Within the next week I’ll be creating a post on my facebook business page and boosting it. The post will be a video of a surface cleaner doing its thing. The pitch is dirty driveway contest. The participants will need to submit a picture of the driveway within the main ad thread. At the end of a set period, I’m thinking two weeks. There will be 1 free driveway cleaning given to the worse driveway. 50% off for 2nd and third. The idea is to generate exposure and upsell. The goal is to encourage users to share the post to reach more people thus get more exposure.
It seems like there are a lot of loose ends in the information you’ve provided. Make sure you consider the opportunity cost of the endeavor.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume all driveways take 2 hours to wash and all driveways pay $100, and of that $100, half is profit and half goes to overhead. Based on your prizes:
First place: 2 hours. $0. Loss of $50 in overhead costs. Zero profit.
Second place: 2 hours. $50. Costs covered. Zero profit.
Third place: 2 hours. $50. Costs covered. Zero profit.
You’d have to secure at least 1 full paying job ($50 costs/$50 profit) just to break even, since the $50 profit would backfill the costs covered from the first place winner.
That’s 8 hours of working for free. You mentioned exposure and upsell, but it’s hard to put a tangible number on those things. Exposure is an unknown (what’s the incentive for people sharing the FB post?) and upsell isn’t guaranteed.
Would the time be better spent targeting a neighborhood full of viable potential clients and knocking on doors, handing out cards or door hangers and meeting people face to face? People are far more likely to hire someone they’ve met and spoken to in person, especially when it involves that person coming to their home to work.
What if the winner - hands down the most disgusting, vile, dirty driveway that’s submitted is a 1000’ monstrosity with a turnaround drive in front and an expansion to 3 cars wide for a 3 car garage by the house? Then first place turns into a nightmare of a free job.
When I see your ad why would I call for a quote…instead I’ll wait to see if I won the contest…if I don’t win then I’ll probably forget you even existed.
I’ve thought about this too. “Kansas City’s dirtiest house” kinda thing, but you very likely may find that some folks are embarrassed about it and will ask not to even share their parish (that’s what you guys have in LA right?) or neighborhood.
Never thought about what @Patriotspwashing said. Makes plenty of sense.
I’m just glad I gave away all my digital marketing. The marketing consultant will be handling all of that soon enough. Which feels like a huge weight as been lifted. Lol
Hate to rain on your parade, but… In my experience, people are so constantly blasted by ads that you are lucky if they read more than the first three words. You expect people to go out and take a picture of their driveway? I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t get a single entry. Maybe if you are going door to door and you build up a little rapport…
You all have some valid points. Another goal of this expierment is to gain followers on Facebook. If I get 20 followers from this experiment that will see my before and after and videos every few days they will constantly be reminded of my brand. And with those 20, they all have friends and family. If anyone they knows needs my type of services I would think they would say “these this company that post great pics on my feed, let me go find them for you”.
I’m not ridiculously busy right now so there’s not much downside. If someone is gonna wait it out until they win, then they probably were not going to call anyway. That’s like someone waiting to go fishing until the win the boat from the fair raffle. If it’s a serious customer I don’t see them holding out.
This is just an idea to generate some exposure. I’m spending money everywhere else on advertising so why not?
I wouldnt count on people liking your page, but it could happen… ive had an ad running for about a week, over 3k views… a few ppl shared it, 4-500 liked post, 3-4 ppl have liked my page (a few of them being people i actually know), and 1 job has come out of it. Will do video next time.
Like u said, if things are slow and the chance of free labor doesnt bother you, then maybe worth a shot.
If they like your post, do you go back and invite them to your page?
I run ads regularly and people never like the page, just the post. I go back and see who likes it, then invite them. I’ve had est 50-60% success when I send an invite. I’ve gained a few customers this way as well. They didn’t get services immediately with my ad but a few weeks later after following the page.
I don’t want the hassle and embarrassment of nominating my own driveway. Can I nominate somebody else’s driveway? Driveway shaming friends and neighbors. That might be more fun.
The way I understand it, is that everyone on FB gets a certain number of ads displayed in their news feed. So if I decide to run an ad, it doesn’t mean that my target audience has one more ad in their feed, but that a less relevant ad has been displaced by mine.
Personally, I’d rather see ads from local companies. Might actually be something I want to spend money on. Maybe.
All that does is ensure that you get less and less “relevant” (targeted to what FB thinks you’re interested in) ads in your feed. Oh, and probably tick off a bunch of business owners, lol.
Envirospec keeps advertising on my page. I report them and sent them an email telling them to stop the harrassment. I don’t really know how ads on Facebook work. I thought they only went to people you know or were friends with. I’m not friends with them and I don’t want to bother my friends with ads. I make it a point not to buy from any company that emails me or puts ads on my Facebook page.
