How to Run Ads that Actually Work for Your Local Practice
In this episode, I sat down with Nicole Eldridge, a Facebook and Instagram ad strategist who specializes in helping local holistic health practices attract more clients without wasting time or money on ineffective campaigns. We dove deep into the unique challenges that local businesses face when running ads—which are so different from the advice that’s everywhere for big online brands—and Nicole laid out her three-part local ads framework that’s working right now. We talked about common mistakes practitioners make, like sending people to the wrong website pages or choosing the wrong ad settings, and Nicole shared practical strategies for getting visibility, nurturing leads, and making sure ads actually reach local clients. Nicole’s approach really simplifies ads for local businesses and helps you focus your efforts in a way that will actually pay off.
Key Takeaways
Local ads require a completely different approach than online business ads.
Only about 10% of your followers see organic posts, so ads help you reach more local clients.
Think of your social media as a digital storefront that shows people you’re active and trustworthy.
The settings you choose in Ads Manager determine your results — traffic isn’t the same as leads.
Simple, authentic photos and videos outperform wordy graphics and overdesigned ads.
Conversions happen in your follow-up process, not just from the ad itself.
A balanced ad strategy includes visibility, retargeting, and lead generation campaigns.
Keep your targeting local and simple — use a radius, not a long list of interests.
The “Boost Post” button doesn’t count as a real ad and rarely brings new clients.
Don’t give up after one ad; test, tweak, and use your data to improve.
Nicole Eldridge
Nicole Eldridge is a Facebook and Instagram ads strategist who helps local business owners—especially service-based practices—grow sustainably without wasting time or money on advertising campaigns that just don't work for local businesses. After managing over $1 million in ad spend for clients and running campaigns for hundreds of businesses, she now teaches her proven local ads framework inside her program, Hometown ADvantage. Nicole specializes in helping local businesses, including health and wellness professionals, attract more local clients, book more appointments, and free up time to focus on client care instead of stressing over marketing.
Transcript
[00:00:00] Samantha: I am Samantha Mabe, website designer and founder of Lemon and the Sea, and this is Elevate your practice. If you're a holistic health practitioner ready to grow your practice without wasting time on things that don't work, you're in the right place. Each week I share a website, SEO, and marketing advice along with guest experts so you can bring in the right clients and feel confident about how you are showing up and serving the people that you help. Let's get started.
[00:00:38] I'm super excited to talk about ads that are actually going to help your local business to grow. I came across Nicole on Instagram through our mutual friend Molly Cahill, and actually watched her ads webinar before I reached out to her so I knew that she was gonna be the perfect person to come on to help holistic healthcare practices and practitioners who are serving local clients to get the most out of their ads instead of trying to follow the advice that all of the marketing gurus out there are teaching for more online based businesses.
[00:01:20] Nicole Eldridge is a Facebook and Instagram's ads strategist who helps local business owners, especially service based practices, grow sustainably without wasting time or money on advertising campaigns that just don't work for them. After managing over a million dollars in ad spend for her clients and running campaigns for hundreds of businesses, she now teaches her proven local ads framework in her program Hometown ADvantage. She specializes in helping local businesses, including health and wellness professionals to attract more local clients, book more appointments, and free up their time to focus on client care instead of stressing over marketing.
[00:02:00] In this episode, she lays out three types of ads that are working for her clients, and I think her framework for this is so impactful and it's gonna make you think a little bit differently about how you are running ads and the ROI that you should be expecting from this marketing strategy as a whole.
[00:02:21] Samantha: Hi Nicole. Thanks for joining me.
[00:02:23] Nicole: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Meet Nicole Eldridge
[00:02:27] Samantha: Can you tell us a little bit more about who you are and what you do that might not be in your bio?
[00:02:33] Nicole: Yes. So I can't remember exactly what's in my bio, but my name's Nicole. I specialize in Facebook and Instagram ads specifically for local businesses. So I know this is something we'll talk about, but local ads and then online ads are completely different. So I've kind of made it my mission to help people who just wanna reach a local audience, they don't need to reach people on the other side of the country or the other side of the world, really figure out how to master ads so that they can grow their practices, grow their local businesses.
The Difference Between Local and Online Ads
[00:03:07] Samantha: My clients ask me about ads a lot. And most of the people that I know do them for these online businesses that are kind of serving anybody anywhere and local business is very different when we come to SEO, it's different for design, like in so many ways. We have to think about where you are.
