How To Find Our If Facebook Advertising Will Work For You + 7 Tips To Get You Started

A question I get often is about Facebook Advertising. Does it work? Is it worth it? How can you make it work for yourself as a professional photographer? It’s something people email me about, ask me on Facebook, discuss in my private photography group. After publishing my income reports and showing you that I spent money on advertising, it has brought even more questions my way about how it works. 

Most of you who are reading this probably have tried to use Facebook advertising and either lost money or quickly booked some new clients. This article is here to tell you exactly what will make your Facebook ads work, what won’t.

I have spent plenty of money in Facebook advertising. Ranging from promoting my sessions, weddings, products, random posts, my online classes, updates, questions. Everything you could imagine, I have probably spent money on advertising. I have had losses and gains. I have spent money on ads that brought me nothing but negativity, and money on ads that have connected me with some passionate creatives. There are so many possibilities with advertising, and what I think is most important is understanding how they can work for you. 

I have made over a million with my business. Much of that money was made before ever spending a penny on Facebook. Before spending money on advertising, I had many months making anywhere from $10,000 to $14,000 a month without spending a single dollar in any digital advertising. Facebook advertising wasn’t even an option for me when I started my business, and I surely didn’t have a large enough budget to ever consider investing in any type of advertising when I first got started. So with that being said, lets dive into what works and how to avoid possible BIG financial mistakes. 

 

WHAT MAKES FACEBOOK ADVERTISING WORK? 

THE ONLY THING FACEBOOK ADVERTISING WILL DO IS AMPLIFY YOUR CURRENT BUSINESS STRUCTURE AND RESULTS

and that’s not always a good thing!

THIS MEANS THAT IF:

• your business is set up correctly

• you have a business plan and strategy to reach your goals

• your work is something you are absolutely proud of 

• you stand 100% behind your passion and work

• your pricing is set up to bring in profits and create value based 100% on your personal goals

• you understand exactly who your dream client is

• you have excellent customer communication skills

• you know how to make clients value your service 

• you have a strategy in collecting potential leads 

• you know exactly how to close the booking deal 

• you have a loyal client base that trusts you

• you have a brand that people recognize

• you have a strong business workflow that keeps you on track

• you have a style that is unique 

• you put a ton of time into your business

• you have clients who rave about your service

• You know that the clients you have will recommend your business to others, and return to you over and over again

 

FACEBOOK ADS WILL ABSOLUTELY WORK AMAZINGLY FOR YOU. 

It will literally take every aspect of your current business, and quickly help you amplify the results. Facebook ads will ONLY work for you if your business is set up correctly. I can not stress this enough for those of you who are thinking of not just Facebook advertising but into any business advertising that will require you to invest a large amount of money. 

Now Facebook (or any advertising will blow your money quicker than you can imagine if your business is currently not set up correctly. If you currently have a business where you feel frustrated with how it’s working, your either not bringing in enough clients, people don’t value what you do, and you don’t have an overall business strategy, advertising is not for you! 

This certainly does not mean that it won’t ever be for you, it just means that we have to get it set up correctly first, get everything lined up how it should, go over your goals, make sure that your pricing is where it should, make sure that your brand and website is the best version of your business, and put in a booking strategy that will quickly turn potential clients into loyal clients that are quickly referring more and more loyal customers your way. 

THIS MEANS THAT IF:

• your business is not set up correctly

• you have no idea how to reach your business goals and don’t know how to make it happen. 

• your work is something you are still perfecting

• you stand 100% behind your passion but are still struggling to get it where your vision is

• your pricing is set up based on what you read online, or worse, 100% based on someone else’s pricing

• you know you want clients to value you, but have no idea what that person looks like

• you have a hard time staying on top of communicating with clients

• you don’t know how to make clients value your service 

• you don’t have a strategy in collecting potential leads 

• you don’t know exactly how to close the booking deal, right now it’s like a hit or miss. Sometimes they book you, and other times you never even hear back from them.

• you don’t have a loyal client base

• you have a branding in your head but haven’t been able to really nail it down in real life

• you feel like you don’t have a good workflow and your constantly stressed about the amount of work you need to get done. 

• you haven’t yet found your style, and are still jumping around a lot. You’re not yet creating consistent work. 

• you put a ton of time into your business but aren’t seeing the return

• you have clients who don’t seem to value the amount of effort you put into your work

• Your current clients aren’t really helping you grow your client base

Facebook (or any type of advertising) is not for you YET. 

I’m not saying that if you read that list and said “yep” to every single one, I’m saying that even if 5 of those things lined up with how you feel about your business, it’s not yet time to spend any money in advertising. I also made sure to underline the yet part, because just because your business isn’t ready for it now, certainly doesn’t mean it won’t ever be ready for it!

