We know that as a real estate agent you work on a very slim budget as you have so many other commitments like networking, generating referrals through advertising as well as moving about meeting your prospects on a daily basis. You're busy all the time, but have you considered Facebook ads to generate you leads?
It's been proven that Facebook ads are the most cost-effective and efficient in generating leads for new clients. The question is, are you using the correct methods?
Facebook is a visual platform as users are bombarded with hundreds of images with minimal text on a daily basis.
Here are 3 killer tips you should use.
1) Target the Right Audience
Too many times, real estate agents are not laser focused on who their actual audience are and are just targeting in general, trying to spread their advertising dollars to cover 'everyone'. That is how traditional advertising works, but not on Facebook. You need to understand that in Facebook marketing, it is essential to target one type of person at a time. Only by connecting on a deeper level can you hope to earn a click on your ad.
You need to build up your
audience persona, so to speak. Are you targeting a first time house buyer? Or an investor? Or someone looking for a retirement home? These are factors that will determine how you should word and portray your advertisement.
There are some factors you need to consider:
- What types of homes sell quickly in what areas?
- What types of homes are suitable for new families?
- What traits do these people have (interests, have children, etc)?
- Are they currently renting?
- Are they investors for short term/long term?
Narrow Your Audience
You don't need 2 million random people to see your ad with no one reaching out to you. The best kind of audience in this case is a narrow one. Imagine serving your ad to 1,000 - 3,000 targetted clients. The chances of them clickin and becoming your client is way much higher than 2 million random people.
To build your audience persona, you need to dig deeper into what their interests are. Do they love outdoor activities? Are they looking for nearby schools for their children? Do they love shopping?
Then use Audience Insights to drill down and identify what are the interests in your selected demographics.
Localise your Audience
Take a look at your past clients. Were they mostly from your city or from out of town? While it may be tempting to show your ad to nearby cities increase your reach, you need to ask if that is practical or not. Most people are buying a home in the city they are currently staying, so that is where you shoulc concentrate your efforts on.
At the end of the day, you need to remember that people only click on ads that appear relevant to them.
2) Make it Easy to Read
You're not writing a novel so the text has to be brief and to the point. Use simple terms that anyone can understand and go easy on the exclamation mark and bullet points. We've seen too many ads that 'shouts' out to the world the 20 amazing reasons why people should buy the property.
In this case, less is definitely more. Your ad should highlight 2 or 3 main highlights because people cannot retain too much information. Remember the whole point of the ad is to get people interested enough to get in touch with you, so there is no need to spell everything out for them.
What are you offering? How will it help them? What do you want them to do next? That sums it up.
It’s tempting to use all of the space available in some Facebook ads that allow for more text. But less is always when it comes to copy.
You want your audience to respond to your ad, so think along that line.
3)Test, Test & Test
When you first run your ads, you cannot predict the outcome can you? Will it work? Will people respond? How much should I budget for the ad? All these questions take some time before you get your answers. Pretty soon, you'll find what works best for you but you still need to test. Why? Because testing will always make it better. If you can get more new high value clients for less time and money, shouldn’t you?
Facebook has set up a system that encourages testing. You can run 2 different ads with two smaller budgets. See which one resonates more effectively with your audience. Use that to your advantage.
You will also need to spend some time to look through all your Insights from Facebook. By analysing your reports, you get a better idea of what truly works.
When measuring performance, track these important metrics for Facebook ads for real estate.
Impressions – This is the number of people who had your ad appear on their screen. This doesn’t mean they saw it. They could have scrolled past quickly or completely ignored it. As you do testing, you’ll have more people actually seeing your ad.
Clicks – How many times did someone click on your ad. Each time they click, you pay for a click. You want people to click. But you also care about the quality of clicks. That’s where these others come in.
(CPC) – Your cost per click is your ad cost divided by the number of clicks. Ideally, you want to keep your CPC low while getting the best results you can for that money. If one of your ads is delivering a lower CPC, that’s your winner.
(CTR) – Your click through rate on real estate Facebook ads is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions.
Conversion rate – This is the number of leads your ad generated divided by the number of clicks. As you know, someone only becomes a solid lead once they’ve provided you with contact information through the landing page.
(CPA) – Cost per action is something most marketing professional track as well. This is the total ad cost divided by the number of leads you generated. Why is this such an important measure? Because you’re going to always pay for some clicks that don’t become leads. This helps you understand the actual total cost of acquiring a real estate lead.
(ROAS) – Return on ad spend. It takes longer to track this. And you won’t find it on your Facebook analytics page. It’s the revenues generated divided by ad cost. Be sure to track which leads came in through Facebook ads. Then make note of your commissions off those leads. Track how much of your revenue is coming in through Facebook.
As a rule of thumb, the average conversion rate for real estate is around 10%. If your conversion rates are below this figure, that means you have many things to tweak and improve on. You may even have to hire someone else to do it if you find that in spite of all your input and ad spend, your conversion rates are not improving. This could mean you are doing many things incorrectly.
At the end of the day, you would still need to factor in the time and money spent on creating and testing your ads. But we believe you will find the price to pay is really low when compared to your commission when your sale is successful!