Local Awareness Ads (or Local Reach Ads) are very similar to Page Likes campaigns, except that the former is designed to increase foot traffic instead of the number of followers. With this marketing tool, Gettshop owners could encourage the right Facebook or Instagram users to visit their stores. The best part: Local awareness ads can be used to make people in a specific area aware of a business in their immediate area. This is a great way to reach potential customers who might not be aware of you without Facebook or Insta.
1. Encourage your potential customers to shop in your store
Just like big box retailers, individual store owners are interested in attracting more potential customers and getting them into their stores.
Local Awareness Ads make this possible: book a mobile ad on Facebook or Instagram for a specific radius (e.g. 3 kilometers) or region, and then show customers the exact route to your store using the special "Get Directions" CTA button on Facebook or the geographic map on your Instagram business profile. This geo-targeting only works on devices with location services enabled. Make sure the ad copy is always compelling, straightforward and entertaining. And try a mix of photo, video and carousel ads for the best results.
Shoe maker UGG Australia did just that, and says it tripled its sales with this approach.
2. Use CTAs to improve your reach
Local Awareness Ads are a great way to improve your own branding. The more potential customers you reach in your immediate area, the more likely they are to visit your store or branch and purchase your products.
A call to action is ideal for this. In addition to the aforementioned "Get Directions" CTA within Facebook, you could also use the "Learn More" CTA button. If you have multiple specials or more complicated questions, or if you want the customer to look at the entire menu, this button is ideal. The "Send Message" or "Call Now" CTA helps you generate leads by allowing prospects to contact you directly. This is great for contractors and repair shops, for example. Instagram has different CTAs: "Book Now" lets you quickly schedule an appointment or buy tickets immediately. With "Reserve," you can make a quick reservation at a restaurant, and then you have the option to "order food."
3. Assist individual branches in reaching their individual sales targets
As the marketing manager of a retail chain, you can use Local Awareness Ads to help individual stores reach their sales goals faster. To do this, you need to know exactly how much each store is selling.
If one store has already reached its sales goal and another store has not, the Local Awareness ads on Facebook can be adjusted. A call to action directs potential customers to the store that has yet to meet its sales goal.
Using this method, Tire Discounts, a U.S. tire retailer, met all of its store sales goals and spent far less on Local Awareness ads than it would have on comparable TV advertising.
4. Let your potential customers know about new branches and store openings
Every retail chain is constantly expanding its own store network. The opening of a new store is usually celebrated, and there are almost always special offers or discounts to attract potential new customers.
Local Awareness Ads can help you attract even more people to your new store. All you need to do is post a short but visually appealing ad on Facebook that announces the event, ideally mentioning any discounts, promotions and price reductions. Combined with an appropriate call to action, this will ensure a high level of attention and drive qualified buyers to your new store via their smartphones.
Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores in the USA has used this method to promote some of its new stores. The company already has more than 1,200 stores in North America.
5. Address exactly the right target group and minimize waste coverage
Local Awareness Ads can not only be applied to specific areas and distances, but of course you can also define and target specific audiences with this ad format (as you are used to with Facebook and Instagram). And don't forget about the ability to retarget potential customers who have previously interacted with your business by visiting your website.
Through precise targeting, you can also attract the right customers for your offers. This approach can be especially valuable when running special promotions, such as giving away product samples. With Local Awareness Ads, you're not handing out samples to random people on the subway, street or bus, but to people who, according to Facebook and Instagram, are really interested in your product!
Bottom Line
Local Awareness Ads are very flexible for a variety of advertising purposes. As an advertiser, it is very important that you know exactly what strategic goal you are pursuing with your advertising on Facebook.
Therefore, even if you run a small business, you need to adapt your creative and follow the rules of modern social media marketing: Be authentic, be short, be direct, be human, and above all, grab their attention in seconds and use vertical video.
Thanks to the many customization options of Local Awareness ads, you can target the right customers to minimize wastage. Getting more real potential customers into your store means more sales: this is one of the key advantages of Local Awareness ads over traditional local advertising.
But without keeping a close eye on the performance of your ads, you are missing an important step in running a campaign. Always check and re-evaluate the numbers in your Ads Manager to make sure they are profitable and successful. And to run profitable meta ad campaigns, it's important to A/B test them with different copy, photos and videos.
Thanks to the architecture of Facebook and Instagram, you can reach people in your area who are much more likely to actually buy a product, and with Meta you can quickly, easily and successfully implement your advertising campaigns - on your own or with our support.
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