Ep 27: Five Ways to Boost Your Local Ad Conversions

If you’ve tried Facebook or Instagram ads for your local business and thought, “These just don’t work for me” — this episode is for you.

Today, I’m breaking down 5 proven ways to get your ads to convert into actual local clients (not just clicks, likes, or “interest”).

I’ve worked with 120+ local business owners inside my ads program, plus hundreds more through done-for-you services and strategy sessions. And I can confidently tell you this:
ads do work — but only when a few key pieces are in place.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why consistency matters more than budget
• The ad manager settings that quietly kill conversions (and what to use instead)
• Why clearer, longer copy often converts better than “pretty” creatives
• How retargeting ads turn warm interest into real sales
• The follow-up system that most businesses skip — and pay for later

I’m also sharing real client examples, common mistakes I see every single day, and how small tweaks can drastically improve results without increasing ad spend.

If you want ads that:
 ✔ Bring in real inquiries
 ✔ Convert into paying clients
 ✔ Work in the background while you run your business

This episode will give you clarity fast.

Ready to implement all of this with support?

🚀 Join Hometown Advantage
My 4-month local ads coaching program where you get:

• Step-by-step ad tutorials
• Copy frameworks + examples
• Retargeting strategies
• Automatic lead follow-up systems
• Unlimited ad & data reviews
• Weekly group coaching + Slack support

🎉 January Bonus:

• $500 off (now $1,800 or $450/month x4)
• 4 months of Local Content Club
• Access to our February Ads Launch Sprint

👉 Join here:
https://www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/hometown

Or comment HOMETOWN on any of my Instagram posts and I’ll send you the link.

Let’s make 2026 the year your ads actually work.