[00:03:29] I was excited to have somebody talk specifically about local ads and local marketing, because that's really what people need. They don't need to be following the advice of like just the big person on Instagram right now.
[00:03:45] Nicole: Yes. Honestly, that's where a lot of local businesses end up going wrong. The biggest thing actually is that online ads are actually quite complicated and as far as messaging and your funnels and all these extra things that a lot of times local businesses don't need or they can just, they can use it, but it can just be so much simpler.
[00:04:08] And so a lot of times I'll get local business owners who've taken ads courses or gone to ads people and they'll claim they don't work or they weren't successful, and they're actually just making it a little bit more complicated than it has to be.
[00:04:25] Samantha: I find the same thing when it comes to somebody wanting an email list and they're like, oh, I have to have an opt-in and this and that, and I'm like, yes, but also you don't really need somebody in California opting in if you only work with people in Virginia because they're never gonna be able to work with you.
[00:04:42] Nicole: Exactly. Yep.
Why Organic Marketing Isn’t Enough Anymore
[00:04:45] Samantha: So what makes Facebook and Instagram, so meta, ads different and more effective than just relying on organic marketing, which is I think where most people start and then they think, okay, I need to do ads now.
[00:04:58] Nicole: It's no secret that organic reach just isn't what it once was, right between algorithms saturation, people becoming full-time content creators, like that's obviously not the goal of a local business owner. They usually want to leverage social media to get visible and help communicate things with either potential clients or existing clients, you know, that's gonna help them people back in.
[00:05:28] The fact of the matter is that when we post now, those things just aren't getting pushed out to new people or existing people. It's kind of like this two-edged thing where even if someone follows you, it's so unlikely for them to even see half or 10% of what you post. I think the number now is, if you're lucky, 10% of the people who follow you will see your posts, and a lot of times your loyalist fan base who doesn't even need to see your posts to come and do business with you and do follow ups with you and all of that stuff anyway. That's where I feel like ads really can come in.
[00:06:12] I have a kind of a hot take when it comes to organic marketing versus ads or social media in general. I feel like if you really want to commit to using social media to help more clients, grow your local practice, that not using ads is just simply a waste of time.
[00:06:32] When I say that, I mean when it comes to like getting visible. I take the stance of organic content and your social media feeds should act as digital storefronts. So it's kind of like a vibe check for people who do find you elsewhere. if they find you from Google, from your website, driving by your location and looking you up, or seeing you at a local event or something, a lot of times people are gonna go to your pages and try and check you out and try and get some questions answered similar to going to a website. That's how I encourage local practices to use their organic social media marketing. Don't think of it as, oh, I need to post this so more people can see me and find me. Use it as when people do find me, this is what I want them to see. And then that's where ads come in. That's how we help people find you.
[00:07:30] Samantha: I love that approach. I think we have to remember when we're in our business, we're so, this is the way we do things and we forget to think when I am a customer, how do I interact with things? When I am a customer and I am looking to get something done, I'm gonna look up everything I possibly can, I'm gonna look at your Instagram. Have you posted? Are you still in business? Does it feel consistent? Obviously as a website designer, I'm very picky about your website. People are looking at those things to make the decision. It may not be where they initially encounter you, but it is part of the decision making process.
[00:08:10] Nicole: What's it look like inside? Who am I gonna speak to when I come in? What can I expect when I walk in through your doors? Show me that on your Instagram. I need to see it ahead of time.
The Biggest Mistakes Local Practitioners Make with Ads
[00:08:21] Samantha: Okay, so can you explain the biggest mistake most practitioners make when they try running ads on their own?
[00:08:29] Nicole: So I can't lie, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to nail it down to just one, because this is where I actually think a lot of people can get the most value. Not even in, Hey, go do this, this, and this, but starting with don't do this, this, and this. A lot of people will see themselves, if they've tried running ads or they've had someone run ads for them, they might see themselves in one of these mistakes, and I always narrow it down to three and so I won't go on and on.
