Seasoned real estate agents are selling like wizards on the field. But most of the battles are fought and won before the contact got physical. The old networking around the town is now carried over to online. The struggle is to attract and convince prospects in digital channels, and the battlefield is online content platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram.
In this article, we'll show you our battle plan to make you victorious. You'll learn about critical strategical and tactical Facebook tips to win prospects over your competition. This article is specifically written for Facebook ads, but you can apply the high-level concepts to any content platform you're currently on.
You may ask, why Facebook?
Facebook still has the most online and active users daily. Also, since Facebook owns Instagram, Facebook advertising is still dominating and the most developed platform. So, Facebook marketing is your best shot and the first platform you should master to generate leads.
The table of contents:
- How to find and set a target audience.
- How to use carousel ads
- Importance of video marketing
- How to utilize advertising copy
- Hiring a professional photographer
- How to use text overlays
#1 Target audience: how to use filters to pinpoint your prospects.
Facebook gives you tons of options to filter and find the best fit of prospects. Below, we'll zoom at filters such as location, demographic, interests, and behavioral targeting. And we'll make sure you'll pick the right target because without this essential step, your shots will inevitably miss.
Targeting by location
If you already have data and insight about your past customers, we advise you to study that first. Your past selling history could give a great understanding about in which radius people desire to move. After a quick brainstorm on your prior insights, you can pick specific radius or zip codes to create an audience.
Targeting by Age
Elementary, but still, we wanted to inform you about this step. Since the probability of a 17-year old buying a duplex penthouse is a lottery, it's better to target your demographics. Narrowing this down will save a lot of money because you'll not be paying hundreds of dollars to show your houses to the wrong audience.
Targeting specific Facebook groups and interests
If you think some Facebook page and groups is your audience, you can also target them. Or even you can target your competitors' groups and pages. Also, it is possible to apply the same principle with "interests".
Targeting by Income
This is one of the best filtering options for real estate agents. You can narrow down your audience by their income level. Let's be creative for a moment; how can you leverage this filter?
You can pick an income range and match it with the right type of real estate you have. For example, you can match luxury houses with the higher income bracket and vice-versa.
How? Try navigating to detailed targeting and find INCOME.
By targeting home ownership status
It almost feels like Facebook ads trying to give privilege to real estate agents. By using this filter, you'll be able to choose whether your target audience is a first-time homebuyer, owner, or renter. Again, based on your prior experiences and insights, you might have some dataset or gut-feeling about who buys, what kind of estate in which areas. You can combine that knowledge and create different target audiences by using this filter.
You can find this filter under demographics -> home -> home ownership.
By targeting specific behaviors
Again a privileged filter for real estate business owners. Almost tailored for you! You can target people who are "likely to move". Facebook algorithm is quite smart, so experimenting with this option could lead to positive results.
You can find this filter under detailed targeting -> behaviors -> residential profiles.
Creating Lookalike Audiences
We wanted to keep the best bit for the last one. Lookalike audiences are created based on your existing data. If you already have a list of customers with contact information, you can upload this list on Facebook to create lookalike audiences. As the name implies, this option helps you find similar profiles based on your data.
Now you know how to pick a target audience. Go to your Facebook ads manager and experiment with all these options until you're comfortable with what you have.
Onwards, it's time to talk about what kind of ads could give you more conversions.
If you want us to set an audience and run Facebook marketing campaigns for your brand, you can schedule a call with our Facebook Expert, Amaury!
#2 Use carousel ads to showcase the whole property or multiple properties.
You know how people used to browse on regular real estate websites. They click on the advert, and they move back and forth between images to find their ways in the house, right? The closest format you can use to replicate that experience on Facebook is carousel ads.
By using carousel format, you can either showcase an entire apartment/house or different houses in the same advertisement. On top of that, you can use text overlays to inform prospects about location, square meters, price, and other necessary information.
Besides text overlays, you can use different description text for each carousel image to convey your message.
#3 Create video ads for demonstrating your real estate and increasing your credibility
Video marketing is the closest chance you get to physical in a digital environment. You can show your personality and the real estate or land you want in detail. And the good news is, not many real estate agents or businesses are leveraging this Facebook marketing strategy.
Also, most people looking to move or buy houses know how pictures deceiving can be. The majority of the industry uses fish eye lenses to make houses look more spacious than it is; therefore the video is a credible and more organic way to showcase your real estate.
Moreover, just by showing your face, you can build trust and establish a connection with the prospects. So if you're comfortable with the idea of the video, we ensure that you'll get more inquiries.
You see this ad ☝ By using a video ad, they were able to show surroundings and give prospects a sense of how it would feel to live in that neighborhood.
#4 Use descriptive and short ad copy
What are people looking for when they browse their dream homes? They're looking for well-taken images and essential information about the house, such as price, availability, location, and other specs.
One thing they never look for is creative ad copy. People are not looking for fun or emotionally well-written advertising copy. Or some sort of advertising play. They only need information about the house, so use your ad copy space to give them that. Be as descriptive as possible.
And don't write a huge chunk of text. Make your text structured with the help of emojis or bullet points and convey the information clearly. Look at this example. 👇
Even better, instead of writing the number of bedrooms, you can write the exact number of square meters or price. This will make your Facebook ad more attractive and help you to qualify your prospects faster.
#5 Hire a professional photographer
Facebook ads have two main elements: image and text. Since the real estate you have is your most valuable asset, and buying a home is a big decision, you should make sure your photos are attractive. As you know, some photos can convey the soul of the house and the lifestyle it could bring to the buyers. Meanwhile, some are plain ugly.
You guessed it, we want you to have those captivating advertising photos. You should portray the soul of the real estate you're selling. When the prospects look at your Facebook Ads photos, they should daydream about their new life.
If you have decent photographs, you'll beat 80% of the competition. Remember that!
#6 Utilize text overlays to increase conversions.
Earlier we said you only have images and text. But actually, you also have a text overlay option. Facebook allows you to write a text covering a maximum of 20% of the total image space.
Why is this space important?
Your prospects will first be drawn to the Facebook ad image, then read the text overlay, and finally, they'll read your ad copy. This is the usual order for 90% of the time. So it's a smart move to add one more attractive feature to your Facebook ad.
As you can see in this ad below, even though they wrote about 3D home tours in ad copy, they also emphasized the text overlay to extend prospects' attention time.
The next one isn't about real estate agents or agencies, but it's a great way to utilize Facebook ads. See how QiQO shows additional benefits of its product by using text overlay. 👇
Wrapping everything up
We hope you enjoyed this short and succinct article.
You learned the basics of real estate Facebook marketing for you. Now you have everything to start with: you can pick your audience and design your ad-creatives for maximum conversions. If you want to know more about Facebook ads and read further about advanced conversion strategies, we have two more articles for you:
If you want us to help you ideate, create and implement with a growth marketing mindset, you can schedule a discovery call with our Facebook Marketing expert!