Online ads sound promising for many businesses. But ads are ads and come with huge competition. Therefore if you do not know what you are doing, you could be just wasting your money. People have been using Google ads for a long time but Facebook ads seem to be the new kid on the block. Many agents wonder: Are Real Estate Facebook ads worth it? The answer is ads work. In fact, ads are a short and quick way to generate some quick leads. Facebook ads for Real Estate, are cheaper compared to Google Ads and offer better targeting options.
Facebook Has a Huge Audience
There are some people who believe social media is not for Real Estate. They can’t be any more wrong! Unlike a while ago (a few years back) nowadays everyone uses social media!
Although Instagram is generally used on a phone, it still is in the top 10 for website visits which makes it the second-ranked traditional social network in terms of active users (Over 1 billion people users every month), behind Facebook with over 1.8 billion daily active users. These people are spending multiple hours everyday posting, scrolling, liking, and sharing content on Instagram and Facebook.
These numbers are huge and they present a great opportunity to get your name out there! On the other hand, these platforms allow businesses to hyper-target their audience for their ads which makes sure only those interested in your business will see your ads (of course if the ads are set up properly).
roomvu Data on Facebook Ads
roomvu has spent over $500K in paid Facebook advertising for agents. However, we analyzed only 1,600 sample ads to draw our findings and elaborate on things we have learned.
Background studies on paid ads for agents are limited. But those we were able to access were enough for comparison with our data. Aside from comparing these studies’ data versus our survey, we will also cover what we have found in our analytics of paid Facebook ads.
Ads Performance Data
In a study we ran at roomvu, our 800 sample ads received 3 million-plus impressions and drove the average cost per click to just under $3. These campaigns generated 7,200 leads at an average cost per lead of $26. When it comes to lead generation and conversion, it is a rookie mistake to confuse website traffic with high-quality traffic coming from lead generation campaigns. Although 300 of our sample ads focused on website traffic, they received 1.5 million impressions. Their cost to drive a click was under $1 (CPC=$0.76). The final cost per lead was up to four times higher than the former approach (lead gen).
When running ads on social media, the first variable to consider is the budget agents want to use on ads. Being cautious, many start their campaigns with a limited budget. But will spend larger amounts of money result in better conversion? Here is what we found out.
Breakdown
Data from roomvu analytics demonstrate that as agents spend more money on ads, the better is the engagement that they get. However, this observation should not be mixed with impressions. We are strictly looking at cost per click which is the optimal result of interest on the post. It also indicates the right audience found within the network of that advertisement. This may sound like common sense. But what is interesting to note is that as more money is spent on ads, the lesser is the CPC. We mean the cost agents incur per engagement/click. (The blue line in the chart.)
Special Ad Category
In order to run Real Estate ads on Facebook, you have to choose the Special Ad Category. By doing so you can get access to high-level targeting which means you can hyper-target those who need your services the most.
However, the special ad category comes with some limitations that try to protect against social injustices, inequities, and political corruption. According to Facebook:
“These categories apply to ads that have specific requirements in certain countries, such as authorization and “Paid for by” disclaimers for issue, electoral and political ads or limited audiences selection tools for ads about credit, employment or housing opportunities to help protect people on Facebook from unlawful discrimination.”
Facebook
Falsobook also states:
“Some targeting options are limited or unavailable for these special category ads for advertisers based in or targeting the US and advertisers targeting Canada and certain countries in Europe: age, gender, ZIP code or postal code, exclusion targeting, lookalike audiences, and saved audiences. Some interests will also be unavailable when you create your audience. Audiences based on city or pin drop locations will include an expanded radius. Dynamic ads will be subject to the same limitations.”
But you still can create:
An audience based on similarities in online behavior and activity,
without using certain personal attributes, including age, gender, ZIP code, or other similar categories. Learn more about audiences for credit, employment, and housing ads.