If you’re like the majority of real estate agents, you still get most of your leads through referrals, so social media advertising hasn’t necessarily been on the top of your to-do list. But relying only on referrals for your business in the year ahead might not give you the results you’re looking for. One of the easiest, most effective ways of building a strong pipeline of incoming leads is through social media ads for your real estate business. Here’s why.
Research shows that the first agent to establish a connection with the prospective buyer or seller is the one that gets their business.
According to recent data from NAR, 73% of buyers and 82% of recent sellers contacted/interviewed only one agent when deciding who to let help them with their transaction. Clearly, if you want to win new business, you’ll need to find ways to connect with consumers earlier in the home buying and selling process so that you can be “ONE.”
Most consumers start their real estate searches online before contacting a real estate agent. So instead of waiting for consumers to find you through a referral or recommendations, you can proactively generate more leads by connecting with them online as soon as possible. That’s where targeted, hyper-local social media advertising comes in.
Leverage the power of social advertising to generate more leads for your real estate business.
Consumers are spending roughly 2.5 hours per day on social media (source). This is where big life announcements are made; profiles are updated, and people ask for recommendations and advice. Chances are that you already know this and understand the importance of using social media as a lead-generation strategy. In fact, 52% of real estate businesses report that social media delivers the highest quality leads when compared to other sources (source).
By adding paid social media ads to the mix, you can generate brand awareness and capture new leads online when they are earlier in their home buying/selling journey. This can increase the chance that you’ll be the ONE agent that they interview and use for their real estate transaction.
If you’re ready to experiment with social media advertising, start with Facebook and Instagram ads.
When considering where to start with social media ads, you’ll want to focus on the platforms that have the highest number of users in your target market. Facebook is still king of the social media landscape, registering the highest number of daily users and the most amount of time spent on the platform across the board. But more importantly, Facebook is the primary social media outlet for consumers in the prime home buying and selling seasons of life.
Facebook Ad Manager is easy to use and offers robust targeting and retargeting options that are better than any other advertising platform out there right now (and they own Instagram, by the way!). Since this is where your target audience is likely hanging out, it makes sense to concentrate your advertising efforts here.
Here are 6 types of real estate ads that successful agents are using on social media to fill their pipelines with qualified leads:
- Listing Ad with Photos – This is the most common type of social media ad for real estate agents. They are quick and easy to put together using information and pictures you already have. You can use a single image or a carousel of the best images of a property and provide all the critical information along with a call to action to learn more or contact you.
- Multiple Listing Carousel Ad – If you have multiple properties that would appeal to the same type of buyer, consider featuring them in a carousel ad with copy that calls out the unique feature that the consumer might be searching for or the characteristic the properties have in common. (For example, corner-lot townhomes in neighborhood X, single-story properties in [city/neighborhood], downtown condos in buildings with gyms, properties with flex space, homes that have fireplaces or fire pits, etc.)
- Video Ads – Video reigns supreme on social media and ads with video generate more clicks, views, and leads. Walk-throughs, home tours, and more polished, professional videos that incorporate drone footage perform particularly well.
- Content Ads – Offer the consumer access to valuable insights, tools, or resources as a way to establish a connection early in their home search or sale process. (For example, compile a list of the lowest-priced condos in Arlington*, offer a free home valuation report, invite first time home buyers in Fredericksburg, VA to a free webinar, offer a free downloadable checklist for XXX.) The call to action here is to capture contact information so that you can nurture the lead in the following weeks using email marketing, retargeting ads, and follow up strategies.
- Neighborhood-Specific Ads – If there’s a neighborhood in your service area that consumers are looking to move into, consider creating an aspirational ad that highlights its advantages and features to reinforce your connection to the area and your insider knowledge.
- Agent/Broker-Branding Ad – A branding ad is effective for generating awareness of your real estate business. This type of ad features you and your brokerage, and talks about your brand values, what you offer, or how you can help consumers. It’s particularly effective when used to retarget consumers who have previously visited your website (which can be tracked using a simple Facebook Pixel added to your website).
The key to successful social media advertising for real estate agents is to be creative and experiment with visuals and messages that will appeal to your target audience. Your goal is to capture consumer contact information when they are early in their real estate journey so that you can establish a connection and increase the odds of them choosing you as their real estate agent.
We make social media ads easy for Redwood agents with Boost!
At Redwood, we want to make it easier for our agents to use social media advertising, so we have integrated Boost ad automation into our one-stop-shop, accessRedwood.
Boost automatically pulls real-time information from your MLS listings to generate ads for real estate social media advertising campaigns. It also creates a branded mobile-friendly lead page for each listing which is optimized for capturing leads. Each ad and lead page can be customized, and you can monitor its performance from one central location. If you’re a Redwood agent, go to accessRedwood and click on the “Boost” icon to get started.
