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Real estate is a profession rooted in the real world. It’s not something that can be done 100% over the internet and closing a deal isn’t as easy as clicking a button and putting in your credit card information.

Most people want to see the space they’ll live in before they purchase. Despite all this, as a real estate agent, you need to be visible online and you need to know how to create an effective real estate landing page for your business.

According to the National Association of Realtors, 74% of all buyers frequently searched online for homes and 93% of people used an online website during their search in total. So, as the numbers show, most of your potential clients exist on the internet.

While 86% of people used a real estate agent, only 17% contacted a real estate agent as their first step. That means people do want to speak to a real estate agent and getting leads online is one way to encourage those people to choose you and not your competitor.

One sure way to one-up your competitors is to have a landing page and a landing page that works. Because of the unique nature of the real estate business, it can be hard to make an effective landing page that does what you need. After all, your goal isn’t to sell a product online in the traditional sense nor is it to get people to sign up for a service.

What exactly are landing pages?

If you’re confused about what a landing page is, don’t worry. You are not the only one. Many people think of landing pages and homepages interchangeably. Though some people use homepages as they would a landing page (for example, they link their homepage to an ad), this is perhaps not the best practice.

In fact, landing pages aren’t the same as homepages. Homepages are meant for exploration and are often there to provide information for visitors. Landing pages only have one purpose: to get a conversion.

Whether it’s to convince people to sign up to your mailing list or inquire about a listing, a landing page’s job is to get visitors to click on that call-to-action button. You’re paying for the click and you want to make it count.

So, for example, this is the homepage for FoundValencia.com:

Notice the menu at the top, showing several links for those who want to find more information. If you were to scroll down on this homepage, you would see several videos, links to property listings, and much more.

Now, this is what one of their landing pages looks like:

See the difference? There is only one link: the call-to-action button. If you scroll down, you’ll see a much shorter page than the homepage consisting of photos and a “Why Choose Us” section, but there are no other links besides the one at the top. The main goal of this page is to convince visitors to input their information in the form and press that “Get Free Advice & Browse Listings Now” button.

One thing that will not change, regardless of what type of real estate agent you are, is the best way to design a landing page. The most important thing is to keep your landing pages simple.

Though it can be tempting to include as much information about what services you provide or the type of homes you sell, a crowded landing page won’t get you those conversion numbers you’re looking for.

Conversion rates for landing pages longer than 800 words were 33% lower than those for shorter pages.

Short pages are more likely to straightforward and not distracting.

A lot of factors go into the logic of simplicity, including the psychology around being overwhelmed by too many choices. It holds true for landing pages, especially. There’s only one goal (conversion), so don’t distract your visitors from it.

Types of Landing Pages for Real Estate

You can go in many different directions when creating your landing page and, of course, that’s influenced by your target group. Here are some ways you can use a landing page and who they will attract.

Home Value Landing Page

Home value landing pages offer to tell sellers how much their home is worth. These kinds of landing pages are good for propelling people into action. If you want to catch people at the beginning, this could be a good way to go. One of the first things people will need to know is how much their home might sell for.

The example above is pretty straightforward, which is exactly what we want. There’s no point of exits, the call-to-action button is obvious and easy to click on. It’s better to have fewer form requirements than the number featured here, but it makes sense they would ask for an address as well as email and phone number. According to BluLeadz, the average number of form fields is eleven, but shortening the number to four can increase conversion rates.

Because this business is offering more than just a price value (but also to purchase from them), it could afford to have a bit more social proof. The “As Seen On” section improves trustworthiness to some degree, but testimonials or reviews would help this page a bit more.

Home Search Landing Page

If your target group is buyers, not sellers, a popular and effective way of attracting attention from them is using a home search landing page. This works especially well if you have multiple listings to show.

Still, you shouldn’t use your listing page as your landing page. You should give them the option of clicking a call-to-action button to proceed to a listing page. The goal is to convert, which is less likely to happen the more distractions there are on a page and without a clear call-to-action button.

The example below is from a Landingi template and shows us exactly what a landing page, even one for a home search, should look like.

Source: Landingi.com

The page doesn’t show us the listings. Instead, the visitor is required to input their information in order to view the “real estate offers.” Because this is a template, the language used is intentionally vague. When creating your landing page, specificity is a good thing.

