“Yes. Yes. A million times yes!”

From engagement videos to “prom proposals” (seriously, when did this become “a thing?”), many videos are shared online with people yelling excitement and joy at the moment they say “yes!”

As an aside, my husband proposed to me on one knee in his kitchen as I was stuffing marinara shells to bring to my sister’s house the next day for a family gathering. While that was sweet, that moment was not caught on video.  It didn’t really make for an epic documented feature film, and my hair was a hot mess at the time, so I’m okay with that.

Beyond the monumental/not so monumental moments of love, what if you could use online media to elicit a “Yes!” from your next prospect? What if you could use your Facebook Ads to close more sales at a higher value per sale?

Well, you can.

While most focus on Facebook ads for lead generation, Facebook can also be used to nurture a prospect into a closed sale.  From building social proof to encouraging engagement to establish you as the authority in the marketplace, ads can become your public relations and sales team. (And here’s the really good news, they don’t take bathroom breaks nor do they eat all of the Kind bars in the lunchroom.)

Ads Build Expert Status

Here are five posts that if used consistently can help you reach Expert Status. Which is fab because experts are treated with respect, close more sales and make more money.  [Score.]

• Author original content that’s useful to your target market. Instead of simply sharing other people’s posts, authoring content showcasing your expertise goes a long way in securing your market leadership. As a time saver, I design my blog post title images so they will also work as a social media post.

• Use Facebook Live. Connecting with your audience beyond text and opening up to live interaction is one of the most effective ways you can establish yourself as the authority in your niche.  You’re basically creating your own media channel where you’re the star, for free, and reaching a gazillion (scientific fact) people.

• Share Useful Resources. Some of my most popular posts were the ones where I shared my favorite marketing and sales books, apps or tools I use all of the time.  People want things that are valuable and will help save them time, make them money or help them find out about something others don’t know. (We all secretly want to be the smarty pants of our circle! Yes, even you.) Include this content in your regular schedule. And don’t tell anyone, but these posts are super easy to write and if you include your Amazon affiliate link (wait, what? You don’t have one, get on that!) you can make money on these posts.

• Share your media. Multiple times. When you have the chance to be featured on media, whether it’s the local paper, a podcast or the national spotlight, leverage multiple touch points to get the most out of the coverage. Yes, you will feel like a media self-promoting pontificator. (Say that 10x fast. Its fun!) But it’s worth it when the end result is authority building.

Share as you’re prepping for the segment or story and release a few teaser posts ahead of time. Then share images from the broadcast along with a link to the final story.

• Share photos of you with other market leaders. Surrounding yourself with celebrities in your niche helps you become a celebrity yourself.  Plus, it’s pretty freaking fun to meet the people you learn from and become their friend. If you need more places to interact with key leaders, industry conferences work well.

Posts to Turn a “Maybe” Into a “Yes”

Once a prospect has agreed to attend your upcoming event and/or have a one-to-one consultation, Facebook ads can be your super secret weapon to making the sale.

You can use newsfeed ads to offer social proof or authority positioning.  Basically you’re stalking your prospects with persuasive ads. A bit creepy yes, but they won’t know that’s why they see these ads and they’re super effective, so go for it. After all, you have something they need and so you have a moral obligation to do whatever you can to get them to take action.

Run these ads while / before meeting with your prospect:

• Testimonial ads. Using video or stills in your posts can promote others saying how great you are. This can go a long way in establishing trust with your prospect. And even for those whose industries prohibit testimonials such as financial advisors, you can run testimonials about the event they’re about to attend or the strategy call they’re about to participate in. Visit promopixa.co.uk to see their corporate video creation services. Before Technology and Marketing Toolkit pitched their “Producer’s Club” at their annual Boot Camp event, we ran testimonial videos in the newsfeed of all of those attending the event. We spent less than $500 on the full campaign and sold at least three $18,000 memberships because of it.

• Use “Firm” ads:  Run an informational video with authority positioning for your firm before your prospect attends. Our private client Miramontes Capital has an outstanding video about the firm that is used to create trust before each seminar.

• Authority Pieces

When you have limited testimonials or an industry prohibition on testimonials, share authority content in the newsfeed of those in your sales cycle. From book excerpts to blog posts, positioning you as THE leading authority in your niche goes a long way to closing the sale.

Think beyond lead generation when it comes to advertising and you will get more “yeses” than a high school class going to prom.