The growth of the web has undoubtedly changed the way prospective homeowners look for properties. With more and more people searching for listings and realtors online, it’s crucial for real estate agencies to be able to capitalize on the popularity and reach of the Internet.
If you’re looking to attract new customers, compete with other local firms, and promote your brand, it’s hugely beneficial to invest in modern marketing methods. One platform that can propel real estate agencies into the spotlight is Facebook.
With billions of users all over the world, Facebook represents one of the best real estate advertising ideas out there, providing unrivaled opportunities to entice clients and showcase your business.
If you’re new to Facebook advertising, or you’re looking for ways to maximize your chances of success, here’s a handy guide to Facebook Ads for real estate.
8 Steps to Success
Real estate agencies are in a prime position to reap the rewards of effective Facebook Ads campaigns. With large numbers of existing homeowners, as well as millennials looking to buy homes in the future, registered with Facebook, there’s a captive audience ready and waiting to view, read or watch your ads.
To increase your chances of generating and converting more high-quality leads, here are 8 steps to follow:
1- Pinpoint Your Primary Campaign Objective
When you launch a Facebook Ads campaign, you can utilize tools to streamline your strategy and reach a target audience. One of the most influential aspects to consider is defining your campaign objective.
There are various options provided by Facebook, which are categorized into 3 main goals: awareness, consideration, and conversion. Within these segments, there are subsections, for example, awareness relates to making people aware of your brand, as well as extending your reach.
In terms of real estate objectives, it’s wise to consider the main reasons you want to use Facebook Ads.
Do you want more people to learn about your agency?
Do you want users to like your page or subscribe to your emails?
Are you looking to increase sales or encourage more people to visit your website?
The most common targets for real estate are increasing web traffic, raising brand awareness, extending the reach of the company, increasing ad conversion rates, and engaging with customers and followers.
2- Define Your Audience Based on Your Ideal Customer Profile
Facebook has a global audience, but not everyone will have an interest in the services your business sells. To increase the efficiency of your campaigns and ensure your ads reach the right people, it’s critical to make use of Facebook’s audience feature. This enables you to create and define your audience based on your ideal customer.
You can use this tool to shrink the pool, ensuring that your ads are seen by people who are likely to have a genuine interest in the properties you buy, let or sell and the services you provide.
Start by creating a buyer persona and then use the filters to choose demographics, defining your audience based on factors like age, income, marital status, employment, and residential status. You can focus your ads on a local area and narrow down the options even further by considering behaviors and interests.
Using detailed targeting, you can aim for people who are likely to move and those who are researching mortgages or investment opportunities, for example.
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3- Incorporate Expats Into Your Audience
Targeting expats can often be effective in real estate marketing. People who have recently moved look for real estate agencies they can trust, and they’re often keen to put down roots, especially if they’ve taken out a temporary rental agreement.
You can utilize Facebook’s targeting tools and techniques to target expats, and to ensure that those based in your local area are aware of your company and the services you provide.
You can further enhance your profile by posting reviews and by sharing and posting content that is likely to appeal to expats.
4- Establish Your Budget
Before you launch any kind of marketing strategy, you should have an accurate idea of how much you want to spend. Once you have a budget in mind, you can set a limit for Facebook Ads.
With this form of paid advertising, you can set a maximum spend for a single day, for a specified number of days or for a longer period of time. You also have the option to decide how long your adverts run for.
5- Create a Diverse Range of Ad Sets
A Facebook campaign comprises at least one ad set. The ad sets contain one or more adverts. Once you have identified your campaign objective, the next step is to focus on the ad set.
At this stage, you’ll establish a budget and decide who you want to target, how and where your ads will be placed and how you’re going to bid.
If you haven’t used Facebook Ads before, it’s a good idea to try different ad sets, experiment, and track your progress. This will enable you to measure the efficacy and impact of different ad sets.
6- Conduct Split Tests
Facebook Ads can be a hugely beneficial platform for businesses all over the world, but launching a campaign doesn’t always guarantee success. If you’re on a mission to put your real estate or development agency on the map, testing is an excellent way to identify strengths and weaknesses and gauge the reaction of the audience to your adverts.
To test different ads, use the Ads Manager tab and create a split test. Split testing provides you with data collected from real people, rather than cookies or bots, and it can help you streamline and hone your strategy to achieve optimum results.
The results should give you a better insight into how audiences respond to different types of ads, which can inform your choices going forward. You can test several variables, for example, target audience, placement, and creative with a range of objectives, such as video views, messages, and brand awareness.
7- Boost Conversion Rates with Facebook Retargeting
Many people visit websites or look at social media posts without taking action the first time around. Facebook retargeting is a clever means of following up on potential leads and reminding people of who you are and how you could help them.
If somebody has seen your advert, but they didn’t visit your site or like your page the first time, you can use retargeting to stay in touch and issue a reminder.
You want to increase the chances of converting a lead second time around and make sure people remember your company name.
8- Monitor Your Progress and Make Improvements
One of the most advantageous aspects of Facebook Ads is the ability to analyze your performance and track progress.
Once you start a campaign, you’ll be able to monitor the results, and you can use the data in front of you to spot trends, to highlight potential areas of weakness, and to make improvements.
You might find that your ads aren’t reaching as many people as you anticipated, or that your audience is too general, for example. You can use information and previous results to shape new campaigns that have a higher chance of success.
Facebook is the largest social network in the world. As well as enabling people to stay in touch with friends and family, Facebook also offers incredible opportunities for real estate agencies to promote their brand, to reach out to captive audiences and to drive web traffic and sales.
If you aren’t capitalizing on the popularity of Facebook and wider web use yet, hopefully, this guide to Facebook Ads for real estate will set you up for success.