[00:09:00] But one of the big ones, and this one's tricky, but it's the ad manager settings, so the settings and the toggles and the buttons and the choose this verse that. That part can be so complicated. And the thing is, it's one of those things where once you know what works and once you know exactly like, I don't need to worry about this ones, but I do need to worry about this one, um, then that's done, right? Like that's just a matter of learning. And you can learn from YouTube videos or different things like that, but settings can make or break your ad results.
[00:09:38] Facebook ads manager is so robust and that can be a good thing and a bad thing because it can be overwhelming with all these different toggles and buttons and options and things like that. But if you tell it one thing, it takes it so literally. It's a machine, right? And so you have to tell it exactly what you want it to do, and it's gonna go do that. But the problem is a lot of people aren't realizing that what they're telling it isn't what they actually want.
[00:10:11] So I have an example. I have a client, her name's Misty, and she is an aesthetician, and she was running her own ads. She had spent around $300 in ad spend before she came to me. And she was getting so much traffic to her website, like it was amazing. She's like, 'I just have never gotten this much traffic to my website. I've spent $300, I've gotten like 200 clicks to my website in the past couple weeks. This is crazy.' But no new clients, no even new leads. Not even like one new lead, right? And so I went into her ads manager to check out her settings and I could tell immediately. She told the ads manager that she wanted traffic to her website and she got traffic to her website. She sure did, but she didn't get anything else beyond that.
[00:10:58] There's ways that we can tell Ads Manager, we don't want traffic, we want leads, and then yes, we can send those leads to somewhere on our website or what have you. We want clients, this all depends on your goals, your budget, all of these things. But if you tell Ads Manager the wrong things, it's gonna go do its job and it's gonna do exactly what you tell it, and then you don't really realize that what you told it was wrong. So that's always a big one, is settings.
[00:11:26] The second one is type of content that they use in their ads. So again, a lot of times I'll see people using the strategies that they were taught, maybe when they started their business five, 10 years ago. And a lot of times that looks like very wordy graphics, almost like something that should be a flyer at the coffee shop and not something that. are used to consuming or seeing on social media anymore.
[00:11:54] Right now, the beauty of social media ads is that you can create ads that don't look like ads. You can just create things that people are used to already seeing on their page that already would catch their attention, and then all of a sudden they, they're like, 'oh, this was an ad.' They might not even realize it at first.
[00:12:12] So they're used to seeing behind the scenes videos of what the place looks like inside or someone doing something silly or even just someone talking to the camera. It doesn't have to be anything too creative, but something that they're already used to seeing. Even just a static photo, a picture of you, a picture of you and your team smiling, that even works better, almost always, than a super wordy graphic or what have you because people just aren't stopping to read those things anymore.
[00:12:45] A lot of times I find with the copy or the caption part of the ad is a lot of times we're using like jargon heavy copy. And again, that's not what people are showing up on social media to read and a confused mind never buys is the saying, right? You have to just be so clear and concise and that just comes back to overcomplicating it again. We just have to make it so simple. We get to make it so simple and easy.
[00:13:15] Then the last mistake that I often see actually has nothing to do with the actual ad and everything to do with after the ad. So that goes into where you're sending people or the follow-up process that's happening once someone puts in name and their email, say you, you know, are promoting a special service that you're doing or that you want to bring in more people for, and you're collecting names and emails of people who want that specific service. There should be a very robust, adequate follow up process. People are busy, their whole lives aren't revolved around booking this appointment with you, kind of like your whole life feels revolved around making sure they're booking the appointments with you. You gotta follow up with people, you gotta do what sometimes feels like bugging- It's not. A lot of times people appreciate the follow up, the bugging, all of that.
[00:14:07] And then going back to where we're sending people, sending people to like a homepage of a website usually isn't the go-to route. You usually want like a dedicated landing page where you're only promoting that one thing that you were just promoting in the ad. It's a super simple, easy way for people to put in their name and email. They don't have to scroll down a million times to find it. Simple stuff like that.
[00:14:34] Samantha: I think those are all really helpful. I just worked with a client who is getting ready to run ads and so she was telling me like, 'I've been paying for ads, I've been getting a lot of traffic, but I'm not seeing any new leads.' She was sending people, I think, to their about page, and it was like, that's not gonna do anything. I'm not even sure we have more than like two buttons on there. There's a lot of things in there that it's like you have to think through the entire process.
