Facebook ads for real estate: tips to grow revenue

When it comes to Facebook ads for real estate, there’s one overarching goal: driving revenue for your property investment business. In this article we will share some strategies for success.

Before we dive in…

Pay per click advertising is a meticulous science. It’s possible to drive revenue that’s measured in millions. But that takes time, tenacity and attention to detail. Here at Adbetter we know how to optimise campaigns that get big results where it matters: return on ad spend. We specialise in the property sector – and we are so confident in our abilities that if we like the sound of your business we will cover your ad spend. Get in touch now to find out more.

“Adbetter handled everything from creative strategy to a full funnel media buying plan across Facebook & Google Ads. They were able to design & build a full digital marketing campaign including all ads, copy & landing pages that has been delivering a consistent stream of new customers at a significantly cheaper cost than in previous testing.”

Define your PPC goals

Success with Facebook ads for real estate starts with having a steely focus on what you want to achieve. You have to be outcome oriented. So think about the result, then work backwards. For most property investment companies, the metric that matters is revenue generation. And that requires leads. But it’s too simplistic to think that more leads means more revenue. So what actually is a good lead?

PPC leads: the balance between quality and quantity

Not all leads are born equal. It’s better to attract a handful of high quality leads than a lot of leads who are very unlikely to become customers. Many businesses waste a lot of time and money trying to convert prospects who have low purchase intent. So think carefully about how the design and messaging of your campaign can screen your audience – engaging people who are likely to be interested in your services and sifting out those who aren’t.

Facebook ads: selecting an audience for real estate ads

There are strict regulations and limitations when it comes to advertising property on Facebook. Housing is designated as one of Facebook’s ‘Special Ad Categories’, which means there are restrictions on how you target your audience. These restrictions apply to ads targeting people in the UK, USA, Canada and much of mainland Europe.

• Age: Generally restricted to 18 to 65+ with no ability to narrow your audience.
• Gender: Fixed to all genders and you are unable to edit this selection.
• Detailed Targeting: Some detailed targeting options will be unavailable. You will not be able to exclude any detailed targeting.
• Location: Must include all areas within a 15-mile radius of any location. No ability to target by postal code or zip code.
• Custom Audiences: You must be sure that your audiences do not discriminate.
• Lookalike Audiences: Unavailable.
• Saved Audiences: Unavailable.

Stop the thumb: getting your audience’s attention

It’s worth remembering that Facebook users don’t tend to enjoy adverts in their feed. They are inclined to scroll past them. Your visual has to be arresting enough to ‘stop the thumb’ and pique their interest. Then it’s the job of your messaging to sell your proposition and encourage the right people to click.

A good tip here is to remember that it’s not about you. It’s about your reader. Address them directly. Write in a way that’s focused on outcomes and benefits. Think about what your reader stands to gain from working with you. Consider their potential objections or barriers to purchase and show how you can remove those doubts.

Remember that Facebook will truncate your description – so the first 125 characters or so have to work hard to inspire the reader to continue with your message. Note also that Facebook is strict with anything that looks or sounds like financial investment. Choose your words carefully.

Test, test, test: optimising campaign performance

Facebook enables you to add a number of image and description variants for your ad. That’s an opportunity you should grab with both hands.

The platform will algorithmically test the various image and description combinations to find out what works best. Then the best converting options will be served preferentially – increasing your chances of engagement and conversion. Feed the machine. The more tickets you have in the raffle, the more chance you have of winning.

Another benefit of testing multiple variants is that your ads will fatigue slower. People get numb to ads they have seen more than once. But ad variants give you the chance to sell your property investment proposition from a variety of angles – and can keep your campaign fresh if you are serving your ads to the same audience a number of times.

Think beyond the click: an introduction to landing pages

• Design and copywriting. Your landing page should feel like a continuation of your ad. That means using similar images and colours, making sure your logo is prominent and so on. Make sure it’s optimised for mobile and create a compelling proposition above the fold.
• Create a closed journey. Single mindedness is a strength when it comes to landing pages. Limit the navigation options for your visitor and stay focused on one clear call to action.
• Utilise social proof and trust signals. Customer testimonials are a great way to build credibility and establish trust in your company. Ideally, take your customer reviews from a verifiable source such as Trustpilot or Google Reviews. If applicable, include logos from other brands that act as trust signals – such as your TrustScore or publications that your organisation has been featured in.
• Screen your audience via your forms. It’s better to have a small number of leads with high conversion intent than a bunch of leads who are never going to become customers. Think about how you can ask questions during the moment of data capture that screen out people who are unlikely to convert.
• Remember your GDPR obligations. For your forms that means having a tick box that asks people to actively opt in to your comms, the name of the business that will be contacting them and the method that they will be contacted by. You must also include a link to your full privacy policy. The financial penalties for non-compliance can be very big.

Retargeting: turning new leads into new customers

With Facebook ads for real estate, the real (and fun) work begins once you’ve acquired some leads to remarket to. The first step is to design a campaign that allows you to nurture your leads – reaching out to them with content that sells your proposition and builds credibility in your brand. This retargeting process is especially important in the property and real estate investment sector – where the lead-to-close time is typically over six months.

We’ve covered PPC retargeting for property investment businesses extensively in this article. But here’s a quick summary…

• Bring your leads in from the cold. Any new leads should be excluded from your cold PPC activities across all channels where you have active campaigns. Serving cold lead gen ads to people who have already expressed an interest in your business can frustrate prospects and wastes ad budget.
• Echo activities on your main retargeting channel. New leads should go into a customer acquisition funnel that’s carefully designed to nurture your lead towards becoming a customer. Email is a great channel for this. Your Facebook retargeting efforts should echo your email campaign – educating your leads about your business, raising awareness of your services and building your credibility as a brand. Verifiable customer reviews work really well here.
• Make it personal. Your real estate retargeting ads should be as personalised as possible – based on the lead acquisition method. The more you can make your lead feel you are carefully considering their position – and trying to help – the more likely they are to convert.
• Get to a meeting as quickly as possible. Trying to convert your leads too quickly or too explicitly will likely send them running for the hills. But there’s a direct correlation between the time it takes to get your lead into a meeting or call and conversion.

>> Expert tips for real estate retargeting ads

Performance tracking: don’t hide from your data

Your ads dashboard will provide you with lots of data on how your ads are performing. This data holds valuable secrets – and it’s your job to uncover them. Try to identify any trends in the ads that are performing best. Is there something in your messaging that’s encouraging clicks? Is a certain type of image garnering attention? When you understand what’s driving results, you can double down on those strategies – creating additional ad variants based on what’s working and ditching the stuff that isn’t.

Of course, it’s not just the performance of your Facebook ads that matters, but the performance of your campaign as a whole. For proper insight you have to be able to track all points in your user journey. That necessitates getting your performance tracking set up to provide full visibility into onward KPIs – namely the clicks and conversions on your landing page, and the leads that convert to meetings & sales.

Many businesses don’t make the effort to track their campaigns correctly. Mainly because it’s technical and time consuming. But doing the hard yards here can help you gain a huge competitive advantage. And we can help. We know how to set up campaigns to capture all necessary data points – and we build custom dashboards that provide clear visibility into key metrics.

You may also be interested in:

>> Revenue-boosting PPC for real estate

>> How to boost revenue with Instagram ads for real estate

>> Best practices for Google pay per click real estate campaigns

>> 6 expert tips for real estate retargeting ads

>> Is TikTok good for lead generation?