Every agent running a website and online ad campaigns struggles to generate new leads in an overcrowded market. Digital ads require lots of time and dedication which busy real estate professionals can’t always afford. If so, a simple approach outlined in this post will help you set up an effective and on-going real estate Facebook ad campaign.
Consider this: only 2% of your website visitors convert on the first visit. The rest are leaving, and chances are they won’t remember to come back and check out more of your listings. At the same time, the most recent visitors – let’s say the ones landing on your site within the previous month – are the most valuable.
It makes sense to set up a real estate Facebook ad campaign that would target these 1-month old visitors. Luckily, there’s a very easy way to redirect them to your site once again.
Let’s explore the exact strategy that will take you minutes to set up.
#1 real estate Facebook ad campaign you should consider
Before we jump to the campaign steps, keep in mind that you need a Facebook business page and Facebook Ad Manager account.
1. Add a Facebook Pixel to your website
The Facebook Pixel is the most important tool to make your real estate Facebook ad campaign happen. This is an analytical tool that captures all information on your campaign, helps create target audiences and measure results. There’s literally no sense to run Facebook ad campaign if you haven’t added this piece of code to your site.
To get started, go to the Pixels page. On top of the page, you will see an option you need which is “Set Up Pixel”. You will be prompted to select an installation method (more on these methods below):
After that, you’ll see the code itself which is unique and must not be modified in any way.
To actually add the code to your website, you have the following options:
1. Add the code using the Google Tag Manager. Here is Facebook’s guide on how to do this.
2. Manually add the code to the <head> tag of your website. This can be done via your theme settings.
3. Install a Facebook Pixel plugin. This is probably one of the easiest options as these plugins provide a simple field to paste the code. There are lots of options you can choose from, for example, Facebook Pixel by Pixel Cat, WP Facebook Pixel by Night Shift Apps or Facebook Pixel for WP by NsThemes.
Whatever option you end up using, copy and paste the Facebook pixel to your site without making any changes to it.
2. Create your audience
Like we were saying above, people that visited your website within the last month are often the most valuable ones. Chances are high they still remember you and you would be able to recapture their interest successfully.
To target your most recent website visitors, you need to use a “Custom Audience” feature from Facebook.
Go to your Facebook Ad Manager account > “Audiences” > “Create a Custom Audience” > “Website Traffic” > “Past 30 days”:
P.S. Note that there are two similar options on Facebook: “Custom Audiences from your website” and a standard “Custom Audience” so it’s important not to get confused. Custom Audiences from your website target all of your website visitors. A standard “Custom Audience” can be created by importing a list of your leads.
3. Craft an ad
The final step would be creating an ad that you can use in your real estate Facebook ad campaign. The design is up to you and if you don’t employ an in-house designer, you can use free tools like Canva or PicMonkey to make one on your own. The image dimensions should be 1200×628 plus very little of the text can be used accounting for no more than 20% of the overall image size. To determine the ratio of text, use the Facebook Text Overlay Tool.
Some words of advice on campaign settings:
1. use Automatic Placements (under the Placement tab);
2. set a small budget, e.g. $10 a day;
3. for the Optimization for Ad Delivery, select “Reach” option as it allows to reach the maximum number of people.
4. Use this guide from Facebook for additional questions you might have.
That’s it! Now everyone who visited your website in the past month will see your ad on Facebook and hopefully get back to you to check out what you have to offer.
Final thoughts
A real estate Facebook ad campaign can be confusing and requires some experience but this guide will help you get started with zero losses. You will be targeting wisely and starting with a minimal budget to keep expenses under control. More people will be compelled to get back to you and they might become your most loyal clients one day!