For example, instead of the offers listed in the image above, you could offer something like “access to 100+ San Diego, CA family home listings.” For the second offer, you might say something like “be the first to see new homes on the market.”

Agent Search Landing Page

Agent Search real estate landing pages work best for real estate companies, not individuals. In fact, they’re usually hosted by bigger real estate companies, but that doesn’t mean that if your company is a smaller real estate firm you can’t put this type of landing page to good use.

If you have enough real estate agents working with your company, you can ask a short series of questions (which you can control the answers to) like in the example below to match your visitor up with one or more agents.

3 Best’s information-gathering form is a bit long with nine questions and a scrollable form. The call-to-action button isn’t visible until you scroll to the bottom of the form, where a button in red prompts you to “See The 3 Best Agents.”

The landing page is somewhat long, but it spends the space working on building trust through explanations of how it works. It also emphasizes it’s value in being “Free and Unbiased,” explaining where their honesty comes from.

The page doesn’t need to explain itself as much as it does. Brief, one or two-second explanations for their “How We Rank Agents” section would make the section more digestible.

However, there’s no way to leave the page without clicking on the call-to-action button. The headline and subheadline do a great job of attracting attention and explaining concisely why the visitor should use their service.

Free Content Landing Page

This kind of landing page offers content in exchange for (usually) information. For example, you could offer a free buyer’s guide in exchange for their contact information. This works well when people are doing research and trying to get started on their home-buying or selling process.

Though the landing page can afford to be a little clearer as to what the info packet will include, the above is an example of a free content landing page. As you can see, they offer an info packet that helps visitors learn “what makes a True Home unique” in exchange for contact information.

Though, as I mentioned earlier, it’s best to be very clear about what visitors will gain from your free content. This webpage focuses a bit too much on themselves. The info packet should be promising visitors information they would find valuable, not more information on why they should want to use True Homes.

Listing Agents Landing Pages vs Buyer’s Agents Landing Pages

Depending on what kind of agent you are, your goals and the target audience for your landing page will be different. Your potential clients might not know the difference between certain types of real estate agents. They might not know the terms “listing agent” or “buyer’s agent” at all.

Think about how early in a potential client’s search you want to appear. For example, if someone is searching “agents who sell homes” or “who can help me buy a home,” do you want your ads to appear? After doing some information gathering, it’s likely someone will figure out the terminology on their own, but do you want to wait that long to reach them?

Listing Agents Landing Pages

As a listing agent, you target people who want to sell their home. You don’t want to accidentally attract people looking to buy a home, which can happen easily considering how similar search terms can be for selling and buying a home. In your ad and in the title of your landing page, you want to make absolutely clear visitors know you’re there to help them sell their home.

You can design your landing page around helping people find the right listing agent, convincing them to submit their contact information so you can contact them, or offering them a free service.

However, once you’ve found a client, you can help them sell their property through single-property landing pages or open house landing pages. Below is a demonstration of an open house landing page from RealToDo.

Source: RealToDo.com

This is a great example of a landing page. It has all the information someone might need (home details, address, time and date, and price) without overwhelming the visitor. The choice to have a slideshow of photos featuring the best parts of the home further piques the visitor’s interest.

There are only three form sections, only one of which is required, and a casual option to become part of the company’s mailing list. It emphasizes the choice on the part of the visitor.

Buyer’s Agents Landing Pages

As a buyer’s agent, it’s your goal to find people who are looking to buy a home. Because many people don’t know that listing agents don’t necessarily also help you buy a home, it may be harder to find people searching for “buyer’s agents.” Instead, you could create an ad and landing page for listings.

People looking to buy are likely to search something along the lines of “2 bedroom house in Washington,” for example. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a landing page related to the search “buyer’s agent.” For example, the landing page below does a good job of convincing its visitors to connect with a real estate agent.

Clever promises to connect you with a top agent who will make sure you get your home at the best price and, possibly, a commission rebate. If you scroll down just a bit, you’ll see the section for “Buy a Home in 3 Easy Steps.” The descriptions are only one to two sentences long, making them simple and easy to read. There’s only one call-to-action button.

