Does this scenario sound familiar?

“This post is performing better than 90% of other posts on your page. Promote it to get even better results.”

or

“Spend $6 and reach 3,000 more people in your local area”.

Facebook knows how to entice you and solve all of your marketing woes by merely throwing $5, $10 or even $20 their way to get your business in front of thousands of more people. You’re just a one man show in your lash business, so you don’t even need 5,000 customers. If you could just get maybe 10 of those 5,000 people, you’d be living pretty, right? That’s less than 1%. Why wouldn’t you spend $20 if you only needed 1 of those people to book with you to cover your cost? Heck, if you got 5 new clients’ off of that $20, that’s a steal of a deal.

Boost Post Please!

The excitement starts to kick in now. You go online and order a bunch of new lashes and supplies for the influx of new clients you’ll be getting. You somehow get sidetracked by that trip to Bali you stumbled across online that with all of the money you’ll be making from this rush of new clients, you’ll finally be able to afford. Isn’t marketing thrilling!

Fast forward to day 3 of your ad running. Oh no, the $20 is almost spent! I’ve had 2,500 people reached, but what gives? Not a single call or new appointment booked. Not one!!! It must be my targeting. Originally, I targeted “Women, 18-70, who live within 50 miles of my business.” I’ll change that to 25 miles of my business. That’s got to be what’s wrong with it. I’ll add another $20 to the ad and run it for a little longer.

Day 7 of your ad. Still crickets. Maybe it’s the image? I love the picture of these lashes, they looked so good on her in person. It’s a little dark and her eye is really red from the gel pad, but the lashes look flawless. I’ll switch out the photo to another one of these lashes. I can’t crop her “up the nose” shot out, but you can see the perfect isolation form this angle so it will work.

Hmm and while I’m at, I’ll change up the post text to put “Appointments Still Available” in case anyone already saw the ad and think maybe I got booked up. I’ll also say “50% off a Full Set” too. Maybe people I’m too expensive for the people seeing this ad. But they need to know they can’t cancel last minute or no show me. I’ll add on my cancellation policy so there’s no confusion.

There! That outta do the trick. Add another $50 to the ad now that it’s perfect.

Day 15 hits and you are $90 short and cursing the Facebook Gods that their ads are worthless and a waste of money. Back to the drawing board.

Sound like anyone you know?

LASHPRENEUR LIGHTBULB

Have you tried boosting a post or creating an ad within Facebook to promote your eyelash extension business to get lackluster or NO results? Lord of all Social Media, Facebook, is telling you “It’s not me, it’s you, Sweetie”.

 

The Top 5 Fatal Flaws Lash Artists Make in Their Facebook Ads are:

1- Crap Photos

2- Used Car Salesman or No Pitch at All

3- Targeting the Wrong Audience

4- No Call to Action

5- No Sales Process or Follow Up

To solve these 5 Mistakes, I created a guide for you to download for FREE:

 

 Let’s dive into the fatal flaw of each mistake:

Crap Photos

A woman in her 40’s, after a long day of work and shuffling the kids around to school and soccer practice, taking a minute to herself to unwind and scroll through her feed to look at funny cat videos, controversial political protests, natural disaster updates and videos of their friends 2-year-old trying to say “hippopotamus” doesn’t give two “you know what’s” about the shadowy, up the nose shot of a 19-year old with a nose ring’s eyeball that you’ve somehow managed to force upon her. To the average person whether they’ve had lashes before or not, doesn’t know the difference between poor or perfect isolation. They don’t know that the redness of the eye is only temporary. They can’t see the dark lash line because the photo is dark and has a weird blur to it. And why can I see up this poor woman’s nose?!? Gross!

It is a flawed assumption that the marketing of your lash business can only include raw photos of your lash work. Photo editing is your friend and something you’ll want to learn how to do to turn you lash photos into scroll-stopping deliciousness.

The Use Car Salesman or Non-Existent Pitch

What’s in it for me? If you thinking throwing in a bunch of hashtags about #nomascara and #lashlife is going to get a potential client to drop what they’re doing and book an appointment, well you’re sailing down a river I like to call ‘da-nile (denial).

You are the expert and master of your craft. It’s up to you to highlight why eyelash extensions are so amazing, easy, effortless and why they are the hottest beauty trend right now that everyone has to have.

