Elevating Your Real Estate Business with Facebook Ads

Social media is a necessity when it comes to real estate agents' marketing and advertising. There are endless opportunities for agents to promote their business, from posting videos of homes that are for sale or to even sharing important tips for helping buyers complete their purchase. With opportunities like these, there is one tool that every agent should use to make the best out of their social media advertising – Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ads are a great way to get more exposure for your business. Facebook consultant and Houston Association of Realtors® CE educator, Tristen Sutton, joined us for a Secrets of Top Selling Agents webinars. He demonstrated the ins-and-outs of using Facebook Ads for your real estate business.

What Is a Facebook Ad?

A Facebook Ad is exactly what it sounds like – it is an ad that is placed on the Facebook platform. However, there is so much more to Facebook advertising. Facebook Ads can be broadcast across Instagram and LinkedIn as well. If you have a limited marketing budget, you want to go where the most users are. There are over 1.7 billion people who login to Facebook each day. Sutton's tip: those 1.7 billion are your audience and you should use Facebook Ads to market to them.

Facebook Ads can help you to expand your audience to a group that is outside of your usual circle on social media. That large pool of active Facebook users can ensure you are getting leads and making conversions to make your business as successful as possible. Most people go online to get the things they want, so make the best of Facebook Ads and target those people on Facebook.

You Have to Pay for Success

In the past, when you created a post on Facebook, you would generate leads. However, that is not the case anymore. Normal Facebook business posts are being suppressed, which means that your content is not getting the exposure it used to. Now, Facebook prefers Facebook Ads when it comes to getting exposure on the platform.

Using Facebook Ads to increase your brand awareness or drive visitors to an open house (or virtual open house) will get you the results you are looking for, explains Sutton. Say you have 1,000 followers on your profile; when you post a generic post, the 1,000 followers that you have are the only people who will see your content unless they share the post, tag someone on the post, or someone searches for that specific post. With a paid Facebook Ad, you expand your reach and increase the chance for more traffic to visit your website or profile, which in turn increases your opportunities to make a sale. When you pay to play, you target specific audiences that you are interested in, such as "luxury real estate" or "foreclosures." Yes, they are two different audiences, but you can target them specifically to the type of business you conduct. Not only can you increase your reach, but you can also increase your engagement.

What Types of Ads Should You Be Running?

You have to play it smart when it comes to Facebook Ads. You can run as many ads as you like, but you have to know which types of ads to create. Sutton outlines four different types of ads that you should be running.

• Reach. These ads will function as your brand expander. You can use these ads to brand yourself as an expert in your area.
• Video. These ads will increase your lead generation and branding efforts.
• Website Visits. You can use these to drive people back to your website so they can see what listings you have.
• Open House Events. These ads are good for sharing an event, such as when you would like more people to show up to an in-person or virtual home tour event.

How to Create a Facebook Ad

Sutton also shares some tips for creating a Facebook Ad. Below, you can find step-by-step instructions for creating an ad.

1. Go to your Facebook Business Page and select Facebook Ads Manager.
2. Click "create an ad."
3. After you have clicked "create an ad," you will be prompted to select a special ad category. As a real estate agent, you must click the special ad category for housing. If you do not click this, your ad will be rejected by Facebook and their algorithm will deny your Facebook Ad.
4. Next, select which type of ad you want; Sutton suggests choosing engagement, or, if the ad is for an open house event, click event response.
5. Now you will select your audience. Your audience is who you wish to target with your ad. You can select a specific area that you work in within a 15-50 mile radius.
6. After your audience is selected, you will select a detailed target audience. Here, you can select your specific area that you work in such as luxury real estate or even specific interests that you believe your targeted audience will interact with.
7. After you have done this, choose your image, add a little more copy to your ad, and you're good to go!

Keep in mind that Facebook does require about 24 hours to approve a Facebook Ad. If your ad doesn't get approved right away, that's okay. Facebook will audit your ad to make sure everything is right, and will get your ad up and running. Sutton suggests that if you are running an ad for a specific event or offering, give yourself 10 days of time to run your ad so you can get the most out of your ad spend.

Running a Facebook Ad can be fun and exciting, but can also be a little challenging. Make sure to stop by the Secrets of Top Selling Agents Facebook Group to watch the recording of Tristen Sutton's webinar here. Or, to check out the Facebook Live recap, click here.

To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.