Have you ever thought about making Facebook Ads a part of your marketing strategy, or do you think, “Hey, that might work for other industries, but it doesn’t make sense for roofing”?
Well, there are actually a couple of key ways Facebook Ads can complement your roofing company’s marketing strategy and sales efforts, making it easier for you to get leads and boost conversion rates.
If you’re considering using Facebook Ads for your roofing business, here are two tips to get you started…
#1 Use Facebook Ads to Prep Customers in a Specific Area Before Canvassing
While roofing falls into the home service category, it’s actually a very different industry than say plumbing, chimney, or HVAC in terms of how companies in the industry typically sell. Successful roofing companies typically send sales reps out to knock on doors and convert entire neighborhoods. And a lot of times, this door-to-door selling revolves around specific weather events.
For example, when a hailstorm or tornado hits a specific area, sales reps target that area. Which means that unlike chimney companies, plumbing companies, and other home service businesses, a roofer’s service area or focus sometimes shifts a bit.
This weather-oriented, neighborhood-specific sales focus makes Facebook Ads a great marketing strategy for roofers — because you can actually use Facebook Ads to warm up specific zip codes or neighborhoods for your sales reps.
With Facebook, you can target a specific housing complex or gated community that’s a potentially high-dollar area, and you can target whole zip codes and service areas as well. You can even get as specific as targeting a one-mile radius around a specific house. Simply put in a previous customer’s address or an address from Zillow and target the 1-2 mile area around that.
Here’s why hyper-targeting with Facebook Ads is such a win for roofing companies…
By showing your ads to a specific area prior to sending your sales reps out, you’re actually setting your sales reps up for success when they go door to door. Because your ads will have done a little work up front, when your sales reps canvas a neighborhood, the homeowners they’re talking to will already know about the company and its reputation.
So, what type of campaign should you run when you’re using Facebook Ads for this purpose?
In this instance, we recommend running a video views campaign using a video that educates homeowners on how to recognize hail damage or other storm damage, or what goes into a roofing inspection. What do you want to do with these ads?
- Make people aware that their roof may have been damaged by the recent storm or weather event.
- Let homeowners know you’re going to be in the neighborhood and that you’re happy to do a roof inspection to check for damage.
- Build trust by letting them know who they’re going to be talking to, educating them on your company, and providing social proof that you do the quality work you say you do through reviews and testimonials from happy customers.
So in this case, you’re not using Facebook Ads to generate leads, but to prep the customers in the area to be more accepting of sales technicians and more likely to convert at the door.
#2 Use Facebook Ads to Generate Leads With a Free Roof Inspection
While Facebook Ads don’t have to be used to generate leads, they absolutely can be used for that purpose. Because of the targeting capabilities of Facebook Ads, you can easily use the platform to achieve your objective of getting more customers or potential customers in a specific, high-dollar or high-need area.
Ads can get your brand out in front of people in a targeted area and make them aware that their roof may have been damaged by recent weather events. The offer of the ad? A free roof inspection.
By running a Facebook Ads lead gen campaign in this instance, you can collect the info of homeowners (in a target area) who are interested in having their roof inspected. Which means you can follow up with them. Voila: leads generated.
Could Facebook Ads Make the Job of Selling Easier for Your Sales Reps?
I think almost everyone would agree: selling is hard — especially when you’re selling a high ticket item or service like a new roof. With big ticket items comes longer sales cycles (typically). Who couldn’t use a little help?
So before you write off Facebook Ads as good for every industry but yours, consider how you sell and how Facebook Ads can be used strategically to your benefit. You just may find that Facebook Ads do a lot of the heavy lifting up front so that when your sales reps show up, a lot of the selling is already done for them.