Ways to boost online sales for construction industry

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like you don't have to spend a million dollars on Facebook ads the worst thing that'll happen is you'll learn some stuff I used to be a huge anti-facebook ads guy Facebook ads is absolutely insane the key to these ads though it's all about the offer it's crazy how many hauls you have to take before you actually get a real lead what are the components of a good offer and then specifically how does that apply to contractors half the price sounds almost too good to be true you want people to know it's for them you want them to know what it is and then you want them to know why it's too good to refuse you really do need to have something to differentiate yourself and give them a reason to go with you especially when they don't know who you are my favorite way to do targeting is to just not do targeting so last time we were talking about Google local service ads today I want to talk a little bit about Facebook ads I used to be a huge anti-facebook ads guy like I don't really use Facebook myself but about a year and a half ago I started using Facebook ads for lead gen for some of my contractor clients and what I found was that for the clients that have a really good offer to make Facebook ads is absolutely insane some of my favorite things about it like if you compare it to Google ads the one problem with Google ads if you've ever run Google ads is you get a ton of spam you get people clicking on your ads all the time costing you money you get phone calls from telemarketers you get phone calls from people trying to sell you advertising like it's crazy how many calls you have to take before you actually get a real lead and that's because when you're running an ad on Google anybody and their mom can just go on Google type something in and find your ad and click on it so it's really open to the public which is a disadvantage when you compare it to Facebook ads now the thing about Facebook ads is people are scrolling through their Facebook feed and then the ad pops up and it's not random Facebook knows who this person is it knows what kind of things they've been surfing on knows what they've been purchasing I mean they're probably even list listening to what people say so they know everything about people on Facebook and so they're able to deliver ads to them that are geared specifically for what they are more likely to purchase and so getting those ads put directly in front of people is a big Advantage as opposed to just showing ads to anybody who wants to look for them because now you're not getting all these spammers hitting you up trying to sell you stuff the key to these ads though it's all about the offer so on this article that I wrote I threw an example in of an ad that's worked really well for us and underneath I put the results a snapshot of what the results on just two campaigns so these are two campaigns that we've been running for about the last year or so and you can see that all in all it's close to 400 leads produced and for those 400 leads we're looking at about twenty thousand dollars and so that's about fifty dollars per lead which if you've bought leads from HomeAdvisor or Google ads or anything you know that fifty dollars isn't bad for Home Advisor you're likely to pay more than that and you're buying the same lead the same contact information that three or more other contractors bought so now there's three or more of you calling these people non-stop bugging the crap out of them but with Facebook ads these people saw the ad it says one thing locally made windows installed for half the price anybody who's in the market for Windows sees that offer and they're gonna at least stop and think about it for a second they're going to be like well wait a minute that half the price sounds almost too good to be true but by saying that they're locally made you're giving the excuse of why they're so cheap so boom now you've got somebody filling out this form giving you their contact information you get to call them now this on its own isn't gonna make you successful this only gets you to the phone call but you have to be able to follow up and actually deliver on your offer which this particular client is amazing at you know this guy he sources his windows locally so they're a lot cheaper he also knows every single detail of what all the other window companies are pitching these people so he actually likes to go in behind them and just rip apart their entire sales pitch and one of the things he says which cracks me up is he'll tell people like oh you know I bet they offered you a big discount didn't they and of course they always do and he says well I don't offer you discounts because I give you the best price the first time and that kind of stuff really helps people trust him and so once he has the trust he already has a product of equal quality for up to 50 percent less than what his competitors are charging and so all in all this business model works really well and all of his leads are coming from Facebook ads so another thing I'll throw in about Facebook ads is targeting is a big part of it and my favorite way to do targeting is to just not do targeting if I was in like San Francisco the only targeting I would do is I would make sure that I'm only showing my ads to people in San Francisco but other than that I would let Facebook figure out who to show the ads to and I would focus on my attention on this offer if you put your offer out there it's kind of like fishing you know you're putting something out there you see what you get back and you want to try this a whole bunch of times and when you have an offer that starts to work you're training Facebook like the algorithm you're training it to find more of these people that are filling out your lead for and becoming your leads and over time this can become very successful another thing I'll throw in is you definitely always want to track your results very closely so it's easy here to see how many leads were bought how much it costs per lead but beyond that you want to track how many leads are converting into sales how much those sales are actually worth to you so that you can have the twenty thousand dollars that you spent on ads on one side and the two hundred thousand dollars that you made on the other side and know exactly how much you spent and how much you made do you have any questions about that Roman I do I want to hear more about the offer and what are the components of a good offer and then specifically how does that apply to contractors sure so components of an offer first you want to make sure that it's immediately clear who it's for so locally made windows installed for half the price there's a picture of two guys installing a Windows and a house so when someone sees this immediately know that they know that we're not talking about car windows we're talking about house windows so we're letting them know who it's for it's for them and then the next thing is we want them