Facebook and Instagram ads are paid advertising on Meta's two largest platforms, reaching homeowners in a business's service area, including people who aren't yet searching for the service. At Riley Summers, we manage the strategy, audience targeting, ad creative, tracking and ongoing optimization. We use these ads to create demand, generate leads, and keep the business in front of homeowners who haven't yet chosen who to hire. We charge a flat monthly management fee, so our advice on ad spend is never about our fee.
Your Business Portfolio
The ad account belongs to your business. We work through partner access.
Ad spend on your card
Meta bills the card on your account. We charge only our management fee.
One flat fee
Our fee doesn't rise with your ad spend.
60-day out
No initial term and no long-term contract.
On this page
- Reaching Homeowners Before They Search
- Who Facebook and Instagram Ads Are For
- How the Three Campaigns Work Together
- What's Included
- Creative Is the Campaign
- How Results Are Measured
- What We Usually Find
- How It Starts
- What's Separate
- Related Resources
Reaching Homeowners Before They Search
Paid search and Local Services Ads reach homeowners who have already decided they need the work and are looking for someone to do it. Facebook and Instagram work differently. The homeowner is scrolling, not searching, so the ad reaches them before they've started looking, often while the job is still something they've been putting off.
That changes what the ad has to do. A search ad answers a question the homeowner has already asked. A Facebook or Instagram ad has to earn their attention, give them a reason to act, and leave enough of an impression that they remember the business when they're ready.
That's why we don't treat these ads as paid search with pictures. Each channel has a different job:
| Channel | Its job |
|---|---|
| Facebook and Instagram ads | Create demand and build familiarity before the search |
| Paid search and Local Services Ads | Capture homeowners actively looking for the service |
| Local search and maps | Win the homeowner comparing nearby businesses |
| Remarketing | Stay in front of homeowners who are still deciding |
For how we decide which channels a business needs, see Channel Mix.
Who Facebook and Instagram Ads Are For
Facebook and Instagram ads don't target what people search for. They reach people based on where they live and what they do and engage with on the platform. Meta also limits targeting for ads about home repairs, so the audience is broader than it is in search, and the ad itself does more of the work of finding the right homeowner. So rather than asking whether a trade “works” on social, we look at whether the homeowners who need the service can be reached this way, and whether they're likely to act when the right ad reaches them.
Our founder, Mark Riley, saw this difference clearly in legal marketing. For personal injury, where the need starts with a sudden accident, paid social generated very few leads. For Social Security Disability, where people often live with their situation for a long time before acting, it produced a high volume of leads at a low cost, and the quality was decent.
Home services work divides in a similar way. A homeowner with a burst pipe needs a plumber now and will search for one. An ad they happened to see last week rarely decides that call. Work that homeowners know about but keep putting off is different: an aging roof, an older system that's due for replacement, a service they've meant to set up. That's where an ad that reaches them first can give them a reason to act.
We don't recommend these ads simply because a business can run them. If most of the work a business wants more of is urgent, we'll tell the owner that search is the better place for the budget. We see the best results with businesses that have made a commitment to marketing.
How the Three Campaigns Work Together
We commonly run three types of campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. They work as a set, not as steps every homeowner moves through in order. Someone may see a lead generation ad first, or see a remarketing ad after clicking one of the business's other ads.
Awareness (introduce the business): Put the business in front of homeowners in the service area, so the name is familiar before they need the work.
Lead Generation (urge the viewer to act): Built around a specific problem the homeowner has, with a clear reason to get in touch now.
Remarketing (remind them of the business): Low-cost ads that keep the business in front of people who have already shown interest while they decide.
We run all three together, because each does a job the other two can't. A business that runs only one gets only part of the result.
What's Included
Strategy and targeting
Who to reach, based on behavior and location across the service area.
Ad images and copy
We create the images and write the ads, built around the problems the business solves.
All three campaigns
Awareness, lead generation and remarketing, built and run together.
Tracking setup
The Meta Pixel and conversion tracking, set up the same way we track paid search, in the business's own accounts.