[00:15:03] Nicole: And when you're paying for these people to come, you wanna give them the path of least resistance and you don't wanna give 'em too many choices because though we think we like choices as humans, it makes things so much harder on us, right? Let's give them one service that we wanna advertise. Let's take them to one dedicated page to it. Let's give them one option to submit their information and you know, they can then from there, hopefully go and do their research and what have you. But we don't want them to veer off too much 'cause a lot of times they don't end up coming back.
Simplifying Your Marketing Plan with Ads
[00:15:39] Samantha: Yeah, absolutely. I know we talked a little bit about this, but when somebody is thinking about their marketing in general, when do you think ads need to start? How does that fit into a marketing plan somebody might be laying out?
[00:15:53] Nicole: My philosophy is if you want more clients and you want more visibility, you're ready for ads. And so I kind of teach a very simple framework that has the local busy business owner in mind. Marketing is one part of what they have to do to run their business. So we have to keep that in mind and keep our time in mind and keep the overall effort and all of that.
[00:16:18] When it comes to posting just to your page organically, I always tell my clients, if you can shoot for eight posts a month, which is around two a week, that's amazing. But even less than that, you know what not a big deal. Alls we're focused on is that digital storefront that when people come, yes, are they thinking you're close because you haven't posted in three months? Or do you have a couple more recent things and do you have real people like faces, in your content? Are you showing us those kinds of things we talked about that we want to know to make a decision about becoming a customer?
The Three Types of Local Ads That Work
[00:16:57] And then from there, I teach three core ads that can be so simple for local business owners to run. Two of them can run all the time and usually can run for a while and they can kind of be set it and forget it, which makes things so easy for a bus, local business owner. The third one is a little less that.
[00:17:19] So the first one I call a visibility ad, and it's kind of like a billboard, so sometimes I call it like a billboard ad. It's always on. You're introducing yourself almost like you would at a local networking event if you were told to stand up and say, 'Hey. Tell us who you are and what your business is and how you help people.' That's almost like how you can structure your visibility ad just tell everybody who you are.
[00:17:43] Local businesses can get in front of a lot of people for affordable because they don't have a ton of competition in the ads algorithm. So that's what drives up ad prices is when you are competing for feed space with so many other people. My own ads are very expensive because the marketing space, obviously there's tons of marketers using ads to market businesses. There aren't tons of local businesses using ads just to target the people in their community, right? So it can be really affordable. Just get in front of people. You can set it up for a couple dollars a day, leave it, and that's like your visibility machine just working for you day and night.
[00:18:31] The other one that you can run all the time, is what I call retargeting ads. So that is where your content is only being shown to people who've already expressed interest in your business. Maybe they have visited your page from one of your visibility ads. Maybe they visited your website because you can track people who visit your website. Maybe they're on your email list or your customer list. You can upload that list into Ads Manager and actually target those people. A lot of times for those we just use those organic posts that we've already put time into and we're posting those to our page, we can run those as retargeting ads to make sure our people are actually seeing our content. And we kind of have this omnipresence, we call it, where you're always actually showing up in people's feeds because these retargeting ads are running for you in the background and all that work you put into writing a caption, coming up with what to say, what to post, all of that doesn't go to waste because you can actually target people who want to see your content anyway.
[00:19:38] And those can be so affordable too, because it's a small group of people depending on, you know, how many followers and how big your email list and things are like that. Usually people can spend a dollar a day on these or two and kind of make sure that everybody's seeing their stuff.
[00:19:55] The last type of ad is that lead generation ad where we wanna put forward that one clear offer. We wanna collect names and emails. Ads manager, when you use those right settings, when you use that right type of content, really get you in front of the right people and help you find qualified people who you can bring into your practice.
[00:20:18] Those take a little bit more care. You're watching those a little bit closer. You're testing new things with those. The other two are set it and forget it. This is the one you can focus on when it comes to knowing where to spend your time in the whole social media marketing plan.
[00:20:34] A lot of times people thinking they're not doing enough, and they're like, 'I just, I gotta do more. I gotta do more.' Can you get 5, 6, 7, 8 posts up a month? Maybe you plan them all in an hour. You schedule 'em out, you get your visibility ads up a week later, you run retargeting ads a week later, and then every couple days we're checking in on those lead generation ads, and then you're doing enough. You don't have to think about it anymore.