If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you’ll see social proof such as a “Featured In” section and testimonials. The second button at the bottom takes you back up to the form at the top of the page. If your landing page has to be on the longer side, it’s a good idea to put a call-to-action button that does the same thing as the one at the top of the page at the bottom.

Working as both

If you work as both a listing agent and a buyer’s agent for different transactions, then you’ll need to make both kinds of landing pages. It’s normal (and encouraged) for you to make multiple landing pages for the sake of targeting multiple types of people.

Your conversion rates will go up if you have more than a certain number of landing pages. According to Hubspot’s Marketing Benchmark report, companies who increase their number of landing pages from ten to fifteen or more see a 55% increase in leads.

Tips and Tricks for Real Estate Landing Pages

The Basics of Designing Landing Pages

There are some things that are true regardless of what kind of landing page you’re creating and these are some of those things.

• Make sure your landing page isn’t too long. As mentioned earlier, longer pages get lower conversion rates than shorter pages. Landing pages are not homepages or listing pages. The goal is not to provide your visitors with as much information as possible, it’s to get them to click one button.

• Speaking of the button, it’s important to make your call-to-action button stand out the most amongst everything else on the page. That click is often that last step that needs to be taken before a visitor has officially converted. If you bury your call-to-action button under a lot of information or if the color of the button blends into the background or if it’s not above the fold (what you can see when the page loads without scrolling), you risk making it too difficult for your visitors to find. You can’t predict how much energy an individual person is willing to exert to find, not to mention click, your call-to-action button so it’s best to make it as effortless as possible.

• Keep message-matching in mind. This means that the message you promised in your ad (through your title and/or description) is fulfilled in your landing page. For example, if your ad promises to “Sell Your Home Faster and for More Money,” then your landing page title should say the same thing or at least a close variation of the same thing. If you don’t follow through on the promise you made in your ad, your visitor might feel cheated and immediately click out of your landing page.

• Take the loading time of your website into account when choosing your image. Don’t rely on a visitor’s patience. According to Renata Bitkulova from Saimaa University of Applied Sciences, almost half of users expect a website to load within two seconds and click out if the loading time exceeds three seconds.

• Consider making landing pages especially for mobile devices. According to the National Association of Realtors, 76% of all buyers found a home on a mobile device, meaning it’s beneficial to have a landing page at least accessible and functional on a mobile screen. Ideally, your mobile landing pages will be optimized for a mobile device (smaller photos, for example) and will be easy to navigate on a smaller screen. Mobile devices also make it easier to prompt your visitor to call you. So, if that’s your preferred method of communication, it would be a good idea to include a click-to-call link in your ad or on your landing page.

Here is an example of a landing page that does all of these things really well.

The page is mobile-friendly. The call-to-action button is bright yellow and the form is clear. The ad, which states, “We Buy OR Houses For Cash,” matches the headline on the landing page. They have social proof in the form of the Better Business Bureau logo. The page isn’t very long but you can scroll down and look testimonials.

The testimonials are clearly real and natural. Their clients share bittersweet stories about how they ended up in their situation and heartwarming solutions. The only thing this page could work on is lowering its amount of links. The testimonials are great, but having a link for “More Testimonials” will only encourage visitors to hear more of those heartwarming stories instead of scrolling back up to input their information.

Preview Listings but Don’t Link to all your Listings

When advertising listings, it might be tempting to just link your listing page to your ad (and many real estate landing pages do this), but that defeats the purpose of a landing page. Doing this might keep people browsing but it likely won’t get you enough conversions to justify the click. Showing all your listings right off the bat does the complete opposite of keeping it simple and encourages your visitors to conduct the search on their own.

If you want to show some listings on a landing page, it would be a better idea just to preview a few. The trick is to give your visitors an idea of what kind of property you deal with and enough inclination to want to click that call-to-action button. It is very easy to get distracted by browsing through several listings, especially if someone is just beginning their search. It would be more effective to collect their contact information first before allowing them to become bored with your page and clicking out.

Show off your certifications

If you have some impressive certifications or awards, it’s not a bad idea to show them off on your landing page. At the very least, you have a real estate license, which is something you can include. Though not everyone will know what certain certifications mean, those who do will be glad to see things like Seller Representative Specialist or Certified Residential Specialist.

