Welcome to the final post of a three part series focusing developing a comprehensive digital marketing strategy involving Facebook Ads. This version of the post will concentrate on helping Restaurants and Bars learn how to leverage Facebook Ads to dominate their competition. I reference a video later in the post, but feel free to watch this demonstration of how to setup detailed targeting options within a Facebook Ad for an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, and a bar in Wildwood, NJ. Two of my favorite places!
The Power of Social Media
What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
…Check your phone?
…Check your social media channels?
…Check your email?
Social Media Today suggests the average person will spend nearly 2 hours on social media everyday! This presents tremendous potential for you, a restaurant or bar owner, to tap into a new market by meeting people where they are.
To cultivate a successful marketing strategy, you have to consider where you will invest your hard earned dollars. Statistics show that a large percentage of your marketing budget should be allocated to digital marketing—specifically through social media. To figure out how much and where to invest these dollars, you have to determine exactly where your target audience is spending their time on social media.
Investing Marketing Dollars
According to Sprout Social Facebook Has More Than 2 Billion daily active users.
To add context to this statistic, TechCrunch shares data comparing the amount of Facebook’s monthly users to their primary competitors. In summary:
- Youtube has 1.5 billion monthly active users
- Instagram has 700 million monthly active users
- Twitter has 328 million monthly active users
- Snapchat has an estimated 255 million monthly active users
Take a look at this Infographic from a MediaKix that illustrates how long users spend on these social media outlets each day.
Depending on WHO your audience is, the outlined statistics will help you determine which social media channel you need to invest in. At the moment, Facebook is the industry leader. Meanwhile, you have to be aware of trends, and emerging markets. Although Facebook is the current leader, millenials are spending most of their time on Instagram and Snapchat. While Facebook offers the most potential NOW, business owners have to keep an eye on the future to get ahead of the competition.
Today, Facebook presents you with the ability to gain unmatched ROI through as little as $1 per day using Facebook ads.
Facebook Ads
At VujaDay Creative Digital Agency, we recently have had the good fortune of designing websites for several restaurants and bars. Despite past success, these businesses are searching for a way to gain an advantage over their competitors because of market saturation. Basically, there is more supply than demand in the restaurant and bar industry. Add to this, the fact that foot delivery platforms like UberEATS make it really easy for someone to get takeout rather than going to a restaurant.
You have to give customers a reason to visit your restaurant, AND you have to make it easy for them to find you online.
…ENTER FACEBOOK ADS!
In populated areas, people are likely to see multiple restaurants and or bars within a small radius—again, more supply than demand. If you own one of these establishments, how do you differentiate from the restaurant across the street who offers a similar experience to you?
Do you hand out flyers?
Do you pay an exorbitant amount of money for a billboard or tv/radio ad, without a guaranteed level of ROI to match your investment? See this post for pricing examples.
Do you rely on word of mouth?
Perhaps…
Consider this…marketing strategies that worked 10 years ago, 5 years, or even 2 years ago, DO NOT work anymore. There is too much competition for any restaurant or bar to stand out using this antiquated approach.
Social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram represent a lucrative, yet inexpensive opportunity for restaurants and bars to stand out in a competitive landscape.
Here are 2 simple, yet powerful reasons that you need to start using Facebook Ads if you’re not currently:
- YOU’RE LOSING MONEY
- YOUR COMPETITORS ARE USING THEM
Detailed Targeting
Facebook Ads offer a cheap, effective, marketing strategy to get very precise with who your ads reach. Furthermore, you only pay when your ad reaches exactly who you are targeting. For example, if you own an Irish bar in Northeast Philadelphia, Facebook will not put your ad in front of someone located in California who prefers Chinese food. As a restaurant owner, you can set your Facebook Ads to only reach specific groups of people, which you will see below.
Below is a screenshot of Facebook Ads Manager Detailed Targeting options:
In terms of location, you can be very precise through Geo-targeting specific cities, zip codes, counties etc.
Take a look at this video I put together that demonstrates the process of setting up detailed targeting for an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, PA, and a bar in Wildwood, NJ.
Within Facebook Ad Manager, the process is not difficult to setup once you are familiar with how to configure campaigns, including generating user personas and campaign goals/objectives. On the other hand, restaurant owners have to make the decision to either learn how to effectively create and launch a digital market strategy involving Facebook Ads, or partner up with an agency that has the knowledge and expertise to handle this work for you.
At VujaDay Creative Digital Agency, we have the knowledge and experience to handle Facebook Ads for you—and it is surprisingly affordable. For less than you spend on electricity or 2 tickets to an Eagles game, you can start running Facebook Ads with us. If you’re not convinced that they will earn you more money, we’re done.
Don’t be left out of this important marketing expansion because you think agencies are for the big guys…Not true…Though if you wouldn’t mind becoming a big guy, then Facebook Ads are absolutely essential to your growth.
To fully evaluate whether hiring an agency will offer a high return on investment, we recommend the following considerations:
- Are you going to gain new customers?
- Will outsourcing offer you increased flexibility?
- Do you know an agency that you can trust?
- Do you have the budget for this?
- If not, can you reallocate funds toward digital marketing?
Ultimately the goal is to build a partnership with an agency who provide high ROI while also presenting a collaborative effort which can be measured by high levels of:
- Trust
- Performance
- Cooperation
- Solutions to existing problems
How Does Facebook Know That About Me?!
Facebook knows which ads to put in front of you based on past activity. To see how they do this, go to “Settings,” then “Ads,” or click here.
This is where you will find what Facebook knows about you, including your interests, advertisers you’ve interacted with, posts you’ve liked, links you’ve clicked and more.
Here is an interesting example from the recent Time Magazine article I Found Out Everything Facebook Knows About Me — And You Can Too, where the author tests out what Facebook knows about her.
Most of mine made sense, or I could at least figure out why Facebook predicts I like them. Origami, while not one of my actual interests, shows up probably because I took an origami class in college. Adventure travel probably comes up because I recently checked in at a brunch restaurant in Montreal. Versace is there not because I like the brand’s clothes but probably because I’ve been binge-watching American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace and frequently Googling the facts of the case.
Although Facebook claims it doesn’t sell user data (see recent Facebook privacy scandal), it does help advertisers target their ads based on data from your activity.
All of the tools are there for you, a restaurant or bar owner, to use Facebook as a proven, cost effective strategy to gain new clients. It is now up to you to decide if you want do this in-house, or hire a team to help you develop a digital marketing strategy involving Facebook Ads. At VujaDay, we can do both! We will spend time training you how to develop a creative plan of action or we can craft and implement that plan of action for you. WE WILL ALSO PERFORM A FREE, COMPREHENSIVE DIGITAL AUDIT FOR YOU, to tell you where you stand in terms of your overall digital presence (SEO, Website, Social Media Presence, and more!)
