Every week I speak to service business owners who have tried Facebook ads and written them off as a waste of money. They spent a few hundred pounds, got a handful of clicks and concluded that ads simply do not work for their type of business.
They are almost always wrong about the reason.
The problem was never the budget. It was never the design. The problem was that they were advertising in completely the wrong way.
It is not about how much you spend or how beautiful the ad looks
People scrolling through Facebook are not looking at your ad. They are looking at their feed. Your ad has approximately one second to interrupt that and make them stop.
The only thing that makes someone stop scrolling is seeing something directly relevant to a problem they already have. Not your logo. Not your years of experience. Not the fact that you are family run or fully insured. In that first second, the only thing that matters is whether they see themselves in what you are showing them.
Start with the problem
Before you write a single word of copy, answer this question with complete clarity. What is the specific problem your customer has right before they need you?
Not a vague version of it. The actual lived experience. The plumber’s customer did not just need a boiler, they woke up on a January morning with no heating and young children in the house. The accountant’s customer did not just need their books done, they were lying awake at three in the morning worrying about a tax bill they could not predict.
The ad that speaks directly to that moment will always outperform the ad that lists your services.
Then lead with the outcome, not the features
Do not tell them what you offer. Tell them what changes for them. Not we provide monthly bookkeeping, you know exactly where you stand financially every month without touching a spreadsheet. Not what you do. What they get.
Make saying yes a no-brainer
Even the best ad fails if the next step feels risky. Remove the risk entirely. The free consultation. The no-obligation quote. The trial period. When you combine a real problem, a clear outcome and a risk-free first step you have an offer that a qualified prospect would feel almost foolish to say no to.
Rather let someone else handle all of it?
We run the ads, build the landing page, qualify every lead, follow up automatically and nurture anyone not ready yet. We deliver you ready-to-buy ideal clients. You just close the business.
Start with a 10 day free trial… exclusively for magazine readers. (usually 7 days)
After that it is just £697 a month. A minimum of £35 a day ad spend paid directly to Facebook is required.
Scan the QR code and WhatsApp me the word TEN. We will have a quick chat to see if it is a good fit.
www.steeryourbusiness.com/magazine/jul-aug-2026
