Facebook Ads for Real Estate Agents: 5 Killer Ad Strategies

Here are five super-effective tips to ensure you capture that ready-to-purchase audience on Facebook.

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Twenty years ago, real estate agents relied on direct mail flyers, networking around town, posting information on the supermarket and coffee shop bulletin board, and door-to-door knocking for real estate lead generation. 

Today, these strategies are becoming ancient and ineffective. Most people that are grocery shopping or sipping coffee at the coffee shop are glued to their smartphones. Others are sitting at home chatting with their friends on Snapchat and Facebook, while their groceries are being delivered via Instacart. To top it off, door-to-door marketing is not only unwanted, but also illegal in some areas without a proper permit.

So, how do top producer agents capture new leads in 2018? Answer: Predominantly through Real Estate Facebook Ads According to a recent study by Mediakix, a person spends on average 35 minutes per day on Facebook, which gives REALTORS® plenty of opportunity to get in front of the right people with their killer Facebook ads.

The reason why Facebook works well for REALTORS® is that it is inherently visual, just like real estate in general. It provides abundant opportunities for REALTORS® to reach the exact market they want from first time home buyers to home buyers seeking luxurious, mansion-like homes through image, text, video, podcast, virtual tour (slideshow) posts and ads.

What’s the winning strategy behind Facebook advertising? How can you maximize your budget to ensure you’re not wasting valuable money on failed campaigns? Here are five super-effective tips to ensure you capture that ready-to-purchase audience on Facebook.

1. Location Targeting

Location targeting is critically important to the success of your Facebook advertising campaign, as it allows you to target specific regions in which you are selling properties.  Try to avoid being overly precise (<1km) as people tend to move from other locations. As a suggestion, start with a small radius of 10-15 km and increase the radius if needed when you find the target is too precise or not enough leads are coming in. As well, if you know the postal codes that typically move to where you are selling based on past sales you can include that information in your location targeting.

2. Age & Income Targeting

When selecting the age ranges for your Facebook advertising campaigns, it is important to keep in mind the groups that will most likely buy your real estate. For example if you are selling homes that are over $2 million, there is no point to advertise to 18-21 year olds because they will not have the budget for it. You can also couple age targeting with income targeting by navigating to detailed targeting > demographics > financial > income to make sure the right demographic is looking at your ads.

3. Custom Audiences Targeting

Custom Audiences are people (and their contact information) who have engaged with your content through email marketing services, CRM, Facebook apps, contact form enquiries etc. Targeting them in your Facebook ad campaign usually involves uploading a CSV file. This allows you to match advertisements to the contacts in your database on Facebook using the information you have – names, emails, phone numbers, Facebook ID etc. Using Custom Audiences is one of the most effective ways to re-engage people whom already know your business and need the extra boost to be converted.

4. Home Evaluation Ads

Although seller leads are a challenge to capture online, a free home evaluation campaign can help you get in touch with new prospects.  Each ad should focus on a specific group so that its content will sound as if it has been written for that individual.  The less concise the audience, the more costly a campaign will be and the lower the conversion rate.

For example, an ad on Facebook that targeted users who are in a serious relationship, over the age of 27 years of old, with a university degree, in areas starting with L4J would define a very specific segment of home owners. The ad placed on Facebook would have a picture of a home, and say, "House prices are up 5% in Thornhill this year. Find out what your home is worth right now!"

5. Freebies

Another killer strategy would be to offer your consumers a free resource in exchange for a lead. This resource could be an eBook on how to reduce closing costs or ten tips for buying or selling your home in 1 month or less. Resources like these are directly relevant to your target audience and anyone who is downloading them could be in need of your services in the near future.