Social media sites such as Facebook are excellent for real estate advertising. Your business can get a lot of mileage out of the site to generate new leads and clients. Here are some top advertising tips for realtors to increase business leads using the platform.

Why Use Facebook Ads for Real Estate?

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) indicates 69% of American adults are already on the platform. Around 70% of today’s real estate agents use Facebook; in fact, it is the top tool used by real estate professionals for generating leads. Another statistic indicates that 78% of marketers who have used social media for two years see increased traffic to their websites.

1. Create a Lead Magnet

One of the critical aspects of any Facebook ad is the lead magnet. This is where you give something away for free to potential new clients in exchange for contact information. You need to ensure that what you are giving away provides value for the end-user.

Guides act as excellent lead magnets. Some ideas might look like:

• Showcasing your expertise in the neighborhood that you serve by creating a home selling or buying guide for new clients;
• Writing a guide that details simple home renovation tips; or
• Providing a guide surrounding how to set up your property for a home showing.

Essentially, anything that helps the potential new client is a great lead magnet. The user simply needs an incentive to click on your advertising and provide their contact information to you.

2. Use Videos and Images

You may be tempted to use static images for your Facebook ads. However, consider the use of both images and videos. Why? You gain better organic reach with video rather than plain text. Make sure that the video on the image aligns with the objective of your ad. If you include any text, you’ll want to avoid exceeding about 20% of the total image area. Advertisements are not approved by Facebook if they are too text-based.

3. Monitor Ads

It doesn’t make much sense to create a Facebook real estate advertisement if you’re not evaluating how the ads are doing. Ad evaluation is quite easy to do within Facebook.

Marketing experts indicate that you should use A/B testing when evaluating ads. This is where you take two versions of your ad where there is one varying element. For example, you could try two different headlines for the same ad and then evaluate which one of those headlines is doing a better job. Once you have your two different variations, then you present each version to half the visitors. This test indicates which is the popular ad. You can use the Facebook Ads Manager tool to do this sort of testing.

4. Use Targeting

Facebook provides plenty of targeting options for your advertising. By using targeting, you reach specific customers based upon criteria. This means you avoid wasting advertising dollars, and you’ll have a more efficient campaign. Other advertising channels do not offer this option.

For example, you can target them based on their interests, demographics, and behaviors. Here are a few examples of targeting:

• Age
• Area or zip code
• Homeownership
• Income level
• Those likely to move

There are numerous ways that you can use targeting to reach your audience on the site. It is an excellent way to laser focus your advertising so you reach those that are more likely to purchase a home or visit your website where they can get more information about your services.

5. Employ Carousel Ads

When dealing with real estate ads, you’re going to have plenty of images and homes that you are selling. Try creating real estate ads that leverages the carousel feature. This will give your ad visual appeal thanks to the catalog type of a format it offers wherein the user is able to scroll through multiple listings and images. You can use this as a great way to showcase all, or at least, many of the homes that you are selling.

6. Make Ad Copy Concise

Transparency in your advertising copy is key to developing trust with a potential customer. You only have so much space in a Facebook ad to write your copy, and you need to accomplish letting your prospective home buyer know what they will be getting from the property that they are interested in. How do you make this happen? Use actual images of the home and copy that includes specific information. This would include data points such as location, number of rooms, square footage, and the price. Your prospect needs to know, in a nutshell, what they are getting before they click on the advertisement. You will establish more trust as a real estate agent if your ads are as concise as possible.

Facebook is an excellent avenue to showcase your listings and to bring potential clients to your site. Make effective use of the its tools and resources to create your ads and expect to see more leads as well as sales in turn.