Not to mention, even though some visitors won’t know what they mean, you’ll still appear more knowledgeable and talented.

If you have certifications for particular kinds of movers, for example, the Military Relocation Professional (which indicates a specialty in assisting military personnel being relocated), people looking for these kinds of real estate agents will be glad to see the specialization.

Terrie Cox makes the mistake of using her homepage as her landing page, but apart from that, she uses some great strategies on her page. For example, she shows off her certifications effectively, without words, and while taking up a reasonable amount of space.

Include a Brief Video Tour

According to Hubspot, videos are extremely effective when used correctly and can increase conversion rates by 86% when used on landing pages. Though, it’s best to keep them brief, less than 2.7 minutes, according to Bitkulova.

Consider including a video tour, maybe of multiple homes or of a neighborhood, in order to give an easy and digestible explanation as to why your visitor should use your business over someone else’s. No long descriptions are necessary!

The video is a little long, but it shows how easy it is to create a video tour. There’s no need to over-explain because the house is beautiful all on its own. The video does a good job of focusing on the details and showing the house in the best light through the camera movements.

Video tours satisfy the curiosity of visitors and reassure those on the fence about a home that inquiring about it is worth it.

Family Photos or Photos of Beautiful Homes

Consider correlating the photos on your landing page with your target group. Showing photos of beautiful homes (inside or out) or neighborhoods is a safe and effective choice. They tend to be less distracting but not uninteresting. However, if you’re selling to families, it wouldn’t hurt to show a picture of a happy family.

Just remember that photos that look very obviously like stock photos tend to reduce trust in your landing page, according to Nielsen Norman Group. Visitors also tend to ignore generic photos of people. If you choose to have a photo of a person or family, take one of a real family you helped or at least find one that looks and feels real. Making a photo feel real sometimes comes down to including names (like the last name of the family) or testimonials.

The above is a good example of what it means to have a picture look real. Their smiles look genuine and it’s quite obviously not an awkward stock photo. It appears as if they’ve been caught for a photo, not as if they’re posing for one.

Also, a good trick to keep in mind is picking a photo or aligning your call-to-action button so the person or people in the photo are looking in the direction of the button. It draws attention to the call-to-action, putting more emphasis on it.

Testimonials

Testimonials work great because they prove you get good results. According to Boast:

89% of B2B marketers consider testimonials the most effective marketing strategy

One reason for this is because people trust testimonials written by other consumers as much as recommendations from friends. Like photos, testimonials should be real and they should feel real. Including testimonials on your landing page without including any information about the people giving them, such as names or locations or photos, make them feel that much less credible.

Take a look at Effective Agent’s testimonials.

The testimonial includes names and a detailed review. Notice how the couple’s testimonial includes the name of the agent they listed with, what made him effective, and how their plans changed after using this company. It reads like a real review and the inclusion of names (even with the last name blocked out) makes it feel that much more real. The picture doesn’t hurt either!

Many real estate agents say they’re worried about keeping up with technology but, with some effort, you can learn to use technology for the benefit of your business. If you found this article useful, check out some of our other real estate articles, including this one about Powerful Real Estate Marketing Strategies.

The post Landing Page for Real Estate: How to Create an Effective One appeared first on Kolau Blog.

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If you’ve been in real estate awhile you’ve probably heard the debate surrounding Facebook and whether or not you should be using it for your business. And maybe, even if you’ve decided to use it, you’re finding yourself asking: how do I make sure I’m not wasting my time and money on marketing strategies that don’t work?

If you were someone looking to rent or buy, where would you start? I know, every time I’ve looked, I’ve started online and I’m not the only one. The National Association of Realtors reports that, in 2017, 51% of buyers found the home they purchased on the Internet. That’s definitely enough to justify having an internet presence but does it mean you have to be on Facebook?

Let’s look at some simple, solid reasons you should try to reach people on Facebook.

Why Facebook?

• It’s popular

How many times a day do you open up Facebook? How long do you spend scrolling through your feed? As you probably expect, Facebook is extremely popular, beating out Instagram and Twitter by a long shot.

