In an attempt to cash in on lucrative real estate advertising, Facebook launched its first ad product designed specifically for real estate last week. It’s called Dynamic Ads for Real Estate and it allows realtors to target Facebook and Instagram users who have already searched for properties on a real estate brokerage’s website.
With Dynamic Ads for Real Estate, Facebook’s two billion users, 66 percent of whom log on daily, will see targeted ads for real estate listings in their News Feeds similar to the way they see ads for everything else.
Real Estate is Prime for Social Media Ads
Last year, Facebook raked in $27 billion in overall advertising revenue, second only to Google. Real estate industry website Inman encouraged real estate agents to consider including Facebook Ads when marketing their listings because of Facebook’s emergence as an advertising giant.
“Real estate is an area we’re betting big on as a company,” Facebook’s real estate and financial services chief Keith Watts told Inman. “We think it’s content that consumers want to see.”
Until now, real estate had been an untapped vertical for Facebook. Researcher Borrell Associates says the U.S. real estate industry spent $26.8 billion on advertising last year, making it one of the largest local advertising verticals.
An OutboundEngine survey revealed 39.3 percent of real estate agents found social media to be a successful marketing effort. Another survey found similar results, noting many real estate agents fail to harness the full potential of social media.
You have to feed the beast
We’ve reached a point where thinking Facebook might be a good marketing option has passed. It’s now an absolute must for any successful real estate marketing campaign. Luxury real estate is no exception.
The reason Facebook advertising is successful is due largely to its ability to deliver a good return on investment (ROI). The good ROI is mostly due to Facebook’s ability to hyper-target, which is perfect for a geographically-based product like real estate. Agents can target feeder markets without breaking the bank for expensive print options.
Set up your ads and let the automation work for you
Dynamic Ads for Real Estate integrates your real estate offices’ existing listing data with Facebook’s advertising platform. This will work best for offices with at least 100 listings on their website. Users will see the listings in their Facebook or Instagram feeds in a slideshow format.
The set-up is much like the set-up for other Facebook Ads, but Dynamic Ads for Real Estate requires a catalogue of your listings to rotate through the ad campaigns you set-up. It’s a great opportunity to generate interest with the high-quality property photos used for luxury real estate marketing.
You can also choose your audience. For example, luxury real estate agents might choose million dollar listing amounts and relevant feeder markets as qualifiers for their audiences.
The beauty of any digital advertising campaign is that you can monitor and track your ads to determine your ROI. If you see that an ad is not working, you can make photo or copy changes or adjust the target audience to make the ad more effective.
So what are you waiting for? There are two billion Facebook users are waiting to see your listings.