More and more churches are using Facebook ads than ever before, and more churches than ever before are seeing those ads have an impact on their church growth. The reality is that when you focus on reaching your community through social media, you just can’t be as effective without running Facebook ads.
That being said though, more churches than ever before are also making mistakes with Facebook ads. These mistakes waste their ad spend, decrease their reach, and ultimately don’t allow their Facebook ads to be as effective.
Let me take a few moments and spell out the five biggest mistakes that churches are making right now with their Facebook ads.
1. Not Using Facebook ads at all
This is probably the biggest mistake of all, and I believe it is based around fear of taking the plunge. Because Facebook ads cost money, there’s always going to be a fear of just completely wasting that money. There’s also so much to learn, and only so much time to do it.
But if you never use Facebook ads, you’ll never see the benefit that so many other churches have seen from their ads. No risk, no reward.
If you’re thinking about Facebook Ads for your church this Easter, check out the Easter Facebook Ad Kit from Social Church. It’s the easiest way to get great-looking, effective ads for your church up and running.
To that end, if you’re a church who isn’t using Facebook ads right now because you’re afraid of messing it up, let me encourage you to take the 5/30 Challenge. When you sign up for the 5/30 Challenge, I’ll ask you to make a commitment to run Facebook ads for 30 days at $5 per day. But I’ll help you along the way and tell you what ads to run, so you won’t be alone. The 5/30 Challenge will allow your church to try Facebook ads without fear or frustration.
2. Not putting a budget behind your ads
I’m not sure who started saying this, but there is this pervasive notion that you can run successful ads with as little as $5 for an entire campaign and see the results you want. This just isn’t true.
Starting small with something you don’t fully understand is always a good idea, but there is such thing as starting too small. Without a real budget, your ads won’t be shown to as many people as they could be, as many times as they could be. You can understand my frustration when churches say that Facebook ads don’t work, yet they tried them once or twice with almost no budget.
Nothing is free. Everything requires some sacrifice. A campaign without a budget has no shot of being successful. Putting a good budget behind your ads can be a game-changer in seeing success in reaching your community with the message you want to get out there.
3. Not building a relationship first
When someone invites a friend to church, that friend makes the decision to come based on how much they trust their friend. In other words, the relationship precedes the ask. An ask from a total stranger wouldn’t be nearly as effective, because there is no relationship and therefore no trust.
The same holds true for Facebook ads. When we as churches don’t take the time to consistently be in front of people on social media and only show up for Christmas and Easter, we are the stranger asking for someone to come to church.
This doesn’t mean that your ads won’t work at all without that consistency, but they won’t be nearly as effective.
If you haven’t ever run Facebook ads before, Easter is a great time to start. But after you take that first step, start consistently putting your church out there with Facebook ads. That starts that relationship process and makes your future asks that much more effective.
4. Not committing for the long haul
This flows in tandem with the last point, but if your church is running Facebook ads this Easter, don’t let this be a one-and-done thing. Your community needs to hear from you all year long, not just around Easter.
In the same way that we don’t want people being “Chreasters” who only show up on Christmas and Easter, we shouldn’t be Chreaster churches. We believe Facebook ads should be run year-round, and the reason is simple. There is always someone in your community that you aren’t reaching with the Gospel, and Facebook ads give you the best possible reach.
5. Not getting help
Some of you know Facebook ads inside and out. You’ve been running Facebook ads for the last 5 years and regularly employ advanced strategies that take your ads to the next level.
Most likely though, that doesn’t describe you. If that’s the case, it’s not smart to go at it alone without help. There’s so much that experience teaches you. When you start from scratch without help, you will likely make the same mistakes that you would have avoided had you just stopped to get help.
For Easter Facebook Ads, you can’t beat the amount of help you’ll get from the Easter Facebook Ad Kit from Social Church. It gives you step-by-step instructions, example copy, editable images, and video walkthroughs to help you easily set up your Facebook ad campaigns.
Don’t waste time and money running ineffective ads this year – get the kit to give your church everything you need.
I hope this helps you avoid the same mistakes I’ve seen so many churches fall prey to. The bottom line is this: Facebook ads, while they can be a very successful way to reach your community, will only be successful when you don’t make the mistakes listed above.
Here’s to an awesome Easter for your church!