Search and marketing
Facebook, Instagram and email that reach customers before they search
Facebook and Instagram ads put an offer in front of people in your towns before they start looking, and email brings back past customers and anyone who asked for an estimate. Each campaign sends people to a page written for that offer, and the leads are counted, so you can see what each one costs. For people already searching Google, see Google Ads.
- Runs on
- Facebook, Instagram, email
- We count
- Calls, forms and bookings
- Ad accounts
- In your name
- Based in
- Cedar Grove, NJ
Channels
Where the ads and emails run
The right channel depends on whether the customer is already looking. Someone typing “water heater replacement Nutley” wants the job done soon, and a Google search ad answers that search. Facebook and Instagram reach people in your towns who have not started looking, and email goes to people who already know you.
Facebook and Instagram ads
Meta, the company behind both apps, shows ads to people by area and interest. They suit offers nobody is searching for yet: a fall gutter cleaning, a new menu, a spring roof inspection.
Ads for people who visited your site
People who looked at your site but didn't call can see your ad again on Facebook or Instagram. This needs Meta's tracking code on the site and a notice in your privacy policy, both set up before the ads start.
Lead forms inside the app
An ad can open a short form inside Facebook or Instagram, filled in from the person's profile, so they never leave the app. The answers are sent on to you by email or into your customer list.
Email
Newsletters, seasonal reminders and automatic follow-ups to estimate requests, sent from Mailchimp, Klaviyo or the tool you already use. The CAN-SPAM Act requires your postal address and a clear opt-out in every marketing email, with opt-outs honored within 10 business days. Both are in place before the first send.
Which channel
Google Ads or Facebook ads
They reach people at different moments. Search campaigns have a page of their own, covering setup, tracking and the monthly report.
| Google search ads | Facebook and Instagram ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees the ad | Google search adsPeople searching Google for the service right now | Facebook and Instagram adsPeople in your area scrolling their feed |
| What you pay for | Google search adsEach click | Facebook and Instagram adsMostly views, with some campaign types billed per click |
| What the ad looks like | Google search adsText with a call button | Facebook and Instagram adsA photo or short video with a button |
| Best for | Google search adsJobs people need soon: repairs, emergencies, rides | Facebook and Instagram adsOffers people did not know they wanted: seasonal deals, a new menu, an open house |
The two can run side by side and feed the same tracking, so the report compares what a lead costs on each.
Landing pages
The page an ad sends people to
Sending ad clicks to your homepage makes visitors hunt for the offer they clicked. A landing page repeats that offer, names the towns you serve, puts your phone number at the top and has one short form.
Each offer gets its own page. For roofing companies, a fall gutter guard offer and a spring roof inspection offer go to separate pages, because each reader wants different answers. We build them inside your current site when it allows, or as separate pages that match your website design.
A form inside the app skips the page altogether. It is quicker to fill in, so we pair it with a fast call back while the ad is still fresh in the person's mind.
Tracking
The tracking behind the ads
The Meta Pixel is a short piece of code on your site that tells Meta when an ad visitor sends a form or books. The Conversions API sends the same events from your website's server, so leads still count when a browser blocks the code. Together they show the ad account which ads brought leads.
On the site itself, Google Analytics records each form, phone tap and booking, whichever ad or email brought the visitor. Email links carry tags naming the campaign, so a booking from the spring newsletter is credited to it. On the Zubar Roofing site we built, every form request arrives with the page it came from, the referring site and any Google or Facebook ad click ID, so the owner can see which marketing produced the job.
If leads go into a customer list (CRM), we can record which became paying jobs and send that back to the ad platforms. Without a CRM, we can build one as custom software.
Reading the results
Reading cost per lead and cost per job
Two figures show whether the ads pay for themselves: what each lead costs and what each booked job costs. Both only work when calls and forms are tracked.
- 01
Ad spend
Start with what Meta actually billed for the month, taken from the ad account rather than the budget you set.
- 02
Cost per lead
Divide that spend by the calls and form requests the tracking recorded from those ads, after spam and repeat callers are taken out.
- 03
Cost per job
Divide the same spend by the leads that turned into booked jobs. Someone has to mark which leads booked, in your customer list or a shared sheet, or this figure cannot be worked out.
- 04
Job value
Set the cost per job against what the job is worth. For a remodeling contractor, the same cost per job can be a small share of a bathroom remodel and most of the profit on a small repair call. Tracking also shows which ads and offers produced the booked jobs, so budget can move toward them.
Try it
Try the storm-ready Google ads
Send a storm warning over a sample service area and watch roof repair ads switch on there, then pause at all clear.
Questions
Questions about social ads and email
How do you set a starting budget for Facebook ads?
Meta has no keyword cost estimates to look up, so each offer starts with a modest daily budget for a fixed test period, long enough to collect a first batch of leads. Then the tracked leads decide which ads and audiences keep the money.
Do we pay Meta directly, or through you?
Directly. The ad account belongs to your business and is billed to your card, and we're added as a partner with access to manage it. Our fee for running the ads is a separate line in the proposal. If we part ways, the ad account, its history and the tracking stay with you.
We already run Facebook ads. Can you take them over?
Yes. You add us as a partner in your Meta business settings, so the ad account stays yours. We start by checking that the Pixel is counting leads, then look at which ads and audiences the money has gone to.
What counts as a lead in your reports?
We agree on it before launch. Usually it is a submitted form, a call over a minimum length and a completed booking. Spam form fills and repeat calls from the same number are filtered out where the tools allow it.
What do we need before sending marketing email?
A list of customers who agreed to hear from you, a postal address for the footer, and something useful to say. We add SPF and DKIM records to your domain, which show inbox providers the mail really comes from you and help keep it out of spam folders.
Next step
Plan a campaign you can measure
Tell us the offer you want to promote, the towns you cover and any Facebook, Instagram or email accounts you already have. We reply with a proposed setup, the tracking we would add and a starting budget to test.