Advertising can be described as a crucial part of every agent’s marketing campaign. Google ads and Facebook Ads are two of the most critical channels agents and brokerages use to maximize their reach, generate more leads, gain new clients, and earn more sales. However, since time and money are limited, many agents wonder which one of the platforms is best for their business. This article will review Google ads vs Facebook Ads for Real Estate and tell you which one you should use for your Real Estate business. Despite their similarities, there are quite a few ways in which Google Ads and Facebook Ads differ.
What are Google and Facebook Ads?
You certainly have seen them while browsing the net and social media. They are both advertising platforms on a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) basis meaning you are charged whenever someone clicks on your ads regardless of the action users take in the next steps. They might become a lead and buy from you or they might just leave. Either way, you are charged. When you create an ad on either of these platforms you enter an auction and bid for the space for your ads since other agents might also be interested.
Google Ads: Paid Search
Basically, Google Ads is paid search which means you pay google to show your ad in Google’s SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Google Ads uses paid search, which basically works through targeting specific keywords and paid advertising. Just like the image below.
That means you pay Google to show your ad when someone searches for a certain keyword on Google like the keyword in the image above. Real Estate agents decide which keywords their audience (their market) uses and then target these keywords, place a bid on them, and hope that their ad is displayed at the top of the SERPs.
However, on Google there are more ways to advertise including:
- Youtube ads
- Google Display Network
- Google Shopping
- Google Maps
- Google Play
But for the purpose of this article, we will focus on Google Search Ads only.
Google Ads allows agents to find clients
The Benefits of Google Ads
There is no question that Google is the number one search engine in the world.
Targeted Keywords
People who are looking to buy or sell on Google, use the keywords they have in mind that fits their inquiry. They search on Google to get quick results. That can sound promising as it will be easy to target a specific audience using certain keywords but the whole practice needs a lot of skill. If you are not sure what you are doing, Google Ads can be a waste of money.
High Buyer Intent
People on Facebook may not be there to buy or sell a home. They are most probably looking to see what their friends and family are up to. But those who search on Google have specific intentions in mind and when they search for Real Estate related keywords, you can tell they are more determined and ready to take action. This comes at a higher cost because Google charges as the market for Real Estate ads may be quite saturated.
Facebook Ads: Paid Social
Facebook Ads use paid social, which is similar to paid search, except that the advertising is done on social media. A while ago, it was much easier to show your content on social media. Facebook users would see almost all of the content their connections shared. However, due to changes in Facebook algorithms, it has become very difficult to reach your audience organically. That means you have to run ads to get a decent reach on Facebook. organic reach is becoming lower and lower every year.
That leaves businesses no choice other than to run ads on Facebook. Since Facebook is a social medium, running ads on it can be described as Paid Social. Running ads on Facebook bok will not just show your content in users’ news feeds. In fact, there are plenty of other places for your content as:
- Facebook News Feed
- Instagram Feed
- Facebook Marketplace
- Facebook Video Feeds
- Facebook Right Column
- Audience Network
- Facebook Messenger
Here are a few examples of Facebook Ads for Real Estate:
Facebook Ads helps an agent’s clients find them
Benefits of Facebook Ads
Facebook is currently king of social media. Facebook had 2.912 billion monthly active users in January 2022, placing it 1st in our ranking of the world’s most ‘active’ social media platforms. Here are a few perks running ads on it brings:
Visual Nature
Facebook is a social medium and is created to be visual with images and videos. Therefore, agents can run ads that contain images and videos which are more eye-catching and appealing to the common users. Creative videos tend to do well when advertising on Facebook. In short, a Real Estate agent needs to try to stop a potential lead from scrolling using great creatives, messaging, etc.
Affordable Pricing
Facebook Ads allow all agents to run ads even if they have a limited budget and tend to be cheaper than Google Ads. The average cost per action (CPA) for Facebook ads across all industries is $16.92 while it can cost up to $116.61 on Google Ads. On the other hand, the average CPC (Cost Per Click) for Real Estate on Google Ads is $2.37, whereas CPC for Real Estate on Facebook can be as low as $1.27.
Targeting
Although Google also offers targeting options for running ads, Facebook is the hands-down winner for advanced targeting options. Facebook enables agents to create audiences based on a wide range of interests and behaviors since Facebook is great at collecting information from its 2.6 billion monthly active users. You can be very specific with your audience.
