Ep 42: How to Attract High Quality Local Leads with Meta Ads

Links

🌐 Website: www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com
🎓 Free Local Ads Workshop: www.nicoleeldridgeads.com/jumpstart
💻 Join Hometown ADvantage: www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/hometown

Description

Think Meta ads only bring in low-quality leads? You're probably missing these five things. In this episode, you'll learn why your ad copy might be repelling your best customers instead of attracting them, why real people (not stock photos or polished branding) are non-negotiable in your ads, and how social proof, a full marketing strategy, and strategic friction on your lead forms can completely change who shows up in your inbox. You'll walk away with a clear, practical checklist to level up the quality of leads coming from your ads — starting today.

Transcript

0:00

hello. Welcome to Hometown Advantage. This is your go-to podcast if you either own a local business or you do marketing for a local business or, honestly, if you own an online business as well. We talk about all things local ads, how to improve your ad results, how to get started with ads, and I like to bring you behind the scenes as to what's working for my clients, what's working for me and my own ads And just what I've got going on behind the scenes in business, because I have been on a business scaling journey for the past couple years Making big goals and trying new things, putting my money on the line and giving you the results. So anyways, that's just like a, a little synopsis on what I'm trying to do here. So if you're new, that's me. If you're not, welcome back. Today we're talking about something that has been coming up a lot, and that is about attracting high-quality customers using Meta ads. There's a lot of people out there who will want to tell you that Meta only attracts low-quality leads, so to speak. And the reason people say that is because if you don't have the skills to attract high-quality customers, and you don't know these five things that I'm about to tell you- then you aren't able to compete and keep up with the people who do know these things, and their ads end up beating yours in the quote-unquote auction. So without getting too in the weeds, ads work based on an auction, and the most valuable people to you that Meta deems as valu- valuable to your business may also be considered valuable to other people's businesses and based on what your ad says, based on the data your ad has, and then same thing with the other people's, depends on we'll decide How much it costs to get in front of these people for you, if your ad even does get in front of them. It's a whole thing, right? So a lot of people attract low-quality leads with their ads Because their ad is doing the most basic job of getting them in front of local people, but it's not doing the actual marketer's job of leveling up the message and the offer and actually speaking to those high-quality customers that are going to respond So I've got a list of five things here I'm excited to chat through that will instantly level up your ads if you're not already doing them, and level up the results you are getting from them. So let's dive in. First thing you need to do, and this will always be the first thing I look at if someone comes to me and says, "Help, I'm getting crap leads. No one's answering the phone. Or if they're all answering but nobody's prepared to buy." I am going to go and look at what your ad says. There is much debate. Actually, there's not much debate Maybe this is only me that has the debate out there on what matters the most when it comes to how your ad performs, and is that creative or is it copy? I am team copy, which is rare. You don't see a lot of marketers that say that. Most marketers will say the creative is what matters most 'cause it get, it's what gets people to stop. But I have ads that perform amazing that are just a picture of my client in front of their building. We just snapped it with an iPhone, and that's the creative. And the reason it works so well is because it's so simple It looks organic, and then it's paired with copy that speaks directly to their most high-quality customer. And when I say high quality, I just mean someone who's most prepared to buy, somebody who has the problem that they solve and has the money to solve it, right? So if your ad starts with, "Are you sick and tired of feeling low energy? Are you tired of looking in the mirror and having your skin Have all these breakouts?" I'm not saying these eloquently at all, but I read this so often where the ad straight from the jump is speaking to someone who's at their worst, at a low of all lows. And the truth is two things. One, people aren't on social media to, feel more like shit about themselves, let's be honest. So when they see that, they likely don't wanna read on if it's like, are you tired of feeling fat? Or something like that, which it- m- most ads don't say that because usually they would get rejected. But something along those lines. And the truth is, maybe the answer is yes, but they don't wanna read about that, and they don't wanna feel worse about themselves, so they're not gonna read the rest of your ad. The other thing is that people who are really stuck in the struggle and the suffering and all of these things aren't empowered to actually fix that. So