After YouTube, Facebook is the second most used social networking site in the U.S. 68% of Americans use Facebook and the average person spends thirty-five minutes a day on the website. That means there’s definitely an audience to reach there.

There’s an advantage to advertising to people on a platform they enjoy being on. It’s like meeting them in their space, somewhere they know how to navigate and feel they can control to some degree.

It appears most Realtors have already discovered this:

77% of Realtors reported using social media and 69% of them reported using Facebook in particular for business purposes.

So, not only is Facebook great for finding leads, but it’s also great for networking.

You could join a real estate Facebook group or follow real estate agents who give good advice or keep up with real estate trends. Networking as a marketing strategy can be slow-going but it can create great opportunities for more deals. Not only can you receive great advice from a connection you can also receive referrals! Just make sure to return the favor when you can.

• It’s effective

Putting Facebook’s popularity aside, the numbers also show it’s a particularly effective place to market your real estate business. Real estate is alive and thriving on Facebook. Take a look at WordStream’s article on Facebook Ad averages organized by industry. It goes over average click-through rate, cost per click, conversion rate, and cost per action for seventeen industries.

Click-through rate refers to the percentage of people who click on one of your ads while conversion rate refers to how many of those people become clients. The higher the number the better in both cases. On the other hand, you want to keep the cost per click and cost per action low as they refer to how much you have to pay for each click and how much you pay for a conversion respectively.

Real estate is between the best and the worst for most categories but definitely leans towards the good. Real estate’s average click-through rate isn’t the highest or the lowest (0.99% while the highest is 1.61% and the lowest is 0.47%) but the conversion rate (the number of people who take action after seeing your ad) is 10.68%, making it one of the top industries for finding prospects on Facebook (the fifth top industry, to be exact). 10.68% is a significant number, going above the Facebook average of  9.21% for all industries.

The cost-per-click, referring to how much you pay to Facebook every time someone clicks on your ad, for real estate is slightly above the Facebook average of $1.72 at $1.81. So it’s important you do everything you can to make your ads count. The average conversion rate is good for real estate but it’s only the average. With a good marketing strategy, you can increase your number of clicks and maximize your return on investment.

The Facebook Marketplace

Facebook’s Marketplace has a category for “Housing” which you can use to list the homes you have for sale. Though still somewhat new, the Marketplace for real estate is already making a splash. It’s got the reach of Craigslist without the anonymity, which means much less spam and scams.

It’s easy to set up. All you have to do is click the “Sell Something” option under the Marketplace menu on the left. It will lead you through the steps necessary to set up a listing on Facebook. You can set the location as well so that only people looking for your location will see the listing.

People will message you if they’re interested in one of your listings and you can discuss money or arrange for them to see the home or answer their questions or talk about any other small details. People can’t purchase anything over the Marketplace (which is probably for the best), only inquire about details.

The Facebook Marketplace is huge because Facebook itself is huge. Not only that, Facebook makes setting up a listing for something extremely accessible and easy. Facebook is widely used and neglecting to put your listings on the Marketplace could lose you a lot of opportunities for leads.

You can also set up ads to show up in the Marketplace (in addition to the News Feed) which could be especially beneficial if you catch someone actively looking for the kind of home you’re selling.

Marketing Strategy #1: Your Facebook Business Page

Your Facebook fan page is like your home page. If someone clicks on your business name at the top of an ad, it’ll take them to your fan page where they can see your business information. It represents your business as seen on Facebook and we want it to look simple but attractive.

Include a cover and profile photo. Without these, your page will look incomplete. Fill out your about page too. Provide information about what kind of real estate you work with. Clarify your location to avoid confusion, like in the example below.

On this Facebook about page, they clarify what their location is and have a cover image that relates to what kind of real estate they work with (equestrian property).

Make it easy for people visiting your page to see what is unique about you and your business. Specificity is good. It makes it easier to attract the sort of clients you’re looking for and it saves you time and money dealing with people who would not be interested in what you’re selling.

That said, you don’t have to overcomplicate your page by adding every bit of information you can think of. You can link outward for listings so don’t feel the need to list them on your Facebook and clutter your feed.

