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Using Facebook Ads for Haunt?

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  • Using Facebook Ads for Haunt?

    I've been dabbling around and trying to get an idea on how to use Facebook ads to increase ticket sales this year. Has anybody used Facebook ads to success before? What did your audience look like? Just curious if this is feasible to increase attendance and what types of ads should be ran to do this.

    Thanks!
    THE BLACK FOREST
    22 Years of SCREAMS
    www.facebook.com/BlackForestHaunt

  • #2
    You have to know what you're doing but YES... Facebook has the single greatest marketing tool potential for haunted houses since location, location, location. We are pretty much using it exclusively to build our customer base. Our billboards were exciting and fun to look at but according to our customer surveys they did nothing in comparison to Facebook and word of mouth. Facebook is in essence an extension on word of mouth. And the cost is a fraction of billboards, radio ads, promotions, and time consuming flyer hand outs. Right now is the greatest time in the history of the Earth to start a haunt. With Halloween performing so well on TV more people know what a haunted house is than ever before. With Facebook you can reach into the consumers household as they share kid photos with their family and friends. With smartphone GPS in everyone's hands you are only a click away from an easy pre-determined map to your location regardless of how obscurely out of the way you are. The future is bright for those who can utilize these new technologies. I am truly excited.

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    • #3
      Mrfoos,

      Just curious what market are you in and is Facebook your primary social media or do you use others as well?

      Thank you!

      Jake

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Deathwing View Post
        Mrfoos,

        Just curious what market are you in and is Facebook your primary social media or do you use others as well?

        Thank you!

        Jake

        I'm in rural Georgia. If you live in the US, Facebook is the nexus of social communication for every one older than 20. Not saying every single person is on it... but everyone is connected to it through family members, friends, wife, teachers, professors, pastor, music instructor, work manager, co-worker, the guy behind you in line, store clerk, etc. No other social media tool has the reach or potential for attracting customers AND actors.

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        • #5
          We got some reactions from our facebook ads for our Escape Rooms... we got 20 bookings for the discount code. For the money we spent NOT GOOD. We did better from the mass emails we did... that booked us a ton of business.

          Larry
          Larry Kirchner
          President
          www.HalloweenProductions.com
          www.BlacklightAttractions.com
          www.HauntedHouseSupplies.com
          www.HauntedHouseMagazine.com

          Comment


          • #6
            We did really well last year with GEO Fencing. We were up about 25%, can’t credit all of that to Digital marketing, but a good portion of it came from digital. Facebook was helpful too, but I wouldn't put a lot of effort or money into it. You need video too, don't just post pictures.

            Kelly

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            • #7
              Are you saying Geo Fencing single handed increased your business? Please explain.

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              • #8
                No, it wasn’t just Geo Fencing, there were several things that occurred last year:
                - It was our third year in our location
                - We added GEO Fencing advertising and tracked the number of people we sent our messages to that came to the haunt
                - We advertised on Facebook
                - We added two 3 minute escape rooms
                - We reduced our advertising budget by $10,000
                - We eliminated print advertising, billboards and reduced radio and TV ads

                We were up about 25% over the previous year. GEO Fencing allows you to target your demographic audience while this year radio and TV are more expensive with the political elections.

                Kelly

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Spikerip View Post

                  GEO Fencing allows you to target your demographic audience while this year radio and TV are more expensive with the political elections.

                  Kelly
                  What exactly are you saying 'geo fencing' is? Through Google, Facebook, etc? A snapchat geo filter? Lol, I'm not sure at all what you're referring to and i'm curious what i'm missing out on.
                  THE BLACK FOREST
                  22 Years of SCREAMS
                  www.facebook.com/BlackForestHaunt

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                  • #10
                    I’ll do my best to make this simple. GEO fencing is setting up a digital fence around businesses or events that you want to target people who visit that particular business. For example; people who shop at Halloween costume stores are probably potential customers of haunted houses. When you set up a digital fence around that business; anyone within the demographic description that you designate (people between the ages of 16 – 39) who visit that location and have a smart phone, would receive a pop-up message/coupon to your attraction. We target high schools and special events in our city where teens/college students frequent. Our company is able to provide a report each week telling us how many people saw our message and how many of them came to our haunt. We’ll reach about 65,000 people with our message each week. It’s a complex form of advertising and its very invasive, it’s amazing how much you can find out about someone from their smart phone. These are targeted consumers, not just anyone reading the newspaper or listening to radio or watching TV.

