5 secrets to making wildly successful Facebook and Instagram ads for your salon
Whether you’re starting out small, or in a new location or even if you’re growing, thriving and busy - there’s always a good reason to run FB and IG ads.
I’m sure you’re excited for the next few months - perhaps your busiest of the year! The holidays rush in - Halloween, Thanksgiving in the USA, Black Friday, Christmas - and while you can count on a certain amount of bookings, wouldn’t it be nice to scale up in a big way this year?
Imagine if you could double your retail sales, book more high ticket clients, and sell out of creative promotions this season affordably and easily. Sounds dreamy, right?
Well, it’s doable and you can literally get started today.
But how?
With social media ads! You know those sponsored posts you see on your feed, or even in your stories? They might seem unassuming, but those things are pulling in a lot of sales for the owners of the ads.
This past week I had a great phone call with a former student, Ivette. She’s an esthetician and owns Radient Beauty day spa in San Antonio, Texas.
Ivette told me about how she had wanted to introduce her day spa to more new clients. She put together a facial and massage package, and priced it at $155.
She made a little video to promote her spa, showing what the experience was like, and turned it into an ad, promoting it on FB and IG.
Here’s what happened when she pressed “Publish” on the ad: In her first week, she had 15 bookings for this package. In the second week, she had 20 bookings!
Here’s the incredible part - she only spent $60 total to run the ad, and made $5425 in revenue.
On top of that, many of those new clients booked an upsell for the facial package for $40 - which brought her several hundreds of dollars in extra revenue.
This is the power of ads on Facebook and Instagram. They can help you sell more, book more, and introduce yourself to so many new clients! Hundreds of my former students have had similar success to Ivette by following the right steps and putting out interesting, compelling ad content that converts.
Today, you’re gonna learn some of those steps!
I’m sharing 5 secrets to make sure your first (or next) ad campaign works like a charm.
Hair stylist, nail artist, wax specialist, spray tanner or esthetician - these secrets will work for you and help you scale up your beauty business in a bold new way.
Let’s jump in!
Secret #1: Make a video!
Alright friends - I’m gonna throw out some facts to start off, before we get into this secret.
Firstly: boosted posts get you engagement, not bookings.
You’re paying for likes and clicks. Is that what pays your bills? Is engagement how you scale up your dream business? DUH, NO!
Secondly: Photos are pretty to look at, but they don’t convert to sales.
I see so many hair stylists, esties and salons spend money on boosting a picture of their hair, or facials, or brows etc. You could spend hours making beautiful photo content and think of the perfect caption, but I have some bad news: mostly, all you’re gonna get is more engagement.
Again, not what we’re looking for.
But here’s what your ideal client audience is looking for!
They want to see who they’re going for an appointment with. They want to know who you are and what you’re about. Personal service appointments can be awkward at first encounter, so anything you can do to warm up your prospects to the idea of booking with you and feeling comfortable is great!
The best way to do this is with a video.
It doesn’t have to be a big production! In fact, it’s best to keep it simple. Super short, 60 seconds, recorded on your phone is perfect. Because of social media, this is what people are used to seeing and pay attention to.
Don’t overthink your content for the video! Introduce yourself, show people around your space. Explain what treatment or service you’re advertising. Show yourself performing the treatment on a client, or doing someone’s hair or brows.
Share your personality, give them a clear picture of who you are, and make them feel welcomed!
If a picture says a thousand words, videos say a million words and make it SO much easier to sell what you’re promoting.
Secret #2: Run a special promotion!
This is the golden rule of advertising your services: you need to be specific about what you’re offering.
If you put out an ad that says, “Hey, we do waxing! We’re accepting new clients! Book an appointment to get waxed!” you’re gonna hear crickets.
Best case scenario, viewers will think, “Oh cool, when I need to wax my bikini line I’ll call her” and they’ll follow you and then forget all about you.
Don’t let this happen to you!
To really convert those strangers on social media to bookers - to get them to take action NOW and request an appointment - you need to give them something special, limited time, or limited quantity.
You could do something like what Ivette did - package up an offer for a facial and massage promotion - or it could be something totally different. There are literally thousands of ways you can make your offer special - I did a blog last week on this very topic so which you can check out right here: How to design profitable salon promotions that sell out (without discounting!)
Bottom line: You need a special promotion for your ad. Without it, you're wasting your ad dollars and your own time.
Secret #3: Write a really intriguing caption!
Your video will get people interested in your ad and interested in learning more, but the caption will be what truly gets them to click that BOOK NOW button.