yes, they have the problem that you solve, but they're not in the business right now of caring about getting it solved. Maybe on the surface, they're like, "Of course I don't want this anymore." But if they're really in that mindset of, "I'm so sick and tired of this, and I'm struggling, and I am just at a low, and I hate myself." I'm getting dramatic. But that's not the person who's gonna buy your $2,000, like, skin rejuvenation package. Okay? The person who's gonna buy your $2,000 skin rejuvenation package is someone who is empowered, and they're like, "Listen, I've got big dreams. I wanna be on stages. I have content to record. I don't want to feel held back by my breakouts from doing that. I wanna feel radiant. I wanna feel my best. I wanna feel like a million dollars when I'm getting on my s- that stage." And they're not sitting around thinking about how woe is me they are, where that's how a lot of ads speak to people. And that's why they attract low-quality leads. Okay? And then, a- to speak more technically as well- The Meta ads algorithm works based on who is responding to your ad. So if you're getting a lot of disempowered, cheap people responding to your ad, the algorithm is going to think, "Oh, that's who's responding? That's who we're gonna go find." And then they're gonna go find more of those people, okay? So you get stuck in a loop. You have to dial the F in, if I'm being frank here. How does your person actually think? I use this example all the time, but my client, Danielle, who owns a luxury cleaning service company, her ads speak to rich people, and she 100% is Signaling. No, she is 100% leaving out a huge population in her local area of people who will not relate to what she's saying. She's talking about how you do not have time to clean your mansion. People are not gonna relate to that. There's gonna be so many people who don't relate to that. But there's also people who do, and she gets fire leads from them, from those ads specifically. Okay, so that's point number one. Level up your copy. Know who you're speaking to and how to speak to them. Stop speaking to broke people who are in a state of suffering. Those people are not who you want. They're not gonna buy, first of all. And even if they do, they're just not the type of customer you want, right? Point number two on how to attract high-quality customers using your Meta ads. This one's so simple, and it is a given now, but so many people are still not caught up. You need real people in your ads This is a non-negotiable, and I am going to shout this from the rooftops because I actually had somebody tell me that when they joined my program that they didn't realize that this would be part of what they would have to do to get results because it was what I was suggesting to them over and over again, was like to get themselves or some real people in their ads And she was honest with me, and I'm glad she was that it wasn't clear when joining my program that's what she would need to do. So I've made it my mission to make it clear from here on out because I think it's one of those things that I just didn't even realize I had to make clear. You have to have real people in your ads, even if this means getting creative about how you're gonna do it. If you don't feel comfortable asking clients if they're okay with you recording, or you just really can't, there's some people who really can't maybe you get some models. Maybe You ask family members, friends, spouse, "Hey, can you come pretend to be my client? I'm gonna set up this camera, and we're gonna record this silly video for my silly little marketing, for my silly ads that I have to do for my silly business," right? We are living in a world and marketing on a platform where AI is taking over, scammers are a real concern And people crave connection and doing business with real other people Not some big corporation not somebody with a logo as their profile picture, like a real person to crack my back when I am having back pain, a real person to come and take my family photos. A real person to help me with my business, planning something in my business This is why my own social media content looks the way it does. If you've ever seen one of my ads or you see my content, it is tons of pictures and videos of me and my family and on vacation and doing real human things even though I'm talking about something like marketing and ads. The two seem like they don't relate, but I have to build trust. I have to show the human side of me And I have to show that I'm real. I'm not scamming you. I know my stuff right? I'm a real girl a mom, small business owner who's just here to help. And I do that by showing the behind-the-scenes of my life. Now, you don't have to show the behind-the-scenes of your life, but if you at least show your face, show you doing the work. Pi- it can be pictures, it can be videos. You have to have real people in your ads And I know you're smart enough to figure out how you can do that. Everyone's situation is completely different All right, next way. This kinda goes off the real people, and that is having social proof and testimonials. So it's really hard to attract a customer or a client who you're going to ask to spend several thousand dollars when you haven't had customers or clients. Barely any, right? That's simply not how this works. You need to have proof that you have