It’s no secret that real estate is one of the most lucrative industries to be involved in, even when the economy is down simply because everyone has to have a place to live. The unfortunate side of this coin is that the market is unbelievably saturated with agents and brokers even in the smallest of towns.
Facebook ads are the go-to source for consistent lead flow for the most successful real estate agents and brokers. The reason? Results. Every single week, new leads are calling in and walking through agents doors.
Chris Beatty has an ad agency that exclusively works with real estate clients. His targeting methods are so precise, that the results keep his clients at the top of their local market. He was nice enough to sit down and do a case study on one of his clients (The Key Team) and share some of his most successful Facebook ad targeting techniques that bring in continuous leads for his real estate clients.
THE OPPORTUNITY
The first thing that Chris wanted to identify with his real estate client was their three main business goals. He also wanted to explore the areas that he felt he could get them the most exposure and results.
GOAL #1: Branding
The Key Team’s first goal was to be branded as the go-to team for real estate in Kokomo, Indiana. One way they accomplish this is showcasing listings that were sold quickly.
Each week a member of the team emails a list of recently sold homes. Chris selects the ones that sold the fastest, grabs an image of the listing and uses that to create an ad that not only gives listing exposure but offers brand reinforcement.
In this recent example, the ad says: “We sold this home in just 18 days. The market is hot and we are short on homes to sell. If you've been thinking about selling, now is the time to get off the fence.”
The second way Chris wanted to brand their team was by creating facial recognition. He wanted the people to see the team members and be able to relate to them as real people, not just a company that sells homes fast. He did this by creating ads that simply show the picture of the team and talk about some of the accomplishments they meeting internally.
For example, the ad below says: “I'm so proud of our team. 10 days ago I gave The Key Team a goal to pend $3 million dollars in 45 days. I'm excited to say we're 80% there in just 10 days.”
This specific post got great engagement and reached almost 4000 people. Considering they were targeting homeowners in a county of less than 60,000 people, that’s not too, shabby!
GOAL #2: Exposure
The team’s second goal was to get more exposure for their listings. After listing a property for sale they wanted to get those properties in front of potential buyers and then use that as a USP (unique selling proposition).
Chris achieves this by creating posts on the team’s Facebook page that showcase available listings. One unique service he offers to some of his real estate clients is photography. He actually takes photos of the listings himself, to ensure consistency and that they are showcasing the most “sellable” features of the home.
This is really successful because potential buyers can basically shop the Key Team’s listings online, to pre-determine whether or not a listing fits their specific needs before they commit to viewing it in person.
In an age where more and more people are meeting most of their needs by shopping online, this is an absolute must for any real estate agency.
One example of a listing exposure ad was one that listed his own home with the Key Team. Within 24 hours of running Facebook ads to his home listing, he received an offer on his home.
That offer, however, was contingent upon the other person selling THEIR home, so Chris offered to help the woman sell her home. Chris met with that person, took photos of her home and within ONE day of running ads to it, the other buyer had an offer in hand.
That particular page post engagement ad got a ton of interaction. It had 29 shares, 24 comments, 65 reactions and $0.005 clicks (less than a penny per engagement)making it a very successful ad.
GOAL #3: Lead Generation
The third goal that was important to the Key Team was building a list of potential buyers and sellers to create an email list so that they could keep their name in front of them at all times. To do this, Chris set up a funnel.
3 TYPES OF ADS TO USE IN REAL ESTATE
There are three ways that Chris accomplishes each of the above goals for his clients, and not all of them require a funnel. So let’s go through each of them one at a time.
Listing Exposure Ads
There are several types of ads that can successfully generate traffic for real estate clients. However, careful targeting is what will make the difference in which ads convert.
When setting up listing exposure ads you should understand that not only are there different homes, there are different market segments you can use to target on Facebook based on those homes. You need to consider the selling price of the property and then determine:
- Is the buyer of this home likely going to be a first-time homebuyer that can afford a house in this price range?
- Is the buyer somebody that's going to require a higher net worth to able to afford a house in this price range?
When Chris set up the ad for his home listing, he targeted people who were
- Location: His city + 10 mile radius
- Age: 25-65 years old
- Gender: Men and Women
- Demographics: Home > home ownership; Home > first time home buyers
- Behaviors: Home > likely to move
In case you are unfamiliar, Facebook (and third party partners) gathers data and creates extensive profiles on its users, which is why you are able to target by behaviors like “likely to move”.
If you are listing an upper level (more expensive) home, you probably wouldn’t target “first-time homebuyers” because the person most likely to buy this home is someone who currently owns a home yet is looking to upgrade. In cases like these, you could also target by net worth to help further dial in more qualified clients.
If you are listing a rural property, then it can be beneficial to target your audience by interests such as country living, farm, rural area, and agriculture. You have to keep in mind that the goal is not to just get people calling in or walking into the office.
Your goal is to get qualified buyers that can turn into actual conversions (sales).
The fantastic thing about setting up your ads this way is the ease of duplication. When listing other properties, simply go to the ad manager and duplicate an ad from a recent similar listing, duplicate it and change out the images and copy. The process is extremely fast which helps keep those clients coming in.
Those are the types of things that you should consider when you're creating the listing exposure on Facebook. Consider the type of property that you're trying to get exposure for, who the likely buyer is for that property, and target them specifically.
Whether it’s based on income, based on homeownership, net worth, interests or behaviors, there are tons of parameters that Facebook allows you to target with; use them.
