Today we're going to talk about Facebook ads and Instagram ads to retargeting strategy for coaches. I want to help you understand how you could use ads to boost your visibility without working more hours because ads really are going to save you time.
There's always a balance in marketing of time vs. money. So you can spend no money on ads, but spend more time posting everywhere on social media.
But eventually there’s a point in your business where it makes sense to leverage the power of ads so that you can spend more of your time serving your clients.
Retargeting is a way to balance this out for you to save you some time, while keeping you in front of people who are interested in what you're talking about.
What is Facebook ads retargeting?
What does retargeting actually mean? In ads land, there is targeting and retargeting.
Retargeting is a type of targeting kind of like a square is a type of a rectangle. But targeting is not retargeting.
Targeting is just telling Ads Manager who you want to see your ad.
Retargeting is to target your ads to people who already know. These are also known as warm audiences. I like to think about that because these people have started warming up to you. They may have watched one of your videos on Instagram, they may have gone to your website and they're starting to know who you are.
Targeting can refer to setting your ads up so that the audience is only brand new people who have never heard of you before. Also known as a cold audience.
That's not what we're talking about today. We’re focusing on showing ads to people who already know you to move them along in their customer journey.
I also wanted to note when you're in Facebook ads manager if you're someone who's going to DIY, you will see this called Custom Audiences when you set them up and when you put them in your ad set. So that's a good term to know when you go in to do these ads.
Custom audiences and warm audiences refer to the same thing - groups of people who already know you.
Custom audiences are what you set up in Ads Manager to be able to retarget those people with ads.
Why should you use retargeting ads?
Why should you bother to pay for ads to people who already know you? Don't you pay for ads to people who don't know you so that you can grow? Right? Yes, I mean, I think it's at a certain point in your business. It's good to do both.
When you're at six figures or and beyond and you're scaling. If you’re not there yet, I would start with retargeting before I would go into the cold targeting.
And here are really two reasons that you would do retargeting ads to the people who already know you.
To nurture your people
They say that somebody needs to see your product, offer or brand seven times, at least before they can decide to buy from you.
One of the ways that you can create some of those seven occurrences is with these retargeting ads. These ads will help your people to start to recognize your name, your face, your branding, your vibe, and your expertise.
Overlooking the need to nurture your audience is a mistake that I’ve seen way too many coaches making.
In my first year of running ads, I started working with a coach and doing a list building ad. We were targeting new people. And we were getting a whole bunch of subscribers for her email list.
She grew her email list by something like 1000 people in a couple months. But then she was not emailing them!
By the way, emailing is another way that you can nurture and it can be very powerful to do like a retargeting ad and email people at the same time. But she was doing neither of those things. She was not nurturing in any way shape or form.
She had a Facebook group but I don't think she was inviting these people to join the Facebook group. And she didn’t post in the group regularly either.
So, we had a lot of success with growing her list but didn't have a lot of success with growing her business with new clients because the nurturing wasn't there.
Getting people on your email list is actually one of the best ways to nurture them, as I already said, but it's just so true. I feel like email gets overlooked a lot of the time for these flashy things like Instagram reels, TikTok and other social media.
Email is just so good for nurturing your people. And it's also very cost effective!
Let's say I have an ad for $1 a day for one of these nurturing ads. That means I’m going to spend $30 a month. With that same $30 I could pay for a 1 month subscription to ConvertKit and be able to email up to 1000 subscribers as many times as I want to throughout the month!
With a Facebook ad, I might reach 1000 people with a $30 ad spend. But it’s not as impactful for people to see an ad on social media as it is for them to read an email.
All this to say, don’t neglect your email list building in favor of these retargeting ads! Ideally, you want to be doing both.
To sell products and programs
Let’s get into the exciting part - using your ads to make more money!
So one example of this is if you're doing a traditional type of launch where there's a limited time where people can join your course or program. Let's say it's like a week. You can run retargeting ads during that week while the program is open.
This way you can make sure that all of the people who may be interested in buying know that your doors are open and they can get started now.
I've done that for a lot of my clients when we've done launches like a webinar or a five day challenge launch.
This can be low hanging fruit to make more sales, because these are people who are interested in your topic of expertise. And you just want to make sure that they know all the details and they can decide if now is the right time to buy.
Another kind of ad you can do to sell is for a course, program or digital product that's evergreen. You can keep this one running all the time. If you have a lead magnet and email sequence that aligns with your course, you could set up your ads to retarget people who sign up for this lead magnet.
You could also retarget people who visit the sales page for your course and remind them to buy if they haven’t yet.
The last one which I don't see a lot of people doing but I think is very intriguing is for high end coaches and programs.
If you have a high value offer, like $3k or higher, it could be an interesting idea to run a messenger ad and retarget people asking them to DM you about your program. Then you can start Messenger conversations with people to qualify them as potential candidates for working with you.
This type of ad could be extremely useful for getting those conversations started and kind of giving people the push and the permission to reach out to you and find out more information.
What audiences can you retarget with Facebook ads?
Again, these are called Custom Audiences when you're inside Meta Ads Manager land.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of these audiences that I think can work well if you're a coach, service provider, or course creator.
