How Franchise Service Brands Can Stay Top of Mind with Local Facebook Advertising

Most people live by the motto “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” You don’t get an oil change for the heck of it or hire a lawn service when there’s snow on the ground. Yet we all know circumstances change. At some point, your oil will need to be changed, or your lawn will need to be mowed. Service franchise brands operate on need, making paid local social advertising a necessity to stay top of mind.

Why Social Posts Aren’t Enough

Posting on Facebook only reaches people who have already interacted with your local franchisee by liking their local business page, and at that, organic posts reach only 2% of the business page’s fans. Both posting and advertising from local pages are clearly going to be more relevant to local customers, since they’re coming from a business in their community. But Facebook’s algorithm can have a big impact on how many people actually see your posts. With more and more content created on Facebook every day, organic reach continues to steadily decline.

Why Local Social is Necessary for Service Industries

When need strikes, potential customers want to know where to get service from the quickest and closest location. Franchises tend to emphasize their national advertising campaigns to promote their services, but this requires potential customers to take an extra step to find the location that services their area. By extending the customer’s purchase journey, you’re enabling your competitors to swoop in and scoop up customers that could have been yours. By not localizing their campaigns, brands are missing out on the opportunity to drive real results. With social media, you can reach potential customers when and where it counts. Localized campaigns are personalized with the best messaging for the franchisee’s market and direct customers exactly where they need to go. 

How Local Social Maintains Credibility

Service franchise brands experience down times and up times, especially seasonal businesses. Social advertising can keep your franchisees top of mind during the lulls, highlight changes in business (think lawn care to snow plowing in northern climates), and generate exponential business during the busy season. Maintain credibility through social advertising by actively engaging potential customers with ads that resonate all year long. A free vehicle inspection ad could spark a customer to return for an oil change when needed. A restoration service that offers prevention tips for water, fire, or mold damage will showcase their expertise to customers and remain top of mind when a problem occurs. A cleaning service that advertises a nursery organization webcast could draw in loads of new moms that need a helping hand late in pregnancy or when the little one arrives. 

Service franchise brands should not live by the motto “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” when it comes to social advertising. Local social advertising highly complements your national campaigns. In fact, if you’re only running social advertising at the national level, you’re essentially using only half of Facebook’s power, exponentially decreasing your opportunity to activate sales in a competitive market.