Facebook advertising is another online strategy to get very targeted leads that you as a real estate professional will get a lot of value from. There are a few questions you need to answer before running Facebook ads. Once you answer them, it helps you have a clear direction with how to approach your ads and run them effectively. The questions to ask yourself are;
- What farm areas do you service?
- Describe your client?
- What keywords describe your farm area and your target audience?
- Make a list of 20 keywords related to your business.
These questions help you get a better understanding of how you are should run ads effectively at a lower cost. After analyzing who your target market is, there are a few categories you need to get right for your Facebook ad to be effective. These categories are;
- Ad Headline
- Ad Copy
- Ad Image
- Interest groups
- Demographics
- Landing page
Your Ad headline needs to be captivating and have relevant keywords. For example; if you are advertising a listing in the square one area in Mississauga, your ad headline should look like this “$399K Condo Duke of York“. If the price is reasonable for your target, they will immediately click on the ad to contact you. That is how to capture the attention of your target audience.
Hint: You are allowed 25 characters in your ad headline on Facebook. Use it wisely!
The copy of your ad should reflect what is stated in your title and a little more information to get the target to click on the ad. This is where offering an incentive and having a clear call to action comes in. If you have free market reports to offer or want to offer a free consulting phone call, include this information in the ad copy. For example; the listing on Duke of York will have an ad copy like this;
“Condo available for sale $399,000 at Duke of York, Mississauga. Possible discount if you register before 20th April 2012. Register now”
Hint: You are allowed 90 characters in your copy. Make great use of it.
Your ad image should be compelling and should match the message of your ad. If you are talking about a condo, do not put up an image of a house by the lake(Believe me, I’ve seen this). Let there be a correlation with the image and the ad copy and headline.
Select interest groups based on the previous questions you answered. Market research and survey questions are usually very helpful when trying to analyze where these clients can come from and what their interests are. Are you selling to women? Are you selling to the single man or the married couple? These points will help you tailor your ads to specific people that are most likely to do business with you based on interests and based on the profiles they fit.
The landing page you are re-directing your leads to should reflect all the content in the ad. For example, if you are advertising a listing, make sure you are re-directing them to a page that has the information about the listings.
Facebook Ads vs. Sponsored Stories for Real Estate Professionals Part 2
Thanks for focusing on how real estate pros can use Facebook. They have specific needs, which is overlooked in the Facebook documentation.
Thanks for the comment. Most Facebook information out there is very generalized.
Hi Gabrielle! I appreciate the information you provide via your Facebook Page and this is a really helpful article. I work with our Fonville Morisey Realty agents on understanding the best use of Facebook for both Page activity and advertising options. Was curious as to your thoughts on the new advertising options available (Sponsored Stories, Offers, and Reach Generator) and how they compare to typical ads (such as above) as far as the real estate industry is concerned.
It seems to me Facebook is going more for a value-oriented model making Pages really defined by reach and engagement. As such, their new advertising model also reflects that and I have focused more on those types of ads versus the traditional simply because of the potential for reach, which will also turn into dollars if both engagement and ads are done effectively.
So, I guess I’m asking – do you feel the traditional approach is more valuable to the real estate agent rather than the newer ad model? Any response is appreciated. Thank you!
Hi Lisa, That is a great question. I think its safe to say that you should measure it both ways. The traditional method of advertising works when you are just starting out. At that point no one cares about your sponsored stories as these are derived from posts. People that relate to sponsored stories relate better based on the popularity of the advertiser. For example, 10 of your friends like a post, you advertise it, a lot of their own friends see the post and believe that if their friends already liked it, then it must be a great post. This is where sponsored stories would work. Use the traditional method to gain traction first and once you do that, venture into the newer methods of advertising.
That makes complete sense. Thank you!! Good food thought.
I tend to be so focused on providing value to your online community via the medium rather than traditional advertising methods simply because I try to teach our agents that social media is not traditional and I don’t want them thinking that way. However, you make a valid point that newer agents sometimes need that extra push while they are building community. That’s not to say they are the only ones to use traditionally targeted ads either. I totally get what you are saying and I appreciate you taking the time to respond.
Always a pleasure Lisa. Every agent old and new should be using both methods. The newer ones have to focus on pushing harder but still fall back on traditional methods as well. Hope you enjoyed my blog.