This is a hot topic for every business owner, including photographers. If you are not marketing your business at all times, how do you plan on growing a consistent business? Most photographers live feast or famine. That is no way to run a business or live your life. As small business owners, we all need consistent streams of revenue. That revenue comes from a consistent stream of new leads.
Facebook Ads were built for this. To ignore this platform in your overall marketing strategy would be foolish to say the least. There are millions of people – your customers – on Meta’s platforms, Facebook and Instagram. These eyeballs are who you need to drive interest in your photography business.
If you are trying to build your photography business on referrals alone, you are in a for long and painful business life. Revenue will be hit and miss and you will constantly feel like you can barely make ends meet. If this sounds like you, keep reading, because this guide will highlight why using Facebook and Meta ads can create new opportunities for you and provide a consistent path to growth.
Why Facebook Ads For Photographers Work
Facebook Ads are perfect for photographers. Why? Because the key ingredient to a successful Facebook marketing campaign is the ability to stop the scroll. And how do you do that? Impactful and powerful imagery. Well, guess what? We should have plenty of that to go around. Photography is a visual medium and we should be able to really stand out where other businesses struggle for powerful imagery.
Built-In Buying Intent
When someone clicks on your ad, they are interested in what you are selling. You have a captive audience on the platform. Now, in the world of photography this is merely the first step in the process. Because of the product and services we offer, we know we need to get to a phone call with the customer to convert them. But the fact still remains that Facebook offers a very active and engaged audience that loves visuals. This is ripe for new customers.
Advanced Audience Targeting
Faster Results Than Organic Marketing
Organic marketing is incredibly gratifying. We all love when a past client refers us new business. However, it’s not consistent. Marketing must be consistent to be successful. We need to have an idea of how much money we will be making every month.
Facebook advertising allows us to control our own destiny when it comes to how busy we are. In fact, there is no faster way to get in front of your potential clients. The time from going live with a new ad set to leads coming in is less than 24 hours in most cases. That is powerful and repeatable.
Scalable Lead Generation
What Type of Facebook Ads Work Best for Photographers?
There are several types of Facebook ads that work for photographers specifically and I will highlight them below. You can not only reach people with still imagery, but you can also use short video ads to highlight the experience of working with you. As a photographer, the experience is a very powerful motivator.
We know that the customer journey for most photographers is lead to phone call to booking. So, for most photographers, the goal is to generate leads vs drive direct to a booking. Typically, clients want to talk to you about the shoot and get answers to any questions they might have.
Lead Generation Ads
These are among my favorite to run. These are a low friction style of ads. You can run an enter-to-win style ad or a 50% off session fee campaign with a lead form and you will generate a tremendous amount of leads into the business because it’s tempting and enticing people who are interested and want more information.
Conversion Campaigns
Retargeting Ads
This, in my opinion, is one of the biggest misses I see almost every small business make. Retargeting campaigns allow you to “retarget” everyone who visits your website, or even a specific page on your website, for a very low cost. We spend $5-$10 per day retargeting visitors to our site over the last 30 days. It’s a very cost-effective way to keep driving awareness to people who have already visited your site.
Seasonal Campaign Strategies
This is where we really start finding our groove. What you shouldn’t do is just run the same campaign all the time. There are certain times of year that are crucial to seasonal marketing and again, Facebook is the perfect medium for this. For example, December is the #1 month for couples to get engaged. So, it would make sense to market your wedding photography business in January and February when people are actively looking for wedding photographers and just changed their status to “engaged”.
The same would hold true for boudoir, seniors, families, etc. Your goal should be to put together an annual marketing calendar for your business to map out your overall strategy.
How Much Should Photographers Spend on Facebook Ads?
That really is a loaded question. My gut instinct is as much as possible, but the truth is, it really does depend on the audience size. Obviously, if you are targeting a small local market, that will require less spending that if you were to target a national audience.
