A complete guide to Facebook ads for financial advisers

Thinking of running Facebook ads for your financial advice firm? Then here’s our complete guide, 21 points, about making the most of your marketing budget to get your ads working successfully and driving revenue for your business.

Before we start…

Advanced warning. This is a weighty article. That’s because we want to give you something of value: actionable tips that you can use to drive revenue for your business. 

But if you are just too busy to go it alone, talk to us. We specialise in performance marketing and paid media for financial advisers. And we only take on a new client when we know we can generate positive ROI. That’s a promise. 

Ask for a free proposal. Let us outline what you can expect from us.

“Adbetter handled everything from creative strategy to a full funnel media buying plan across Facebook & Google Ads. They were able to design & build a full digital marketing campaign including all ads, copy & landing pages that has been delivering a consistent stream of new customers at a significantly cheaper cost than in previous testing.”

Aqib Hassan, CCO, CPIC | Gwadar Click

Facebook ads for financial advisers: the regulations

Avoiding getting your ads wrong can go a long way towards getting your ads right. Much like the mortgage markets, finance is a tightly regulated sector. And it’s no different on Facebook.

Diligence pays. After all, you don’t want to spend time and money on getting your ads ready only to run into approval issues. So be sure to do your research. It’s a thorny thicket to navigate. Here are some of the headline points:

1. Avoid prohibited financial products and services

There are certain financial products and services that Facebook flat out objects to. Those include payday loans, payslip advance services and short-term loans that last for less than 90 days. 

If you try to submit ads that promote these services, your account will most likely be blacklisted. You can find out more about Facebook’s prohibited products and services here.

2. Your ads must be “fair, clear and not misleading”

It’s not just Facebook’s regulatory people that your ads must placate, but the FCA’s too. Time and again the phrase “fair, clear and not misleading” appears in their guidance on the promotion of financial products. You cannot create false expectations or make false promises. And you must give a fair explanation of any risks associated with your product or service. 

The FCA even goes as far as to say that any mention of risks must use a font size that is “at least equal to the predominant font size used throughout the information provided”.

3. Include FCA details in your creative

Including your company name, number and FCA registration details in your ad creative can help to make sure your ad gets approved. Whether it’s overlaid onto your visual creative or included in your ad description, it’s worth considering to stay on the right side of regulation.

4. Fetch your reading glasses…

There’s a lot to read when it comes to complying with the various rules and regulations that govern the promotion of financial products and services. There’s some detailed info from the FCA here – and guidance on social media promotions here.

Facebook ads for financial advisers: finding your audience

Facebook has just over 3 billion monthly active users. To put that another way: more than a third of the world’s population is using Facebook every month. 

Yet in terms of growing your revenue through Facebook ads for financial advisers, it’s not the audience size that matters – it’s the tools that Facebook gives you to help find the right people. People who are likely to be interested in your services.

5. Get your mindset right

Success with marketing isn’t about smoke and mirrors or deception. It’s about showcasing your expertise and establishing credibility with people who are interested. 

Put yourself in your reader’s position. Consider the marketing messages that would resonate with you. Picture yourself having a one-to-one conversation with the person on the other end of your marketing messages – just as you would if one of your clients had called you for advice.

6. Finding the right audience

Facebook’s audience targeting tools give you the power to reach the people who are most likely to be interested in your services.

Audience variables you can work into your targeting include:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Interests
• Occupation
• Connections
• Relationship status
• Education
• Online behaviour

…and an awful lot more.

Another interesting way to target people is by their internet browsing history. For example if they are visiting investment websites or browsing for search terms related to financial planning, there’s a good chance they will be interested in your expertise. You can also feed your existing customer data into Facebook and let it find users that share similar characteristics to people who have already engaged your services.

Facebook’s targeting tools are powerful.

