Have you considered using FaceBook Ads to market your bookkeeping business?
As your bookkeeping side-hustle begins to turn in to your main business, you might want to use Facebook Ads to find new clients.
Digital Marketing expert Paul Trapani, Owner of Biscuit Ridge Media, answers some questions about how to use targeted Facebook Ads to grow your bookkeeping business. There is some awesome DIY advice here for the thrifty hustler.
If you decide to hire out this part of your business, reach out to him for a FREE consultation. They specialize in helping Tax/Accounting/Bookkeeping companies.
You can also come over to the Bookkeeping Side Hustle Group on Facebook and tag Paul in a post if you have advertising questions for him.
One final comment from Kate here. This advice from Paul is not for the side-hustler who wants to have just a handful of clients and work a few hours a week. This advice is for the person who wants to turn this into a full-time, thriving business. Check out these “Guerrilla Marketing” tactics if you need some things you can do for free.
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Interview with Paul Trapani, Owner, Biscuit Ridge Media
What are your top 3 tips for utilizing Facebook to market a bookkeeping business?
1) Always be A/B testing your Facebook Ads because you never really know what’s going to succeed. There’s just not a one-size-fits-all guide on Facebook advertising that’s going to work for everyone. All types of advertising, including on Facebook, requires testing, iterating, and improving.
2) Make sure your ad has a clear value proposition so viewers know exactly why they should click on your ad. If a Facebook user sees your ad and isn’t able to immediately understand your firm’s value proposition, they’re going to keep on scrolling past it. For example, if you can help a dentist save thousands each year, say that in your ad. What dentist wouldn’t click on your ad if they knew you could save them thousands?
3) Don’t overthink your audience targeting. If you’re a bookkeeping firm in Los Angeles specializing in helping restaurants, target restaurant owners in Los Angeles. That’s it. Don’t complicate your audience targeting further. Facebook’s algorithms are extremely smart, so you’ll see better results by allowing the algorithms to do more of the work by broad targeting as compared to micro-target your audience.
How much of a FaceBook advertising budget does a bookkeeper need to have success?
A lot of Facebook advertising “experts” claim you can achieve great results for just $5/day. However, that’s rarely true. Most bookkeepers who are starting to advertise on Facebook should budget for a minimum ad spend of $15-$30/day and plan to maintain that for at least 2-3 months. Advertising on Facebook is a real investment that requires time and commitment.
What are some common mistakes that beginning bookkeepers might make when trying Facebook advertising?
The biggest mistake for bookkeepers, and many others, who are just starting with Facebook Ads is not doing enough testing. Many bookkeepers will create their first ad, spend a few hundred dollars on it, and then give up on Facebook Ads altogether because they didn’t get any results.
In reality, not even expert Facebook advertisers get great results (if any at all) from their first ad. It just doesn’t happen. That’s why an expert would run the ad again, or create multiple ads, with variations in the ad copy, image, headline, call to action, audience targeting, landing page, etc.
When conducting A/B testing like this, some ads will perform better than others. So turn off the losing ads and double down on the winning ads by creating more variations of the winners. After multiple A/B tests, the best ads will be generating new clients like clockwork.
Do you have any favorite free resources for learning how to write great advertising copy for bookkeeping Facebook Ads?
AdEspresso and Hubspot are great free resources for learning about writing winning Facebook ads. Both offer free training, guides, and analyses.
Any last bits of advice for successfully using Facebook to find virtual bookkeeping clients?
Even though you may have not have had success before, don’t be afraid to invest in advertising on Facebook. Facebook Ads work for millions of businesses, and they can certainly work for yours too. Craft your message carefully, make your value proposition the star of your ads, and keep on testing. You’ll soon see an excellent ROI for your ads.
How does a bookkeeping firm know when they should outsource to an advertising agency like Biscuit Ridge Media?
Bookkeeping firms that are just starting out, or are nearly out of business, should not hire an advertising agency of any kind. Any ad agency isn’t going to generate your very first client or save your existing clients from leaving.
Ad agencies like mine, Biscuit Ridge Media, help established tax, accounting, and bookkeeping firms scale their businesses. So if your firm has grown organically, or you have successfully managed your own ads so far, perhaps it’s time to bring on an ad agency to help you amplify your results and take your firm to the next level.
Have more questions for Paul Trapani? Come over to the Bookkeeping Side Hustle FaceBook Group and tag him. Or reach him at his company, Biscuit Ridge Media.