If you spend time on Facebook, you might have seen a new kind of paid promotion option: the local offer.

There are actually a few different kinds of offers, which are useful and easy to set up. In this post, we’ll explain how to create an offer on Facebook and what makes them so good for local businesses like home inspectors.

How To Create An Offer

The process of setting up an offer is simple.

When you’re logged in as your business page, look at the status box. You’ll see tabs marked “Update, Offer, +” next to the Photo/Video tab. Click on that and choose Offer.

You’ll be shown three options: online, in store, and online/store hybrid. Choose an option you’d like to try out; the online only option is probably easiest for first-timers.

First, if you chose an option with the online component, enter your website. This should be the page you want people to visit once they click on your offer, so if you have a special scheduling or contact page on your site you might want to use that direct URL.

You can also add a coupon code if you want. This is helpful in tracking people who are coming to your site via Facebook. Next, add an image to go with the post and a description of the offer. The description cannot be more than 90 characters and should use obvious keywords like ‘home inspection’ and your city.

The next step is to set up the offer using the available options. For example, you can set an expiration date for the offer and run a sale that only lasts a few weeks, creating urgency.

Although it’s optional, you should add some terms and conditions. This should clearly what you’re offering and how it works, listing any exceptions or unusual features and covering all possible circumstances. For example, maybe your discount doesn’t apply to homes over 2,500 square feet, etc.

After you’ve set up your offer, Facebook will email the offer to you so you can see how it’ll look when it’s actually online. Examine it and make sure that it looks good.

Pay particular attention to the description and the image. Make sure the image doesn’t look blurry or distorted, and that there are no typos or incorrect information in the description.

If everything looks good, then there’s one step left. You have to set a budget for the offer. The more money you put up, the more people your ad will reach, because Facebook will place it in front of more viewers.

The budget screen has an estimate of how many people will see the offer based on each possible budget you enter, so play around with the numbers and decide where you are comfortable. You might begin by testing a small amount like $20 to see what kind of results you get.

When you’re ready to go, make it live.

Using Offers

There are several good ways to use offers as a home inspector. For example, you can direct viewers to your most popular services, like general home inspections, or to niche services you’re trying to ramp up, like mold inspection.

You can also use offers that are not actually offers, but more like announcements. Create an offer, but link to a service that doesn’t have a discount attached to it and don’t add any kind of coupon code or bar code to the offer.

For example, when the snow starts to melt in your area, you might run an offer for springtime roof inspections. Instead of mentioning a discount, the offer can talk about how spring is a great time to inspect for damage to your roof.

The offer feature is a huge boon for businesses. Try tapping into it to reach new home inspection clients in your area!

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