Your caption should be dripping with personality but feel authentic to you and how you really speak and write. The way to capture attention on social media with captions is to be real: real funny, real interesting, and real genuine. People will read your caption closely if it feels like it's written conversationally, by a real person behind the screen.
So what kind of content should be in your captivating caption?
The same as your video, you should write a quick intro about yourself and your business. Tell your audience about what you do and why you love it. Tell them why they should book with you. Give them a good reason to pay attention and hit the BOOK NOW.
Be clear about what you're offering (ie. A specific promotion or service.) Give your audience instructions on exactly how to book with you.
I teach the full formula to writing irresistible captions in the The Facebook Formula, but to summarize: keep them personal, make sure you explain your promotion in enough detail, and give them the details to book with you RIGHT now.
Secret #4: Ease of booking!
Okay so we've talked about the best way to present your ad, the right type of content, and the hookiest caption possible to get your audience stoked to book with you. But now comes the most important part. If you miss this crucial step, you literally just wasted all your time and money.
Your ad always needs to include an easy way for your ideal clients to book!
Remember - your goal should never be to spend money on ads just to get more followers, get some likes and comments, and “more visibility”. You're running ads because you want more clients!
Your ad budget should always be invested in things that can be accurately measured for their ROI - Return On Investment.
Your super-cool video ad with an amazing caption that makes people go “Oh my gosh I need to get that” has to include a way for them to seamlessly book with you in less than 60 seconds.
Underneath each ad you run, there's an "action button" that ad viewers can click to go to different places: your online store, booking app, website home page etc.
Don’t send them to your Instagram page.
It's best to send them either to your DM’s or Facebook Messenger, or to your booking site etc. This is a direct route to an appointment, instead of gaining another follower. *Remember! You don't want more followers - you want more bookers!*
My personal preference is to prompt clickers to write me a message in Messenger, because you can set up automated messages to answer their questions, give them more info, and help them pick an appointment time. This way they're supported through the process, and you don't have to spend time answering messages back and forth before getting a booking.
Secret #5: Keep an eye on your ROI!
Last tip I have for you: You need to look at your analytics (and ROI: Return On Investment) on your ads. It's truly a waste of money and effort to just throw $20 into an ad and come back a week later to see if you got bookings. The reason analytics exist is to tinker with aspects of your ad and find out what's working and what's not - so take advantage of this feature!
To make your ads work well for you, you need to be vigilant about checking these stats. When I’m doing ads, I check in on them every day. It only takes 5 minutes, but it’s SO important to find out if you need to tweak things.
I look at numbers like impressions, interactions, messages, sales, cost per lead, etc. These numbers will tell you how well your ad is doing, what needs to change, and what your ROI is.
Sometimes a student will come to me and say, “Stephanie, I spent $20 on ads, I got 10 messages, but only 2 of them booked with me! What am I doing wrong?”
I always answer this with, "How much money are those two people spending at your business?"
“Well, that service costs $100.”
"So what you’re saying is, you invested $20 and you made back $200. That’s a 10x return on investment. That’s actually REALLY good!"
And on top of that, I remind these concerned students, those clients who come in will often buy products. They might indulge and buy an extra add-on, and hopefully at least one of them will rebook with you. So $200 actually becomes quite a bit more.
This kind of perspective is important. The takeaway is this: when you're looking at your analytics, consider how much money is going back into your business from the bookers you obtain through your ads. If it's anything more than 3x what you spent on your ad, you're golden. Keep doing what you're doing!
This is why it's important to track your ads and look at analytics. You will see what’s actually happening with your ad, and you’ll often be pleasantly surprised at the results.
Turn your passion into revenue action with social media ads...I'll show you how!
When I first started doing ads, I had a hunch they worked, but it took a lot of mistakes and a lot of tweaking to figure out how they REALLY work. And to figure out how they fit into my business.
When they’re done right, ads can be a constant source of leads, sales, new clients, and connections.
Thankfully, you don't have to go through all the trial and error that I did to run really successful ads for your beauty business - because I teach everything I've learned to my students, and they've gone on to replicate my success over and over again.
I’ve now worked with hundreds of beauty businesses to build social media ads that entertain, compel and convert and get a heckload of attention!
The Facebook Formula For Salons will help you create high-converting ads, for whatever your goals are in your business. It reopens in October, so get on the guest list below!
And as a special bonus to you today, dear reader: if you want to learn more about ads to create your first smash hit promotion, download my Social Advertising Kickstart Guide below!
xo,
Stephanie
