Putting as much effort as you have time for into your Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other online profiles is never a bad thing. Creative, fun content enhances the image of your business and makes an impactful impression on your followers. You should do as much as you can to optimize your online presence for free, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that it alleviates the need for paid advertising or that it will bring you a lot of new customers.

Think of maintaining an attractive social media presence as more similar to making sure your Google listing, website and reviews look good. It’s a necessity, and people will decide whether to visit you based on the vibe they get when they find it, but a single post in itself isn’t likely to bring many people through your door. The audience just isn’t large enough, and most of the people you do reach have probably been to your salon before. Besides contests and giveaways that incentivize interaction and sharing, paying for advertising is the only way to reach a substantial number of potential new customers online.

When your goal is to reach new customers, Google Ads will almost certainly give you a better bang for your buck than social media ads. There’s something to be said for reaching different audiences on different platforms, but when it comes down to it, why would you continue spending as much money on Facebook when you could get more impressions and clicks by moving that money to Google? There’s no reason to think that a click to your website from Facebook is more valuable than one from a Google ad and focusing more on Google certainly doesn’t limit your reach. With Google, you have the potential to reach more people than you will ever be willing to pay for.

Those who aren’t familiar with Google Ads might not properly understand the possibilities. If you think Google Ads are just to get your website to show up in search results, you’ve got it all wrong. Search Ads are great because they are served to people searching for specifically what you’re offering, but there are also limitations. While it’s the best form of targeting money can buy, it’s more expensive and you’ll only reach however many people are searching for your keywords. It’s Google’s Display Ads that alleviate most of the need to spend money elsewhere. Google Display Ads are served to viewers on millions of websites. Think of the ads you see on any given website you visit. There’s nothing that tells you those ads are created through Google Ads, but most of them are.

Google Ads are also incredibly easy to create and manage. All you need is a few photos and phrases. You load them through your Google Ads account, choose your targeting, set your budget, and you’re off and running. Google wants your money, so their representatives are willing to help you in any way possible – even walking you through setting up and optimize your campaigns. With the analytics they provide, you also know exactly what you’re getting for your money.

Google Display ads are virtually foolproof. You can certainly improve results by optimizing your visuals, headlines and descriptions over time, but it’s basically impossible to not get solid results. Google will pump out your ads to as many people as it takes to garner enough clicks to use the budget you set. You’re technically paying for clicks, so the more than 100,000 impressions you can expect to get for just $100 are essentially free. You can also expect 750 to 1000 clicks to your website for that amount of money.

Also remember that the people seeing and clicking these ads are only the people you select. You can narrow the location of your target down to within five or 10 miles of your location if you want. You can also target your ads based on gender, age, and a plethora of interests. Don’t be too picky with your targeting, though: The cost per impression and click stays so low that it’s likely better to reach more people at an incredibly efficient rate, rather than limiting your audience to only your most likely potential customers.

So, what are you going to put in your ads? Google Responsive Display Ads utilize a set of pictures or videos, headlines and descriptions. Google will then optimize your ads automatically by presenting the best mix of visuals and wording for each viewer, based on their search and browsing history. You just need to promote the best features of your business. Use real pictures of your interior, exterior, equipment, and staff. For wording, you don’t have to get too “cute” with Google. Just telling people what you offer will generate clicks. With Responsive Display ads, you can include different images, headlines and descriptions about everything you offer in one ad: a couple for UV, a couple for spray, and a couple for other services you offer, for example.