Happy New Year! Starting February 10th, I’ve been doing my business for three years now. This is a huge milestone for me!

In my first two years of business, I worked with more than 50 salons directly doing their marketing for them. My team and I did graphics, websites, social media, advertising, I learned so much from those first two years in business. Not just about marketing, but how to handle clients, do sales for myself, how to do bookkeeping, how to deal with unhappy clients.

Whenever I started working with a new salon client, I would ask them what their number one goal was for marketing. The majority of the time they would reply: business is slow, I want to bring more clients in.

They’d ask me my suggestions and I’d tell them straight up: I think that Facebook and Instagram ads would be your best bet. In all my experience running the marketing for tech startups and my own companies, I’d seen how freaking amazing they can be.

So I started running ad campaigns for clients. I would help them make a video, I’d write the ad text, choose the targeting, set up the ad, monitor it, communicate with clients to book them in. And these ads worked like crazy for most of my salons. But the time it was taking me to manage all those ads was insane. I just wasn’t able to keep up.

So I took a different approach: I coached salon owners on how to do ads. I would give them suggestions for videos, for ad text, promotions, I’d do Skype calls with them to walk them through setting up the ads. But again, after more and more clients rolled in, I realized that I just couldn’t sustain it any longer.

At the same time, I’d had a string of not-so-great clients. You know the ones: They put tons of responsibility on you without communicating clearly themselves. They expect the world on a tiny budget.

So what did I do? In January of 2019, I made the tough decision to let go of all my clients, and I started a new chapter in my business. It wasn’t easy letting go of a steady stream of revenue and jumping into the unknown, but I actually had bigger plans for my business.

Last year I created my own online program about Facebook advertising for beauty businesses, and I started selling it. I knew that there was a huge need from salon owners to grow their clientele, and I knew from experience that Facebook ads were probably the best way to do it. But barely anyone knew how to do them right, and instead they just ended up frustrated and wasting money without anything to show for it.

Fast forward 12 months, and I can say this proudly: I opened enrolment to this course twice last year, and I’ve had more than 100 students from all around the world join from places like Italy, Estonia, New Zealand, and more! So cool!

One thing that many of my students say when they join the program is that they are still a little skeptical about Facebook and Instagram ads. They’ve tried boosting posts, spent a bunch of money, and not gotten anything. But they keep an open mind and try what I teach anyway.

If that’s how you feel too, I want to share three stories with you from my students who decided to give Facebook ads another try, doing them differently than they’d done before.

Although they come from different niches in the beauty industry, all three of these women have something in common:

They all were starting out with a new life and a new business
They had already tried lots of different things for marketing, and were disappointed with their lack of results
And they all stepped out of their comfort zone to try something completely new to grow their businesses

Here are their stories. I hope they inspire you and give you some ideas about what Facebook advertising can do for your own salon!

Melissa West - Royal Treatment Skin Studio in Lake Oswego, Oregon

Melissa has been in the beauty industry for 15 years, and for her whole career she’d done booth rental in salons. But in the past year, Melissa decided to change gears in her business and open her first studio. She was so excited to go out on her own, and her goal was to become the premiere provider for luxury skin services in a private and comfortable environment.

She was starting over pretty much from scratch in a new part of town, and working solo.

Melissa knew how important social media would be for building up her new business and clientele, but she struggled with what to put in her posts, and how to make them attractive and actionable.

She also saw so many other businesses doing sponsored posts, and she thought to herself “Everyone knows how to do this except for me!” She decided to figure out those sponsored posts, and was determined to make them work for her business, too.

Melissa joined my program about Facebook ads, and she told me that she followed it to a T (I love my A+ students!). Since it was autumn when she did the course, she put together a special promotion for a “Pumpkin everything facial” with delicious and powerful ingredients.

She made a quick two-minute video introducing herself, showing folks around her new studio, and talking about her Pumpkin Everything Facial. She put together a Facebook ad with the video, and waited to see what would happen.

After two weeks of doing this sponsored post, Melissa had 10 new clients book for this package! She spent $73 total on this ad, which was a small amount compared to what she got.

And the best part for her was that she was clearly reaching her ideal clientele who had booked; every single one of these new clients rebooked facials for the next month, too.

