by Andy Coffaro

You’ve probably heard about or have fiddled to some degree with Facebook ads. Others of you may have steered clear until now. In either scenario, now’s a good time to review what Facebook ads are and how they can help your real estate business increase listings, sell more homes, and generate more leads.

You probably already have multiple marketing strategies in place ranging from referrals and word of mouth to print ads in the local newspaper.

These are all fantastic initiatives, and Facebook ads might be another to ad to your marketing repertoire to maximize ROI.

A quick note before we get to the topic at hand: PropertyMinder’s own Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Tawd Frensley, will be presenting at the Domination Summit next month. Register today for the online event to hear Tawd and other industry leaders talk about the local real estate crisis and how to adapt to what buyers and sellers really need. You’ll also get critical training on the value your website simply must provide to your clients.

Tickets to the online Domination Summer are free if you register now, and the content will be available from October 3-5 for two days. After that, it’ll be locked behind a paid wall.

Now let’s dive into how Facebook ads can help your business increase listings, sell more homes, and generate more leads.

How Facebook Ads Work

Facebook ads target your potential real estate clients based upon demographics, location, and information they’ve provided in their profiles.

So let’s say you want your ads to appear into front of 35-50-year-old males and females that live in San Francisco, California, and work in the tech industry. Simply check off and enter the appropriate information, set your budget, and bid for individual clicks or impressions your ad will attain. That’s it. You’re done.

The goal of your ads

Facebook is not Amazon.

That is to say, people go on Facebook to connect with friends, upload photos of their dogs, and see what their favorite author, band, musician, and more are up to.

Users are not on Facebook to browse or purchase products as they do on Amazon.

With that in mind, we’re not saying you shouldn’t promote your best or latest listing, but Facebook is probably a better outlet to get people to like your Facebook business page, sign up for your newsletter, enroll in your webinar, and things of that nature.

Now you’re attaining warm leads at an affordable rate.

Like the website Kissmetrics says: “They [Facebook ads] should be used to generate demand, not fulfill it.”

Let’s get visual

While targeting your audience is critical to the success of your ads (having them appear before a broke college student isn’t going to provide you with value), the use of images is equally important.

If you do decide to promote an open house, for example, the image that appears in user’s feed on desktop and mobile should be the absolute very best photo of the home. It should stop users from scrolling and grab their attention.

If the ad is to promote your services, use the very best headshot of yourself that promotes warmth and trust.

Clean copy

Once you’ve stopped folks in their scrolling tracks for a few seconds (which on social media is equivalent to a lifetime), make sure the text gives a clear and concise explanation of the photo.

If you’re promoting a house, give the location, price, and the home’s best details. If the ad features a stunning photo of your smiling face, give your readers a call to action that tells them how you’ll make their lives easier during their home selling or buying process.

Once again let’s lean on Kissmetrics and their very creative “AIDA” approach to writing Facebook ad copy:

• (A)ttention: Draw users into the ad with an attention-grabbing headline.
• (I)nterest: Get the user interested in your product by briefly describing the most important benefit of using it.
• (D)esire: Create immediate desire for your product with a discount, free trial, or limited time offer.
• (A)ction: End the ad with a call to action.

Where are you sending people?

We touched on this a bit earlier, but think about where you want to send people after they click on your ad. Here are just a few actions that can take place when your ad is clicked:

• You attain a new Facebook Like
• You drive users directly to a webpage featuring a specific home
• You drive users to an email sign-up page
• You drive users to a landing page you built for a specific purpose (email sign-up, free webinar, free 15-minute phone conversation, etc.).

Facebook ad resources

As you can probably imagine, this is only the tip of the real estate iceberg when it comes to Facebook ads. Entire books have been written about the subject, but we know how busy you are. That’s why we’ve provided all kinds of great articles below that can provide you with the comprehensive information you need to get started today.

Of course, if you ever need additional advice or help building your ads, we can certainly help with that.

We hope this helps!

More marketing advice can be found on our featured Tip Of The Week Archive page.

Helpful Facebook Ad Articles from Around the Web

High-Level Overview from Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-basics

Deep Dive into Advertising on Facebook

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/deep-dive-facebook-advertising/

How to Generate 100 Real Estate Seller Leads with Facebook Ads in 2 weeks

https://www.jasonfox.me/real-estate-seller-leads-with-facebook-ads/

The Ultimate Real Estate Facebook Marketing Playbook

http://curaytor.com/blog/The-Ultimate-Real-Estate-Facebook-Marketing-Playbook/19221

The Facebook ad all real estate agents should be running to get ‘likes’

https://www.inman.com/next/the-facebook-ad-all-real-estate-agents-should-be-running-to-get-likes/

Why Facebook Ads are a Gold Mine for Real Estate

http://blog.homespotter.com/2016/07/20/why-facebook-ads-for-real-estate/