When a particularly nice listing appears, it’s fine to make a post about it to let people who like or follow your page know about it, but your Facebook page needs to include more variety than just listings. Post articles or tips related to real estate. Try to stay active and post at least once a day to stay visible on Facebook.

Keep in mind that the time you post is also important. If you want to find out what are the hours in which you’ll get more engagement, take a look at our article on the best time to post on Facebook.

Things you can consider putting on your page are reviews. Have you received multiple five-star reviews? Definitely show it at the top of your page.

Notice how this Facebook page shows that 184 people have given them 5 out of 5 ratings. Lower down, you can see the section for “Recommendations and Reviews,” emphasizing the positive ratings even more. Showing that thousands of people like and follow the page under the Community section also looks good.

People are more likely to use your services if you have positive reviews. It makes you appear reliable and trustworthy. The Spiegel Research Center found that showing positive reviews can increase the likelihood of a purchase by 270%.

Also, emphasize how easy it is to contact you. Notice how in the screenshot above, the page has the typical “Send Message” prompt but it also has a link for booking appointments in the sidebar. If you prefer people email rather than send you a message through Facebook, or something similar, let them know!

Marketing Strategy #2: Facebook Ads

Facebook allows you to use ads in a multitude of ways. You can go as simple as a typical image ad or you can make videos or slideshows. Let’s take a look at what kind of ads Facebook offers and how you can use them for your business.

Types of Ads on Facebook:

• Single Image

The single image ad is probably the easiest to create. All it consists of is a photo, a caption, and a link. It’s important for all ads to have interesting imagery and attractive captions but even more so for one that attracts attention only using those two things.

Most likely, potential clients will notice the picture first. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words but make sure the picture is relevant and eye-catching. Advertise your most beautiful listing or show how happy your last client was with their home.

Always include a call to action—something that gives whoever is interested in the ad direction. Ask them to click to sign up for more listings or instruct them to call for information on a particular home. Every word counts here.

Source: AdEspresso

In this example, Northern Atlanta Real Estate uses an image to showcase one listing but includes a call to action (clicking on the picture). Not only do they prompt viewers to click on the ad but they also tell us what we’ll get from clicking.

• Video

According to Hootsuite’s 2018 social media trends study, video ads have been shown to be the most effective kind of post for engaging users on all platforms. This is probably why YouTube is the only website found to be more popular than Facebook.

People love watching videos, especially on their mobile phones. So one of the best things you can do is create an ad that instead of a picture has a video attached.  All of the same suggestions apply for the caption. Don’t forget to include a call to action. But what kind of video should you post?

Walkthroughs of homes or interviews of past clients with positive things to say are a few things you could do. Take a camera through a new listing to show your audience what it looks like on the inside. You could also use videos to incorporate content marketing into your marketing strategy.

Make how-to videos or give advice to people looking to buy or rent or share your opinion about some recent news. You can make a video about anything related to real estate. You can do this with organic, non-ad posts as well.

• Slideshow

Slideshow ads can be made with a collection of images or a video. The name is pretty self-explanatory. The collection of images or the video you choose make a slideshow a few seconds long to tell a story. This kind of ad is perhaps a bit easier to do than a video ad and it has the advantages of engaging moving pictures.

• Carousel

Carousel ads let you choose up to ten images to showcase in a single ad. Facebook users can scroll horizontally through one ad to see the multiple pictures. As Facebook themselves put it, you can

“highlight different products, showcase specific details about one product, service or promotion, or tell a story about your brand…”

This would be a great way to highlight multiple positive things about a specific listing or to show what listings you have available in a particular location all through one ad.

Source: Wishpond

In this ad, the real estate company showcases two properties and includes two photos for each one. Showing what it looks like on the outside and giving a peek to the listings’ features (the pool and the kitchen) garners interest and emphasizes some of the homes’ attractive aspects.

• Collection

Collection ads are more interactive than some of the other ads on this list. You can use them to showcase, in the case of real estate, four listings at once underneath the main image or video ad. These kinds of ads are meant to accompany another type of ad.

For example, you could have a video ad showcasing a collection of your most recent listings and underneath it an interactive, clickable display of the actual listings themselves.

The ad above shows how you can click on a regular video ad and also see four showcased products from Adidas.