You can retarget your email list with ads. Or, if you have thousands of people on your list, you could also retarget a certain segment of those people who are likely to be most interested in your content.
Another audience to retarget is your website visitors. Retargeting people who visit a sales page for your course or who have signed up for a lead magnet can be very powerful.
Then we have video viewers. These are the people who watch 3+ seconds of your videos on Instagram and Facebook.
Next is Facebook page engagement. These are the people who like, comment, share, visit the page, or send you a DM. Please note that this is your business Facebook page, not your personal page.
Then you can do the same thing with your Instagram engagement audience.You need to have your account set up as either a business profile or a creator profile so that you can retarget people.
So if you would like to know how to set these up, and more details about how to plan these out, you can sign up for my free lead magnet which is called the Facebook Ads Retargeting Goldmine.
I just updated and refreshed this guide for 2022. It has screenshots included of where to go and how to create your custom audiences.
It’s totally free and you can sign up here.
Audiences you can’t retarget with Facebook ads
The first audience that you can’t retarget with FB/IG ads is Facebook group members.
The way around this is to make an offer that moves people from the Facebook group into one of the other custom audiences that I mentioned above.
My favorite way to do this is to promote your lead magnet in your group.
Then, when people sign up, you'll have their email address and you can retarget them with your email list audience.
Another strategy is to make a video on your Facebook business page and share it into a group. That way, anyone who watches it for 3+ seconds will be in your video views custom audience.
You also can’t retarget people who follow you on other social media platforms that aren’t part of Meta - TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.
However, you can try the same types of strategies that I just mentioned about the Facebook group. Tell people on every platform about your free lead magnet and get them onto your email list.
Side note on retargeting YouTube viewers. I've definitely had clients who are like, “Hey, I have a big YouTube channel. Can I target these people with my Facebook ads?”
The answer is no, but you can retarget them with Google ads! I don’t think that many people are doing this because I watch a ton of YouTube. And I have never seen ads from any of the channels that I watch.
I feel like this may be an underutilized option for YouTubers.
The last type of audience that you can’t retarget would be people who engage with your personal Instagram account or Facebook page.
Be sure to invite your Facebook friends to like your Facebook business page and then they’ll be in your engagement audience.
Instagram is a little bit different. You can have two profiles. I have a personal one that’s mostly for me to keep up with the Bachelor Nation gossip.
Then, I have a business Instagram profile that I use to connect with my audience.
You can either convert your personal Instagram into a business or creator profile.
Or you can create a second you and have two different profiles. Just make sure if you do have a dedicated business profile, double check that it is either a business or creator account.
You don’t want to miss the chance to retarget the people who engage with your business Insta!
What kind of copy, videos or images should you use for Facebook retargeting ads?
Your copy and creative elements are going to be different for your two seperate goals.
Remember, one goal is nurturing and the other is selling.
The easiest way to decide what content to run as nurturing ads is to look at your insights and choose your best performing content.
Think about something successful that you posted on Instagram, like a reel that got thousands of views.
Let’s make sure that more people see this! You can turn that reel into an ad to make sure that your warm audiences all see it too.
You only need to spend $1 a day so more people can see your best stuff.
Then we have testimonials and success stories from your current clients. These can be very powerful. A good story can be a great ad.
You could tell your personal story and journey with how you became the expert that you are. Or you could tell a story about a client who you’ve worked with to help them create a huge transformation.
People like to read stories. They’re engaging and they can catch people's attention.
Now, with the nurturing content, you want to think about keeping people on Facebook and Instagram to consume it.
You're not sending them to your website to purchase or sign up for your email list. You’re providing value, insight and inspiration. And you’re building authority and know-like-trust with your audience.
As far as images and videos, if you’re a personal brand then you want to show your face! Use selfies or selfie videos to help people start recognizing you online.
When you’re planning an ad that’s meant to sell, you want to provide a sense of urgency in your copy. Let them know if there’s a deadline to sign up for your program or if you have a limited number of spots available.
You can also do a special sale, like a 20% off promotion for a limited time. An early bird price is a great way to do this for programs that you launch once or twice a year.
A lot of business coaches will tell you - don't ever offer discounts. And you definitely don’t have to. As long as you create a sense of urgency or scarcity, you’ll catch people’s attention.
You can use testimonials and success stories here as well. But for a sales ad, you want to give a call to action at the end of your text.
That can be to go to your sales page and purchase your course or to DM you for more info about your high-end coaching program.
Again, I love using videos and images of you for these ads.
This also has a secondary effect of continuing to nurture people as they’re seeing a sales ad.
Again the two ways you can use your retargeting ads is to nurture your people and to sell to people. And you want to kind of be strategic about the content that you use for each one.
And you don't have to spend a lot of money to do this. You can spend $5- $10 a day depending to run your sales ads. Even $1 a day just to start one nurture post could be helpful.
Here’s my call to action for you. I have that new and updated Retargeting Goldmine guide that I mentioned earlier.
To learn more about custom audiences and how to set them up, click here to download the guide for free.