Targeted Facebook ads for real estate: That’s how you make the most of the social network for your digital marketing today.
Sure, organically sharing the latest local listings (including and especially yours, if you’re a seller’s agent), conducting live streams, and posting pre-recorded videos can help reinforce your presence.
But as My Philly Nest agent Sean Kaplan knows, if it’s high-quality real estate leads you want, Facebook advertising is what you need.
Discover the many intriguing business and marketing insights Kaplan shared on the Placester webinar he joined, and find out how you can replicate his real estate Facebook ads success for your own agency (hint: Working with a certain software provider will help.).
Prior to using Facebook ads for real estate, Kaplan invested heavily (and continues to invest) in his website.
Building, launching, and optimizing his Placester website is something Kaplan noted was not in his bag of marketing tricks just months ago.
Now, though, the 14-year industry veteran indicated it’s not only simple, he’s constantly making changes to his site with amazing ease and, in turn, increasingly drawing his audience to his web presence.
“It’s always a work in progress, in that, I’m always tinkering with it, bit by bit,” said Kaplan. “I’m adding pages, changing pages. Sometimes I see something somewhere else online that seems interesting to me [that I want to add to my site].
“For example, what I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks is a page of … sold properties I will probably call ‘Portfolio’ so that, when I’m on a listing appointment, I can click through on some of the great listings I’ve sold and show a seller, ‘Hey, this is how we present a property for sale.'”
Given the market in which he typically works — high-end condos and townhomes in Philadelphia — Kaplan added having such a strong real estate website is, and will continue to be, a high priority for his firm.
With his website ready and raring to go, the next logical step was easy to identify: paid promotion.
Now that his IDX website is mostly built out, Kaplan relayed he feels comfortable investing in some beneficial marketing tactics that can help garner more visitors to and leads from his site — and one of the first places he turned to was Placester.
Kaplan decided it was worth the financial investment to put an important part of his online marketing on autopilot — near-term lead generation — by taking advantage of our Facebook advertising services.
The results of leaving his ad campaign success in the hands of Placester have made him and his five-agent team thrilled thus far.
“The cost of this [latest] lead is $11 … which is far surpassing any other lead [we’ve generated],” said Kaplan. “I know Zillow is sort of a pay-to-play thing we have to do, but the leads [from Facebook] are many, many, many times [better than] that, at least in my market.”
The one trait about his real estate Facebook leads that stands out the most to Kaplan? Getting real contact details from real people.
“One thing that has been fantastic about these leads is that [for] 99% of them, customers are providing full, real information,” Kaplan continued. “I’m getting real names and real phone numbers.”
According to Kaplan, the results of leaving his ad campaign success in the hands of Placester have made him and his five-agent team thrilled thus far — and they don’t intend to slow down their ad efforts on the social platform anytime soon.
Check out our case study on Sean Kaplan to learn the specifics of his success with Placester’s real estate Facebook advertising:
Using Facebook ads for real estate lead gen is great, but Kaplan also knows nurturing prospects is a must.
“As soon as a lead downloads [a Facebook ad asset], they’ll get a text, a phone call, and an email,” said Kaplan. “If we can get them on that first contact, I find that leads respond best to text.”
In addition to that text moments after conversion, Kaplan stated an entire nurture campaign is set up for each prospect to help him and the My Philly Nest brand become more memorable to them.
“They’re also getting a whole series of email follow-ups after as well,” Kaplan elaborated. “I think that’s more top-of-mind reminders more so [thank promotional messages]. Even if they’re not reading them, they’re seeing your name in their inbox all the time.”
So … why prioritize texting new Facebook real estate leads instead of emailing and/or calling them?
“I think texts are huge,” said Kaplan. “For me, in the morning, I have so many emails that I have to zip through that text messages grab my attention better. … People are not that crazy about talking on the phone now. The texting is less intrusive.”
While Placester handles Kaplan’s ad, he understands how to utilize his ad budget effectively over time.
Winning at the Facebook real estate lead generation game isn’t about throwing a considerable amount of money at the social network and blindly hoping they perform well.
As Kaplan noted in the interview, allocating the right amount of ad spend toward campaigns requires a keen understanding of how one’s housing market operates year-round.
“So I’m spending $300 a month [on Placester’s Facebook ad services],” said Kaplan. “That has a swing depending on what time of year it is, though.
“Our market here in Philadelphia tends to slow down [during mid-July] and picks back up toward the end of September and October, so this is the time of year I’m looking to pick up all those listings for the fall. So I’ll probably raise that budget by 50%-100% for the next, let’s say, two months.
“Then, as the market picks up, I may bring that down a bit. It’s a living, breathing budget. It’s not flat, like, ‘I spend $300 to $400 a month.'”
Kaplan declared his goal is to continue to invest in Facebook as well as enhance his other digital marketing efforts.
Watch our entire webinar with Kaplan to learn how Placester helps him generate top real estate leads with Facebook:
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