Let's have a quick talk about Facebook. Generally speaking, for architects to generate clients on Facebook, I’m not the biggest fan because I’ve seen many people try and not get much from it. However, during a discussion in the Slack channel not too long ago, I mentioned Facebook, and someone asked a question. I said I’m not a big fan, but someone responded saying they had tried Facebook and found it fantastic.
When I heard this, I spoke to Victoria Reed and asked her to give me a rundown of what she did. Here’s her story. I’ll preface this by saying Facebook won't be right for everyone, but sometimes it can be really good if certain conditions fit for you.
Victoria set up a budgeting guide as a monkey's fist and started promoting it with paid promotions on Facebook in December and January, as the new year is traditionally a very quiet time for her firm. It’s the middle of summer in New Zealand. She had to stop promoting it because there were too many leads. Victoria said she won’t start doing any more Facebook paid promotions until she has all her new stuff set up, i.e., once she has gone through the sixth course.
That’s interesting, isn't it? She had to stop promoting it because there were too many leads. We asked her to tell us more. Victoria targeted men and women aged 40 to 60 who live in three specific locations. On Facebook, you can specify who you want the ad to reach, which is one of its powerful features. In her rural area, she chose specific towns where she gets most of her work. Seventy percent of the people who responded were women.
Victoria thinks it worked well because everyone is on holiday at that time of year, and people seem to have time to discuss a new project with their partner. While the year is usually slow to take off, this prompted people to take action earlier.
We asked for more specifics. For the December posts, Victoria spent $49 and reached 2,378 people. Out of these, 71 clicked on the link to the downloads. She gained 73 new likes over the December-January period. She had 23 people requesting downloads, and others used her contact form to contact her directly. Victoria needs to go through her website contacts to find out exactly when jobs came in, but she knows five projects are currently underway. Two were not a good fit, two have fee proposals that are yet unsigned, and one is still in the discussion phase and has had an initial studio visit.
To summarize, Victoria spent $49, and 39% of the people who clicked contacted her. Seventy-seven percent were women. Twenty-three people downloaded her report. She got five projects underway, two weren't a fit, two are at the fee proposal stage, and someone else has been into her studio. All for $49.
Now, let’s look at what she did. Here’s her Facebook ad: "Victoria Reed Architecture." I’m not really going to comment on it other than to say it was effective. You can set up a Facebook promotion like this tomorrow. Here's why we think she did so well and why it might not work for everyone.
The ad read: "Thinking of building a house next year and don't know where to start? Pick up copies of our free eGuides and discover everything you need to know about planning your dream home." It included a link to download the guide straight to the inbox.
The ad reached 2,441 people. When they clicked on the ad, they were taken to a landing page with a resource center, offering a free budgeting guide. They entered their name and contact details and received the document.
The possible reasons for this success include the holiday season, which gave people more time. She targeted small towns with presumably low competition. There aren’t many architects advertising on Facebook in her area, so there wasn’t much competition.
So, while Facebook won’t work for everyone, let’s review the numbers: $49 spent, 39% of those who downloaded the report contacted her, 77% were women, 23 people downloaded the report. Of those, five projects are underway, two weren’t a fit, and two are possibilities.
Clearly, Facebook can work for architects, depending on the context. |
