5 Reasons Why You Should Run Facebook Ads
TRANSCRIPT
Today I want to discuss 5 reasons why Facebook Ads are great and why I really think all of us in the industry should be running Facebook Ads to attract more players to our programmes and clubs.
Now, if you know me you probably won’t be surprised that I’ve decided to cover FB ads on the second episode of the podcast.
I’ve been speaking about Facebook Ads for years now.
And that’s because one, they work and two, we’re still not using them that much in our industry.
And I think that’s a huge missed opportunity.
Which is why I will keep talking about them until either they stop working, which is unlikely to happen any time soon, or it becomes commonplace for all clubs, tennis centres and coaching businesses to run Facebook Ads to attract new players to the sport.
So, with that out of the way let’s actually go through the 5 reasons why Facebook Ads matter and why you should definitely consider running them.
And we’ll start with the most obvious reason.
1) Almost everyone is on Facebook
Right?
You probably have a Facebook profile yourself. And most of the people you know have one too.
And here are some stats to prove just that:
Facebook has over 1.79 billion daily active users. 1.79 billion people log on to Facebook at least once every day!
About 77% of all the people on the internet use Facebook. 3 in 4 people who have internet are on Facebook
The average Facebook user clicks on 8 ads per month. So, not only are a lot of people on Facebook, a lot of them actually click on quite a few ads. And if they’re going to click on ads then I say that they might as well be clicking on ours!
I could show you many more stats, but I think these 3 are enough to highlight how massive Facebook really is.
And if you’re listening to this and thinking, hang on a minute, most of the young people don’t like Facebook anymore.
They’re on Instagram and other platforms.
If you’re thinking that, you’re kind of right. It’s true that a lot of younger people are choosing to be on other social media platforms.
But I’d like to point out two things about this:
Young people aren’t our customers. Their parents are. So, for now, Facebook is still the right platform for us to focus on, since it’s where most of our customers hang out.
Facebook owns Instagram! Which means that if you’d also like to advertise on Instagram you have to use Facebook Ads! So, even though the platforms are different, the ads are the same. If you learn how to run Facebook Ads you’ll also be able to advertise on Instagram and reach an even wider audience.
So, yes, Facebook is huge.
Ok, that takes care of reason number one.
Let’s jump onto reason number 2.
2) Facebook Ads are very cheap to run
Making them ideal for small businesses like most tennis businesses and clubs.
You can start running Facebook Ads for as little as £1 a day.
And that £1, if used well, can get your ad in front of over 1000 people in your area.
I mean, where else can you get 1000 people to see your marketing messages for £1??
Think of your ad as a digital flyer, because that’s kind of what it is.
A flyer you print on a piece of paper and then try to give that piece of paper to people wherever they are.
A Facebook Ad is written on a screen and then presented to a customer on their mobile or laptop screen when they’re on Facebook.
In many ways they’re very similar.
Except that you can’t print 1000 flyers for £1. At least not in the UK!
And that makes Facebook Ads much cheaper than flyers and pretty much any other marketing initiative you could run.
Now to be fair, spending £1/day isn’t going to get tonnes of Leads coming through.
It will get you a lot of exposure, especially if you run the ad for quite a long period of time, but it won’t get tonnes of people knocking on your door.
But anything between £5 to £10 per day is probably enough for most of us, since we don’t tend to have incredibly large businesses that need dozens of leads a day.
And this brings us to reason number 3.
3) Facebook Ads get results
That’s right.
Even though they’re really cheap to run, the reality is that if you do them right you’ll be very likely to get really good results and generate tonnes of interest and sign-ups for your club and programme.
But I know that me saying that isn’t really enough proof, so let me give you some real results from coaches and clubs.
A club in Essex (UK) spent £30 in 3 days to get 16+ new club members and generate thousands in membership fees
A coach in Scotland spend £50 over 4 days to get £120 in sign-ups for the first week of his holiday camp, plus 15 kids on the waiting list, which prompted him to run a 2nd week of camps
A coach in Hertfordshire (UK) spent £24 in 3 days to get 15 Leads and collect £360 in private lesson fees
A coach in Staffordshire (UK) spent £35 in 3 days to get 15 sign-ups and collect £450 in group session sign-ups
And I could go on! I have a lot more examples where these came from, but I don’t want to bore you!
But there’s one more important thing to note here.
