No. Fix your website and your Google Business Profile first, and put a few posts on Instagram and Facebook, then run ads. An ad only brings people to you, and then they look you up. If what they find is a dated website, an empty Google profile or blank socials, you’ve paid for the click and lost the customer anyway.
I’ve wasted money on ads myself
I ran paid Facebook and Instagram ads for a business I had before this one, and it went badly.
I didn’t spend enough per day at the start, so the ads never got enough money behind them to show Facebook what was working. And I didn’t make enough ads, so I had a couple, ran them, waited, and watched the money go. I spent way too much cash for no results, and I’d do both of those things differently now.
That’s the lens I use when an owner in Georgetown or Halton Hills asks me about Google or Facebook ads, because most of the time the ads aren’t the first problem.
What does “ready for ads” look like?
Before I’d let a client spend a dollar on Google ads or Facebook and Instagram ads, these are the things I want to see.
- A website that looks polished and professional. Someone clicks your ad, lands on your site, and decides pretty quickly whether you’re a real business. Broken links, a wrong phone number or an old template ends it there. I wrote about what goes wrong on DIY sites in should I build my own website or hire someone.
- A Google profile with at least five reviews. People look you up on Google after they see an ad, and a profile with no reviews gives them a reason to keep scrolling. If yours isn’t showing up at all, start with why your Google Business Profile isn’t showing up.
- A username and bio on Instagram and Facebook that say what you do and where. You don’t need to be posting every week to run ads. You just need something there. A few posts, even ones from last year or the year before, are fine. A completely empty page is the thing I’d rather avoid. (If you want the posting handled too, I wrote about when hiring someone for social media is worth it.)
If the socials are thin, though, that’s not the end of the world. The website and the Google profile matter more, because that’s where people go to decide.
Why fix things first?
You pay for every click on an ad, but your website and your Google profile keep working after they’re built without costing you per visitor. When those two are in good shape, the ad brings someone in and the rest is already done. When they’re not, you’ve paid to send people somewhere that gives them a reason to leave.
How much should you spend on ads to start?
It depends on what you’re selling and what a new customer is worth to you. For a local service business, the plan I use starts with a big enough daily budget for the first 14 days that Facebook has something to learn from. If the cost of each lead holds, the budget goes up about 20% every three or four days, not all at once.
That’s where I went wrong the first time, because I spent too little per day and the ads never got a fair test.
Why is one ad never enough?
Facebook shows your ads in a live auction, and it bets early on the ones it thinks will win. Out of 20 ads, usually one or two end up taking most of the money. If you only make two ads, you’ve given it almost nothing to choose from.
So the plan is three to five new ads every week, in different styles, like a plain text ad, a short video of you talking, a before and after, or a photo carousel. Most won’t win, but the one or two that do pay for the rest.
What to do first
If you’re thinking about ads, start with the Free Online Audit. It shows you what a customer sees when they look you up, so you know whether your website, your Google profile and your socials are ready before you spend anything on ads. When they are, this is how I run Facebook, Instagram and Google ads.