• Messenger

Messenger ads let you market yourself on Facebook messenger. Facebook has a different app for their messenger system and so making sure you’re advertising there can expand your reach. If someone clicks on your ad, you can send them where you choose, be it your website, page, a particular listing or even into an automated conversation with your business, according to Facebook.

Sending them into a conversation does away with all the extra steps they would have needed to get there without your ad (e.g clicking on your business page and clicking through to get to your messages). That makes it as convenient as possible for them to contact you.

• Canvas Ads

Canvas ads can only be viewed on mobile devices. When someone clicks on your regular ad, it’ll bring up the ad in fullscreen. You can design this part of the ad like a storefront, contact form or whatever you would like (think of a condensed webpage).

You can see how clicking on the ad brings up a whole new webpage, where you can scroll through to view their listings and take a virtual tour.

According to Statista, as of January 2018, 95.1% of Facebook users worldwide accessed Facebook through their smartphone. The fact that the vast majority of people use their smartphone to access Facebook makes it that much more important to focus on making some or all of your ads translatable to mobile. Canvas ads were made for mobile devices and could prove to be a great way to produce more leads.

Ad Formats to Enhance Your Ad Types

• Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads can be used to automatically create ads tailored for the person viewing them. Instead of manually making individual ads, you just make a template that will create the ads for you. They don’t look any different from non-dynamic ads.

Before you set up a dynamic ad you have to create a catalog. A catalog is made up of three things, the catalog itself, the data feed, and product sets.

The catalog itself contains all of your products.  In the case of real estate, your “inventory” can be made up of the listing you want to advertise.

The data feed is where you put all the information you have on each of your products (pricing, availability, etc.) The last requirement of a catalog is product sets.

Product sets allow you to choose what products (listings) appear in a particular ad by category. You can include all your listings in one product set or you could organize them by type of home, location, price, etc.

After setting up your catalog, you can set up your dynamic ads. In the words of Facebook, dynamic ads automatically promote your inventory to people who have expressed interest on your website, in your app or elsewhere on the internet.

• Lead Generation Ads: AKA Sign Up Now Ads

Facebook lead ads are made for mobile, designed to make signing up on forms easy. When someone clicks on your ad on mobile, a form will pop up asking them to give you their contact information. Because Facebook already has their information, it’ll just auto-populate, making it that much more convenient for your potential client.

Facebook claims:

Lead generation ads increase lead generation by 2.8x.

This type of marketing can be especially beneficial to real estate agents, considering how real estate functions. It’s not as simple as someone going online and buying a house. With lead generation ads, you’ll make it easier for people who want to and have to contact you for one of your listings to do so.

Marketing Strategy #3: The Importance of Targeting

Because of the information users provide to Facebook (interests, location, education—the list is endless), Facebook is very good at targeting the right people. It’s up to you to make sure you give Facebook the information it needs to utilize it’s targeting system.

Want to target people in a specific area? You can tailor your ad to only show for people who live in that area. Looking for newlyweds or families with kids or grandparents? Facebook knows who those people are. You only have to indicate you want your ad to target them.

Be Niche

Remember when we said the average cost per click for real estate ads was higher than the Facebook average for all industries? Facebook, just like Google, bases whose ad gets seen by who wins the bid for that spot. Unlike Google, you’re bidding for the spot on a Facebook user’s feed. Facebook bases this partly on who you’re targeting and that’s why aiming to reach a niche group of people can be very effective and save you money on clicks.

Remember the real estate agency specializing in Equestrian property? Their specialty is a good example of a niche target.

The real estate group has built their entire identity around Equestrian property to the point that their slogan also references horses. This is a good example of a niche specialty that will pay off for their business because they’re targeting a very specific group of people. The competition will be low and the cost-per-click will cost less. The more specific you are in who you’re looking for the more significant your results will be and the less money you’ll spend on clicks with no return on investment.

Take a look at your listings and think about what kind of person would be looking for them and why. Maybe you have a listing for a small one or two bedroom home right outside downtown Portland, OR. You could target middle-class newlyweds who spend a lot of time in downtown Portland and would be interested in living nearby, for example.