to know what it is so hey this is for me it's about home windows and then the third thing is you want them to know why it's such a good deal so half the price so okay I'm in the market for Windows this is about Windows it's half the price so that's like an offer that's almost too good to refuse and it's a little suspicious because it is like too good of an offer but oh they're locally made now I've got a reason for it so the three components make sure you want people to know it's for them you want them to know what it is and then you want them to know why it's too good to refuse that's solid what other things that's really cool and I think that's an important thing for everyone in every industry to understand because it's not I mean in smaller towns sometimes you can't just get away with saying hey I do windows and we are available but that does not fly in more competitive markets at all and you really do need to have something to differentiate yourself and give them a reason to go with you especially when they don't know who you are yeah absolutely this is the kind of offer that could work really well in a highly competitive area but for other types of contractors it could be a little more difficult to come up with these offers and that's why it's so important to just you make a list of these things have a list going all the time and when you're driving around in your truck and you think of something write it down and just keep this thing going so that you can go test them for like a Remodeling Company for example an offer that worked really good last year was just having availability like hey we'll answer the phone when you call and we can start your project immediately that was a big deal because so many contractors were booked up and most of them weren't even returning calls and so people were having a really hard time even getting a hold of someone and so having the offer out there that hey will actually answer the phone and we can start your project next week that is an interesting offer to some people another thing that works on Facebook you know like let's just take remodeling again as an example when someone hires someone to remodel their home they really need to trust that person or that company they want to know a lot about them they want to know who these people are what their background is they want to feel like they know them before they even make contact and so you can run Facebook ads that are more like a post where you're just telling your story maybe you have a picture or two or a video and just kind of like a post like a paragraph or two explaining like who you are why you do what you do how long you've been doing it maybe drop in some nugget offers like you know we have a two-month slot open in August or whatever and that way you know if someone is in the market for a remodel and maybe they're already talking to somebody or they already have some people in mind that they're going to contact they'll see that and hopefully they'll relate to you and you'll become a candidate for their project just because you were there at the right time and you showed them some way to relate to you and to know who you are and to trust you so I've seen those kind of ads work quite a bit and as always like if you're in a more rural area you're going to have a lot less competition and simple basic ads that don't seem amazing might actually get you amazing results yeah I mean I see literally like Facebook groups for small towns and someone will go in and say hey I do car detailing and I am available this week and I'm like this isn't going to work and I check back and the guy's got 29 comments with like yeah I've been looking for someone it's so hard to find a detailer out here like he put no social proof there was no deal there was nothing it was just I exist and I do this yeah you're right that works in small towns man it's crazy absolutely yeah like you could be a painter and just like throw up a selfie of yourself and say like I'm fully booked but I have a spot open next week that I can paint up to four rooms get a hold of me and someone might be like oh heck yeah I couldn't even get someone to call me back this guy will do it next week especially when so many contractors and companies like that their websites too often they feel so sterile like you said making one of those ads that looks like a post where you tell your story like that's more personal than most contractor websites will ever get yeah like tell them that story put in the like getting building that that know like and Trust before they even meet you is so crucial that's why I love video content yeah like if you wanted a bathroom remodel job maybe you have a spot open soon or whatever tell a story of you remodeling a bathroom and show some cool pictures and talk about how happy your client was and whatever like just throw some stuff out there you really don't have a lot to lose but just like be yourself and put yourself out there that's where most contractors go wrong is like they don't want to put pictures of themselves they don't want to talk about themselves they're always like it's not about me it's about like my craftsmanship or my product or my customers or whatever but it's like no your customers want to know who you are and if they don't know anyone else and you happen to become the contractor that they know the best just from one post they read well now you're gonna be the one that they call and yeah so it's you know give it a try and just track your results really closely like you don't have to spend a million dollars on Facebook book ads they make it pretty easy to go boost a post and you know spend a little bit of money try it out the worst thing that will happen is you'll learn some stuff yeah and the thing about the craftsmanship I've heard that a lot but it's so funny because we need to think about most people's buyer Journey if I need to get my bathroom remodeled if I know someone who does that well that's who I'm hiring because I know them I have that relationship with them if I don't then I'm going to search online and I'm going to look at the first five websites that pop up a Google Maps I'm going to compare their websites and if one of those has a video of the owner telling their story of how they got started and what they do and none of the other ones do I'm gonna go with the one where I can see the owner's face and at no point in this process have I thought about quality and this is how most people think it's all relationships in this industry yeah absolutely because it's it feels more risky to hire someone you don't know and so you just want people to know you and then they'll feel less risky hiring you or at least giving you a shot like Facebook ads isn't going to get you a job but it'll get you a conversation definitely and I'm not saying that craftsmanship's not important because that's how you that's how you get the next job and the next job yeah and that's a really good point so that client that I just showed with the Facebook ad that sells Windows