gotten people results, that you do a good job, that you provide quality work if you are going to ask people to invest that much in you And by having social proof in your ads, in particular, we like to use them on, in what we call retargeting ads, where people have already learned who we are. We know that they might have the problem that we solve because they've been attracted by the first ad that I teach everyone to run, my visibility ad, and now we show them social proof and testimonials in our retargeting ads To show them how other people who suffered with the same things they are struggling with have now gotten to the other side thanks to you. Or other people who want the same things that your previous clients wanted got it and were so happy with their results now, thanks to you. Okay? So it's one thing to talk about how credentialed you are, how amazing you are, how long you've been in business, how many people you've helped, but to have somebody else say it for you is huge. So we can do this in so many different ways. You can ask clients to talk on video for you. This is a huge ask, and it can feel so cringey. Trust me, I get it, but the results on the other side are huge. The payoff is enormous. I have a client, an old client from the program, his name's Robert. He owned a gym, and he was so good at this. He would just randomly take clients aside after their class and be like, "Hey, can you just give me one sentence on camera about why you love coming to this gym?" And people mostly said yes. They were like, "Oh, I'm nervous. I don't know." Every once in a while they might say no, and he'd be like, "Okay, no problem." But he would ask. He would just ask. And then he had so much video footage of people being like, "This is the best decision I ever made for my health, for my mental state. I've made friends." Like, saying these amazing things about being a part of his gym, and it spoke volumes to strangers on the internet who are trying to decide what they should do with their health and fitness goals. I don't know if I should join Planet Fitness for $20 a month or if I should join this group fitness class that's five times the price. Oh, but here's a video of all these different people saying how amazing it is. Okay, I'm gonna try it." We can also show it in Google reviews. Just make sure that you're strategic in how you are displaying your social proof and your testimonials. You don't just want huge blocks of text on a graphic because when people see huge blocks of text, they just scroll on. They don't read it, right? So maybe we are pulling out highlights from our Google reviews. We're giving some context. Hopefully, we can have some sort of picture with it. But showing social proof and having social proof is a huge way to attract high-quality customers, and if you don't have a lot of it, it's time to start asking That leads me to my next strategy for attracting high-quality customers using Meta ads, and this one isn't one that I think a lot of people are gonna be super happy with. Sorry in advance. I'm not saying that this is required to get results from your Meta ads, I'm just saying it is going to help attract higher quality customers to you, and that is having a full and comprehensive marketing strategy. I don't mean something that's super in-depth and complicated and complex, but having systems for, one, posting regularly, two, emailing and having an email list and emailing regularly, whatever that looks like to you. Having your ad strategy in place Basically just showing up consistently This is going to attract higher quality customers because what's gonna happen is you're going to attract... This is kind of the goal. You're gonna attract a big group of new people to you with your ads, and then we're going to weed people out, and then also deepen people's relationships to you through this other content. So through posting, through emailing, through continuing to show up, people can qualify themselves or disqualify themselves, and also remember you more as the go-to person, go-to business when they are f- really feeling fed up with their problem or when they are ready to solve it So you 100% can attract leads, get clients, all of these things without posting all the time, without an email list, without even a great website. But all of those things are going to help And like I said, it's not about being glued to your phone or constantly creating content. It's about coming up with systems to make sure those things happen For me, my posting schedule and my email schedule is a lot more rigorous, I guess you could say, than what I would prescribe to my local business clients because I'm only online. And my ideal client is following and researching tons of people like me. I have to show up more, and I have to be more dialed in and in the way I show up in order to break through the noise. So I have to come up with systems that are going to make it so that I am very consistent in my showing up. For me, it looks like writing out all my emails for the month or for the next two weeks. I don't format them. I don't schedule them. I just write them. I just get it out. Sometimes I'm laying in bed with my five-year-old when she won't sleep, and I'm writing them in my notes app. And I write them all out, and then my virtual assistant puts them in my email system, formats them, makes them pretty, schedules them out