Beginner Budget Ranges
Cost Per Lead Expectations
Scaling Profitably
Once you start running ads and tracking their performance, you will quickly start figuring out how to scale your business and subsequently, your profitability. I like to start ads at a low daily rate, and then when I see success with an ad it’s not uncommon for me to double the daily budget.
7 Facebook Ad Mistakes Photographers Make
1. Boosting Posts Instead of Using Ads Manager
This is the literal worst thing you can do for your marketing efforts. Sure, it’s easy on the surface to click “boost post.” And by the way, that’s by design. Facebook wants your money, but it really is a sucker’s bet. You have almost no granular control over your ad or your audience and if you want results, you want control over every aspect of your ad. Don’t do this! I can’t stress that enough.
2. Targeting Too Broadly
3. Running Ads Without a Clear Offer
What’s the point of your ad? That’s what you should be asking yourself. Awareness ads don’t work. Look, you are not Nike or Victoria’s Secret looking to get your name out there. We need to run actionable ads and those are known as Call-To-Action ads. They must have a clear offer like 50% off your session fee or enter-to-win.
4.No Follow-Up System
Most small business owners, especially photographers, fall flat on their faces here. Leads come in and they have no follow-up systems in place to connect quickly with the new lead. Sorry to break it to you, but following up 3 days later is not a follow-up system. It’s marketing for your competitors, because your new lead will 100% find a new, more responsive photographer to handle their work.
5. Weak Creative or Messaging
Messaging is so important to a successful ad campaign. What you say is as important as what you don’t say. Get to the point fast and encourage them to take action. We dont need your entire biography or need to know your personal politics. Just get to the point and entice me to take action. SALE. DISCOUNT. CREATIVE IDEA. LIMITED AVAILABILITY. Highlight things that will make me stop scrolling and make me click to learn more.
6. Not Testing Variations
At the end of the day, marketing is not perfect. You never know what’s going to resonate with people. This is why we need to test. Test creative and test copy. You have to test what will work best. And once you know, then you can go all out with your marketing campaign.
7. Quitting Too Early
I see this all the time. Photographers run one campaign, it fails, and they give up. Can you imagine if you did that with your photography? Take one bad picture and quit? It doesn’t make sense. Instead, assess what went right, what went wrong, then adjust and try again.
Frequently Asked Questions About Facebook Ads for Photographers
Are Facebook Ads Worth It for Photographers?
How Long Does It Take to See Results?
Most campaigns we run for photographers start to see results in 24 hours. Talk about time to success! That’s not possible on any other platform today.
What Images Convert Best?
Closer images work best. Wide, environmental shots are tough to see on mobile devices or smaller screens. So try to show colorful and impactful images that will stop the scroll. That’s the key to success.
Should I Run Ads Year-Round?
Do I Need a Landing Page?
Yes and no. Used to be that you would drive leads to a landing page where you would offer them more information. However, today we see more leads being generated by using a lead form on Facebook. These allow users to auto populate their information without having to type anything and without having to leave the platform, which Facebook loves.
Should You Run Facebook Ads Yourself or Hire an Expert?
Well, I’m going to be a little biased here, but unless you are keeping up with all the trends and best practices, I would highly recommend working with an agency. Can you do it? I’m sure you are very capable, but the reality is most people have neither the time nor the desire to learn how to properly do it or keep up with the constant changes to the Meta platform. So, when they do run their own campaigns, they typically underperform and they get frustrated and give up.
DIY vs managed
Good news for you. The Disruptor platform offers two different levels that are fully developed. One allows you to do-it-yourself and the other is a done-for-you model where my team does all the work for you and the leads start coming in.
What to look for in an agency
I think in a single word, experience. Do they have experience in your niche? Do they offer real-time support to answer any questions you might have in a reasonable time frame? These are things that will ensure you are getting the most from your investment.
Did this post help you?
If you would like to learn more about the Disruptor platform or working together check out our informational page which breaks down the various levels we offer.