Advertising for small businesses/startups

I honestly feel like a thread like this would be super interesting and actually useful for all the women running their own businesses out there to just vent and swap stories.
So, like, how are you guys actually promoting your small business or LLC or whatever? What’s working best for you? Do you think spending money on Meta ads or Google is even worth the headache?

From what I've seen personally, handing out flyers was just a total waste of time.

I'm not sure how much advertising actually pays off these days. At the end of the day, a satisfied customer is the best advertisement you can get.

It really depends on what kind of clients you're looking for. Google works fine for me since most of my business comes from overseas.
Facebook (which isn't exactly my favorite) has potential on paper, but the way they've structured everything is just a mess.

Charles Ramos7 said:It really depends on what kind of clients you're looking for. Google works fine for me since most of my business comes from overseas.
Facebook (which isn't exactly my favorite) has potential on paper, but the way they've structured everything is just a mess.

I have to disagree—to me, Facebook feels like the perfect arena for advertising. The primary reason, of course, is the sheer precision you have when targeting a specific client profile—you can narrow things down by age, location, education, job title, and so on. Just two weeks ago, I decided to throw $17 at it simply to see what would happen; I ran an ad on my company page, and in those mere two days, I clocked about 21,000 impressions. Out of those 21,000 views, roughly 160 people actually clicked through to the website—some reached out directly, and a few even placed orders. In my estimation, that $17 was well worth it, especially considering it wasn't a massive amount of cash to begin with.

Amy Palmer32 said:I have to disagree—to me, Facebook feels like the perfect arena for advertising. The primary reason, of course, is the sheer precision you have when targeting a specific client profile—you can narrow things down by age, location, education, job title, and so on. Just two weeks ago, I decided to throw $17 at it simply to see what would happen; I ran an ad on my company page, and in those mere two days, I clocked about 21,000 impressions. Out of those 21,000 views, roughly 160 people actually clicked through to the website—some reached out directly, and a few even placed orders. In my estimation, that $17 was well worth it, especially considering it wasn't a massive amount of cash to begin with.

I’m a complete novice when it comes to Facebook, so I probably don't know how to leverage all the perks. It really depends on what kind of business you run.
The main thing that bugs me is how the personal profile and the business page are tied together. On mobile, you can't even log into the page without hitting your personal profile first. All I want is a simple way to interact with customers, but everything feels unnecessarily complicated here—or maybe I'm just missing something. 🤷

Amy Palmer32 said:I have to disagree—to me, Facebook feels like the perfect arena for advertising. The primary reason, of course, is the sheer precision you have when targeting a specific client profile—you can narrow things down by age, location, education, job title, and so on. Just two weeks ago, I decided to throw $17 at it simply to see what would happen; I ran an ad on my company page, and in those mere two days, I clocked about 21,000 impressions. Out of those 21,000 views, roughly 160 people actually clicked through to the website—some reached out directly, and a few even placed orders. In my estimation, that $17 was well worth it, especially considering it wasn't a massive amount of cash to begin with.

I use Facebook ads myself, too. Your traffic definitely jumps up, especially if you're putting down $20 or more to run them. But, I don't know, I feel like Google Ads is way higher quality. It’s just because your ad pops up right when people are searching for stuff related to your company. I know Facebook lets you target keywords too, but looking at all those profiles liking the page... I don't know, they just seem kinda fake to me....

Sarah Nguyen96 said:I'm not sure how much advertising actually pays off these days. At the end of the day, a satisfied customer is the best advertisement you can get.

I get that, totally. If you already have a solid base of clients, sure. But if you're just starting out? You gotta find a way to actually reach people and get your product in their hands first. Otherwise, those "happy customers" you're counting on won't even exist yet...

A bit of an off-topic detour here—but since it touches on advertising—is anyone available to head over to the entrepreneurship camp tomorrow in San Francisco? It’s being hosted by the local business incubator, and honestly, it’s a fantastic chance to pick the brains of people with serious marketing expertise. My own company will be there—we actually won a spot in their competition for the top ten startups with the most promising products, which was 😁

Handing out flyers is a waste of money. Most people focus way too much on the paper quality and fancy design, yet they hire amateur crews who just go through the motions... They think if they drop 1,000 flyers, they'll land 600 customers. It’s a joke. Just cut your printing costs and do it yourself; at least then you have total control over the edits whenever you want.
Facebook works fine for ads, but I don't know much about Google. In my experience, having your own website is the best move—it's all about that flyer-to-website connection.

Word-of-mouth is the gold standard for any business. Other media channels really depend on what you do—for some, TV is king; for others, it's the web or direct sales. Every industry has its own quirks. Speaking from my own experience running an online marketing agency, there are so many different paths to take, whether it’s Google, various social platforms, or specifically Facebook. While Facebook isn't impossible to learn, it’s usually much easier to just hire a pro who actually knows what they're doing rather than struggling through it yourself, especially since ad formats and algorithms change so fast.
The real issue is that people often overlook the importance of marketing entirely. When you present them with actual data and figures, they think you're crazy—they figure their daughter can handle it because she's on Facebook all day anyway.
The big advantage of digital marketing, though, is the tracking. You get real statistics. You know exactly where your customers are coming from, how they interacted with your site, and how long it took them to pull the trigger on a purchase.

