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In 2020, organic reach for Facebook posts sunk to a new low of 5.2% but Facebook ad reach soared to over 34% of the global population. In the United States, Facebook ads reach over 63% of users over the age of 13. While an organic social media marketing strategy is still valuable, it definitely takes time and dedication to grow it into something that generates real results. Meanwhile, Facebook ads are a quick and easy tool with more immediate returns. Here’s everything you need to know to start using Facebook ads for financial advisors.
In a 2020 Marketing Charts report, Facebook ads outperformed Instagram ads—the second most popular social media platform for advertisers—on nearly every metric. Facebook Ads had an average click-through rate of 1.32% (compared to 0.58% on Instagram) and a cost per acquisition of just $8.60 (compared to $10.60 on Instagram).
The exact amount you’ll spend depends on several factors, including the audience you’re targeting, the length of the campaign, the campaign objective, and how many other financial advisors are competing for that ad space. While costs vary, you’ll be able to see the cost per click for your campaign as you set it up. You also get to set your budget so that you never spend more than you’re willing to for your ads.
With that in mind, here are the key steps to setting up your Facebook ad campaign:
You will be able to set a location as well as basic demographic parameters like age and gender. You can also target certain interest categories to make sure you’re reaching audiences that are most likely to be interested in your ads. Base your choices on the type of client you’re hoping to attract.
To figure out what kind of message will resonate and what kind of offer will get that target audience to take action, make sure you do your research. Some ways to do that:
The most effective ad copy does two things: present a problem and offer a solution. Focus on a specific problem your target audience likely has (e.g. – uncertainty about the stock market or how to invest). Then, present your financial advisory as a solution in a concrete way (e.g. – investing services).
End with an offer that would entice your target audience to click through. This can either be a general offer (like learning more about how your services will solve their problem) or a more limited, special offer (like a free consultation or an invitation to a free live webinar). But remember that, as a financial advisor, all of your advertising is held up to strict scrutiny so you need to review FINRA’s advertising regulations and make sure all of your marketing efforts and messaging are compliant.
When making a new ad, create two versions with one variable changed and run both for a set period (like one week), each targeted at similar but separate audiences. After the week is up, you take the version that generated the strongest response and launches your wider campaign.
The variable you change depends on your goal. If your goal is to increase traffic to your website, for example, you might experiment with two different titles or opening sentences to grab a reader’s attention and interest. You can also test different fonts, colors, or images. If your goal is to increase conversion rates, you might change the call to action or the offer you’re using to entice people to click through and request a consultation. The key is to change just one variable between the two versions so you know which variable accounts for the difference in results.
This helps you refine your copy and make sure your ad is achieving the goals you have for it. If neither performed exceptionally well in that testing period, consider a second round of A/B testing with two new versions.
Once your campaign is up and running, you should have a strategy in place for managing the leads and responses your Facebook ads generate. The most important piece of that is a strong landing page that your ad takes people to.
It should be simple, and clear, and include an easy way for visitors to set up an appointment with you, join your email list, or otherwise do whatever you’re hoping the ad will encourage them to do. Above all, it should start with the information they clicked through the ad for. If your ad asked a question, your landing page should start with the answer.
Following up with phone calls or emails might feel more personal, but it’s taking time away from your actual work and it’s creating extra steps in the onboarding process. Those extra steps are extra chances your lead will abandon the process.
A landing page that asks clients to call you to set up an appointment, for example, requires that potential lead to wait until they have a free moment to make that phone call or even wait until the next business day if they happened to see your ad late at night. During that wait, the risk that they’ll forget to call is high. If, on the other hand, your landing page takes them to an online scheduling tool that allows them to make the appointment immediately, they can do it right then and there.
If an ad performs well on Facebook, there’s nothing wrong with copying it and using it in your Google Ads campaign or on other social channels. Reuse it wherever you’re targeting the same demographic you designed the ad for.