I asked Melissa what was the most important thing she learned from this experience, and she said she just didn’t feel intimidated by Facebook ads anymore. She’d poked around in the Facebook Ads Manager before - the tool she used to set them up - but she always wondered, "Oh I wonder what this button is? What does this do?” It was a lot to take in.

After she did her ads, she was feeling so confident that she was able to help other students with their ads as well. She was giving back to the beauty community!

Jessie Fischer - Headlines Family Salon, Alpena Michigan

Jessie’s been doing hair for 16 years. She’s an instructor and a brand educator as well, but her true love is being behind the chair.

The last salon Jessie was at was a high-traffic, 7,000 square foot salon in lower Michigan. However, last year she and her husband decided to move back to their small hometown in northern Michigan. As you can imagine, it was a huge change for her.

She was restarting her life and business all over, and moved into a 500 square foot hair salon, partnering with her best friend’s mom.

Starting her business in a new town, her main goal is obviously to build up her clientele. That’s why she decided to focus on Facebook advertising.

Jessie told me that she’d wasted so much money boosting posts in the past, only to get people to look at her photos without getting any appointments. But she knew that social media could key to getting clients, she just had to figure out how to do it.

For her first Facebook ad, Jessie recorded a one-minute video with the help of her business partner and a ring light. She wanted to promote her color services, so she packaged up an offer for new clients and used the video to promote it. She pressed “publish” on her ad and things started happening very quickly.

Within the first three days of running her ad, she had eight bookings for that package and within five days she was booked solid for September. She actually had to turn it off after the fifth day!

In total, Jessie had 11 clients come in that found her through her ad, she made $1,100 in revenue, and several of those clients rebook with her. She also sold retail products to each of the clients that came in. And she spent a grand total of… $25 on this sponsored post!

I asked Jessie why she thought her ad was so successful, and she said that being in a small town, having a new business around is a big deal for them, and the locals wanted to support her. She just needed to get her name out, and she definitely did!

Annorah MacKnocher - Tannorah Beauty Salon, Inverness Scotland

Several years back, Annorah's marriage ended and she moved back to her hometown, a small town of about 60,000 in Scotland.

She had to make a fresh start in life and in business, and although her background was in hairdressing, Annorah knew I wanted to do something different. She decided to start a beauty studio in her home, since she wanted to be there for her six-year-old daughter.

Her focus is on non-surgical facelifts, and she’s also added in spray tanning and waxing in.

She’d had her studio for two years, but in the past few months she decided to really focus on growing it instead of waiting for business to come to her. She still felt like her business was in the early stages - she had about 75 clients but it was slower than she wanted.

Annorah had tried doing local radio ads to promote her salon, she’d tried to figure out Facebook ads and social media, but she felt like the lack of tech and marketing skills was getting in her way. Once she took the leap and joined my course, things started changing in a big way for her.

She did two different ads for two different facial treatment packages, and here’s what happened:

The first ad was for a facial treatment pamper package. She had 14 local clients book this package from her ads. The part that she loved was that one client came in and brought her mother for the same treatment. Then the mother brought in her friend. And then the granddaughter came in and bought a gift certificate from Annorah. It turned into a family affair!

After that, she tried out another ad for a different package. It was called the “Feel good facial” which included Microdermabrasion, a full facial, and a free face mask to take home. She had 20 people in for this promotion, and I’ve spent about £50 on Facebook ads for it.

In total for these two ads, Annorah spent £68 on advertising, and made £1910 in revenue from services. She also had many clients booking again, plus all of those referrals. It was a huge success for her.

In conclusion

I truly believe that knowing how Facebook ads work, and knowing how to do them right can be one of the best marketing skills you have as a business owner. They’ve absolutely changed by business for the better, and the stories you’ve read from beauty business owners are a testament of just how well they can work for you, too.

If you want to learn more about how they work, how to do them right, what to put into them, how much to spend, etc… I’ve got an ebook for you! It’s called “The Ultimate Facebook Ads Starter Kit for salons” and you can download it below!

And if you want to know more about my program The Facebook Formula For Salons… enrolment is reopening very soon! I’ll keep you updated about when it opens, how to join, and more juicy details very soon!