David Flores23 said:Word-of-mouth is the gold standard for any business. Other media channels really depend on what you do—for some, TV is king; for others, it's the web or direct sales. Every industry has its own quirks. Speaking from my own experience running an online marketing agency, there are so many different paths to take, whether it’s Google, various social platforms, or specifically Facebook. While Facebook isn't impossible to learn, it’s usually much easier to just hire a pro who actually knows what they're doing rather than struggling through it yourself, especially since ad formats and algorithms change so fast.
The real issue is that people often overlook the importance of marketing entirely. When you present them with actual data and figures, they think you're crazy—they figure their daughter can handle it because she's on Facebook all day anyway.
The big advantage of digital marketing, though, is the tracking. You get real statistics. You know exactly where your customers are coming from, how they interacted with your site, and how long it took them to pull the trigger on a purchase.

Since you're an expert and I'm clueless about Facebook, can I ask a quick question? Is it technically possible—say, if I ran a pizza delivery joint—for a customer to land on my business page and order right there via message or something similar instead of calling? I'd want that notification to hit my phone immediately.
And could they also track the delivery driver's location on a map in real-time?

Charles Ramos7 said:Since you're an expert and I'm clueless about Facebook, can I ask a quick question? Is it technically possible—say, if I ran a pizza delivery joint—for a customer to land on my business page and order right there via message or something similar instead of calling? I'd want that notification to hit my phone immediately.
And could they also track the delivery driver's location on a map in real-time?

Honestly, what you're asking about isn't really about advertising. You'd probably need to find a web developer or some kind of software programmer to build a custom app for that kind of setup. I mean, it's definitely doable, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be cheap at all.

Charles Ramos7 said:Since you're an expert and I'm clueless about Facebook, can I ask a quick question? Is it technically possible—say, if I ran a pizza delivery joint—for a customer to land on my business page and order right there via message or something similar instead of calling? I'd want that notification to hit my phone immediately.
And could they also track the delivery driver's location on a map in real-time?

I’m pretty sure that’s possible using the Facebook app. I don't code myself, so I can't speak to the technical specifics.
My suggestion would be to reach out to a firm like Accenture; they're top-tier developers, so if something can be built, they can definitely handle it.

A simpler route would be setting up a standard web shop on your own website. (I think DoorDash uses a similar setup for food orders.)

David Flores23 said:I’m pretty sure that’s possible using the Facebook app. I don't code myself, so I can't speak to the technical specifics.
My suggestion would be to reach out to a firm like Accenture; they're top-tier developers, so if something can be built, they can definitely handle it.

A simpler route would be setting up a standard web shop on your own website. (I think DoorDash uses a similar setup for food orders.)

But it turns out Facebook makes it impossible to do the simplest thing in the world—just sending a message to someone's phone.🤷

Aha, so if they send you a DM, you'll see it on your phone?
Yeah, exactly. Once they hit send, you'll get the notification right through the Facebook app or Messenger.
I'm just not totally seeing the point of doing it that way, though.

David Flores23 said:Aha, so if they send you a DM, you'll see it on your phone?
Yeah, exactly. Once they hit send, you'll get the notification right through the Facebook app or Messenger.
I'm just not totally seeing the point of doing it that way, though.

The issue is that on a mobile device, you can't really log into the company site separately from your personal profile since they're both tied to the same email. Plus, from what I've noticed, the incoming message alert is pretty quiet, and there isn't much of an option to pick a louder tone. It seems like the idea is to save customers from burning through their data plans instead of using cellular data.

If you're on Android, there's a Pages Manager app that lets you handle all the pages you admin from one spot.
I assume there's an iPhone version too, but since I don't own one, I can't say for sure.

Anyone here actually tried running Facebook ads for vacation rentals? I'm not registered as a formal business yet.

I read somewhere that most of the engagement comes from younger crowds who live on social media, but apparently, you can actually fine-tune the demographics. You can target specific age groups and even pick certain countries. Honestly, my goal would be to attract wealthy travelers from places like New York or Connecticut, rather than some college kids from out of state who just show up and trash the place. 😁 Just a thought.

David Flores23 said:If you're on Android, there's a Pages Manager app that lets you handle all the pages you admin from one spot.
I assume there's an iPhone version too, but since I don't own one, I can't say for sure.

I gave that a shot, but it didn't really work the way I wanted. I actually deleted it a while back, but if I remember right, the notification sound was either totally silent or just way too quiet, and there wasn't any way to fix it.🤷

briskpanther19 said:Anyone here actually tried running Facebook ads for vacation rentals? I'm not registered as a formal business yet.

I read somewhere that most of the engagement comes from younger crowds who live on social media, but apparently, you can actually fine-tune the demographics. You can target specific age groups and even pick certain countries. Honestly, my goal would be to attract wealthy travelers from places like New York or Connecticut, rather than some college kids from out of state who just show up and trash the place. 😁 Just a thought.

You can actually get pretty precise with your targeting. You can filter by age, gender, interests, and hobbies.