Why ROI Isn’t Just About One Ad
[00:21:00] Samantha: I really like that plan. Sometimes I think we only think, 'oh, I just need lead generating ads. I want to see an actual ROI from the money that I'm putting in.' But because nobody sees our content anymore, sometimes we have to put the money towards finding people and then showing up in front of those people.
[00:21:23] And I think it can probably feel like, oh, well then it takes a lot longer for somebody to book, but they're also a whole lot more ready if they've seen you over and over again so that they know exactly who to reach out to when they're like, 'okay, right now I need this service. I know exactly who I'm going to because I've seen them and I trust them and I know all about their business.' It all kind of works together instead of like, oh, I need an ROI from like this exact thing.
[00:21:52] Nicole: Exactly. It works very much in a cycle. The top, the visibility ads is showing you to all these new people. And then within those new people, we're trying to generate leads with your lead generation ad. And then all those new people we've brought in, we're retargeting to keep showing up because we should know by now in marketing, you can't just show up one time and think that, you know that person's gonna book.
[00:22:17] It goes back to what you were saying with how do we behave ourselves with things we're marketed to. A lot of times you have to be shown an ad or seen see something several times to actually take action on it. So the retargeting ads help play a part in that, and they all work together. There's people who might see your lead generation ads and now it's just not the right time. But when you keep showing up, when the right time does come along, you're right there.
[00:22:44] Samantha: Yeah. So how do you recommend that we make sure we're actually reaching like the right people? and they're local people? Because it doesn't help us if our ads are reaching people all over the world.
How to Target the Right Local Audience
[00:22:56] Nicole: Yeah, so this is another kind of big mistake that people make when it comes to the targeting aspect. And it's all just because things change so much, right? So like this used to be the case. And then of course, once this information trickles down to people, it's like it's become outdated. It's so frustrating. I totally get it. But when it comes to the targeting settings that you can set up an ads manager, you can set up a location targeting. So you can use a radius. You can say just people in these cities or in these zip codes. You can also use what's called exclusions, so I want this radius, but take out this neighborhood, take out this city. Those are all options. And then you can put in general age range. And then if your practice primarily sees like one gender over the other, you could put in like mostly female or what have you.
[00:23:55] And then from there is where Facebook gives you the option for all these, they're called like interest based targeting. And this is the mistake I see is that a lot of times people are stacking those interests up like crazy, like moms and they like wellness and they like fitness and they like all these things, and that used to be the way you do it. So I totally understand.
[00:24:19] But the reality is now the amount of data and work that Meta has put into their ads algorithm and their AI targeting and all these crazy things, the truth is that they can find our people better than we can. So when we're putting in all of that stuff, we're actually limiting, the right people that could see our ads versus just give, making sure we give met at the location, very important age range and gender, if that's applicable to your business. then leave the rest of the detailed targeting out and see what happens. Usually works really well compared to stacking up all those crazy interests.
[00:25:05] Samantha: It feels like such a relief. I don't have to figure out what this interest is and what if the one I thought it was gonna be is not on the list and like try to go in there. Because I do websites, I'm always telling people like, okay, I know what you call your city, but where do people come in from and what do they call it? And it's gonna be a little bit different when you're looking at like a map. Think about how far are people willing to travel from and what are they looking at?
[00:25:33] And I think it's the same thing that you really are saying in your marketing. You're saying, this is who I work with and this is their age range and this is their location. It's just a little bit more data forward in ads because it's all on the backend the computer needs to know it.
[00:25:50] Nicole: Exactly, and actually what I didn't say, you just brought up a great point, is that the way Facebook is able to find people so well is one, with all of their data that they've collected over years and years. They have more data than any other company on all of us out there that we are able to leverage when we run ads, but the way they can match it with us, the best is by what we say in our ad copy and even what our video says, what our graphic says. They read that and then they can take our, what we say and what their algorithm knows, and they can match us up to the right people. That's where the type of content and what you're saying comes in can be really, really important 'cause if you're not being specific, then Facebook's gonna have a harder time matching it up.
[00:26:36] So sometimes that looks like, of course it all comes down to testing, but it might look like saying, I'm near Detroit, and so near me, they call it Metro Detroit. So the general area might be like, Hey, Metro Detroit women, if that's who you're targeting, you might say that. And then you might test doing smaller neighborhoods that are closer to you and doing different ads. Like, okay, now this ad's only gonna be for people in Novi, and this ad's only gonna be for people in Royal Oak, like these two cities that are within Metro Detroit to g et even more specific. There are different things you can try and test to see what works best for you.
