Locals Ads Guide

I’m Daniel Dimsey, and in this guide I’ll walk you through the exact Facebook Ads setup I use to generate painting leads in 2025. This is the same step‑by‑step approach I use in my Home Service Marketing course and in the ads I run for painting businesses: campaign structure, targeting tricks, creative strategy, and the instant form setup that grabs qualified leads without blowing your budget.

Quick overview: what you’ll learn

• Campaign structure and budget recommendations for local painting businesses
• Why instant forms are the conversion location you should use
• Targeting and exclusion hacks to stop wasted spend
• Ad creative strategy — images vs video, enhancements, and an example ad copy
• How to build an instant form that filters dud leads and gives you usable info

1 — Campaign setup: objective and budget

Start in Meta Ads Manager and create a new campaign. Choose the Leads objective — we want prospects to fill out a form (instant form or website form) so you can quote them.

• Budget (my recommendation): For beginners: AUD $50–$100/day. US advertisers: roughly $35–$70/day. UK advertisers: roughly £25–£50/day. Start on the lower end and scale what works.
• Campaign vs Adset vs Ad: Campaign sets budget, Adset controls targeting and conversion location, Ad is the creative people see.

2 — Adset: conversion location, page and performance goal

At the adset level pick your conversion location. My personal preference: use Instant Forms.

• Why instant forms? They keep people on Facebook, remove the need for a high‑end landing page, and let you gather qualification details right away.
• Page selection: Select the Facebook page for the painting business you’re advertising.
• Performance goal: Choose Maximize number of leads rather than Maximize number of conversion leads. In my testing this gets more leads for a lower price. With a well‑built instant form you’ll still filter for quality without paying the premium conversion price.

3 — Targeting: location pins and exclusion zones (the money saver)

Targeting is where you control who sees your ad. For local services you must be specific.

• Don’t target an entire country. Pick the suburbs or local area you service.
• Use the map drop‑pin to create your target radius around your service area.
• Critical trick: Facebook sometimes spreads impressions into neighbouring areas you don’t service. To stop wasted spend, drop pins around the outer areas and mark them as Exclude. Repeat all the way around your target zone so Facebook can’t trickle budget into places you won’t work.
• Audience size tip: aim for at least ~500,000 people for local campaigns. If your audience is too small, costs tend to go up.

4 — Ad level: creative strategy (image vs video and placements)

This is where the conversion happens. My go‑to format is single image ads first — fast to produce, easy to test at scale. Video works great but takes time to create and edit.

• Start with images: Upload multiple images and test different angles quickly.
• Keep placements reasonable: Choose the placements that suit your creative. If an image won’t look right in certain placements, exclude them.
• Enhancements I use: overlays, visual touch‑ups, and music (for video). I turn off text improvements and enhanced CTA and don’t add animation unless it fits the creative.

Example ad creative and structure

Keep the tone personal and local — not overly salesy. Below is a basic structure I use:

• Primary text: A short, genuine intro that mentions the owner, the local suburb and what you do (e.g. “Hi, I’m Richard — local painter from Chadstone. We specialise in full house repaints and colour consultations.”)
• Headline: Call to action or price. Examples: “Get your house painted” or “Paint transformations starting at 3.49”
• Description / social proof: Short social proof like “700+ happy customers” or a trust builder that matches the image.
• CTA button: Get quote

“Personal ads, not salesy — genuine messaging that relates to homeowners.”

5 — Building the Instant Form that actually qualifies leads

The instant form is crucial. Done right, it gives you the information you need and weeds out tyre‑kickers.

• Form settings: Choose “More volume” to get a steady stream of leads. Set sharing to open if you want integrations to pick up submissions.
• Remove the greeting: It’s usually unnecessary and adds friction.
• Questions (3–4 recommended):
  • How many bedrooms does your house have? (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5+)
  • How many storeys is the property? (1 / 2 / 3)
  • Preferred contact method (Phone / Email / SMS)
  • How urgently do you need painting? (ASAP / This month / Flexible)
• Required contact fields: Full name, email address, mobile phone and street address. Street address is useful so you can verify they’re in your service area.
• Privacy policy: Add a working privacy policy URL. Technically Meta accepts any link, but use a proper privacy policy page for compliance and trust.
• Thank you screen: Keep it clear — e.g. “Thanks — you’ll get a quote in 24–48 hours.” Include an additional action to call the business for urgent jobs.

6 — Publish and what to do next

Once your ad and form are set, publish the campaign. From there, the real work is in reviewing performance and iterating:

• Track cost per lead and lead volume. If cost is high, test different images, headlines and instant form questions.
• Scale winning creatives by increasing budget and duplicating winning adsets into adjacent suburbs (remember to apply exclusion pins).
• Follow up quickly — set up an automation or CRM to capture leads and call within the window you promise on the thank you screen.

Common pitfalls and quick fixes

• Targeting too broadly: you’ll waste budget. Use pins + exclusions to lock down the service area.
• Choosing conversion leads objective only: conversion optimization can drive up price per lead. Maximise number of leads with a qualifying instant form instead.
• Overcomplicated creatives: start with simple image ads and iterate. Don’t let video production delay testing.
• No privacy policy or poor form fields: this reduces trust and makes follow‑up messy. Collect a usable address and contact method.

Conclusion and next steps

If you want the full system — including creative templates, optimisation routines, and a community to help you scale — I teach this step‑by‑step in my Home Service Marketing course and community. The course covers Facebook Ads, Google Ads and automations specifically for painters and other local home‑service businesses.

Follow the steps above, prioritise instant forms, lock down your geographic targeting with exclusion pins, lead with image creatives, and build a short but effective instant form. Do that and you’ll be generating more qualified painting leads without paying premium conversion prices.

Ready to get started?

• Set up a leads campaign with an AUD $50/day test budget (or the equivalent in your currency).
• Use instant forms, include 3–4 qualifying questions, and require name, phone, email and address.
• Drop exclusion pins around your service area so Facebook can’t waste your budget on places you don’t cover.

Good luck — and if you need help, my course and community walk through every step in detail and include templates you can use straight away.