Ongoing management
We monitor what's working and what isn't, and keep the best-performing ads running. About every 60 days, we introduce new ads to test against the current best performers.
Reporting
Leads by campaign, reported from the platform's conversion data, with impressions for awareness campaigns.
Creative Is the Campaign
In search, the homeowner has asked a question and the ad answers it. On Facebook and Instagram, nobody asked. The ad has to stop someone mid-scroll, show them a problem they recognize, and give them a reason to remember the business or get in touch. That makes the image, the video and the message the most important part of the campaign. It's also the part we most often find weak when we review existing accounts.
We create the ad images and write the copy for every campaign, built around the specific problems the business solves for homeowners in its area.
Video Production
Homeowners are deciding who to let into their home, and video of the business's own people shows them who will turn up. Because the video features the business's team, they need to be available to be filmed. If the business isn't local to us, we can send someone to shoot it. We provide the script outline, and video production is quoted separately.
Wondering if Facebook and Instagram ads would work for your business?
Riley Summers will look at the work you want more of, your service area and how your customers decide, and tell you honestly whether paid social has a useful job to do. If you're already running Meta ads, we'll review those too. There's no cost and no obligation.
Request a free Facebook and Instagram ads assessmentHow Results Are Measured
Each campaign has a different job, so we evaluate each one against its own job rather than holding every ad to the standard of paid search.
Lead Generation. Leads are tracked the same way we track paid search and reported by campaign from the platform's conversion data.
Remarketing. These are low-cost background ads, and we don't evaluate them on clicks. Their job is to keep the business in front of people who have already shown interest, so it isn't forgotten while they decide.
Awareness. We report impressions, which show how many times the ads were seen. We also watch the business's analytics for more people searching for it by name, and for more leads coming from those searches. We don't claim every one of those searches came from an ad, because other marketing and word of mouth play a part too.
We'd rather give an owner an honest picture than a precise-looking number that doesn't hold up.
What We Usually Find
These are the problems we most often find when we review a home services business's Facebook and Instagram ads.
Generic creative
Ads that look like every other contractor's: a logo, a stock photo and “call us today.” Nothing stops the scroll or speaks to a problem the homeowner actually has.
What we do instead
We build each ad around a specific problem the business solves, and test new ads against the best performers about every 60 days.
Bad targeting
Audiences that are too narrow or hand-picked, or locations that don't match where the business actually works.
What we do instead
We apply our proven targeting process, which gives Meta's learning system what it needs to find the right homeowners in the area the business serves.
How It Starts
- Assessment. We review the work the business wants more of, its service area and how its customers decide, and confirm that Facebook and Instagram ads have a useful job to do.
- Access and tracking. The business grants us partner access to its Business Portfolio, with ad spend billed to its own card. We set up the Meta Pixel and conversion tracking.
- Creative and build. We create the ad images and copy and build all three campaigns. If the business wants video, we arrange production separately.
- Launch and refine. Lead generation campaigns can produce leads within the first few days or weeks, but we don't evaluate a campaign on its first handful of results. We review the campaigns with each monthly report and refine them as results come in. Awareness isn't meant to produce leads quickly. Its effect builds over time and often shows up elsewhere, such as more people searching for the business by name. Remarketing starts working once enough people have seen or engaged with the business's ads, so it takes longer for a business that's new to advertising.
A one-time setup fee covers the build. After that, we charge a flat monthly management fee, with no initial term and a 60-day out.
What's Separate
Facebook and Instagram ads management covers the paid campaigns. These sit outside it:
Video production. Filming and the script outline are quoted separately.
Organic social media. Posting to the business's Facebook and Instagram pages and replying to comments aren't included.
Other platforms. TikTok, YouTube and Reddit ads are separate services. See TikTok Ads, YouTube Ads and Reddit Ads.
Google remarketing. Remarketing on Google is part of our paid search management. See Paid Search (PPC).
Related Resources
Find out whether paid social belongs in your marketing.
Riley Summers will review the work you want more of and tell you honestly whether Facebook and Instagram ads would earn their place. If you're already running them, we'll review your current ads too.
Request a free Facebook and Instagram ads assessment