Branding Ads
Branding ads are set up the exact same way as the listing exposure except Chris only targets them at homeowners, so that the team’s faces are constantly being put in front of them to create that familiarity.
PRO TIP: To track which calls/sales are directly coming from Facebook, Chris sets up one call tracking phone number per client to place on every ad he creates. He does this using a program called Analytic Tracking. This software tracks phone calls through Twilio.
Lead Generation Ads
There are two types of ads that Chris uses for lead generation on Facebook. They are more involved to set up.
Facebook Lead Ads
The first type of ad for Lead Generation is a Facebook Lead Ad. These allow you to run ads to people and they never have to leave Facebook to get on your email list. While they definitely produce results, there is a more effective way to capture those email addresses. You can even integrate the leads with certain supported autoresponders.
With a lead ad, you need to offer some sort of “lead magnet” or “lead bait” to offer your audience something free in exchange for their email. An example of a lead magnet that Chris is using for his client is an updated list of homes that sold recently and how much they sold for, which emails out to the list every two weeks.
When you create a Facebook lead ad, you can search keywords or phrases and choose from a library of royalty free images for your ad.
In this example, the ad copy says, “3358 Becky Court in Kokomo just sold for $278,500. Sign up below to get a list of every home that sells in Kokomo and how much it sold for.”
The shocking stock image matches the headline, “That house sold for what?” and the description below reads, “We'll send you a detailed report every two weeks showing you every home that sells in Kokomo, Indiana, and what it sold for. Click the sign-up button to get the newsletter.” The call to action is a simple “sign up”.
Website Conversion Ads (for Lead Generation)
The main difference between a website conversion ad and the lead ad is that this type of ad will take the audience off of Facebook, to a landing page so you need to set up a basic funnel.
The biggest benefit to using these types of ads over the lead ads is the amount of data you capture. If you create a website conversion ad and install the Facebook pixel, you are given the best opportunity to optimize for leads.
For each person that opts in, Facebook captures data to create a profile used to compare similarities between the leads. It will then keep showing the ad to similar people and get better and better results with each optimization.
THE FUNNEL
The funnel setup Chris uses for running website conversion ads for his clients is very simple yet very effective. It basically has 4 parts:
The Ad
In the example below, Chris set up a website conversion ad, changed the ad copy and image but used the same lead magnet from his client’s Facebook Lead Ad as the bait.
- Ad copy: Have you ever wondered how much a home sold for?
- Headline: Kokomo sold homes newsletter
- Description: Click the “Learn More” button and get a FREE list of every home sold in Kokomo and HOW MUCH it sold for!
- Website: SoldHomesNewsletter.com
- Call-to-action: Learn More
Once they click through the ad, they are taken to the landing page, where they are given the prompt to opt-in.
The Landing page / optin page
Chris sets up his client’s funnels in ClickFunnels. For this specific funnel, he set up the custom domain, SoldHomesNewsletter.com.
- Main Headline: The Key Team presents… Your FREE List of EVERY Home Sold in Kokomo AND How Much It Sold For!
- Sub-headline: Download the Kokomo Sold Homes Newsletter Now!
- Buy Button CTA: Send My Sold Homes Report
This is a very basic landing page that only asks for an email. Chris learned through testing, that the less information the audience has to put in, the better the result. It is also a good practice to install your Facebook Pixel code on your landing page, so that you can track the leads. To learn more about the Facebook Pixel Click Here.
The Thank You Page
Once the audience enters their email they are redirected to a simple Thank You page.
This page basically says thank you and delivers the link for their first free sold homes report. It also has a little bit of information about the client’s real estate company, as well as the phone number for tracking (which we went over earlier).
- The page headline: Thanks for signing up
- Logo: The Key Team,
- Sub-headline: The Download Link is Ready for You.
- Page Copy: We'll be sending you an updated sold homes report every two weeks. This report will show you every property sold in Kokomo along with how much it sold for. The Key Team is the number one real estate team in all of Howard County, and that's because we are passionate about helping our buyers and sellers achieve their dreams. So whether you're buying your first home or looking to sell so you can upgrade to your dream home, we can help you. Call (tracking phone number) if you have any questions at all about real estate, we're here to help you.
- Main Image: The Key Team photo
- Download Button: Download Your Sold Homes Report
This funnel can be set up using existing templates inside of ClickFunnels. It is also a great idea to install a Facebook Pixel Lead event code on this page of the funnel so that you can optimize and retarget later if needed.
The Email Follow-up
The final step in the real estate funnel is the follow-up email. For this, Chris basically restates the information found on the Thank You page, includes the call tracking phone number, another button to download the report as well as includes the Featured Property of the month.
One important thing to remember if you are interested in setting up a similar style newsletter for your real estate client is to communicate clearly and discuss expectations. This type of endeavor depends on its consistency so it requires deadlines and a schedule to be successful.
By using this funnel to obtain real estate leads Chris is getting a 58% conversion rate.
THE TAKEAWAY
While “old school is still cool” in terms of advertising for real estate leads, extending your reach to Facebook will certainly be a game changer! It is completely possible to reinforce your branding, gain listing exposure and generate leads all within the Facebook platform.
However, if you are willing to go outside the box and set up a funnel that extends outside of Facebook, you open your business up to a whole new world of possibilities.
Would you like to have access to the full live video case study talked about in the post? You can gain access to this and MORE like it inside of our Fearless Adlab!
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Thanks Ben for interesting post. learn about real estate investment is never easy.
Thanks for very helpful guide…