Transcript

0:00

Hello, welcome to the Hometown Advantage Podcast. I'm so excited because today I'm diving into five ways to get your ads to convert to more local clients. So a lot of local business owners have tried ads, but they claim they don't work or they just didn't convert to any new clients. And there's so many reasons for that. But I have five ways that your ads are going to. Convert more local clients. I have worked with hundreds of business owners, specifically 120 in my local ads program, and also I'm running ads right now for a free strategy session. Totally forgot about this, and I asked people on the thank you page, so if they go to sign up for the program, they get taken to a thank you page that says, thank you for signing up. What kinds of things are you struggling with so I can be sure to talk about them on my strategy session. And I've been reading those as I'm forming the strategy session so I can make sure I answer questions and address problems that most people are having. And the biggest topic that people want covered is how do I get my ads to convert to more clients? So I got you baby. So I will say this until the cows come home, it only takes two things to make your ads convert. One the right ad manager settings, and two, the right type of content. The first time I ever ran ads for a client, it was a 5K company. So a company that put on running races around Michigan. When I ran ads the first time, the visibility honestly helped a ton as far as ticket sales. But after a while, things slowed down because I wasn't doing these five things that I'm about to share with you. I've since worked with hundreds of businesses and become a true student of ads. I always will be, and I found that doing these five things can greatly improve your ad conversions. In fact, not doing them is bound to result in no conversions. Okay, so let's dive right into'em. The biggest thing that can support your ad conversions is consistency. This is a boring one. It's not the sexiest tip, but here's the deal. So many people aren't getting the ad results they want because they run them for a week and then they turn them off for months at a time. And then they run another one for a couple weeks, and then they're not exactly sure if they're working or how they're going, and they're getting nervous by the amount they're spending, so then they turn'em off again. I talked about Jen on a recent, previous episode, but my client, Jen, who owns the car detailing shop, she was able to spend$2 a day on her ads and see an immediate uptick in bookings. Now, she does not run ads all the time, but if she did, that immediate uptick in bookings would stay consistent. If not, get even better because consistency drives conversions. I just did an episode all about visibility and how that needs to be your number one priority as a local business owner in 2026, and consistency is an amazing way to be visible with ads. Now what kills consistency is doubt. So if you're constantly doubting, are these even working? Am I spending too much? Am I spending too little? Is this copy? Okay? Is this offer good? You are not going to be consistent if you don't understand what makes good ads, what good ad numbers are. What good results are, how to track your results. It makes it really hard to be consistent, right? So those are all things that you need to understand in order to then be able to be consistent with your ads. If you haven't listened to that episode, go back and listen to it, because I talk a lot about how your visibility and your consistency will drive way more conversions. Tip number two, the right ad manager settings. Okay, so there's a lot of settings in the ad manager. There's toggles, there's buttons, there's dropdowns. All of these things that unfortunately matter. So a lot of people will tell me, I have no idea what these things mean. I just go through and hope for the best. And honestly, that's probably why you're not getting conversions. So I have several clients who come to me from either running their own ads or they were using an agency to run their ads, and even the agency is getting the ad headings wrong. My client, Alyssa, does marketing for a home renovation company, and she was not overly impressed with the ad results that their agency was getting them. They were trying to generate leads of people who want to make renovations to their home. And they were paying over a hundred dollars a lead, which if those leads convert, can still be worth it for them.'Cause they're a very high ticket sale, but they weren't converting great. They were really expensive. She thought something had to give. She joined my program. She learned about the ad settings that she should be using. She went in and checked the. Agency settings and notice they are the ones that I actually suggest you absolutely do not use. She changed those up. They started bringing in leads in the thirties instead of the hundreds, and they were good leads too that were converting. Okay, so your ad settings involve the objective that you choose. That's the very first thing that ad manager's going to ask you when you go to create a campaign. And inside my program, I have the step by step, choose this objective, choose this setting, choose this dropdown, uncheck this box, right? But your objective, you're targeting. Where your ads are gonna be placed. All of that needs to be just right in order to see the conversions that you want. Number three is better and clearer copy. So a lot of advertisers and marketers tell you that the most important part of your ad is the creative. So the reel or the graphic or what have you. I actually put a lot more importance into the copy. When you have clear and compelling copy, you will drive a lot more conversions because the people who are interested are going to read it. If it entices them, if it speaks to them, if they can clearly see how doing business with you will improve their life or solve their problems, they're going to inquire and then they're going to be more interested in actually converting into being a customer. In my agency days of working in an agency, I actually supported a lot of online business owners. So I've worked in three different agencies. One was local specific, one was online specific, and then one was a mix of both. And I learned so much about copywriting through the businesses that I worked with that were solely online. And I have been able to translate those skills into my local marketing to help my local clients convert more clients. So what would happen is so many online business owners would not be clear on what they were advertising, and they would not clearly show how they understand the person on the other side of the computer or the phone, and they would still get clicks because they're getting all this visibility. And maybe they have a click baby hook or what have you, and then they would get leads too, but they wouldn't get any of those leads to actually buy anything because they just came into their world completely. Out of curiosity, I guess you could say, versus when we had ad copy that very clearly. Lays out who we are, who we help, why we help them, why we're better than the other people who do the same things, and exactly what we'll do for you. Those people actually would buy because it would answer all their questions right in the ad. It wouldn't have people opting in'cause they're just curious for more information. It attracts people who are ready to buy now. Okay, so