The figures I just highlighted represent only the initial revenue generated from the Facebook Ads. You and I know that many of these players will stay in the club/coaching programme for the medium to long term, and will generate more revenue and profit for the business the longer they stay on!
Yet the cost of the Ad that allowed you to bring them onboard doesn’t keep going up. You only need to spend that once!
That sounds like a pretty good deal to me!
Ok, let’s go on to number 4.
4) Facebook is now a pay-to-play platform
So this is the less positive reason why you should consider running ads. But it’s an important reason nonetheless.
So what I mean by pay-to-play platform, is this: it used to be that everything that you posted on your Facebook business page was seen by almost everyone that had liked your page.
But that’s not the case anymore. In fact, research indicates that only 2% to 6% of the people who have liked your page will see your posts organically.
This means that if you have 100 people who have liked your page, only 2 to 6 of those 100 people will see any given post on your Facebook page organically.
The only way to reach the other 98 to 94 people, as well as everyone else who hasn’t liked your page, is to pay Facebook to run an Ad.
If you pay, then Facebook will do its best to show your ad to the relevant people, which is really where you stand a chance of attracting new people to your club or coaching programme.
Now, I appreciate that we’ve all got accustomed to thinking about social media platforms as free tools that we use. And that’s true from a consumer perspective.
But from a business perspective, you wouldn’t expect to be able to run free advertising through any other medium would you?
You wouldn’t expect to run an ad on tv or radio for free. Or to print flyers or banners for free. Or to run a newspaper ad in the local newspaper for free. Or anything else.
The reality is that advertising has never been free, and Facebook is no different to any of these other channels.
If you’re willing to invest in other media, then you should also invest on Facebook, especially taking into account the good return you can get on your investment.
And this brings us to the last reason why you should consider running Facebook Ads.
5) You might be the first in your area to run a tennis Facebook Ad
And being the first means that you’ll likely get even better results than normal.
This is because there will be a whole raft of people who you can’t reach through more traditional channels but that will see your advertising on Facebook and get excited about it.
Here’s a quote from a coach in Scotland who realised exactly this when he run his first Ad:
“I was actually really surprised by its success. I know that the 2 other coaches in the area haven’t ever run a Facebook Ad and I think that played a huge part as quite a few parents I spoke to were unaware of the other clubs coaching options and even of mine until they saw the ad. Quite a few that I spoke to were surprised that the sessions weren’t that expensive“
Let me just repeat the most important bit.
“Quite a few parents were unaware of the other clubs coaching options and even mine.”
That’s the key idea here. The fact that there are lots of people on Facebook who don’t know about your club or coaching programme, but that if made aware of it would be more than willing to give tennis a go!
So, you can be the first tennis coach or club to run a Facebook ad in your area and take advantage of this, or you can wait for someone else to do it and grab all these people first.
I know which one I’d rather be!
Ok, so that covers all 5 reasons I wanted to discuss today.
But before we finish I just want to mention one more thing around what Facebook Ads aren’t.
I’ve highlighted all the reasons why I really, really think you should be running Facebook Ads.
But I also want to make it clear that Facebook Ads aren’t magical things.
They’re not a silver bullet that’s going to get hundreds of players flooding into your courts, waving cash at you, and shouting “can I please join” at the top of your lungs.
Those sort of magical solutions don’t exist.
Think of Facebook Ads as another tool, another weapon on your marketing arsenal.
Just like a slice backhand or a quality second serve, for example. Those shots won’t, on their own, win you matches.
But if you want to play to a good standard you better develop the ability to hit them well, and learn how to use them in matches when necessary.
And who knows, as you learn how to hit a slice backhand, you might find that your opponents really aren’t able to deal with it effectively and you might start deploying it more and more often, because you get results.
That’s what I think you should do with Facebook Ads. Learn how to create them. Give them a go.
And you might be surprised and who knows, they might become one of your most valuable marketing weapons!
Alright, that’s all for today.
Hopefully this episode has done a good job of encouraging you to learn more about Facebook Ads and perhaps give them a go in the next few days or weeks.
And by the way, if you need help with how to do it, I’ve created a step-by-step course on how to create Facebook Ads that get results.
Remember the coaches I mentioned earlier? They followed my course in order to launch their own Facebook Ads and get results. The course is available to all Academy members. So if you’re interested you can check out the Academy here.
Ok, that is it from me today.
Thanks for tuning in and I'll be back soon with another episode of the Tennis Business Academy podcast!