Marketing Strategy #4: Get More Eyes on your Posts and Ads

There are a few options to be aware of when you’re posting content on your timeline or creating ads. Facebook provides certain features for businesses meant to either widen awareness of your brand, increase engagement for your ad, or prompt their users to take action. Here are things to consider when using Facebook.

Boosted Posts

If you make a regular post and you want more people to see it, you can easily make it into an ad by pressing the “Boost Post” option on the post. Boosted posts are not the same as Facebook ads. They are not created in Ads Manager and are less customizable but it still uses Facebook’s targeting system by prompting you to pick who you want to see it, your max budget and how long you want the ad to run.

So, if you make a video that you’re particularly proud of and think would get you a good amount of leads if more people saw it or maybe the post isn’t getting as much attention as you hoped, you can press “Boost Post” and make it into an ad. This is a good way to increase brand awareness and engagement with your post.

Event Posts

You can utilize the “Boost Post” option to make an event post, like an open house, into an ad. This allows you to reach more people who might be interested in attending an open house and increases the number of RSVPs for the event.

Marketing Strategy #5: Remarketing

Have you ever clicked on something you thought you might buy, decided not to, and then found the product followed you from website to website? Say you browsed through a website looking for two-story houses, clicked on one and then clicked out. Later, when you’ve left the website and are browsing through your favorite social media platform, that house you clicked on is there again in the form of an ad. That’s remarketing.

Facebook Ads (Like Google Ads) use cookies to track you around the internet and remarket the product you’ve already shown interest in. On Facebook, there are a few ways you can remarket to your audience. When you go to create a custom audience, Facebook will offer you five options: customer file, website traffic, app activity, offline activity, and engagement.

The first on, customer file, relies on a contact list. You can choose to remarket to your contact list with personalized messages. You just need to upload a list of information such as email addresses or phone numbers and Facebook will find their profiles and market your ads to them.

You also can remarket to website traffic, those who have visited your website and through engagement, meaning those people who somehow engaged with your content or clicked on your Facebook ad.

Offline activity finds people who have come into a store or called your business before. The app activity option is only relevant if you have an app as it remarkets to people who have interacted with your app.

Once you choose your audience type, Facebook will lead you through the steps necessary to create a remarketing campaign. It will ask you to upload your contact list or choose what kind of engagement you want to prioritize. For example, you may only want to remarket to people who clicked on an event or on one of your ads.

To reduce cost and market to more relevant people, use Facebook’s targeting system to remarket to a smaller contact list. It’ll save you money on cost-per-click and you’ll likely get more conversions because you’re reaching out to the people most likely to be interested.

The Last Steps

Organic Posts

We’ve talked briefly about content marketing and posting on your Facebook timeline. We’ve mentioned how making videos, sharing articles, or giving advice can keep the users who like your page engaged and aware of your existence.

The more active you are, the more visible you’ll be on Facebook and the more likely your followers will continue to follow and like your page. There’s no substitute for quality posts and you’ll benefit from having a social media schedule that reminds you what and when to share content.

In this example, PNW didn’t write their own content but they shared an article related to real estate that their audience might find useful. Though it would be more beneficial to make your own content, when it comes to sharing organic posts, anything related to real estate that you genuinely find useful or interesting is a good way to go.

You don’t have to limit your posts only to housing and real estate, though. In fact, it would be a good idea to expand somewhat to keep your posts unique, useful, and interesting. Give advice that has to do with decorating your home or saving money while moving.

ABODO keeps their audience interested by sharing articles that would be useful even for those who have already found a home or apartment through them. This is a good way to keep current clients interested and encourage them to go to you first when they’re ready to move again.

Post about your community too. Share articles and news that talk about what’s going on in your city or why it’s a great place to be. If you keep up with what’s happening in your area, you’ll become a go-to source of news and updates.

Follow Up with Clients

Be timely with the clients who reach out to you. At this step, you’ve already gotten the conversion—the Facebook user has taken action and it’s up to you to take care of the rest. Don’t give them time to find another agent or property listing.  Your online marketing has paid off and it’s time to begin the real sale.

Now you know the potential of Facebook for real estate agents and how to make the most of this social media platform to win more clients. Do you dare to put these strategies into practice?

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