrolled past like that of a sponsored ad. Most marketers prefer to use this type of ad when they do retarget.
Facebook Ads for Coaches: Will it Work?
There are a lot of good reasons to invest your money and time on Facebook ads for business coaches. It is easy to use, and although the options can be overwhelming, it offers customization and creative control over the ads.
Another good reason why Facebook ads should be your option as a business coach is it’s connected with Instagram Ads. If you want to run ads in these two platforms and connect to your audiences, you can run them in one campaign. It serves the purpose: to put the content in front of your target audience without waiting for them to come and find you.
While Facebook ads entail costs, it is still affordable if you compare them with the other alternatives. And when your ad campaign is given a high relevance score (this means Facebook finds your ad a perfect fit for your target audience) and lower your CPC.
The Payoff of Using Facebook Ads
Maybe you had tried Facebook ads before and was not satisfied with the lack of results. Or perhaps you have steered away from using it because you have heard horror stories from other coaches who have tried it.
Facebook ads are not for everyone. There are reasons it works well with others and not on some. It is also worth noting that the advertising platform of Facebook is very robust, and you may get overwhelmed with all the things that you can do.
As an entrepreneur, you have every reason to be skeptical. But if you want to take the risk of using Facebook ads, the benefit can be rewarding. You have to develop your skills in Facebook advertising to get there. It is entirely natural for you to suck at it before you get better.
Getting Started with Facebook Ads
There are different types of Facebook ads, and there is so much you can do. If you are a coach who wants to maximize the power of Facebook ads, you can do it by promoting on your Facebook page, posts on your page, and advertise on your website. Even if Facebook is increasing its focus on the native ads while keeping the traffic on its site, you can still successfully direct your traffic to your coaching website.
One of the advantages of Facebook Ads is a targeted audience. You can target them according to their location, profile information, and demographic. You cannot find these options on other platforms. After you have created the ad, you can also set the budget and tender on the thousand impressions or each click made on your ad.
Later in this article, we will discuss the best practices in creating the ads that will drive the traffic to you your website. Facebook has other options for advertisements for brand awareness and driving engagement. But the best for coaching is still the type that drives users to the site if they are looking for new clients.
Who Advertise on Facebook?
In spite of its convenience and popularity, many users are still failing at using Facebook ads because their ads do not fit. As an entrepreneur, you can try different marketing channels to widen your coverage, and before the demand drives the prices up. However, you should analyze your business model if they fit the network.
You should also note that Facebook ads are different as they more display ads instead of search ads. They are made to create demand but not fulfill them. And users are on this platform because they want to relate with their friends and not to look for products to buy.
So, who should be using Facebook ads?
Low-Friction Conversions
Many businesses succeed in using Facebook ads when they ask users to sign-up and not to buy. Coaches like you must use a low-friction conversion to the results they want. Again, to reiterate, you are not using Facebook ads to generate demand.
When a guest visits your website, they are not looking for a product. They just clicked your ad on an impulse. Do not rely on this guest to immediately sign up for your service and make your ROI positive. These Facebook users are indecisive and most likely return to the Facebook site if you are asking for a commitment right away.
Instead of doing this, go for simple conversions similar to submitting an email address, completing a short form, or signing up for a newsletter. You can try to upsell later using email marketing.
Some of the businesses that have succeeded in using Facebook ads are deal sites, including AppSumo, Fab, and Groupon. When you click on their ads, you will be asked to give your email address. They will send you the deals on your email later.
The Best Business Model
Facebook ads entail costs. So, you have to make something out of your investment with the email address that you have. To do this, you need to have the best business model.
The best business model that coaches have to apply is earning revenue from the users through time and not instant conversions. This is because even if the user has given you their email address, you have to build trust over time before they enlist for your services. It is not a one-shot deal but making small moves before entirely committing to a course or, in your case, for online coaching.
On Facebook, the successful business model is the ones that offer subscription sites and daily deals. In this setup, the ROI is cast out over some time, like six months. It is better to think it this way; you will get 20% payback from your spending on the first day and 100% in the next six months.
Targeting Your Audience
The coaching business is a saturated industry; it is hard to stay relevant if you don’t know how to do marketing properly. Many marketers fail to use Facebook ads because they are not targeting their audience correctly.
The number one selling point of Facebook ads is targeting the audience, and here you can target your audience based on the following criteria:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Connections
- Interests
- Language
- Education
- Relationship Status
- Workplaces
Remember that each of these options will be useful, contingent to your audience. But the top three categories that business coaches should focus on are age, gender, location, and interests.
Why? The location will allow you to target the users according to the country, state, city, and even zip code for your products and services.
Gender and age are also vital, and its basis should be your existing clients. If your clients are women and between ages 30 to 50, begin by targeting only them. If these segments are profitable, move on to expand your target.
Targeting based on interest is also a powerful category but is often misused in Facebook ads, particularly in the coaching industry. There are two options when operating an ad: precise interest or broad categories.
- Targeting on Broad Category – there are many topics included in the general category, including Gardening, Consumer Electronics, and many others. Recently, Facebook added more like Expecting Parents, Engaged, Away from Hometown, etc. At a glance, broad interests seem to be an effective means to reach your audience. But, no. The users under this category often spend less and will cost you more. Avoid using this type of targeting.
- Targeting Based on Precise Interest– this type of targeting allows the marketer to target the users according to the information on their profile. These include their likes and interests listed on Facebook, apps they use, the Pages that they liked, and many other profile contents on their timeline. You will have the best ROI when you use this type of targeting.
There are many interest options you have to target that ranges from fashionistas to underwater sports. With such varied interests, it is hard to choose the more accurate ones. When you are targeting the precise interest, Facebook will lend a hand by providing the audience size and other recommended interests and likes.
