Want to learn more about Facebook real estate ads? Today you’re going to learn the why and how of running ads for your real estate business.

Facebook marketing is a great choice for growing businesses of all kinds — you can create ads and target primed audiences for whatever you or your clients are selling. And real estate Facebook ads are an excellent choice if you’re in the business of selling houses.

Real estate agents know the benefits of good, cost-effective advertising, and with these tips you can tick all those boxes with real estate Facebook ads.

In this post, we will break down why you as a real estate agent should be using Facebook for lead generation, some basics on targeting the right clients, and three examples of real estate ad structures that really work.

Learn How to Create Facebook Real Estate Ads

First, why Facebook ads are a great match for real estate

Real estate is generally a competitive market, and here’s why using Facebook ads will give you an edge…

1. Real estate is highly visual

Imagine trying to sell a house using just words. Even if you were Shakespeare, it wouldn’t work because when it comes to real estate, seeing is believing and a picture is truly worth a thousand words. This is in your favor, as Facebook ads are ALL about images.

You can create a gorgeous ad for a gorgeous house and have potential buyers drooling.

2. Real estate is locational

You obviously know that, and local ads are Facebook’s jam. Seriously, one of the best things about Facebook advertising is that you can create a localized, custom audience that is tailored to your goals, and for cheaper than pretty much every other advertising platform.

3. Real estate is personal

Real estate agents seem to be a dime a dozen, which means you need to create an immediate trust to find sellers and build long-term relationships. Facebook is a great platform for demonstrating who you are, and through things like social proof (reviews and photos with your clients) and valuable content (tips and knowledgeable posts) you can make yourself stand out as a safe choice.

On top of all of this, as a real estate agent, you know the people you are looking for, whether you are posting Facebook ads for real estate buyers or you’re trying to play a longer game to gain listing clients. You can take what you know about your ideal clients and use it to get your ads in front of their eyes. More important, you can get them to click on your links, sign up for your email list, etc.

Fortunately, Facebook Ads Manager is optimal for targeting both buyers and sellers. And with costs per lead ranging from $3-$10 on average, you’ll be stretching your advertising dollars without sacrificing on quality.

Need a crash course in navigating Facebook Ad Manager before you begin? Read more in Your 7-Step Facebook Ad Manager Training Guide.

How to use Facebook real estate ads

Facebook tops the charts for adult social media usage in the United States, with almost 7 in 10 adults saying they have used the platform. That makes real estate leads on Facebook ripe for the picking, if you know how to find them! And here’s how you make it happen…

Location, location, location

Obviously, location is the first area that comes to mind, right? Facebook has it down to a science. Not only can you target by city names, but you can narrow things down even more than that.

In this example provided by one of the resident experts in our Facebook Side Hustle Course support group, you see an example of how specific you can get when targeting clients by location. In this case, they get down their ad’s range down to as small as some apartment complexes!

You can also target strictly by zip code. All of this means that you can target clients who are living in very specific areas with the option to broaden your reach as well.

Income matching

It stands to reason that you want to make sure that the people you are spending advertising dollars on can afford the real estate you are listing. Thankfully, Facebook will let you target in those ways as well, although it is a little broadly defined by zip codes. If you use more demographics, you can narrow it down a bit further.

For example, you can target by the level of education, and even job title:

Use interests and other demographics to find leads

Is the property you’re listing close to fantastic shopping? Click that. Is it surrounded by amazing hiking trails? Is it a stunning lake-front property with a boat lift ready to go? You can get super specific, and have an audience that is practically tailor-made for your ad.

Want to learn more about creating custom audiences? Read more in How to Build an Audience from Scratch.

Tips for creating Facebook real estate ads

Successful targeting

You just learned how to target using behaviors and/or interests, but selecting too many of them in your custom audience isn’t always the best choice. The problem is that it can increase your price per lead by a lot without giving you more qualified leads, and that’s a waste of your advertising spend. So, avoid trying to get too specific with your avatar (ideal audience) in order to cast a wider net.

Limiting your targeted audience to about 100,000 people per ad is a pretty safe rule of thumb. This would mean you’d need to change your radius depending on population density in your target area, so it is something to keep in mind when you are establishing your ad parameters.

Building your client base

Buyer leads are easier to get than seller leads, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t run ads for your business, it just means you need to come from a different approach. Building your brand with ads can be done (especially if you are just getting started, or have moved your business and need to establish yourself).

Here are a few ideas for brand building content:

• Write or share articles about trending home designs
• Create a post about interest rates or loan structures
• Show social proof (also known as reviews) from previous sales or purchases

At the end of the day, just provide value to your prospective clients!

Spending your advertising dollars

While Facebook is easily the cheapest advertising space for how effective it can be, you still need to be willing to put some money into your ads. For each listing you should not be spending any less than $5 a day per ad. Just be aware again that the area you are targeting and how detailed your audience is can increase your cost per lead.

Follow up is KEY

Can we state the obvious? Responding to interested leads rapidly is nothing new to real estate agents, but it can be challenging to achieve in the 24/7 world of social media. If you are running Facebook real estate ads, consider employing a messenger bot to assist in your followup.

Learn more at Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Facebook Messenger Ads.

Three proven types of Facebook real estate ads

So, once you have your custom audience dialed in, how do you create an ad that will get their attention? We have three free real estate Facebook ad structures you can employ to lock in those real estate leads.

The Coming Soon Ad

This ad plays heavily on emotions through FOMO (fear of missing out) and is great for lead gen campaigns. To create an eye-catching Coming Soon ad, you need a high-quality image of the home front or major selling point, like a spacious and updated kitchen. Timing is a big factor in this, so make sure you post it on Facebook before you hit up Zillow, Realtor.com, or other locally browsed real estate sites, and highlight this fact. It is essentially a sneaky way of utilizing the sneak peek tactic.

This type of ad is great for retargeting for future campaigns that have similar specifications.

Open House or Price Reduction ads

When you need to highlight a property that has been listed for a while (or just needs to go fast) this kind of ad can be helpful. In your copy, give a deadline (such as the date of the open house) or dollar amount reduction. This is a campaign where you can use retargeting to target other audiences from previous lead gen campaigns — people you know are primed to buy.

The only thing we would do differently is to maybe add the reduction amount in a dollar value to lure in curious buyers. Who doesn’t love to see how much they could be saving?

Lending Specific ads

These kinds of ads are great for both cold or warm audiences, meaning you can use them for lead generation for your real estate business in general. Using a copy that features special financing offers or services you provide helps grab the attention of people looking for a deal.

Ads like these help build long-term trust in a short time. Talking about real estate pain points can help draw clients to you, as they feel like you would be a good advocate for them in one of their biggest purchases.

Want to create ad image templates to help speed up ad creation? Find out more in How to Create and Use Facebook Ad Templates.

If you feel like you need more in-depth training on how to run effective ads on Facebook, check out The Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Ads for Entrepreneurs.

Final thoughts on Facebook ads for real estate

Running Facebook real estate ads is one of the best ways to use your advertising budget, hands down. If you feel like you’re wasting dollars on Zillow, Trulia, or other real estate platforms, you should consider trying out Facebook ads.

With nearly infinite options for targeting, low lead costs, and a large audience to draw from, it is hard to not see the benefits of using this social media platform to grow your real estate business.