 

THE TRUTH IS THAT ADVERTISING IS NOT GOING TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS FOR YOU

Advertising is awesome; I love using it to grow my business. But take it from someone who had used it before being ready, and lost money, any type of advertising will not put in the hard work you have to do to create a successful business. 

Put in the hard work, figure out what works and what doesn’t. If you’re someone who is currently not fully satisfied with their business and wants to learn the correct way to set up their business, how to find the right clients, pricing yourself correctly, and understanding that running a successful business has a lot more to do with following the right strategies and plans that blindly trying different things then I would love to help. 

My business class teaches you everything from start to finish and comes with access to a private online group where I can help you on a more personal level. I don’t want to talk too much about it in this blog post, but seriously, even if you have a tiny piece of you wonder if THIS class could help you, I’m telling you right now, it will!  

Back to Facebook ads: 

Let’s say that you fall under the category of Facebook ads working great for you, then here’s seven important things you need to do when setting up ads! 

 

START SMALL AND BE CAREFUL

People I talk to about ads often come back with “omg there’s no way I could spend that much in ads a day! That’s absolutely insane!” I can not stress this enough, and that’s why it’s on the top of the list, but start small! VERY small. $1 a day will end up being $30 a month. If you spend $5 a day, it will end up being $150 a month. The nice thing with social ads, you can start small. 

 

BE SPECIFIC IN STATING WHAT YOU WANT

When you do set up an ad, make sure that you’re specific in what you are offering. If your a photographer who wants to book more newborn sessions then say exactly that. Also, make sure to include directions on what you want them to do. (do you want them to just look at the ad think “that’s nice, they want to book more newborn sessions….” continue scrolling. Nope. You want to be specific “Your Photography Studio has current openings for newborn sessions, please email us at ____ to get information on our the booking process and how you can get a free maternity session as a special bonus!” 

Be super direct, and give them instructions on what you want them to do after seeing your ad. I see lots of photographers making the mistake of letting potential clients know what they want to do, but 0 direction on the action they want them to take. 

 

CREATE A LANDING PAGE

Make sure that you link it to your website! Better yet, create a special page on your website that will give them a nice welcome, talk to them more about the booking process and most importantly have a way for them to fill something out to reach you.  

 

CUSTOMIZE THE TEXT

This one is simple but so important. A lot of people don’t even realize this is possible. When you add a link to Facebook, it will automatically putt an image and text from that link. You’ll see the larger ‘header’ text and the smaller text. CLICK on them to edit them!

 

USE EYE CATCHING WORK

 We’re photographers, let your work speak for itself by using your best, eye-catching work to grab their attention. 

 

WHAT ARE YOU PROMOTING, AND HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

This is often a problem photographers face due to higher costs of service. You aren’t selling a print; you’re trying to get a new client. Keep this in mind. If your session costs $500, then don’t be frustrated with spending $10 on an add and never seeing a client come from it. You’ll have to figure out how much it takes to find that client. You might have to spend $100, to get a new $500 client. (does that make sense??) 

Always make sure to look at how much the service is you are selling, and how much it took you to gain that new client. Spending $100 is a lot, but when you keep adding those numbers up the return is actually pretty good. 

Let’s pretend like for every $100 you get a new $500 client. 

• If you spend $100, you’ll make $500

• If you spend $200, you’ll make $1000

• If you spend $300, you’ll make $1500

• If you spend $400, you’ll make $2000

• If you sped $500, you’ll make $2500. 

That’s a great return. If you could continue this structure long term, it would be super easy for you to keep finding more clients using Facebook advertising. 

 

EXPLORE WHAT WORKS

Facebook advertising has worked great with me, but it certainly is not the only way to utilize advertising. Photographers might also see great results using something like Instagram, and those who offer a physical product might benefit most from using Pinterest, a local flower shop might see best results in using Google ad words! As you can see, there’s a lot out there and what works for one person, might not for another. It’s important to try different things to see which one will be best for you and your business. 

But remember, any form of advertising will only work if you have a business that is set up correctly. If you need help in building a successful business, then I would love to help you! 

Do I teach more about ads in my business class? Nope. Facebook ads aren’t what made my business successful. I was the one who had to put in the work, figure out my pricing, find out how to show potential clients the information in a way that resulted in them in booking with me. I built my website to reflect my style, developed a style that I loved, and one that separated me from those around me. I had to learn the hard lessons of being over worked, and underpaid and how to turn my business into a striving business. Those are the things I teach in my class, because with that, you’ll be able to set any goals you have in your heart and create a plan that will result in you achieving everything you set your mind to. I teach photographers how to build their dream business with strategies they can implement right away to build a striving business that has an income they can count on without having to count on anything but themselves to make their dreams a reality.