If you’ve done a fabulous job of getting a target client to stop scrolling long enough to be curious, you shoot yourself in the foot by not selling them the dream or by being too cheesy and robotic in your language. You also fail to keep their interest if they don’t feel your text is relatable to them which is why targeting 18-year-olds in the same ad as 50-year-olds is an exercise in throwing money down the drain. Would you talk to your little sister in the same way you do to your mom or grandma?

Targeting the Wrong Audience

There are two flaws that occur when Facebook asks you to Target your Audience.

1). Your target audience is too broad. The beauty of Facebook ads is in its targeting.

Facebook has a seemingly unlimited amount of info on its users which is why they charge you to be able to advertise to its users. There’s a huge opportunity for you to narrow down exactly who you want to put your business in front of including interests and demographics. If you want to market to 38-year-old women who make at least six-figures who enjoy Starbucks, Pilates and DIY crafts, Facebook targeting allows you to get in front of those exact women. You can even get fancier with your targeting by targeting anyone who’s visited your website, likes the page of your competitors (or businesses similar to yours that aren’t in direct competition) and/or learn about what other interests/pages those who like your page are into. You can even target people who have the same or similar interests and behaviors as all of the targeting groups listed above. It’s terrifying really! So much information at your fingertips, so don’t make the mistake of having so broad of an audience that you start to attract client’s that don’t mesh well with you or your business.

2). Your target audience is not interested in what you have to offer. 

If I target 60-year-old men who have interests in Nascar and Deer Hunting for my eyelash extension services, I’m not likely to have a good response to my ad. Now that’s a little obvious, but the subtler “Mis-targeting” happens when you don’t have a clear picture of who your target client is, and thus can’t pinpoint those who are like here within the “Target Audience” feature. For instance, if my ad has a scantily clad Kim K type model with a bold makeup look and lashes that are sky high for the image and my headline is “The Only Drama I Enjoy is in my Lashes”, yet my target client is a woman in her 50s who enjoys jogging and shopping at Target, I’m not likely setting myself up for success to catch her attention and draw her into learning more about my services.

No Clear Call to Action

Boosting Your Post Does Not Allow for a Call to Action Button.Unfortunately, at the time of this blog writing, the Boost Post option does not allow you to select a “Call to Action” for your post. A Call to Action is having a clear next step for a potential customer to take. The most common ones Lash Artists can use for Facebook Ads (not Boost Posts) is “Learn More”, “Sign Up”, “Get Offer”, “Book Now” or “Contact Us”.

While you are able to include links or your web address within the post itself to try to get someone to take an action, it may be hidden within the text of the post and is not a button you can click on within the ad. It also doesn’t very clearly serve the purpose of your ad if you don’t have a call to action button. Is liking your page the purpose? Is getting someone to your website the purpose? Is getting a viewer to book an appointment with you the purpose?

A call to action button is a clear way to lead your potential customer down the path you choose for them to follow, since you’re getting charged for any interaction they have with your ad anyway.

No Sales Process or Follow Up

You’ve created the perfect ad, with the perfect photo, you’re seeing some good results from your post or ad…so now what? Just getting views or people reached is not an indicator that this ad was a worthwhile investment of your time and money. People who flaunt how many likes, views or people they reached with their paid Facebook Ad are like the popular kids in high school, it doesn’t translate to anything of value in the real world. It’s what you do with that kind of exposure that is where the values and benefit lies with Facebook ads.

Knowing how you are going to not just get in front of a target client (although that is half the battle) but also knowing how you’re going to build that relationship with that person you just paid to put your business in front of is a key piece missing from just haphazardly throwing an ad out there. Being intentional about the purpose and the relationship you’re building with your target audience will do wonders in getting your Facebook Ads or Boost Posts to convert into paying clients!

All of these Fatal Facebook Ad Flaws can be solved, and I’ve created just the guide to help you get there. DOWNLOAD IT HERE:

 

Where have you stumbled or gotten stuck in your Facebook Ads or Boost Posts? Have they been successful for you to bring in new lash clients and build a successful lash business clientele? Was a Facebook ad worthwhile for your lash business? I want to know! Leave a comment below or email me at hi@thelashpreneur.com with your lash business Facebook Ad struggles!

Have a good one!

Tara Walsh
The Lashpreneur.