The only guide you need for winning HVAC leads through Facebook
When it comes to finding fresh HVAC leads, Facebook may not have been the first place you thought of. But with the right strategies, Facebook can be the tool that transforms your business revenue.
In terms of the actual appetite to advertise, it’s fair to say most HVAC businesses blow hot and cold.
But advertise you must. Finding new HVAC leads is a numbers game – and Facebook allows you to win big.
One quick thing, before we start…
There’s enough information in this article for you to start using pay per click advertising to drive revenue for your business. But if you want the really big results, it pays to work with an expert. (Like us.)
We know what strategies to use. We know what levers to pull. And we know how to drive huge profits for your business. Book a quick discovery call and let us explain what you can expect within three months of working with us. We may even be able to cover your ad spend. Let’s get started.
“Finding an agency who will work hand in hand with us to achieve revenue goals was important – and in Adbetter we found that. Their practical, dependable approach coupled with their ability to build full lead journeys (from ad design and copy to lead capture and reporting) has made them a seamless addition to my team and one I’d recommend in a heartbeat.”
– Alexandra Lamport, Marketing Director, GetGround
An introduction to Facebook ads
What are Facebook ads?
Essentially Facebook ads are a vehicle to get your HVAC business in front of Facebook users who don’t follow you – helping you to reach potential new customers.
There’s a vast suite of options at your fingertips – including where your ad appears, what format it’s in and how it helps you hit your desired outcomes.
Let’s take a closer look.
Ad placement: where will your ad appear?
As you’ve probably seen, you can find ads right across the Facebook platform – including:
- In-feed
- Stories
- Messenger
- Marketplace
In terms of making cost-effective use of your budget? In-feed ads are one of your smartest options.
Format: what sort of ad will you post?
From static images to 4-hour videos – your ad can take many different forms.
- Image ads: Nice and simple. You can also include a headline, a description and a call to action (CTA). They’re good for campaigns with a single, clear message or strong visual content.
- Carousel ads: With a carousel ad you can show up to ten images in sequence – each with the potential to have its own headline, description and CTA. These are a great choice for showcasing a catalogue of HVAC products or maintenance packages.
- Video ads: Facebook allows you to post videos that are up to four hours long. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. 15 seconds tends to be the sweet spot in terms of ad engagement.
Objective: what do you want your ad to achieve?
When creating your ad, Facebook allows you to specify the outcome you are hoping to achieve. There are five core campaign objectives to choose from:
- Conversions
- Impressions
- Reach
- Link clicks
- Lead generation
Unsurprisingly, as a lead generation specialist, we’d advocate you selecting lead generation as your campaign objective.
The no-fluff guide to Facebook ads for lead generation
What type of audience can you reach?
Wild guess: you wouldn’t be able to provide your HVAC services to all of Facebook’s 2.96 billion users.
So while the audience reach is impressive, what really matters is Facebook’s audience targeting tools. These give you the power to target your ad campaigns at 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
- Connections
- Relationship status
- Education
- Online behaviour
…and an awful lot more.
By zeroing in on different audience criteria, a crowd of 2.96 billion can quickly dwindle to a few thousand.
Or a few hundred.
And that’s a good thing.
When you know who your audience is, it’s easier to craft a message that gets their attention.
Now, let’s think. You run an HVAC business. It goes without saying that you should target Facebook users that are within easy reach of your engineers.
Another way to find potential leads is to utilise the lookalike audiences feature.
With the right setup, you can feed Facebook data on your existing and previous customers. It can then create a lookalike audience of Facebook users that share characteristics with your past customers – whether that’s age, income, browsing behaviour or something else.
Facebook for HVAC leads: the balance between quality and quantity
Not all leads are born equal. Many businesses waste a lot of time and money trying to convert prospects who have very low purchase intent.
It’s better to attract a handful of high-quality leads than a lot of leads who are very unlikely to become customers. So think carefully about how the design and messaging of your campaign can screen your audience – engaging people who are likely to be interested in your services and sifting out those who aren’t.
How much do Facebook ads cost?
Facebook’s precise charging policy isn’t public knowledge. However it’s fair to say that you can get started with pay per click advertising for less than you’d spend on a coffee each day.
The exact cost of your campaigns will be influenced by many factors – including:
- The type of audience you are targeting
- Where your ad appears
- The duration of your campaign
- The competitiveness of your industry
- The time of day that your ad is set to display
- Seasonality
Ballpark figures? Research suggests advertisers should expect to pay around $0.94 per click.
Whatever happens, Facebook makes it easy to control your budget. You can set strict limits for daily or weekly spend – pausing your spending at any time with a click.
Facebook ads for HVAC leads: 8 tips for success
1. Craft your content carefully
Think about the way you use Facebook. Chances are you’re not opening the app to get your fix of ads.
It’s the same for your audience. You have a second or two to capture your target’s interest. So keep things short, sharp and punchy – with a clear message that addresses the likely ambitions or doubts of your audience.
