Facebook advertising
Discussion
Our 1 year old and fast growing taxi business needs to get its card onto facebook pages of all over 16s in 3 postcodes.
Anyone know anyone who has experience of putting this (really simple) thing in place successfully without trying extortionate charging or effing it up one way or another?
Preferably based in Scotland and definitely not outside UK.
Thx
Anyone know anyone who has experience of putting this (really simple) thing in place successfully without trying extortionate charging or effing it up one way or another?
Preferably based in Scotland and definitely not outside UK.
Thx
Spend the money on getting some really good, eye catching content done and do the promo yourself. It's really not that difficult once you realise that a lot of the options and data and functions are largely superfluous.
And don't rely on Facebook alone unless your core demographic is drunk pre-divorcee middle age women. You need Insta and TikTok as well. Instagram runs from the same platform as Facebook (called Meta) so you set your ads up there and they appear on both platforms.
Facebook offer a one to one video based tutorial service for free. It's rather good, I have to say.
And don't rely on Facebook alone unless your core demographic is drunk pre-divorcee middle age women. You need Insta and TikTok as well. Instagram runs from the same platform as Facebook (called Meta) so you set your ads up there and they appear on both platforms.
Facebook offer a one to one video based tutorial service for free. It's rather good, I have to say.
I contacted about a dozen "businesses" that claim to deal with Facebook advertising. Quite the strange experience. Even spoke with a few humans.
All but three wanted to supply services we really don't want or need along with a whole lot of suggestions and ideas about what we really should want and need but not what we were actually looking for.
Of the three who could do what we want, one was way too special and important (and expensive) for the likes of us but seemed determined that I grasp the notion that cheap and good quality are different. Bless!
Another one was much more expensive than the only one who really did seem to fully grasp what we wanted (rather than what he thought we should want) plus told us how he could do it. He was supposed to phone me yesterday to get an account set up, but blanked it. And when he did phone today he explained that having talked to his partner, there were a few extra (chunky) costs to be brought into the equation.
So I told him I'd get back to him (as you do when you've no intention of doing so) and the bizarre adventure continues.
All but three wanted to supply services we really don't want or need along with a whole lot of suggestions and ideas about what we really should want and need but not what we were actually looking for.
Of the three who could do what we want, one was way too special and important (and expensive) for the likes of us but seemed determined that I grasp the notion that cheap and good quality are different. Bless!
Another one was much more expensive than the only one who really did seem to fully grasp what we wanted (rather than what he thought we should want) plus told us how he could do it. He was supposed to phone me yesterday to get an account set up, but blanked it. And when he did phone today he explained that having talked to his partner, there were a few extra (chunky) costs to be brought into the equation.
So I told him I'd get back to him (as you do when you've no intention of doing so) and the bizarre adventure continues.
My wife runs a children's nursery. She has never needed to advertise as the business has a long history (60 years).
I advised her to pop the odd add onto Facebook every now and again just reminding people to book spaces for the up and coming school year (nursery is term time only) (you'd be surprised how many parents leave childcare to the last minute)
Facebook ads worked pretty well. What made the biggest difference was adding a pin to google maps (free to do)
I advised her to pop the odd add onto Facebook every now and again just reminding people to book spaces for the up and coming school year (nursery is term time only) (you'd be surprised how many parents leave childcare to the last minute)
Facebook ads worked pretty well. What made the biggest difference was adding a pin to google maps (free to do)
Portia5 said:
Who has now disappeared!! 
Wot a circus!
Portia5 said:
Our 1 year old and fast growing taxi business needs to get its card onto facebook pages of all over 16s in 3 postcodes.
Do you actually mean just 3 postcodes - that would be only max ~150 households? Probably not enough. Issue is Facebook doesn't capture user location to the postcode level. You could say location = Glasgow but presumably Glasgow's too big for you to cover the entirety of the city?
44,760 addresses in those postcodes including businesses. Presumably you want the businesses too as they use taxis.
The issue is still you can't target that tightly on facebook - and you'd obviously miss people who aren't on facebook.
How about leaflet dropping all those addresses? If you like I can send you an excel with all the addresses. Maybe somebody else can weigh in with approx cost of leafleting them all.