One thing you will not get is information about your competition. Once you have chosen a specific interest for your ad, FB will show what they call an “aggregate suggested bid”.
One of many marketer’s mistakes is by targeting the largest groups. Targeting large groups are less targeted and more expensive.
Tip for Advanced Facebook Ads for a Coaching Business:
Using Facebook Connect as your sign-up option on your website will allow you to gain access to their interests. When you have these data, you can analyze them by indexing these interests against the number of likes you have on your Facebook page. It will lead to high-affinity engagements. With this method, you will have a target group that will be the best and most profitable to tap into.
How to Run Facebook Ads for a Coaching Business
Creating high-converting Facebook ads for your coaching business is not as difficult as it sounds. If you are a coach who wants to delve into Facebook ads, we have made a simple guide for you.
Step 1. Create your Strategy First
Before even getting an Ads Manager, you should have a strategy first. Without a strategy, running Facebook Ads for coaches can be overwhelming because of all the available options and end up wasting your money on a fund that is all over the place. Without proper targeting, you are creating an ad for nobody in particular.
Simple Questions You Need to Ask Yourself.
- What is the product I am promoting?
- Who is my target audience?
- Am I targeting for a warm audience or a cold audience?
- How will my audience use the product?
- What will be their pain points, and what are the objections of this audience?
- At which stage of the funnel are they in?
- What is the objective of the campaign?
- What is the purpose of my campaign: sales, site traffic, brand awareness?
Your strategy is your game plan, and you won’t be able to create a strong Facebook ad without it.
Step 2. Select Your Objective
The first thing that you need to do when creating a Facebook ad is to select your objective. You need to choose the right one because Facebook will optimize your campaign based on these objectives. Having the right goal will lower the CPC and improve the results.
Choose from the following objectives:
- Reach
- Brand Awareness
- Traffic
- Engagement
- Video views
- App installs
- Messages
- Catalogue Sales
- Conversions
Tip: Choose an objective that aligns with your goals.
Step 3. Target Your Audience
Start creating a campaign with a strong idea of who your target audience is. If you have no idea how to do it, here are some you can use:
- Custom audiences are target-specific users from your email list, your Instagram’s business profile, or the users who have taken action on your site, and your Facebook.
- Lookalike audiences, which is to replicate the qualities of your custom audience.
- Location targeting
- Demographic targeting
- Behavior/Interest targeting
- Connection targeting, this determines if you want the ads to be shown to users who are and may not be connected with your business.
Step 4. Choose Where You Want to Display Your Ad
The next thing you need to do is to set the ad level; this means that you will be choosing the placements, devices, and apps where you want it to be shown. Your option can be desktop only, mobile-only, or both. There are also several options on FB, Instagram, and the audience network.
You can run the ads with several placement options, or you can enable or disable only a specific option.
Step 5.Set the Budget
In this step, you have to set your budget, schedule the ads, and choose the optimization method. You have options between a daily budget or a lifetime budget and running the ads indefinitely or to schedule it from start to end on specific dates. You can also choose to use dayparting. This allows you to run your ads at certain times and days in a week.
Here, you can also choose if you want to optimize your ads. Don’t be wary of these things as Facebook has set them up for you, and all you need to do is to update them. You can also change what you are bidding on.
Step 6. Choose the Ad Format
You can find several ad formats on Facebook. Here are the choices:
- Single image ads
- Carousel ads that allow you to show several videos and pictures
- Video ads
- Collections which can open to a full-screen mobile experience
- Canvas Ads
Each of these ad types has their unique benefits, but the carousel ads (even without video) and the video ads have the highest CTR and engagement rates.
Step 7. Don’t Forget the Details
There are a lot of small details that are often missed at the bottom of the creative section. It is essential to pay attention to it. It includes multiple parts where you can put copy and other things like URL descriptions and CTAs.
Step 8. Monitor the Ads Carefully
When you’ve got your campaign going, don’t forget to follow them carefully. Some campaigns may have an increase in CPC when you increase the frequency, while others have significantly higher than others. Or some ads may not be working at all.
It is your Facebook Ads Manager’s (yes, you have to hire one) job to show you the details of your active campaigns. Monitor the CPPA, relevance scores, frequency, and several actions taken and other relevant metrics carefully.
Tips on Running a Good Facebook Ad for Coaches
- Create a Lead Generation Ad – This is the first ad campaign that you will run for prospecting clients. It is the lead magnet to your target audience. An effective lead generation ad includes your photo and what your audience will get if they click on the “learn more” button. Many copywriters start with a single picture format, but the video ads are more effective.
- Build an Opt-in Sequence with a Lead Magnet – Sounds overwhelming? Is simply means that at this point, you need to get the email address of the audience and deliver the lead magnet you are offering. This message should also establish how often you are sending the message via email.
- Run remarketing Facebook Ad Campaigns – some folks may click on your ad but may not give their email address. It’s okay. Run a remarketing campaign to provide them with a chance to opt into the lead magnet and get them on your email list. Add as special promo like a 30-minute Free Consultation.
Final Thoughts
Facebook ads have many options that can fit your coaching business. Familiarize yourself with the system so that it can work at your advantage and turn it into a profitable campaign. Follow the steps we have listed down in our guide to have an organized campaign that will work for your business.
Having a plan before diving into Facebook Ads is very important to create a campaign easily. Facebook ads are different from other forms of copywriting and can have their own set of challenges, but you can navigate through these challenges when you understand Facebook’s perspective.
Just like your goal, Facebook also wants to create a great user experience that will keep them coming back for more.
