How to use Facebook Targeting like a Pro
With 2.19 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers a huge opportunity for any business. Facebook marketing is effective for agents because 95% of home buyers use the internet to look for homes. Continue reading to learn how to use Facebook targeting in real estate.
Unlike other methods of marketing, Facebook targeting in real estate enables you to reach potential customers wherever they are and it doesn’t cost a lot to reach a large audience.
However, to get the most from your Facebook marketing it’s important to target the right audiences with the right messages. No matter how lovely your ad might be, if you don’t get it in front of the right audience it won’t convert.
So, the question is how do you ensure you target the right audience? The answer is Facebook custom audiences.
What is a Facebook custom audience?
A custom audience is a powerful tool you can use to ensure that each of your ads only appears in front of your ideal audience.
Some of the advantages include:
- Helps you target audiences most likely to respond to your ads
- Helps you retarget website visitors who didn’t convert on their first visit
- Helps you generate leads
- Helps you get repeat business or referrals from current clients
- Helps you generate buyer listings, seller leads and create awareness of your brand
There are four different Facebook custom audiences in real estate you can create to optimise conversions, attract new leads and build your brand value.
- Drive referrals – create a custom audience based on your database
If you’ve been in real estate for a while, you should have a healthy database of past clients and potential home buyers.
This list might include your mailing list, people who have done business with your agency or recent visitors to your website. These people are already familiar with your brand and putting ads in front of them can lead to referrals and repeat business.
You can target this audience with ads that remind them of your services, let them know referrals are welcome or promote a property similar to something they have bought from you in the past.
To do this, you need to upload your customer list in either .txt or .csv format with details like the first name, last name, email, phone number, postcode, city and country.
To create your target custom audience, log in to your Facebook business page and click on audience > create audience > custom audience > customer file.
Once your file is uploaded, save it and it will stay there for you to use whenever you choose to run a referral campaign.
- Attract new leads – create a lookalike audience
Now that you have your custom audience in place, you can use it to create a lookalike audience.
A lookalike audience shares attribute with your actual customers like interests and location, but at this stage are probably unfamiliar with your brand.
Because of the shared attributes, they are more likely to become new leads and customers once they become aware of you.
Target this group with your value proposition, a suite of services, testimonials and free appraisal offers.
- Attract new leads – realestate.com.au audience
Another way to attract new leads is to create a custom audience using Facebook user interests.
Ad targeting allows you to select a wide range of interests, one of them being realestate.com.au
By creating a custom audience of people who regularly visit the realestate.com.au site, you’ll be able to target both active buyers and homeowners who like to keep their fingers on the pulse of where their local property market is heading.
Target this group with new listings, sales results, market reports and testimonials.
- Build brand awareness – use your lookalike audience
Your lookalike audience may not be ready to convert to a lead just yet, but it’s important to keep top of mind for when they are.
Building brand awareness is a longer terms strategy and while you may need to wait to see the returns, it’s the perfect opportunity to set your agency apart from the competition.
Ads you can create for these campaigns include property walkthroughs, case studies, neighbourhood news, ‘how to’ blog posts, new listings and sale results.
Facebook is a gold mine of opportunity for real estate agents, but consistent success is directly linked to ensuring you get the right messages in front of the right audience.
By taking the time to develop the right content for the right audience, and adopting some (or all) of the targeting tools available to you, you’ll reap the rewards Facebook targeting in real estate can bring.
