Do you already have a real estate Facebook marketing strategy? Then you’re in very good shape for this year and beyond, given the social network continues to evolve in terms of usefulness for brands and professionals of all kinds — including agents, brokers, and teams.
Now, it’s time to advance your approach on the widely beloved social channel. Organic shares in the form of links to new listings pages, open house promotion, and company and culture updates are all fine for branding and growing website traffic … but advertising is where you’ll find the legitimate real estate lead generation gold.
Find out how you can use the Facebook Pixel to develop retargeted ad campaigns that reach your core buyer personas on the social platform and turn those users into authentic leads using our thorough tips and tricks below — and download our ebook to get even more advice on how to integrate Facebook ads into your online strategy.
Before all else, get to know Facebook for Business.
Prior to learning about and leveraging the Facebook Pixel for your online marketing, you first need to understand all of the business-oriented offerings from the social network that pros like you can take advantage of to further expand your online presence and secure more prospects and business.
After all, without knowing how to set up ads, the Pixel will be worthless for your firm.
Here are all of the different ad-related services Facebook provides small businesses, enterprise corporations, and practically every brand in between that can help your particular real estate business excel online (that is, earn lots-a-new-leads in a little amount of time):
Business Page: We know, we know — you’re already well aware this is a chief component of your marketing strategy on the social network, but it’s nonetheless a key facet of your Facebook promotional efforts. In contrast to the channel’s ad options (more on those in a sec), this page is free of charge and allows you to bolster your organic presence on the platform. In other words, you need a Business Page first and foremost to begin thriving on Facebook.
Facebook ads: Single-image, carousel, video, slideshow — there are quite a few advertising (see: real estate lead generation) avenues you can take once you ramp onto the Facebook superhighway … and each offers its own unique benefits. The point of having so many options available, though, is because no single ad type works perfectly for every brand. Thus, more options equals more opportunities to test, test, and test again.
Instagram ads: “But … this is about Facebook advertising for real estate pros — not Instagram!” Ah, but little did you know that you can set up and execute Instagram ad campaigns from your Facebook for Business dashboard. Why? Because the former social network now owns the latter, meaning the two are intertwined when it comes to creating, launching, and tracking ads.
Audience Network: This relatively new tool allows brands (mostly large ones, for the moment) get their Facebook ads shown elsewhere on the web, meaning they can amplify their ad efforts and reap more rewards with, technically, only half the effort. Ads will appear on select websites that are apart of said network, thus broadening one’s reach (and, hopefully, traffic and leads). This may take a while to be ready for real estate professionals such as yourself, but it’s still a feature to keep a close eye on.
There are certainly other ad programs and elements you ought to learn more about, but these are arguably the most popular and widely used Facebook advertising tools.
The point is this, though: Sign up for Facebook for Business, then take the grand tour of the entire offering so you can determine which ad programs to experiment first for your agency.
Once you’ve played around with the kinds of ad campaigns you can run — something we explain in more detail in this Academy guide — you can venture into the next stage of Facebook promotion: retargeting.
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Learn all of the ins and outs of the Facebook Pixel.
The most tried-and-true of Facebook ad campaigns are the ones that not only reach the right audience, but also the ones that follow that audience around online. Allow us to elaborate.
Step #1: You get more could-be clients on your IDX website.
Let’s say someone lands on your website — hooray! They’re on the lookout for a bright, knowledgeable agent (such as yourself), but they need to do their due diligence by researching you. Then, they leave your site to continue their search for the numero uno agent in their market. Bummer, we know.
Step #2: They abandon your site — but the tracking begins.
However, with the Facebook Pixel incorporated into the code of your real estate website, you may just be able to stay top of mind — well, at least digitally — with this particular site visitor. The Pixel code allows you to show your Facebook ads to these individuals the next time they log onto the social network.