for when they're supposed to go out, makes sure all the links are right, all of that. Same with my carousels. I just write out what I want them to say, and then she puts them onto carousel cards and schedules them and posts them That's my bare minimum system is to get a couple carousels up a week, get a couple emails out a week, and then when I have extra time, and capacity, and ideas, I just post random reels. And so that's an addition, right? But I've systematized it where it only takes me a couple hours a week or a half a day every other week And then we move on Okay, and then my last point is a little bit more technical ad- ads manager tip. You can add strategic friction to either your lead form or your landing page, but emphasis on the strategic friction, right? So when somebody goes and clicks on your ad and they want to fill out the form to get more information or to get on a call or to get the offer, we can ask certain questions that will qualify and disqualify people. For example, we have a client who owns a therapy practice, and they are cash pay only. They don't take insurance. So on their form, we say that we are cash pay only. We do not take insurance. Are you prepared to pay out of pocket, yes or no? If someone answers no, they are automatically disqualified from becoming a lead, which then trains Meta that these are not the type of people we want Try not to find those people. Only find the people who mark yes, right? Another example, hair loss clinic that does, like, hair restoration. Is that the right word? Hair rejuvenation surgeries. One thing that they've noticed about their most ideal clients is that somebody has to have been suffering with this for a year or longer to actually be up for making an investment at the cost that they charge So they'll ask that, "How long have you been dealing with this?" And if it's either a year or more, or six months or more, they will send signals back to Meta that these are our quality clients. If it's less than six months or less than a year, I can't remember which one in this example it was, they say, "Hey, these can still be leads, but they're not as ideal." Okay? So it's like an advanced strategy, but it is something you can do, and there is simple ways to do it. If you're using on-platform lead forms, you can easily add in questions to help add friction and only attract your highest quality c- customer. Now, we help you with all of these things, with leveling up your copy, with getting real people in your ads, with integrating social proof and how to set up retargeting ads, with coming up with systems for a full marketing strategy, making it simple, and adding strategic friction into your forms inside of the Hometown Advantage membership. You get ad audits where we will audit your ad copy, we will audit your forms, we will take your own personal feedback on how you're feeling about your ad results and give you strategic next steps of exactly what to try next every seven days of ad data that you have. We give you post prompts every single month so that you have very easy to follow plan when it comes to actually posting regularly to your page, and all of your posts can be doubled as ads. So we're helping you systematize things to make processes faster We show you step by step how to set up your ads in the right way, what type of creatives to use for your ads. We give you templates to use for your ads And in August and September, we're relaunching our seven-day ad intensives, which will be for membership members only. So this is where at a discounted rate, you can get done-for-you support from me and my team. We come in, we get your goals, we identify your highest quality customer, we write ads and create ads that speak to that person, and we launch them off for you into Ads Manager all in one week's time That offer is only available to members inside the membership because if you learn anything from me from this podcast, it's that y- ads are not a one and done thing. You can't just launch them off and then expect the phone to be ringing off the hook from there. It does take refining, it takes time, it takes testing. So you have to be in the membership to qualify for this intensive offer because we need to be available to you to support you in whatever happens in the ads that we launch off We obviously have limited spots for those based on team avail- availability in September. So we're launching it in August, first come, first serve And then we'll see if there's still availability in September to take more intensives on. The other thing we're doing in August inside the membership is personal profile audits. So looking at your Instagram and your Facebook page and giving you suggestions on what you should change about your page that can help your ads do better, that can help level up your brand and attract the highest quality customer We're doing that for everyone who wants one inside the membership mid-August So make sure you jump in. You can join at www.nicoleeldridgemedia.com/hometown. There will be a link in the show notes. There is links on my Instagram page. There's links on my website. You can respond to any email that you get from me to ask questions. You can send me a message on Instagram. I would love to hear what you thought about this episode and make this more of a two-way conversation, right? That's all for today. See you on the next one.