The issue is still you can't target that tightly on facebook - and you'd obviously miss people who aren't on facebook.
How about leaflet dropping all those addresses? If you like I can send you an excel with all the addresses. Maybe somebody else can weigh in with approx cost of leafleting them all.
Edited by jonsp on Friday 27th October 13:13
I think you are probably going into this with a level of ignorance if I'm honest.
Saying it is super simple when it isn't. The platform is a minefield and isn't the work of a moment to learn.
Also if you have already spoken to multiple people and agencies and no one has told you yet that you can't actually target by postcode then you are probs scraping the bottom of the barrel.
There are other things to think about too for a taxi business. Are you looking to show for people who live in that area, or for people who are actually in that area at that moment in time? (travelled there by train etc)
If you want a proper service in this market you have to be prepared to pay proper money. As with anything in digital, dealing with the freelance dude above is a lottery as you have found.
Hyper local campaigns like this can be run but they take a fair bit of management and expense so it has to be worth it for both yourself and the agency.
Beware of anyone who tells you they will just set up a facebook campaign for you for a 1 off fee and you can just let it run.
Even with the absolute best guesses made at the start the content and campaign will fatigue quickly.
Saying it is super simple when it isn't. The platform is a minefield and isn't the work of a moment to learn.
Also if you have already spoken to multiple people and agencies and no one has told you yet that you can't actually target by postcode then you are probs scraping the bottom of the barrel.
There are other things to think about too for a taxi business. Are you looking to show for people who live in that area, or for people who are actually in that area at that moment in time? (travelled there by train etc)
If you want a proper service in this market you have to be prepared to pay proper money. As with anything in digital, dealing with the freelance dude above is a lottery as you have found.
Hyper local campaigns like this can be run but they take a fair bit of management and expense so it has to be worth it for both yourself and the agency.
Beware of anyone who tells you they will just set up a facebook campaign for you for a 1 off fee and you can just let it run.
Even with the absolute best guesses made at the start the content and campaign will fatigue quickly.
jonsp said:
44,760 addresses in those postcodes including businesses. Presumably you want the businesses too as they use taxis.
The issue is still you can't target that tightly on facebook - and you'd obviously miss people who aren't on facebook.
How about leaflet dropping all those addresses? If you like I can send you an excel with all the addresses. Maybe somebody else can weigh in with approx cost of leafleting them all.
Yes, of course we want the businesses too. The issue is still you can't target that tightly on facebook - and you'd obviously miss people who aren't on facebook.
How about leaflet dropping all those addresses? If you like I can send you an excel with all the addresses. Maybe somebody else can weigh in with approx cost of leafleting them all.
Edited by jonsp on Friday 27th October 13:13
Actually we do carding round the doors rather than leafletting. Fulltime team of 3, 2 cards per door. After referral it's far and away the best driver of new business and always has been and probably always will be.
We leaflet bomb city centres too. And sandwich boards and corex boards and this that and the next thing.
But we want to try this new-fangled electronic internet marketing stuff!!
bigweb said:
Also if you have already spoken to multiple people and agencies and no one has told you yet that you can't actually target by postcode then you are probs scraping the bottom of the barrel.
In fairness he's been told exactly that in this thread - for free. Clearly a Facebook agency looking to earn aren't going to tell him that,
bigweb said:
I think you are probably going into this with a level of ignorance if I'm honest.
Saying it is super simple when it isn't. The platform is a minefield and isn't the work of a moment to learn.
Also if you have already spoken to multiple people and agencies and no one has told you yet that you can't actually target by postcode then you are probs scraping the bottom of the barrel.
There are other things to think about too for a taxi business. Are you looking to show for people who live in that area, or for people who are actually in that area at that moment in time? (travelled there by train etc)
If you want a proper service in this market you have to be prepared to pay proper money. As with anything in digital, dealing with the freelance dude above is a lottery as you have found.
Hyper local campaigns like this can be run but they take a fair bit of management and expense so it has to be worth it for both yourself and the agency.
Beware of anyone who tells you they will just set up a facebook campaign for you for a 1 off fee and you can just let it run.
