GET A PROPOSAL - May 19, 2024
Roofers, let me ask you something…when was the last time you took a good hard look at your marketing strategy? I’m talking really digging into the nitty gritty details and analytics to see what’s working and what isn’t. If Facebook advertising hasn’t been a major part of your efforts, you could be leaving serious money on the table.
Now I know what some of you are thinking – “Facebook is for kids and cat memes, why would I advertise my roofing business there?” But stick with me, because by the end of this guide you’ll understand exactly why Facebook presents such a massive opportunity for roofers to get more leads and jobs.
Let’s start with just how many people are on Facebook and using it regularly. Do you have any idea? Over 2.9 BILLION monthly active users. That’s billion with a ‘b’ – an incomprehensibly large number representing almost 40% of the world’s population that is active just on Facebook (not even counting Instagram which is another 1+ billion).
But William, you’re thinking, that’s a global number – what about my local area? Well in 2019, over 169 million people in the US alone used Facebook. In a nation of 330 million, that means over half of all Americans log into Facebook at least once a month.
The point is, no matter where your roofing business is located, your potential customers are absolutely, positively using Facebook regularly. If you can get your Roofing Facebook ads in front of them at the right time when they’re in need of roof work, the ROI can be incredible compared to traditional marketing channels.
Okay, so there are billions of people we could potentially advertise to. But one of the biggest advantages of Facebook ads is the extremely granular targeting abilities that allow you to laser focus your budget on your ideal customers.
Think about it – if you put up a billboard or did a TV commercial, you’d be spending a huge chunk of your budget showing your ad to tons of people who will never actually need your roofing services, whether they’re too young, too old, not homeowners, out of your service area, etc. With Facebook’s targeting, you can specify:
By pinpointing homeowners of a certain age, income level, home value, etc. in a tight radius around where you actually work, you ensure that practically every ad impression is being shown to a high potential customer. No wasted spend!
Now, what about customers who have already shown an intent or interest in getting roof work done? With Facebook’s retargeting capabilities, you can market directly to these high-value potential customers.
For example, you can set up what’s called a “Facebook Pixel” on your website. This is a tiny piece of code that tracks everyone who visits your site. You can then target ads specifically at people who have visited certain pages like your “request a quote” form.
Or perhaps you’ve exhibited at a home expo or trade show and collected emails from interested homeowners – you can upload that email list and show ads just to those people who have already engaged with your business. This allows you to provide helpful reminders, offer promotions, and really seal the deal for those who are already “warm” leads.
The options are practically endless for reaching hyper-targeted groups of in-market customers.
Okay, so the audience is there and we can laser target our ideal customers, but none of that matters if our ads fail to actually capture attention and get results, right? This is where creativity and psychology come into play with Facebook ad creative.
You know how it goes – we’re all just mindlessly scrolling through our feeds double-tapping anything remotely amusing. Your ad has to be strong enough to stop that zombie scroll.
Contrast, movement, imagery that evokes emotion – these all play a role in creative that works. You’ll also want to take advantage of all the different ad formats and placements Facebook offers these days like video, carousel, collection, Instagram stories, Messenger ads, and lead generation forms just to name a few.
In terms of actual copy and messaging, the trend is moving more towards engaging hooks and stories as opposed to just dry “ROOFING SERVICES | CALL NOW” types of ads. Asking thought-provoking questions, offering guides/tips, using humor – get creative in a way that makes people pause instead of just endlessly scrolling.
One of the biggest pitfalls I see roofers make with their Facebook advertising is going too broad with a small budget. They’ll take that $500 ad spend for the month and spread it across multiple different audiences, creative ideas, placements, etc.
This is a problem because none of those campaigns ever really get enough data to optimize and become profitable. Successful Facebook advertising is all about giving an approach enough time and budget to work through Facebook’s learning phase.
A good rule of thumb is to start with maybe 2-3 different campaigns max, have a single focused audience and creative approach for each, and commit at least $20-30/day for 30-60 days. This way you’ll actually accumulate enough data to analyze performance, make adjustments, and ultimately be able to scale out your top performers.
Don’t just throw $10 here and $20 there – commit real daily budgets on focused campaigns for maximum chances of success.
An oldie but a goodie in terms of maximizing your roof advertising ROI is turning up your campaigns when it’s raining or immediately following storms in your area. It just makes sense – when’s the last time you thought about your roof when everything has been dry and sunny for weeks?
But as soon as water is pouring down and you see those pesky roof leaks again, the need for a new roof installation suddenly becomes top of mind. Capitalize on the urgency and awareness around roofing by automatically bumping up your ad budgets during and right after major storms.
Many advertisers already do this for basement waterproofing companies, plumbers, etc. As a roofer, you can get ahead of the competition by empowering your customers to take care of the problem right when it’s staring them in the face.
The last key piece of advice I’ll leave you with roofers is this – have patience and keep analyzing/optimizing your Facebook ad campaigns. It’s very rare for a brand new campaign to just work perfectly right out of the gate.
There’s almost always an ongoing process of testing different audiences, creative approaches, copy, placements, etc. Reviewing your data to see what’s performing best, making adjustments, running new tests, optimizing winners even further.
It takes time and vigilance, but stick with it instead of just giving up after a couple weeks. Test with month-long chunks of time and budget before deciding whether to pause or push forward.
Find a winning formula and you can literally print money with Facebook ads for roofers since the targeting is so powerful, costs are relatively low, and you’re reaching motivated homeowners right when they need you most.
So there you have it roofers – a detailed guide on why Facebook advertising presents such an amazing opportunity if you can commit to doing it right. Stop wasting money on traditional billboards and leave your competition in the dust.
The roofing companies who truly master this channel first are going to see explosive growth and leave the stragglers eating their dust. The train is leaving the station – will you be on board?