Right now, Facebook has more than 1.4 billion daily active users. While car washes might not need that many customers lining up every day, advertising on Facebook can expose local brands to a host of new audiences.

The only question, then, is how? Luckily, Facebook advertising isn’t as tricky as many new marketers think. Here’s a streamlined and straightforward guide for business owners who want to jump in.

5 Reasons Why Facebook Advertising Is a Good Idea for Car Washes

Facebook advertising has dozens of unique benefits. In addition to being the most popular social platform out there, Facebook also offers some interesting targeting and advertising perks that car washes can take advantage of.

Facebook ads allow marketers to geo-target people who live or work near your location.

At a foundational level, Facebook ads allow creators to target people in a given area. They also allow marketers to target people who are currently near a given location, which is essential for local, physical businesses, like car washes. While most digital ads allow some type of targeting feature, Facebook’s is one of the most advanced available.

Facebook allows marketers to advertise on Facebook, Instagram and Facebook’s Audience Network.

What many local business owners don’t know is that you can use Facebook’s Audience Network to advertise on a wide variety of websites, not just Facebook. Touted by Facebook as “a new way for advertisers to extend their campaigns beyond Facebook and into other mobile apps,” the network allows companies to create banner interstitial and native ads on a selection of platforms. Differentiating ads like this offers increased performance, while also allowing business owners a new way to measure engagement and conversions.

Facebook ads allow marketers to target people based on the information in their profile.

For marketers looking to target a hyper-specific audience, such as people who live within a few miles of a car wash or who have shown interest in a classic car Facebook group, Facebook advertising is a fantastic option. With the help of Facebook ads, marketers can reach people based on the information in their profile. Thanks to Facebook’s Audience Network, it’s also possible for marketers to reach them on the other websites they visit.

Facebook offers a custom audience builder.

Facebook’s custom audience builder allows creators to customize audiences according to current goals. With the help of this builder, business owners can upload data, including email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses and more. Using this tool, marketers can build a custom Facebook audience and ensure ads only show up to people associated with the email addresses on a given list.

Facebook ads complement other advertising.

Facebook ads are a great addition to direct mail offers, flyers and similar marketing materials. Creating a hybridized advertising strategy like this is a fantastic option for businesses who want to expand their reach and engage new audiences in the area.

How to Develop Custom Audiences

Developing custom audiences on Facebook’s advertising platform is simple. Here are the steps business owners need to take:

• Use customer data to create a list of email addresses or phone numbers for an audience.
• Put this list into TXT or CSV format.
• Open the Ads Manager and navigate to the Audiences tab.
• Select “Create Audience” and choose “Customer List.”
• Upload the list file.
• Within about half an hour, the custom audience list will be ready to go.

Once a business owner has created a custom audience list, they can create ads, update targeting options, and set ad budgets.

How to Budget Facebook Ads

Setting a Facebook ad budget is one of the biggest things new marketers struggle with, and rightfully so. Figuring out how much to spend is essential. Here are the steps to get started:

• Define the target revenue goal. When marketers know how much they want to make from the ad, it’s easier to figure out how much to invest in it.
• Monitor results and adjust as needed. Marketers who are new to FB advertising will find that part of the process is a “wait and see” game. As ad gains traction, marketers will need to re-evaluate costs and find ways to improve ROI.
• Understand the budget structure. Facebook offers both daily and lifetime budgets for its ads. Daily budgets are an average while lifetime budgets take into account how much a company spends throughout the entire lifetime of the ad. Marketers must decide which is right for them, and go from there.

What's Changing

At the start of the year, Facebook made a big algorithm change that means users will “see less public content like posts from businesses, brands and media.” According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “The public content you see more will be held to the same standard – it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.”

This may have an impact on the visibility of advertisements. Business owners should, however, be able to bypass the effects of the update by targeting audiences and building a custom audience segment.

Time Management

The concept of adding social media marketing and advertising to an already-packed schedule seems intimidating to many car wash owners. This is normal, though, and it’s something many businesses struggle with. The key, in these situations, is to identify a schedule that works and to utilize intelligent tools that streamline the process.

A business owner can certainly dip their toe into social media advertising with a limited investment of time and energy. However, if you don’t plan to become an expert yourself, consider identifying a firm that specializes in social media advertising so that you can focus on your core competencies.

Anthony Shop is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of Social Driver, a national digital agency that helps companies connect with people today through social media, websites and creative. This article has been reprinted with permission of Social Driver.