a lot of problems I see are people writing captions and copy that are like three or four lines long. It's not enough to clearly state who we are, how we help our people. Why we're the best people for the job? All of those things that people need to know in order to buy. Tip number four is to run retargeting ads. Retargeting ads are ads that only go to people who already. Are familiar with you, so maybe they visited your website, maybe they visited your Facebook or Instagram page. Maybe they liked or commented on one of your ads or your posts. Maybe they follow you. You can set up a specific campaign where we only spend money on those people, and then we use a very specific type of content to make sure that we are building trust, building visibility. Building touch points, which refers to the amount of time somebody sees you online or in person so that more of the people who are inquiring are being reminded of you, learning more about you, trusting you more to then turn into a sale. Okay, so you can't expect to run one ad and get a bunch of purchases from it. It takes more than that. Think about your own buying behaviors. Do you see an ad one time for something that you're interested in and then immediately buy, maybe if it's a small purchase, like a shirt or something. But even then, a lot of times how I consume and buy things like clothing from ads is I will click, I will search around. I won't buy anything, but I will keep seeing the ads time and time again, and eventually I then pull the trigger. Your audience is the same way. They have to keep seeing you. You can't show up one time and expect a line out the door. Tip number five. You need automatic lead follow up. So when someone's opting in to an ad, they're interested, they need you to reach out right away, usually through text. Okay? So email and phone call aren't always doing the trick. For some people, it still works. This is something that you have to test for yourself. But right now for my client's, text follow up is converting best and you need to text them a lot. You need to text them over a two to four week period to remind them, Hey, you opted in for this book a call. Give us more information so we can give you a free quote. Buy here. Those kinds of things. People are busy, okay? They need reminders. They need follow up. They appreciate it. We have a step-by-step tutorial system or template for you to get every single one of these things done. Inside Hometown Advantage consistency, we have an exact strategy for you to get up a couple ads every month or every other month to stay consistent with your ads. We also send you 10 add or post ideas every single month with fill in the blank captions. Hooks, examples, templates for some of them so that it's easier to stay consistent. Your ad settings, you have step-by-step tutorials on how to set up every type of ad that I suggest local business owners use, along with a guide to go with it to show you the exact settings to use. Clear copy. You have copy frameworks, a full copy module, which is like a 15 minute video of me explaining how to write good copy. And then you've got so many examples of copy I've written for local businesses. Some of my clients have written for their own businesses that you can emulate for your own business. I even have a custom GPT that's trained on my strategies that will help you write your copy for you in seconds. Retargeting ads, step-by-step tutorials on how to do that. A lot of the post prompts that I send are really good for retargeting ads as well. And then for your lead follow-up, I have a co-coach in the program. Her name is Maddie. She owns a physical therapy practice in Michigan. She actually owns multiple physical therapy practices and she is an expert in setting up your text follow up, and she will even do it for you in my program. You just have to purchase her software that she uses, which is, I believe at this time,$97 a month to do all your follow up for you. If you're listening to this before January 19th, 2026, I am currently offering$500 off the price of the program that brings it from$2,300 to$1,800 or$450 over a four month span. You get lifetime access to the course and any updates that I make to it. So you do not have to rush through all of the content, you get access to it for life. It comes with those templates, copy frameworks, custom gpt, and you also get four months of high level mentorship from me and my fellow ads coaches. So that looks like joining our Slack channel so that you can ask questions anytime as you're going through the content, as you're creating your ads. If you have any tech issues, you can drop'em in there and you'll get an answer from me or my team within 24 hours. So you don't have to wait around. Wondering, why is this not working? Is this the best idea? Any of that? You get an answer quick. You also get weekly group coaching calls that have a one-to-one style of feedback. So when you jump onto the call, you wait your turn for coaching, you catch me up on what you're up to, how your ads are doing. We can share your screen, go through your ad results, and I give you direct coaching on what to do next so that you're not wasting ad spend. Or leaving any money on the table. You can also just show up to the calls and listen to what everyone else is going on. You don't even have to be coached or ask questions. You also get unlimited ad reviews and ad data audits, so anytime you wanna run a new ad, you can submit the creative and the copy that you have. My team and I will go in. We will make comments and edits on your copy. Based on what we know is going to convert better, we will give suggestions. We will record a whole loom video for you explaining what's working really well and what we would change and why we would change it. Same for every seven days worth of ad data that you get. You can submit to get an ad data audit, where I will go through all your numbers. All your stats, your goals, all of the things, and tell you exactly what to do next based on your data. Another really fun bonus when you join in January is you will get to join us for the February launch Sprint, where for three days, the first week of February, we will all hop on Zoom together. We will write your ad copy. I will tell you exactly how to write it. I will give you frameworks to write it on the call. Write with me if you want. We will create your reels and visuals that will go with your ad copy. And then on the third day, we will launch everything step by step together inside Ads Manager, so you don't have to sit in learning mode. You don't even have to consume all of the content right away. We can get your ads live together with support fast in just three days. Okay, so if you're ready for your ads to convert to actual new local clients, if you are ready for a marketing system that works for you, tirelessly day and night brings you consistent leads in sales, it is time to jump into Hometown Advantage. If you join now, it will set you up for such good momentum and consistency throughout all of 2026, so that you can make this year your best year ever. I can't wait to see you inside. You can join at the link www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/hometown. You can grab the link from the description of this podcast. You can grab the link from my Instagram. You can comment the word hometown on any of my Instagram posts, and I will send you the link. So many ways for you to jump in. I can't wait to see you inside.