This way, you don’t have to worry (well, as much) about missed opportunities — a.k.a. visitors who simply don’t convert on your website for one reason or another. Rather, you’re able to ensure your brand stays in front of them, so to speak, when they land back on Facebook.
Step #3: Continue to create top-notch ads to target these folks.
As you have hopefully already done to this point, just keep on crafting enticing real estate ads on the social network that appeal to your niche buyer persona(s) — which, of course, include the aforementioned visitors you’re now able to get ads in front of on Facebook.
We explain this entire process in far more detail in our exclusive Facebook real estate lead generation ebook for agents such as yourself, but this is essentially how the Pixel can elevate your already-strong advertising game and get you more leads in a matter of days (or even hours, depending on the next time said visitors head back to Facebook — which, if they’re like the average person, is quite often).
Implement the Facebook Pixel on your IDX website.
Now that you have a solid understanding regarding how the Facebook Pixel can help, the next step to utilizing the vaunted onine advertising resource is to do one, simple thing: Add the Pixel code to your real estate website.
Facebook does a pretty good job outlining the main steps to implementing this code on one’s website — a relatively easy process. It’s even easier to accomplish, in fact, if you have a Placester website, as you don’t need to find the HTML in question from that setup guide. Rather, you just need to plop the code in your Placester Site Tracking section:
Regardless of your website provider, just be sure to confirm the Pixel is working as it should on your website. One way you can do this is to visit any website page on which the Pixel exists (again, you can and should incorporate it site-wide, but there is the option to add it to select pages only, if that’s preferred).
After you visit the page, head over to Ads Manager in your Facebook for Business dashboard. You should be able to see your visit to said page here. If, for some reason, your activity doesn’t pop up immediately, just wait, as it may take some time for your visit to populate.
Compare the success of normal and retargeted ads.
The entire process of starting your Facebook ads strategy, launching multiple campaigns over the course of several weeks, and seeing which ones help you meet your lofty real estate lead generation goals requires a bit of patience.
After all you likely won’t nail down your ad targeting filters right off the bat — you need to see which demographic details are most important for your targeting, which mandates some experimentation on your end.
This means you can earn prospects who are further down the marketing funnel (i.e. sellers looking for representation soon-ish as they research comparative market data; buyers examining the local listing landscape while preparing their finances to purchase) as opposed to simply those who fit your general criteria as a typical client (e.g. 40 years or older; stable income/savings; has family; wants to move from beginner home to bigger and better house; etc.).
Now, there is no consistency across the board with Facebook advertising and the Pixel in particular regarding lead gen totals, as this will vary due to a number of factors: the industry in which a brand works, the types of prospect demographics they target, one’s time and fiscal wherewithal to run campaigns, and a myriad of other business all affect the outcomes of ad campaigns.
As long as your IDX website is fully optimized for search so you can get a significant amount of visitors organically (in other words, from Google and, to a lesser degree, Bing), you can earn more traffic and, in turn, potentially earn more leads from visitors who don’t convert on your site but end up on Facebook in the near future.
Determine if you need help with your ads strategy.
This final step isn’t necessarily a final step for every agent with a real estate Facebook advertising and Pixel strategy.
If you gradually feel more and more comfortable running, analyzing, and modifying your ad campaigns and see bigger and better results over time, for instance, then well done!
If you feel a bit overwhelmed with this bonus marketing activity (and remember: It is just that, since other inbound tactics and techniques take precedence over this area of online, and lead gen, expansion), then it’s time to turn to the pros.
There are actual providers out there who are more than willing to help out REALTORS like you with their advertising efforts on the social media site. In fact, we know a really good Facebook ad services provider that helps lots of agents (and even brokers, too) with executing their campaigns — well, along with providing other tools and features to aid their online strategies too, of course.
Whoever you decide to employ to assist your Facebook-for-real-estate ad plans, you can rest assured knowing the experts are here to help — ones who have vast experience optimizing and re-optimizing campaigns to generate a steady stream of the right prospects for agents’ nationwide.
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