Even with the absolute best guesses made at the start the content and campaign will fatigue quickly.
I don't and never will use facebook so ignorance of it and its processes are a given.Saying it is super simple when it isn't. The platform is a minefield and isn't the work of a moment to learn.
Also if you have already spoken to multiple people and agencies and no one has told you yet that you can't actually target by postcode then you are probs scraping the bottom of the barrel.
There are other things to think about too for a taxi business. Are you looking to show for people who live in that area, or for people who are actually in that area at that moment in time? (travelled there by train etc)
If you want a proper service in this market you have to be prepared to pay proper money. As with anything in digital, dealing with the freelance dude above is a lottery as you have found.
Hyper local campaigns like this can be run but they take a fair bit of management and expense so it has to be worth it for both yourself and the agency.
Beware of anyone who tells you they will just set up a facebook campaign for you for a 1 off fee and you can just let it run.
Even with the absolute best guesses made at the start the content and campaign will fatigue quickly.
What we want.... really really want..... is really simple. We want the card that we put thru doors appearing on the local person's facebook page when they go onto it. And we DON"T want it appearing on pages anywhere other than a trio of postcodes.
Taxis is a bit weird for marketing. Things that are great for most businesses (radio advertising for example) are useless for taxis. So we were hoping to put a toe in the water and see if the card-on-the-page idea worked.
But from what you've said (good stuff, thanks!) it's looking like a non-starter. And from previous experience with a loan brokerage, there is no way on God's green earth that we will throw hefty money at anything internetty-marketing ever again without toe-in-the-water proof.
Cheers.
Portia5 said:
bigweb said:
I think you are probably going into this with a level of ignorance if I'm honest.
Saying it is super simple when it isn't. The platform is a minefield and isn't the work of a moment to learn.
Also if you have already spoken to multiple people and agencies and no one has told you yet that you can't actually target by postcode then you are probs scraping the bottom of the barrel.
There are other things to think about too for a taxi business. Are you looking to show for people who live in that area, or for people who are actually in that area at that moment in time? (travelled there by train etc)
If you want a proper service in this market you have to be prepared to pay proper money. As with anything in digital, dealing with the freelance dude above is a lottery as you have found.
Hyper local campaigns like this can be run but they take a fair bit of management and expense so it has to be worth it for both yourself and the agency.
Beware of anyone who tells you they will just set up a facebook campaign for you for a 1 off fee and you can just let it run.
Even with the absolute best guesses made at the start the content and campaign will fatigue quickly.
I don't and never will use facebook so ignorance of it and its processes are a given.Saying it is super simple when it isn't. The platform is a minefield and isn't the work of a moment to learn.
Also if you have already spoken to multiple people and agencies and no one has told you yet that you can't actually target by postcode then you are probs scraping the bottom of the barrel.
There are other things to think about too for a taxi business. Are you looking to show for people who live in that area, or for people who are actually in that area at that moment in time? (travelled there by train etc)
If you want a proper service in this market you have to be prepared to pay proper money. As with anything in digital, dealing with the freelance dude above is a lottery as you have found.
Hyper local campaigns like this can be run but they take a fair bit of management and expense so it has to be worth it for both yourself and the agency.
Beware of anyone who tells you they will just set up a facebook campaign for you for a 1 off fee and you can just let it run.
Even with the absolute best guesses made at the start the content and campaign will fatigue quickly.
What we want.... really really want..... is really simple. We want the card that we put thru doors appearing on the local person's facebook page when they go onto it. And we DON"T want it appearing on pages anywhere other than a trio of postcodes.
Taxis is a bit weird for marketing. Things that are great for most businesses (radio advertising for example) are useless for taxis. So we were hoping to put a toe in the water and see if the card-on-the-page idea worked.
But from what you've said (good stuff, thanks!) it's looking like a non-starter. And from previous experience with a loan brokerage, there is no way on God's green earth that we will throw hefty money at anything internetty-marketing ever again without toe-in-the-water proof.
Cheers.
I can save you any more bother then. It doesn't work like that and isn't possible so don't give money to anyone who tells you otherwise.
Portia5 said:
Portia5 said:
Who has now disappeared!! Wot a circus!
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