14 Ways To Create Effective Real Estate Ads For Facebook
Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash
Facebook ads are an effective way to generate real estate leads. But there’s more to creating a high-performing real estate ad than clicking the promote button on your latest listing.
You need to know:
- The specific audience you want to target your real estate advertising at
- The best offers to promote
- How to present your ads in a way that will attract buyers
Facebook’s advertising platform has plenty of tools that help with the above points. And you can get started on a relatively low budget.
Once you know what you’re doing it’s actually easier and more effective at generating leads than a traditional print ad would be.
If you’d like to know more, read on. This article contains 14 tips to show you how to build effective real estate Facebook ads.
Why Facebook Real Estate Ads Are Important
Realtors have access to many forms of online advertising to promote their properties.
So why choose Facebook?
The biggest reason is its reach. According to Pew Research, almost 7 in 10 Americans use the social media platform—that’s almost 230 million people. It’s significantly more than Pinterest, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
A large audience wouldn’t count for much if generating leads was difficult. But the opposite is true.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that 52% of realtors generated more leads through Facebook than any other channel. That even includes their MLS. It’s no surprise that the NAR reports that 90% of realtors use Facebook in their business.
Placing a real estate ad on Facebook is also affordable. Marketing tool Constant Contact found that real estate Facebook ads generate 44 leads per ad, with a cost per lead of just $2.44.
Another factor that makes Facebook ads effective is that they are easy to set up and quick to see results. Even a beginner can create a campaign and have their first leads generated in mere days.
Why not just use a free Facebook Profile?
You don’t have to pay for a real estate ad to promote your service on Facebook. Anyone can create a business profile, invite their network, and start posting listings.
But there is a huge reason to pay for ads: increasing the reach of your posts.
Nonpaid posts reach significantly fewer people than paid ones. In 2020, Hootsuite found that organic posts only reached around 5.2% of a page’s audience.
If you want more people to see your posts, you have to pay.
14 Facebook Ad Tips for Real Estate Agents
- Get a personal Facebook account
The first step to advertising on Facebook is to build a Facebook business page for your firm. If you already have one, move on to tip three. If you don’t, they are free to create.
You need a personal Facebook account to start a business page. If you don’t have one already, then get one set up by clicking “Create new account”.
Whoever owns the personal account will be the page’s administrator—you can add extra administrators later on.
Some people don’t like mixing their professional and personal social media profiles. If this is you, consider using your work email address to set up a separate profile dedicated to your job.
- Create a business profile for your real estate firm
Once you’ve chosen or started your account, click on the “Pages” link in the left-hand menu.
Next, click on “+ Create new Page”.
Now fill out the required information in the respective fields, including your contact details, about section, and address.Add professional profile and banner images such as those in the image below.
Your Facebook profile is useful even if you don’t end up creating ads. Use it to showcase information about your firm and make it easy for people to find your business on the platform.
3. Choose your offer
Now that you’ve set up your page you will have the option to log in either under your personal account or under your business profile.
Make sure that you have your business profile selected and navigate to the “manage page” toolbar on the left.
You can see an overview of all your previous and upcoming ads by clicking on “Ad Center” or you can go straight to posting an ad by selecting “Create Ads”.
Click on the latter and you’ll be given a range of options for your ad.
You then need to choose what you will promote. Realtors can create two basic types of ads to generate leads.
The first are ads that promote a specific home or property. These typically showcase the benefits and advantages of a particular property. They’ll include images, information about the home, and the price.
The second type of Facebook real estate ad generates leads for the service. These ads showcase why people who want to buy a home should choose your service.
4. Choose your target audience
Facebook advertising provides you with targeting options. But some may be turned off for real estate ads in certain countries to stop discriminatory practices.
Because of this, the location option is the most important for realtors. It lets your business show ads to people based in the area where you operate.
Choose a central location and then target ads to people within a certain radius of that location.
5. Choose the housing special ad category
When creating Facebook ads for real estate you must choose the special ad category for housing.
Facebook created this category to reduce the chances of ads discriminating against users. For example, in the U.S. you can’t target ads using attributes like gender, age, or specific area codes.
Choosing this option may make your ads less targeted, but it ensures your real estate business is adhering to Facebook’s policy.
6. Experiment with your budget
Your real estate ad budget is the maximum amount you will spend on ads each day. The optimum amount will depend on your location.
The good news is that if you are an independent real estate agent you can generate leads at a relatively low cost. It’s usually far less than outdoor real estate ads would cost.
