With over 2.6 Billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world.
Virtual financial advisor or not, the majority of your audience is reachable online, and that is why targeted Facebook ad campaigns can be so critical to your business’s success. They form a crucial part of the virtual sales process. Without targeting, you will be spending advertising dollars on people who may never be interested in or require your services.
One of the reasons why Facebook is so popular, especially for business owners, is because it allows you to make a custom audience based on four main categories, including:
- Location
- Behaviors
- Demographics
- Interests
Better yet, you can retarget users who have already engaged with your brand. Through retargeting, you can reach audiences who already know you by re-advertising to individuals who have already visited your website, Instagram, or Facebook Page. I cannot stress this enough – retargeting is EVERYTHING when it comes to getting the most of your digital marketing advertising.
Now, when it comes down to an ad campaign, there are so many options available to you; a plethora of approaches one can take. It can prove tricky and confusing at the start, which is why we have put together an outline that will work specifically for you, the virtual financial advisor. Here are the three primary areas to focus on when setting up your Facebook ad campaigns.
Engagement
Virtual Financial Advisor Marketing tip#1: Tap into The Emotions of Your Ideal Client
How do you get your ideal clients to engage with your brand message? Through emotion. Demonstrating your service’s benefits will show how you can help, but feeling creates the motivation to seek that help. Find ways to connect with your audience, to resonate with them genuinely.
It would be best if you put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client. What do you want them to feel when they see your ad? What is it that will help them connect to your mission? How can you drive action?
You can get there by focusing on their pain points. For example, an individual seeking financial security for their family, someone struggling to set up a trust for their children, or not knowing how to invest their money. You know your ideal client more than anyone else, so speak to their needs directly. Be creative.
Facebook engagement campaigns are one of the cheapest ways to generate micro-conversions that you can use in future retargeting efforts. Furthermore, these micro-conversions; Facebook shares in particular, contribute to what the Facebook algorithm identifies as viral.
Traffic
Once you have a message, you can start using Facebook ads to build up relevant site traffic to your essential services, landing pages, and articles. When driving traffic to any page on your site, you want to ensure that you have a Facebook pixel unique to your business installed before you start any campaigns. Why? Remember we mentioned retargeting? That’s where Facebook pixels come in – what’s the point of driving all of this traffic if you cannot re-engage warm users with an offer that is relevant to them?
Virtual Financial Advisor Marketing Tip #2: Building Pixel Data
The Facebook pixel is code that you install on your website that collects data, helping you with the following:
- Facebook ad conversion tracking
- The optimization of those ads
- Building targeted audiences for future Facebook ads
- Remarketing to individuals who have already engaged with your website
Facebook pixels work by placing and triggering cookies to track users as they interact with your website and your Facebook ads – crucial to obtaining measurable results. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to set one up.
Conversions
Virtual Financial Advisor Marketing Tip #3: Use Lead magnets
Simply advertising your services and expecting conversions from your ads is unrealistic. Yes, it works sometimes, but to ensure it frequently works, offer your audience something of value as well. As I highlighted before, part of building a robust digital infrastructure as a virtual financial advisor is sharing some of your expertise for free. Either through hosting a free webinar or offering an eBook full of valuable information, you will reel your ideal clients in.
Together with addressing your audience’s pain points and using the Facebook Pixel to track and retarget, you’re setting yourself up for a successful ad campaign.
By giving your audience something of real value for free, they’ll usually be happy to fill out a form on your website. Once you have their information, you can then follow up and convert them into a client.
Great ideas for lead magnets:
- Templates and spreadsheets for your prospective clients to use in their personal finances
- Free webinars hosted directly on Facebook through Zoom
- Webinar replays hosted on your website
- Interactive quizzes offering advice once their score or results are determined
- How-to guides (think investment or saving tools & tips)
- Comprehensive eBooks (think “How to Rollover an IRA”)
- Explainer videos
When using the above, you will then be able to use lookalike audiences for your future campaigns. Lookalike audiences are a highly effective way to reach new members of your target audience. Why? Because they enable you to connect with new users who are most similar to individuals you have previously converted into high-value customers. You can find a step-by-step guide here.
When it comes to Financial Advisor marketing, Facebook ad campaigns are just one cog in the machine of a successful virtual practice. There is a ton to set up and manage to get the most out of our digital marketing efforts. Notice how I didn’t suggest you boost a post? There is a reason for it!
Digital marketing for financial advisors is the new way you prospect for clients. No more cold calling, door knocking, or cheesy seminar dinners.
You can learn more with this free eBook I created, Lead Generation in a Digital Age.
As always, thank you for reading, please consider me a resource.
Best Regards,
Derek