With in-feed ads remember that Facebook will truncate your ad description. The first 125 characters must succinctly communicate your message – or sufficiently inspire your reader to expand it to read more. Choose your words carefully.
The Facebook feed is predominantly a visual place. Here are some ideas for the type of content you could produce:
- A carousel of your latest HVAC products
- A short video explaining why your products compete well on cost, longevity or green credentials
- An offer promoting your maintenance plans
- A video revealing a day in the life of an HVAC engineer
- Case studies explaining how you have helped customers save money or live more comfortably
- Educate your audience about the HVAC installation process – sharing information on how long it will take and how quickly you can react to new orders.
Experiment with a mix of image-based and video-based ads. Try variants that are less polished and a little rough around the edges. Social media users are becoming blind to glossy ads and the trend is towards user generated content that feels a little more real and authentic.
2. Niche down and focus on specifics
Broadly speaking, HVAC businesses have three core pillars of service.
- Manufacture and installation
- Maintenance
- Repair
If you want to promote more than one of these, it’s best to run separate PPC campaigns for each. That allows you to keep your messaging targeted – which generally yields better results. It also makes it easier to determine the type of messages that your audience is most receptive to.
3. Think about seasonality and weather fluctuation
Ads that feel timely and ‘of the moment’ tend to get better results. So you may want a campaign or two up your sleeve that you can unleash whenever the weather is remarkably or unseasonably hot.
4. Embrace social proof
Many people are quite rightly a little sceptical about welcoming complete strangers into their home – no matter how exceptional your HVAC credentials are.
Social proof such as customer testimonials should be a core part of your campaign – either in the ads themselves or on your campaign landing pages.
You should also mention any relevant qualifications and industry accreditations you have. It’s all about reassuring potential customers that you’re a safe pair of hands.
5. Test, test, test…
If you haven’t yet heard of split testing, get ready to meet the best friend of your ad spend.
Let’s say you’re running a simple in-feed ad consisting of four elements:
- Image
- Headline
- Description
- CTA
Facebook allows you to create variants for each element. By doing so you can easily create an ad with dozens of variables.
And here’s where it gets interesting…
When you publish your ad campaign, Facebook will initially fire out various versions of your ad to a small percentage of your audience – measuring which variants receive the most engagement. Based on that initial test, Facebook will then show the best performing ads more frequently to your remaining audience.
It’s an easy way to make sure your campaign spend is working as hard as possible to drive the right results for your business.
Same buck, more bang.
6. Remember that your ad is just the start…
Your Facebook ads are just the start. The goal is to drive traffic to a designated landing page aimed at capturing audience data.
The science of landing pages is an expansive topic. But here’s a micro-summary 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. Make sure your landing page is optimised for mobile and create a compelling proposition above the fold.
- Create a closed journey. Single mindedness is a strength when it comes to landing pages. Limit the navigation options for your visitor and stay focused on one clear call to action.
- Ask the right questions. Include a form that allows you to pre-qualify your leads. Ask questions that help you understand exactly what they’re looking for, what their timeframes are and what their budget is. That way it’s easy to prioritise following up with the leads that are likely to be most lucrative for your business.
- Be aware of data privacy regulations. If you are acquiring leads in California, Virginia or Colorado, you must comply with their respective data privacy laws.
7. Utilise audience retargeting
Retargeting is about serving new ads to people who have engaged with one of your previous ads. Let’s say someone clicked one of your ads or has completed the form on your campaign landing page. They are clearly interested in your services. But they may not be ready to convert just yet.
Serving the same ads as they initially saw is pointless. With retargeting campaigns, you can serve your leads new ads that build additional awareness of your brand and nudge them towards conversion.
8. Performance tracking: don’t hide from your data
Your ads dashboard will provide you with lots of data on how your ads are performing. Try to identify trends in the ads that are performing best.
Is there something in your messaging that’s encouraging clicks?
Is a certain type of image garnering attention?
When you understand what’s driving results, you can double down on those strategies – creating additional ad variants based on what’s working and ditching the stuff that isn’t.
Of course, it’s not just the performance of your Facebook ads that matters, but the performance of your campaign as a whole. For proper insight you have to be able to track all points in your user journey.
That requires getting your performance tracking set up to provide full visibility into onward KPIs – such as the clicks and conversions on your landing page.
Many businesses don’t make the effort to track their campaigns correctly. But doing the hard yards here can help you gain a huge competitive advantage.
And we can help.
We know how to set up campaigns to capture all necessary data points – and we build custom dashboards that provide clear visibility into key metrics.
Why Facebook Conversions API (CAPI) is crucial for advertisers
Transform your revenue with Facebook ads for HVAC leads
It’s not an overstatement to say that Facebook ads have the potential to drive vast revenue for your HVAC business. But getting to those juicy returns takes time and expertise. So let us take care of it.
We are an award-winning pay per click agency focused on driving meaningful ROI for our clients. Book a short discovery call and let us explain how it all works. We may even be able to cover your ad spend. Let’s make it happen.
