You have a potential customer looking at your security company’s ad, now how should you convince that unknown targeted person to pick up the phone to inquire about your security services? Should you have some type of sweet deal? Or, should you talk about your company’s value props? Well, here’s the real deal in our experience when putting these two methods to the test.

We’re going to break this down into two sections. The first is going to be for dealers that service residential and commercial, and second for integrators that focus primarily within certain verticals.

For security companies that service residential customers, we have tested time and time again within Facebook (which is where we drive most of our leads for our resi customers) ads that talk about our clients’ value props — things like impeccable customer support, going the extra mile, making sure that a live person answers the phone when they call in and experience. But to be 100 percent honest, those ads generate less than a 2 percent conversion (leads generated) and if the ad did happen to convert a lead, it was primarily within a targeted demographic of someone who was a homeowner, made above 100K a year and drove at least one luxury vehicle. 

If your company is happy with those types of conversions, then have at it. But where we see ads generating the greatest amount of leads is when they talk about price. We welcome anyone to prove us wrong, but we literally do this every day and generate thousands and thousands of impressions within Facebook ads for our clients nationwide. 

So, what type of price driven ads do we see that work? We’ve mentioned it before, but ads that give away free outdoor dome cameras, free Ring Doorbells, free Ring Flood Lights and free systems that secure absolutely every door and window — all free with a three year contract that averages around $45-$85 a month and some even upwards — seem to do the trick. These methods even have a proven track record for our clients that focus on commercial companies such as warehouses, light manufacturing, retail and restaurants.

Does that mean you should give away the entire farm? No, but make sure to create multiple ads that focus on both methods and see which convert better for you. If you’re targeting a higher end clientele and offer audio visual as well, lead with value props and see how it works for you.

Now, what about the big guys —  the integrators that focus within healthcare, critical infrastructures, municipalities and other large companies? 

Well, believe it or not, we see value in both. And we use both these strategies within Facebook and within LinkedIn. You’ll get more bang for your buck using Facebook ads versus LinkedIn ads, but will target more and a better caliber of potentials within LinkedIn ads.

So here it goes. Within both social media ad platforms what we have found is when targeting CFOs or CTOs with a database that gets imported to Facebook or LinkedIn, value is always going to be king. But that’s a no brainer, right? Who’s going to want to run an ad that says sale, sale, sale to a university CTO? Where we have found the secret sauce is with ads that show the proof in the pudding. We have run ads that talk about value props within the ads themselves, but backed it with 30 seconds to one minute videos from existing customers that talk on behalf of our clients. What’s better — business owners talking about how great their companies are, or the actual customers they service? 

The engagement within the ads and potential customers reaching out to learn more about our security clients’ services is far better than a branded ad running or a more generic ad. We feel it’s all about that emotional connection with the potential customer watching the videos and saying, “What they just said on that video is our needs also.” Certain buzz words that resonate with the potential customer watching the video is what really drives them to inquire.

But, believe it or not, we recently have been creating packaged systems for some of our integrator clients and seeing some success. We have been running strictly Facebook ads that target much like dealer commercial demographics and have been generating real solid leads. For us it seems like many integrators recently have been dabbling with ideas and methods to generate RMR just like the resi companies, but within the commercial side only and it’s working.