Facebook Ads For Churches 2022 (How To Make A Successful Ad)

In this post, I’ll be breaking down a series of successful Facebook Ads campaigns from real churches.

We’ll also explore what made these ads successful along with the challenges these churches needed to overcome to make it all happen.

The fact is that 7 out of every 10 adults in America actively use Facebook.

And here’s the bottom line:

Facebook Ads is one of the most powerful ways to connect people to your church. The ad costs are affordable. And the majority of the general population is active on Facebook – making Facebook Ads an unparalleled opportunity for your church to bring the message of Jesus to your local community.

Let’s get started!

Case Study #1 – Fellowship Baptist Panama City

Quick Look Metrics:

• Ad Spend – $45
• People Reached – 3,175
• Event Responses – 184

Our first case study comes from Fellowship Baptist Panama City. Here’s the ad they ran:

It’s a promotion for their annual Trunk or Treat event. The graphic itself is a standard text graphic. And this ad was run as a Facebook Event Ad.

And if you asked me to describe this Facebook Ad in one word, the word I would choose is: unremarkable.

Now, I’m not using that word to be demeaning. I’m simply saying that there is nothing creatively outstanding about this ad creative.

It’s very ordinary.

And that should be encouraging for the rest of us!

Because despite the run-of-the-mill nature of this ad, here are the results:

Now, you might wondering, “Well, how big is this church?”

Finally, when I asked Josh about his biggest takeaways from this ad campaign, he said:

“My pastor was blown away by the response. I have been mentioning Facebook Ads for a while now and it really paid off. We are in the process of using them more frequently. It just doesn’t make sense to not be using them when the return on investment is so incredibly high.”

The Facebook Ads Framework For Churches…that just works

In my opinion, the Facebook Ad campaign demonstrated by Fellowship Baptist is the ideal kind of campaign that most churches should be running.

Here’s how to do it in your own church👇

Step #1. Start by identifying a bridge event that your church already has on the calendar

It could be a Trunk or Treat event, an Easter egg hunt, a Christmas-themed community event – the options are endless.

Just make sure it’s a bridge event and preferably not a Sunday service.

What is a bridge event? It’s a church-hosted happening that resides at the intersection of community relevance and your church’s mission. You need to be able to answer the question: why would an everyday person in our community care about this event? Because for this to work, you need to reach people where they already are.

Step #2. Run a modest ad with a matching budget

How much budget should you invest in a campaign like this? As little as $100 per campaign is a great place to start.

And then when it comes to timing/frequency…when you leverage seasonal events that your church is already accustomed to doing, you can run a campaign like this 3-6 times per year.

Case Study #2 – The Rock Church Australia

Quick Look Metrics:

• Ad Spend – $100
• Church Size – 250
• ROI – 34 new visitors

Next, let’s have a look at another successful campaign. This time from The Rock Church in Australia. Here’s what the ad looks like:

Again, similar to the first example, the ad creative is just a standard text graphic. This time though, the ad links out to this church’s website and a page dedicated to this specific event.

Here’s the story behind the campaign itself, The Rock Church said:

“Last Christmas, we decided to launch a new service; a Christmas Eve Traditional Carol service. We usually spend $500 on a newspaper ad, but I convinced them to try Facebook Ads and got $100 as a first time test. The biggest challenge was breaking of a tradition; we had been using the newspaper every year for ten years.”

The big thing that stands out to me there? Resistance from senior leadership! The “we’ve always done it this way” syndrome is real.

How many of our churches are fighting this battle right now? Who among us can’t relate?

Breaking down the campaign’s results, here’s what The Rock Church had to say:

Also notice that The Rock Church is leveraging a bridge event in the form of a Christmas carol service that meets their audience where they are. This type of event is right at that intersection of community relevance and their church’s mission.

Case Study #3 – Grace Central Coast

Quick Look Metrics:

• Ad Spend – $200
• Reach – 7,000
• Event Responses – 83

Let’s have a look at one more successful campaign. This one comes from Grace Central Coast – a multi-campus church in California. This church used Facebook Ads to help launch a pair of new campuses.

Here’s what the ad looks like:

This ad is nothing more than a standard text graphic. And just like our first case study, the ad type is also a Facebook Event Ad.

Once more, it’s an unremarkable ad from a creative standpoint. And so I hope that if you take anything from this post it’s that you don’t need to be a creative wizard to pull off a great Facebook Ads campaign.

Which is good news for every one of us!

Here’s what Grace Central Coast had to say about their campaign’s results:

What about the challenges or skepticism Grace Central Coast faced prior to launching their campaign?

You’re right Grace Central Coast. It was absolutely worth it.

Conclusion

Now, you still might be wondering at this point:

“Okay. Let’s say we run a Facebook Ads campaign that successfully gets people to attend an event we’re running – but then what?”

This needs to be a careful consideration for you and your church.

How are you going to handle follow-up and provide opportunities for people that are new to return and continue to take next steps?

The staff from Grace Central Coast shared this with me:

“We had one lady who hadn’t been connected to a local church for over a year since she moved to the area. She saw our Facebook Ad and came to church on our launch Sunday. She’s been coming ever since. She now serves as an usher, a greeter, on our coffee team, and she’s in a small group. If we hadn’t run the ad, she may still be disconnected to a local church.”

I hope this inspires you to experiment with Facebook Ads at your own church.

You don’t need to be a design genius. To get started, just follow this simple formula:

1. Identify a seasonal bridge event as the foundation of your Ads campaign
2. Set aside $100 for the ad
3. Don’t stress over the creative too much
4. Target those within a 5-10 mile radius of your church.

You got this.