Ep. 196: The 3 Facebook Ads Every Business Should Be Running

Real Estate Facebook Ads

From among the different types of Facebook ads, these are the ones you want to run.

Facebook real estate marketing is a no-brainer. Its popularity, the relatively low cost of running ads on the platform, and the potentially exceptional ROI you can achieve using its ads, make Facebook advertising for real estate agents an essential part of any agent’s marketing plan.

The real estate Facebook ads that Luke and Josh recommend are:

  • branding ads
  • lead magnet ads
  • product ads

Listen to this week’s episode as the Stay Paid pals explain each type of ad, what type of leads they tend to attract, and content ideas for each.

Here we’ll go in a slightly different direction to explain a bit about how Facebook ads work.

How do Facebook ads work?

In a nutshell, Facebook ads work by showing the right content to the right people at the right time.

Deciding upon the right content

To decide the right content for your real estate Facebook ads, you need to determine what your goal for the ad is first. You’ve got lots of options, including:

  • Driving more traffic to your website.
  • Promoting people to sign up for your webinar.
  • Soliciting more views and likes for your page.
  • Getting people to contact you, watch something, or book an appointment.

Once you’ve determined your goal, it’s a small step to determining what you need to include in your ad. For example, if you want people to contact you, you obviously need to include an email address or phone number.

But it might require a bit more thought to decide whether to make your ad a text or video ad.

Text is easier, but may not garner as much interest as a video. Whichever you decide, Facebook has recommendations and requirements for each, and you’ll want to be sure to follow them.

For text, there are character limits for each part of the ad: the headline, the description, and the primary text.

For video, there are requirements for length, file size, pixels, and more. And you get to decide whether to use sound or captions (use both!)

When building your ad, remember that you want to provide information, but you also want to create the right emotional response.

Deciding on the right people

Facebook detailed targeting is a powerful reason for including Facebook ads in your marketing plan. And while there are some specific rules for real estate Facebook ads, detailed targeting still allows you to cut through a lot of the noise to better connect with your ideal clients.

First, you can focus your ads on people with certain interests . . . and there is a long list of interests from which you can select.

Second, with Facebook detailed targeting, you can narrow your target audience by selecting from additional demographic characteristics. Facebook periodically changes their list of characteristics, so you’ll want to keep track. As of now, you can still target your ads using:

  • Ads your ideal audience clicks;
  • Pages they engage with;
  • Factors like device use, travel preferences, and more derived from data that shows what people using Facebook do with it;
  • The mobile device they use;
  • The speed of their network connection.

As mentioned, there are some demographic characteristics that real estate agents can no longer use to target their audience. These exclusions were implemented by Facebook to avoid running afoul of the Fair Housing Act. They are age, gender, and zip code.

Deciding on the right time

While there isn’t a single best time to post to Facebook, some timeframes see more traffic than others. An internet search will recommend times spanning 24/7.

A better, more nuanced question would be: “When is your ideal audience using Facebook?”

  • What time zone are they in?
  • Is there a time when they are more or less busy?
  • Is there a day when they are more actively searching for the info you’re providing?

Your budget

The details of Facebook costs and how much you should spend isn’t easily determined because there are countless variables that can affect the price of an ad. That’s because the system works like an auction.

Facebook wants a good experience for their users, so they limit the number of ads a user will see. This means advertisers compete for ad space. Your real estate Facebook ads are competing for screen space against any other business that has selected the same audience interests and demographic characteristics you have.

If you want the gory details, this article lays them out pretty well.

But you can save yourself a lot of angst if you only decide how much you want to spend per day or over the lifetime of your campaign.

And you don’t need to spend a lot of money. You’d be surprised what a daily budget of $5-10 can produce in results.

Should I?

If you’ve ever wondered, “Do Facebook ads work?,” the answer is a resounding YES! Listen to this week’s podcast, consider the information provided in this blog, and see for yourself how a relatively small investment can turn into thousands of dollars for your business.

 

Key Points

  • These are ads you should run all the time and simultaneously.
  • Facebook ads offer a tremendous ROI.
  • Different types of ads will generate different types of leads.
  • Speed to lead is a critical success factor.

Action Item

Start running one of these ads.

Connect | Resources

Webinar: The 3 Facebook Ads That Every Agent Needs

Stay Paid: Ep. 145 with Will Penney

Email marketing tool: Free 30-day trial

Stay Paid: Ep. 183 with Michael Hellickson

 

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