What You Should Know Before You Run Facebook Ads for a Lawn Care Business
Will Facebook Ads work for a Lawn Care business? Absolutely. They can help you build a pipeline of fresh leads, new clients, and better-paying jobs.
Before diving into Facebook ads for your lawn care business, you should understand why they work. You've probably come across numerous Facebook ads while browsing the platform. I’ll bet a few of them helped you buy something—whether you know it or not. The truth is: Facebook Ads work. Not 100% of the time, but often enough that you can make a serious profit if you build the right ads.
So, what makes Facebook ads such a powerful tool for lawn care owners like you? Targeting.
Instead of spending $10,000+ to put up a billboard (that will be ignored by thousands of people), you can send your ads ONLY to the people most likely to buy from you. Facebook’s (and Instagram’s) targeting features are extremely powerful for promoting lawn and landscaping services of any kind.
Facebook ads are also extremely low cost. Unlike some other channels that may require substantial investments, Facebook ads allow you to set your budget according to your financial capabilities. This makes it easier for you to manage your advertising expenses and maximize your return on investment.
Last: you get to see the results in real time. You know what kind of people are interacting with your ads, how they’re viewing them, and how well your ads perform. This makes it simple to optimize your ads, so you spend less money to drive more leads.
Benefit #1: Target Only the Best Lawn Care Leads
As a lawn care business owner, your goal isn't to reach a massive number of people or spend a fortune on advertising. Instead, you want to connect with the right customers who are genuinely interested in your services. Think about it like this: A Super Bowl ad might reach a lot of people, but it's expensive and not everyone watching is your target audience. You need a way to reach the people who are actually looking for lawn care.
That's where Facebook ads come in. Facebook has a huge user base, with over 80% of US consumers using the platform and spending about 40 minutes on it every day. This means Facebook has a ton of information about its users, and you can use that to your advantage. With Facebook ads, you can target specific groups of people based on different factors:
Language: Reach people who speak certain languages.
Age: Target specific age groups.
Location: Advertise to people in certain countries, cities, states, or zip codes.
Interests: Reach people who have specific interests or like certain pages.
Retargeting: Show ads to people who have visited your website before.
Device: Choose whether to target mobile, tablet, or desktop users.
Custom Audiences: Upload email addresses to reach specific individuals.
At Lightspeed Social Agency, we help Lawn Care owners run a “Hyper-local Targeting Strategy.” This targeting ensures that you don’t waste your marketing budget on people who aren't interested in lawn care. Instead, you can focus your efforts on reaching the highly-targeted individuals who are most likely to become your customers. It helps you cut through the noise and deliver your message to the right people who actually care about what you have to offer. Even better, we help you optimize your ads and send them ONLY to people in your service area—even if that’s a specific neighborhood!
And if you have an email list, you can take targeting even further with Facebook Custom Audiences. This feature allows you to show ads to people on your email list, ensuring that you reach an audience who has already shown interest in your business. By targeting these individuals with Facebook ads, you're more likely to see higher conversion rates.
Benefit #2: See What Works in Real Time
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half."
John Wanamaker, Former U.S. Postmaster General
In the past, traditional advertising failed to provide a link between the money you spent and the results you got. But with Facebook ads for your lawn care business, everything is different.
Facebook gives you clear reports that show how your ads are performing. They provide important metrics, called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), that help you understand how engaged people are with your ad campaigns. These metrics include:
Reach: The number of people who see your ads in their news feed.
Cost per click: How much it costs you each time someone clicks on your ad or likes your page.
Total spend: The overall amount you spend on your ad campaign.
Clickthrough rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it.
By showing you the cost of each action, Facebook makes it easy for you to see if your lawn care campaigns are getting good results. That is, are you making MORE money than you spend? Creating good ads couldn’t be simpler.
You can find out how much it costs to increase website traffic or get people to sign up for your email list. Calculating customer acquisition costs becomes simpler, and since Facebook ads are affordable, you can test different combinations of text and images to see which ones work best before investing a lot of money. This allows you to make better decisions and fix your campaigns for better results in promoting your lawn care business.
Best practices for Facebook ads: Captivating words and creative visuals
Once you've decided to focus on Facebook ads for your lawn care business, it's time to create compelling promoted ads. Facebook offers different options for the design of your content, such as using images, videos, carousels of images, slideshows, or canvases. Lawn care works great on Facebook, because it’s so visual. Your work translates perfectly into an image or a video.
Make sure that your chosen image or video accomplishes four important things:
Uses bright colors: Bright and vibrant colors help your ad stand out in the crowded news feeds, catching people's attention.
Grabs the eye: Your visuals should immediately grab the viewer's attention and make them stop scrolling to take a closer look.
Displays your value proposition: Clearly communicate the unique value and benefits of your lawn care services through your visuals. Show people why they should be interested in your ad. Perfect yards? Backyard paradise? Less stress, less work? Focus on the benefit to your clients.
Presents a clear call-to-action (CTA): Include a straightforward instruction that tells people what action to take, such as "Call now," "Book an appointment," or "Get an Estimate."
Since news feeds can be overwhelming with various content, your visuals need to be eye-catching and compelling. No matter how targeted your ads are, if they don't engage people, they won't be effective. Your ad copy should also be attention-grabbing and clearly convey why people should be interested in your Facebook ad. Combining strong content with captivating visuals can increase your click-through rate and overall ROI for your Facebook ads.
When Facebook Ads WON’T Work for Lawn Care
Facebook ads are designed to be effective, and Facebook wants them to work for you so that you continue to invest in them. However, there are times when running a Facebook ad may not be the best choice for your lawn care business.
You lack a clear understanding of your audience.
Even if your audience is active on Facebook, you won't be able to reach them effectively if you don't know who they are. Facebook ads rely on precise targeting, and to reach the right people, you need to have a good understanding of your audience's demographics and preferences. While testing Facebook ads with a small budget can provide insights, the most important thing is to truly know your business and target audience, which doesn't require any additional cost.
Lawn Care owners need to target Homeowners or commercial properties with lawns. Often, they’ll want to target more regions where real estate is more expensive, as that suggests homeowners are willing to pay for services.
You don't have a powerful offer.
For consumers to take action, they need something compelling that motivates them. Even if you have a great lawn care product or service, if potential customers have never heard of you, they may not be interested. To attract new customers, you need to have an appealing deal, freebie, or offer that entices them to engage with your business. If you don't have such an offer yet or you're not willing to create one, running a Facebook ad without a compelling hook is likely to be ineffective.
The easiest offer for lawn care? Offer a free estimate. But since everyone is doing this, you might need to get more creative. Think about offering a 1-time discount or a special holiday service as part of a package.
Conclusion
In summary, while Facebook ads can be beneficial for many businesses, there are times when they may not be the best choice for your lawn care business. Consider whether your target audience is active on Facebook, if you have a clear understanding of your audience, and if you have an enticing offer to attract new customers. By carefully assessing these factors, you can make informed decisions about using Facebook ads to promote your lawn care business.
If you need help building, optimizing, and getting the most out of your Facebook Ads, talk to the experts at Lightspeed Social Agency. We can help you determine if Facebook Ads will work for your business, and get your marketing machine working at top speed.