7. Run a campaign to promote in-person visits

Your reach as a financial adviser is no longer limited by geography. But it’s likely that a good chunk of your work still comes from local clients. If you want to preserve that, utilising Facebook’s location targeting is a no-brainer. 

You can set up a campaign that serves ads only to Facebook users within a designated radius of your office location(s). We feel a coffee invite coming on…

8. Consider lead quality v lead quantity

What would you rather have: lots of half interested leads, or a handful of leads who are extremely likely to convert? Many businesses waste a lot of time and money trying to convert prospects that have low purchase intent. 

Consider how the targeting of your campaign can screen your audience – piquing the curiosity of the people you want to convert, and screening out those that you don’t.

Want a shortcut? Try Nerchr. It’s an ads management platform that helps to make sure the only leads that reach you are leads that have high intent to convert. So you get more conversion for the same ad spend. We built this platform ourselves to drive revenue for our own client campaigns and manage over £10 million worth of PPC ad spend. And now we’ve made it public. You should take a look, there’s a free 30-day trial.

Facebook ads for financial advisers: branding and creative

The look, feel and messaging of your campaign can be make or break; the difference between success and failure. Here are some of the key considerations.

9. Take care over your branding

As a financial services expert, your branding should look credible, professional and trustworthy. People must have faith that you are a legitimate, well-considered business before they start taking advice from you about anything – let alone something as important as money. 

Stay away from hackneyed stock photography and create something that is eye-catching, consistent and recognisably yours – across all channels.

10. Strike the right tone

Money is a very personal thing to people – and can be highly anxiety-inducing for some. Don’t be too flippant in your tone and maintain a measured professionalism with both your visual and verbal branding.

11. Educate your audience

Financial services can be intimidating for some people – either because they feel inadequate in terms of knowledge or they worry they will be manipulated into doing something they feel uncertain about. 

A good way to drive awareness of your services and engagement with your brand is simply to educate people. About different financial terms. About different financial products. About the process of working with you. Openness and honesty can break down a lot of barriers between your brand and your audience. All while building your reputation as a credible expert. 

12. Remember the result

People engage with a financial adviser because they have certain ambitions, fears or problems. They are looking for a specific result – whether that’s a high-yield, short-term investment or help generating a plan for consistent income during retirement. Too many marketers lose sight of the end result that their customers are looking to achieve. Be open about how you can help.

13. Go granular

If you are promoting different services or areas of expertise, separate them out into different campaigns. Specificity usually trumps generality. When you are targeted with your messaging and focus, it’s easier to create ads that resonate with the right audience.

14. Embrace social proof

The people who are best placed to comment on the quality of your products and services are your previous clients. Don’t underestimate the power of a good set of testimonials when it comes to convincing warm leads to pick up the phone. Try to source reviews from verifiable consumer ratings platforms such as Trustpilot.

Facebook ads for financial advisers: executing your ad campaign

You’ve profiled your audience. You’ve created your ads. Now it’s time to unleash your campaign! Here are some tips.

15. Think about placement (or don’t)

There are multiple places you can advertise on Facebook. But the most cost-effective placement for Facebook ads for financial advisers tends to be in-feed. If in doubt, utilise Facebook’s Advantage+ tool. Feed it the right assets and it will place your ad everywhere that’s relevant for your campaign – testing performance as it goes and changing tack as appropriate.

16. Test, test, test

Visual assets. Headlines. Descriptions. Facebook gives you the option to submit various options for the constituent parts of your ad. By doing so you can easily create an ad with dozens of variants. Facebook will then test the different ad variants and preferentially serve the ad combinations that are generating the best results. It’s a no brainer for making the most efficient use of your ad spend and getting some insight on what converts.

Another benefit of testing multiple variants of the same ad is that your campaign will fatigue less quickly. People get numb to ads they’ve seen on multiple occasions. Variety keeps things fresh – and gives you an option to experiment with different ways of pitching your services. A useful marketing exercise in itself.