[00:27:14] Usually it's like the more specific, the better. But if you serve more than just one tiny little city and there's, you know, more people that are gonna drive to you, then you have to play with it. Am I gonna be more broad? Am I gonna run two different campaigns, one to the city, one to this? That's all something to think about.
Why You Shouldn’t Use the Boost Button
[00:27:33] Samantha: All of my clients have run into all of these issues. So I think you hit it like right on. I'm like, yes, I've heard all of these things. I've experienced them when I'm trying to run ads. And there's a lot of conflicting advice. So what is one myth maybe that you wish business owners would stop believing about ads?
[00:27:52] Nicole: So my go-to is always boosted posts versus running ads. This one comes up time and time again that a client will come to me and they'll say, 'I've been running ads, they're not working', and so I'm always like, ' that's fine. Let me get into Ads Manager and look at what's happening,' because again, I can just point out, well, let's not do this. Let's do this instead. And I'll jump into their Ads Manager and there's no campaigns that ever ran there. And they're like, 'no, I've done all the time. I've clicked that Boost Post button.' That's actually not the same thing as running an ad in the Ads Manager.
[00:28:31] So the boost button is really like meta's easy button when it comes to getting more reach on your ads. And just like we talked about in the beginning, you have to be so literal with what you're telling meta that you want. So when you're telling it, you want more reach, which is what the boost button does for you , that's exactly what it's gonna do. It's gonna get you more reach for the cheapest that it can.
[00:28:57] That's always the goal. If you want more leads, it's gonna try and get you as many leads for the cheapest it can. If you want more traffic, it's gonna get you as many clicks for the cheapest it can. If you want more reach, it's gonna get you as much research for the cheapest it can. And so what that defaults to getting on feeds of the people who no one else is targeting, basically. And there's a reason no one else is targeting them. They're not buyers, they're not, maybe even close to you. Basically, they've never shown a behavior online that they will buy from an ad or they will engage with a local business on social media. You can get on those people's feeds for very cheap because no one else is targeting them. So there's no competition there.
[00:29:43] So a lot of times when you boost a post, you will see all this extended reach you've never had before, and maybe you'll get more likes or you'll get a couple followers, but it very rarely turns into new leads and clients.
[00:29:58] And of course there's even another step with that, with the actual content that people are boosting. So goes back to the same mistake I talked about before. A lot of times they're boosting content that maybe will work well for their digital storefront that we talked about, but there's no relevancy to somebody who's never heard of them before. It's not talking about their location. Like we said, it's not laying out very clearly, who they help and what they help them with. It's saying something with a lot of that medical jargon or talking about things that clients don't care about as much, and technical scientific terms that we just are gonna scroll right past because we don't think it's relevant for us, even if it actually is. So that's the big one. Boosting posts, running ads, two completely different things.
[00:30:47] Samantha: Yeah, I think I had seen like you did an Instagram post about that and I was like, 'oh yes, don't hit the button.'
[00:30:54] Nicole: It's very tempting and like I said, I call it the easy button and we all know nothing in business or life with an easy button so that should be our first clue that these just aren't gonna work how we want them to.
Meta vs. Google Ads: Where to Start
[00:31:06] Samantha: So we've talked mostly about meta ads, so Facebook and Instagram. Do you have any opinion on focusing there versus like somebody who thinks maybe Google would be a better fit?
[00:31:18] Nicole: Yeah, so I am not an expert in Google Ads by any means. So a Google Ads expert would probably have a different opinion than me, but from what I have seen, and I have a ran some, cost per lead in all of these things I have seen is usually higher. Now the intent of people coming from Google Ads is also higher. There's like a, you know, a give and a take.
[00:31:45] For me, this is in a perfect world, running them both in tandem would be amazing, I think. Because you're gonna get people who are searching for what you offer from your Google ads, and then of course all of those people aren't going to convert into clients. But if you're running those retargeting ads that we talked about where you can hit people who have hit your website and things like that, they might not become a client right away from your Google ads, but the next time they log onto Instagram, there's your post.