In small areas with low competition you can budget just $10 or $15 per day. Cities or more populous areas require a larger minimum.
The aim is to spend the minimum amount that will generate enough leads to sell your properties. There is no benefit to spending more than the amount you need to sell the homes you have listed.
Experiment with your budget until you start to generate a number of links you are happy with.
Facebook provides an estimate for the number of leads it thinks you will generate based on your ad campaign options, audience size, and budget.
7. Use quality images
The next part of the process is to create your ad. The image is important to get right as this is what grabs people’s attention.
You have several options when it comes to displaying images. You can choose a single image or upload several to show off the property from multiple angles.
You can see an example of the latter in the screenshot below.
It’s typically okay to use the same images you use in your listings. Just be sure to choose the best ones.
8. Nail the copy
The words you use are one of the most important parts of an effective real estate ad. The aim of the copy is to encourage people to click on your ad and become a lead.
If you don’t have experience writing real estate ads, you’re probably unsure about what to include here.
Here are some tips you can use to get it right:
- Look at popular realtor social media accounts to see what kind of content they post.
- Think about what will appeal to someone looking for the house you are promoting.
- Make sure the copy relates to the offer and the image.
- Keep your post conversational and write as if you are talking to a client.
- Write the most important information first, as this is what Facebook will show on the ad.
- Use a spell checker tool like Grammarly to check the ad for mistakes.
9. Choose carousel ads to Show Multiple Properties
Another great feature of Facebook is the ability to create ads in different formats.
Carousel ads allow you to display a series of images with a caption under each one, giving your customers the opportunity to scroll through multiple properties.
This is a simple and effective way of using a single Facebook real estate ad to promote many properties. And it can improve your chances of hooking potential home buyers.
10. Create interactive video ads and 3D tours
Facebook offers options for multimedia that go way beyond images. You can also experiment with a video ad or even 3D real estate tours.
Mr Sell Team uses videos to great effect in its real estate listings. Each one is a short introduction to the property and shows it in far more detail than images ever would.
You can see an example of a video real estate ad in the image below.
11. Remember to sell the lifestyle
You aren’t just selling a property—you are selling the lifestyle that property represents. People buy homes based on an emotional connection, so it’s important to show them why this home offers everything they’ve been looking for.
Create real estate ads that use vivid language with emotive connotations to paint a picture of the kind of life your buyers can lead if they buy this house.
Also include images that capture a specific kind of lifestyle—whether it’s living an outdoor life filled with pool parties and BBQs, or an indoor life featuring stunning architecture for that perfect dinner party.
12. Highlight the location
A big part of selling a property is selling the location the property is in. If your property is in a particularly attractive spot, consider highlighting this in your ads.
Take a look at how the photographer has included the incredible mountain backdrop in these photos.
You can also use location for lead generation. For example, you can create a regularly updated list of homes in a certain location and offer it to customers in exchange for their contact details.
13. Choose the best times to advertise
Different times of the year can impact how effective your ads are due to housing demand and ad costs.
People look to buy and sell houses at different times depending on the location and even the weather.
According to Zillow, the real estate market in places with warm climates like Miami is busiest during March. But in places with harsh winters like Boston, you’re better off waiting until mid to late April.
Facebook advertising rates also rise and fall depending on the season, which can impact your return on investment.
Ads tend to be cheapest in January, but they peak during the holiday season. Ad costs leading up to Black Friday can be especially high.
14. Optimize your landing page
The best real estate ads send potential buyers to a landing page that is optimized for the specific offer you are promoting. Don’t just send people to your home page when creating a real estate advertising campaign.
If your ad is about a particular property, make sure you send people who click on the ad to a page with specific instructions about how to contact you regarding that property.
Ads promoting your real estate services should send leads to a landing page with a contact form that specifically mentions the offer in the ad.
The easiest way to create landing pages for each real estate ad is to use the instant form option in Facebook.
It helps you create lead generation forms for each ad you run.
Generate Leads for Your Real Estate Business with Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are a proven way for real estate agents or a real estate team to generate more leads. And it’s typically easier to get started with the social network than it is to use print real estate ads and other forms of promotion.
A real estate agent who is not experienced with Facebook ads might not get it right straight away. But with a little experimentation and by following the Facebook real estate ad tips in this article, you will soon be generating a steady stream of leads.
And the low cost of advertising on Facebook means you won’t be too out of pocket while you learn.
For more ideas about real estate advertising and marketing, check out our articles on real estate social media tips.