2020 has been a bad year for the US economy in general. However, the real estate sector benefited from the wave of remote workers moving from city center locations to the suburbs. While the commercial real estate industry continues to be devastated by the pandemic, the residential real estate industry was one of the few that may grow in 2021.
With many states still in full lockdown mode, more agents and agencies that use the traditional in-person marketing and sales techniques may have to adapt to an online model to compete in 2021.
Online marketing has many channels. These include search engine optimization or "SEO" - the process of getting to the top of the Google rankings, Google and Bing Ads; content marketing, which involves producing useful and entertaining articles, videos and graphics, social media marketing, and social media advertising.
The 'free' versions of online marketing - SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing (organic) can be highly effective. Still, they also tend to take a long time to establish a flow of relevant visitors. Unless you have lots of time on your hands, you will likely need to hire a freelancer or an agency to do the work for you too.
Google & Bing Ads appear at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) but can be relatively expensive. On the other hand, Facebook Ads can be a goldmine of affordable leads, but it often takes more research and testing to make the campaigns effective.
Custom Lists of Real Estate
This step by step guide will help you get started, but it will not necessarily be the best setup for every specific real estate campaign. It is essential to test and tweak your ad campaigns to optimize them continuously.
The general idea is to create a campaign that targets people in a specific city interested in real estate and show them ads that contain lists of houses in that area. The homes in the list can take various formats but should always include a price-point, typically just less than the average house price in that area.
For example, one ad might promote a pdf of houses with garages for less than $350,000 in Jersey City, while another ad could promote - 3 Bedroom houses for under $350,000 in New Brunswick.
By offering specific lists, you are researching for people to make it much easier for them to begin the process of buying a property.
You will need a specific "landing page" or webpage on your site that hosts the pdf or shows the list of houses. You will also want to get notified every time a lead comes in. it is vital to get in touch with leads within 10-15 minutes of them downloading the list of houses.
Lead-notifications via SMS can be set up using Zapier, as this video explains. They do have a free version. It is also a good idea to generate phone calls with Facebook click to call ads. If you are not sure that you will answer your calls 24/7, then consider using a phone answering service such as Moneypenny.
Facebook Ads Step by Step
To start with, you will need a Facebook Business Page. Setting up a business page on Facebook is pretty straightforward - go to your personal Facebook homepage and click on create (or the plus sign +) in the top right corner of the screen. On the dropdown menu, click "Page," then fill in the relevant details, including the business name, description, and location.
Once your page is set up, on the side menu, click on Ad Center. If you don't see this option, head directly to the Ads Manager here.
Housing & real estate and employment, politics, and credit-related ads have been placed in a 'special' category. This ad category was created to help prevent discrimination against based on demographic information.
With this in mind, tick the check box next to Special Ad Categories and select Housing.
- Scroll down and tick "Lead Generation" for your marketing objective
- Scroll down and name your campaign something meaningful, e.g., "NJ Family Homes."
- For now, leave the A/B test off and the budget optimization off
- On the next page, make sure the correct business page is selected in the Page section
- Audiences - scroll down to location and enter the city you are looking to target, e.g., "Jersey City."
- Next, go to "Detailed Targeting" and search for interests that might narrow down your audience and make it as relevant as possible. For example, search for "Zillow" and "realtor.com." This should limit the audience to people who are more likely to be interested in buying a property.
- Scroll down to "Placements"
- Check the "Manual Placements" option. Untick everything except for Facebook News Feed and Facebook Marketplace.
- Scroll down to "Budget & Schedule"
- Enter between $5 and $10 in the "Daily Budget." You want to start with the first campaign as a test, with a small budget. It's not recommended to start with a large budget until you have tested at least two ad formats and ironed out any targeting issues.
- Set a start and end date - set the ads to run for five days - this should provide enough data to be able to optimize your campaign further
- Click "Continue"
Ad Design & Settings
- On the next page, give your ad set a name - for example, "NJ Ads 1."
- Double-check the correct Facebook page has been selected
- Format - use "Single Image or Video" for now - you should also create a video ad though
- Upload an image - a relevant one that is in your target market and location
- Add your "Primary Text" - this could take many formats, you could ask a question - "looking for the perfect home? Look no further..." or use a specific attention-grabbing headline such as "attention New Jersey Home Seekers."
- Add a "Headline" - such as "free list of homes available to buy today."
- Add a "Call to Action" - choose "Learn More" for now
- Scroll down to "Instant Form" and check the box next to it
- Click "+ New Form" in the "Instant Form" section
- Give the form a name
- Choose the details you want people to provide - e.g., Name, email, and phone number
- Add an enticing headline such as "Click Below to Receive Your Free List."
- Button Type - choose "View Website."
- Button Text - type in "View List" or something similar
- Website Link - add the website address/URL of your landing page
- Click "Finish"
And that's it!
You can choose to run another ad simultaneously and compare results, or you can let the single image ad run for a few days first.
It is also a good idea to run a follow-up advert or "retargeting ad" to target any users who have already engaged with your business in some way. For more information on retargeting, see this great video by Wes McDowell.