[00:32:15] So I think that if you can do both, that's amazing. I'm not gonna knock 'em, but if you can only start with one, I love Facebook and Instagram ads because you can start for a lot cheaper, a lot more affordable, and then hopefully work Google Ads in.
[00:32:32] Samantha: It's a good reminder too that just because somebody does ads in one platform doesn't mean they're an expert in ads somewhere else. So you have to make sure that you are working with people who know the thing that and, and know how to work with your type of business. I think I see so much of like these are marketing firms, but they only work with this type of business, so they're not gonna be as effective for holistic health practitioners for local businesses. You've got to find somebody who works with your type of business.
[00:33:02] Nicole: Yes, they might work with a certain type of business or there's the, yeah, there's the firms and the agencies that don't have a niche, and that can be problematic too. Really big agencies, I hate knocking them 'cause they're doing their best, but the only way that they can operate with so many clients is by taking a cut and paste strategy amongst every single client. That's the only way they can actually get by because there are people who are managing like 30, 40, 50 accounts at once. They don't have the capacity to create individual in-depth strategies based on your niche, for every single person. And the reality is that's just never going to end up the way you want it if you don't have a strategy specific to you, your goals, and your specific business.
Quick Wins to Get Started with Ads
[00:33:55] Samantha: Yeah. So if somebody's listening and they just wanna take like one action this week to make, either to get started with ads or just make this whole thing easier, what would that be?
[00:34:07] Nicole: Okay, so if you haven't already, this is like a big step for people who don't do this, but start taking photos and videos of you and your people. That can be a huge step for people who aren't doing that. Start doing that and using that for your posts. Then you can run those posts as engagement ads in the ads manager for your visibility ads.
[00:34:34] And then the biggest thing that I will say is just make sure you don't give up after one ad, right? If one ad doesn't work, it's not a complete waste. You can use that. You can use the numbers that you're seeing in Ads Manager. You can use, okay, this type of content, this is what I said. Let me try and say something else in my next ad. Ads are incredibly powerful for local practitioners and businesses. Of course, when they're used, right, they can fill your practice like clockwork, but you can't give up after one ad. You gotta keep going.
[00:35:08] Samantha: Any of the marketing strategies you're gonna take, you have to let it sit and just try it. I was talking to somebody and she was saying like, she's always heard three months, give it three months. That doesn't mean you're running the same ad for three months necessarily, but to put the effort into something in order to see results. And one week is not gonna tell you anything.
[00:35:28] Nicole: That's actually a really good point because ads in general, yes, you should be using them all the time. One ad you don't need to run it for longer than a week if you're not seeing results, like they should be working quickly. That's where it's different than organic and SEO and things like that. They should be working pretty quickly, based on whatever your goal is and what you're trying to get.
[00:35:50] And of course, you don't know what you don't know. And I, you know, not trying to do a ton of self-promotion here, but if you can get a consult, if you can get anything to help, just give you some personalized feedback 'cause everything can be so different. But person can probably look at your ad account and what you've ran and give you three, four things super about what not to do and what to do next. And that can be so. so that you're not wasting a ton of time and money here when you're spending ad dollars.
Connect with Nicole Online
[00:36:23] Samantha: So if people want to learn more, they wanna connect with you, they want to learn about what you do, where can they find you, and kinda what resources do you have for us?
[00:36:31] Nicole: Yes. I spend a lot of time on Instagram. So my Instagram is Nicole Eldridge underscore ads, and then I have a free course where I talk a little bit more in detail about like my full ad formula that those three ads that I talked about in the episode here, it's nicoleeldridgeads.com/free.
[00:36:53] Samantha: Amazing. And I will link those in the show notes for people. What you share on Instagram is super helpful too. So I'm excited for people to learn and figure out how to do this for their business and not just like what every guru on the internet is telling us.
[00:37:09] Nicole: Yes.
[00:37:10] Samantha: Well, thank you so much for coming on the episode and I'm excited for people to connect with you.
[00:37:16] Nicole: Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun.
[00:37:18] Samantha: Thanks for listening to Elevate your Practice. If you enjoyed today's episode, follow the show and leave a review. It helps more practitioners find these tips and start growing their practices with confidence. And don't forget to check out the show notes for links and resources from today's episodes.
[00:37:38] I'll be back next week with more strategies to help you build a thriving practice.