17. Unleash your campaign on Instagram too

Both Facebook and Instagram are owned by Meta – and share the same advertising environment. It only takes a few clicks to unleash your campaign across both platforms. That means your campaign gets a lot more reach, for just a little extra effort.

Facebook ads for financial advisers: thinking beyond the click

Success with pay per click isn’t all about the first click. In fact, that’s just the start of the journey. It’s what happens next that counts.

18. An intro to landing pages

When you are paying for every click, it’s worth carefully considering the place you’re directing your prospects to. For most campaigns, that’s a designated landing page – and you should have one for each ad campaign you are running on Facebook. Landing pages are a major topic in their own right. But here’s a super-speedy run through of best practice.

• Design and copywriting. Your landing page should feel like a continuation of your ad. That means using similar images and colours, making sure your logo is prominent and so on. Optimise for mobile and make sure the messaging that matters most is visible above the fold.  
• Create a closed journey. Single-mindedness is a strength when it comes to landing pages. Limit navigation options and stay focused on one clear call to action.
• Utilise social proof and trust signals. Customer testimonials are a great way to build credibility and establish trust in your company. Again, try to source reviews from a verifiable platform such as Trustpilot or Google Reviews. If applicable, utilise trust signals such as industry accreditations, qualifications or awards.
• Gather data. The main aim of a landing page is to gather information on your lead. Create a form that allows you to start the marketing conversation. (Now we’ve made our ads management platform public, you can quickly create fully-branded forms that make it easy to pre-qualify your leads and prioritise who to follow up with first. It’s called Nerchr. Go and take a look.)
• Remember your GDPR obligations. For your forms that means having a tick box that forces people to actively opt in to your comms, the name of the business that will be contacting them and the method that they will be contacted by. Include a link to your privacy policy too.

19. Utilise retargeting to nurture your audience

Once you have an email address you can create an automated email nurture campaign that gives your prospect more information about your services and nudges them towards becoming a customer. 

What’s really great with Facebook is that you can echo this nurture activity with a new set of Facebook ads – creating new campaigns that serve only to people who have clicked your ads or visited one of your landing pages.

Facebook ads for financial advisers: measuring campaign performance

It’s no overstatement to say that the data you gather on your campaign performance is your goldmine. Success with Facebook ads is about having the tenacity to regularly dive in to your data and find the trends that help you find what’s working and what isn’t. Test, iterate, evaluate. Test, iterate, evaluate. But first you have to make sure your tracking is set up correctly…

20. Be meticulous with setting up your tracking

Facebook will automatically gather data on your campaign performance. But to get the insight that will help you really shift the needle for your business, you need more visibility than Facebook gives you. You need the ability to see what happens beyond the first click, right up to the moment your lead becomes a customer. Setting up tracking for visibility into onward KPIs is difficult. It takes time. That’s why many businesses don’t bother. But it will give you invaluable data that you can use not just to optimise your Facebook ads, but your entire marketing strategy.

We have made this level of tracking easy with Nerchr – our proprietary platform for optimising pay per click campaigns. It’s now available to everyone. Go and take a look.

21. Consider working with an expert (like us!)

One of the great things about Facebook ads is that you can get started with no previous experience. But to drive really transformative, recurrent revenue, you need to work with an expert. 

We are a paid media expert that specialises in Facebook ads for financial advisers. And we only agree to work with a new client when we have total confidence that we can generate significant returns for them.

Ask us for a free proposal and we will outline a three-month paid media strategy for your brand. That’s yours to keep. Then it’s your choice to work with us or walk away. Let’s get started.

You may also be interested in:

>> Lead generation for financial services: 16 tips for getting big results
>> Google ads for financial advisers: essential tips for success
>> Facebook ads for mortgage brokers: top tips for success
>> Google ads for mortgage brokers: a complete guide to success
>> Lead generation for mortgages: 8 tips for success
>> Investment leads: get more, gain more

Frequently asked questions