                    You’ll need an agency to set this up for you. I find its best to work with a local agency who is aware of businesses and events in your market, but you don’t have to work with a local agency. As long as you can tell them where you want to target (and provide them with addresses), then they can set it up for you. There is a company called Yelp (a division of the Yellow Pages) and they cover the US and their rates are fairly cheap. We aren’t using them, but we did consider them. We found a local company to work with instead and they provided the potential locations to target. A good company will also help you with digital marketing; making sure your web site is mobile friendly, making FB, Instagram and Twitter posts and setting you up on Google for top searches.

                    Get on the internet and find a good agency in your market or contact Yelp for assistance. We're using Propel Marketing based out of Columbus, but they have offices around the country too. Another good company is I-Focus Marketing in the Kansas City/St Louis area.

                    Good luck with your season, Kelly
                    Last edited by Spikerip; 09-12-2016, 11:29 AM.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Spikerip View Post
                      It’s a complex form of advertising and its very invasive, it’s amazing how much you can find out about someone from their smart phone. These are targeted consumers, not just anyone reading the newspaper or listening to radio or watching TV.
                      Man, I mean I guess it can work great but it just seems SUPER invasive, to the point where people might see that message randomly pop up and be like 'is this legal?' 'how did they get my number?' sort of things. While it may still be legal and what not, I'm a person that would not want a random text or notification to popup on my phone, so I definitely wouldn't want to blast it to thousands of people with our haunt's name in it. That's just me. I just know that billboards, newspaper, radio, and TV are expensive for a low budget haunt, flyers can work but not the greatest anymore, and FB ads are cheap. There has to be a way that FB ads can work well for a haunt.

                      I remember seeing last year a post from some sort of social media agency or company that provided @wickedfarmer with like free services on FB or something and did really well, so I assumed that people were using it for haunts. We've done promoted posts on giveaways and always get really good engagement but there's no hard proof if it's contributing to our attendance or not.
                      THE BLACK FOREST
                      22 Years of SCREAMS
                      www.facebook.com/BlackForestHaunt

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Spikerip View Post
                        anyone within the demographic description that you designate (people between the ages of 16 – 39) who visit that location and have a smart phone, would receive a pop-up message/coupon to your attraction.
                        I think you're leaving an important part out. It's not magic. You can't just push a message to ANYONEs device. First you have to have you own app developed and this app has to be installed on your customers phone. I can't see many businesses convincing customers to install their own app... with the exception of Disney. Marketing companies, specifically SEO companies and yellow pages are the worst at misleading people about technology to sell bullshit services. Don't get conned. The technology is possible but the smartphone user has to be a willing participant by installing your customer app. That is a huge barrier for a haunt only open one month a year.

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                        • #13
                          Bingo

                          If I am hit by geo fencing on my phone .....YOU JUST PISSED ME OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                          Wicked Farmer

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                          • #14
                            Same, it would piss me off.

                            wickedfarmer, what did you do last year with Facebook?
                            THE BLACK FOREST
                            22 Years of SCREAMS
                            www.facebook.com/BlackForestHaunt

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                            • #15
                              Geo-fencing is nothing compared to other targeting measures that are available. We (Fearworm) are using some extremely advanced targeting and ad strategies to drive customers to our clients shows. All with great success.

                              Is is invasive? Maybe. But this allows a business owner to target ads to the EXACT person that needs to see them. Haunt owners have a very bad habit of "blanketlng" their market thinking "well, everyone can come to a haunted house"...which is the wrong way to look at it. There is an extremely specific market of people who attend haunts and who the decision makers are before attending. Your "in market" audience can be totally different than the actual people who walk into your ticket booth. By buying a ton of ad space and "blanketing" your city or market...you end just wasting thousands of dollars.

                              Even Facebook ads are generic "blankets" if you don't know what you're doing; which is probably why some haunt owners have seen success with it...they just don't know what they're doing. The problem is that Facebook made is super easy to buy general ads, but buying EFFECTIVE ads takes some knowledge and experience.

                              If you have any questions feel free to email me at tyler@fearworm.com
                              Digital Marketing Manager at Fearworm Hauntvertising.

                              Celebrating 14 years of "haunting".

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