Not every ad channel is created equal. Learn how the top 5 work and when they're right for you.
While there is certainly still a place for traditional advertising in real estate marketing, a significant shift has taken place with ad dollars moving from traditional to digital advertising. Agents are investing more and more in buyer, seller, and overall branding advertising on digital platforms, so we thought it would be a good idea to review some of the options for real estate agents.
Each of these digital advertising options is worth exploring, with some being more expensive than others. Test them out and see which garners you the best results. Here are 5 paid digital advertising options that agents should consider.
1. Facebook Lead Ads
Facebook has dozens of advertising options, but we think it’s worth putting your initial ad dollars into something like a Facebook Lead Generation Ad specifically targeting sellers. Of course, you can use Facebook Lead Ads to generate buyer leads and interest on listings, drive traffic to your website, grow your page following, or promote your brand, but it’s their effectiveness for generating seller leads that agents should check out first.
Generating seller leads is never an easy task, but Facebook’s auto-populating forms make the task much simpler. We love the idea of sharing photos of specific neighbourhoods - even maps of specific neighbourhoods - and asking a targeted audience in that area whether they’d like to get a home evaluation. Get extremely targeted with your demographic area and make your ads as personalized as possible. Once you’ve found success in one area try expanding to others with new ad sets, and testing some of the other Facebook advertising options for real estate agents.
2. REW’s Agent Market Pro
Making sure that your listings stand out on home search platforms is a crucial step you need to pay attention to when considering your advertising budget, and REW’s Market Pro makes sure you never miss a potential lead. You’ll get more eyeballs and engagement on your listings to bolster your lead generation efforts, and more views on your profile to help with your branding. Market Pro adds your face, name, and contact information to your listings on REW, an upgraded profile to help you stand out, detailed reporting so you can analyze and adjust, and some serious increases in engagement. Enhanced Listings see a 700% increase in leads and a 440% increase in pageviews. Those are big numbers, especially given the price point. Market Pro starts at just $65/month.
Market Pro agents also have exclusive access to Local Expert, which puts your profile in front of searchers on REW located in high volume areas. Every dollar of your budget goes towards protecting your turf and advertising in areas where you’re the local expert. Be sure to review all of REW’s paid advertising options for agents, including Local Expert, and see which package works best for you.
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3. Google Search Ads
When immediate results are what you’re after, it’s hard to beat Google Search Ads. But before you invest in this relatively expensive option, you’ll need to make sure all of your ducks are in a row. You should have completed the following before investing in any type of search campaign:
-Your website should be mobile optimized.
-You should have relevant keywords placed throughout your website that pertain to the keywords you’re bidding on.
-The page you intend on directing traffic to should have a low bounce rate.
-A clear workflow should be set up so it’s easy for your potential clients to navigate through to your intended outcome.
By the way, addressing the steps above will also help you rank higher organically in Google Search as well. If you’ve taken the time to make sure that each of these items has been accomplished, Google Search Ads can be highly profitable (they’ll also cost you much less if you tick off these items). You’ll pay more per click for these ads than on almost any other digital platform, but you’re paying for people searching for your services. Sometimes, that’s worth the investment.
4. Google Display Ads
Getting your name out there is incredibly important when you’re first starting out, and the Google Display Network is a good place to establish yourself.
From a branding standpoint, Google Display Ads can reach your target audience widely and across multiple channels. You’ll likely be showing ads to your audience where they read their news or spend their leisure time online. Use them to introduce yourself to your target audience broadly, and go with a soft-sell like a newsletter signup.
Later, you can remarket to these site visitors by using the next tactic.
5. Retargeting
If you’ve yet to run a retargeting (also known as remarketing) campaign, it’s time to invest a little time and money into this kind of paid advertising campaign. Most digital platforms (LinkedIn, Google, Bing, Facebook, etc.) offer retargeting as a service, and there are even tools like Perfect Audience and Adroll that allow you to run retargeting campaigns on all of them at once. REW also offers retargeting as a service which we’ll discuss later. But before we go any further, let’s talk about what retargeting is and why it’s so powerful.
When someone visits your website, they’ve shown intent. They’re interested in your brand, and likely in buying or selling with you at some point. The problem is, many people who visit your website will also check out competitors, so staying top of mind is crucial. Traditional retargeting allows you to advertise to people who’ve visited your website. You can choose to run ads at people who’ve visited specific pages like your contact page, or any part of your website which is what we’d recommend doing to start. Retargeting ads are relatively inexpensive since your overall target audience is the size of your website visitors (if your website receives less than 10,000 visits per month you won’t be out of pocket much), and their effectiveness is much better than a standard digital ad since you’re targeting people who already know your brand. For agents, REW Retargeting places ads in front of people who’ve searched for homes in your area, placing ads on websites like Google and Facebook for you. It’s a great way to get started.
Each of these digital advertising options can drive awareness, engagement, and ultimately new clients to your brand and your listings in general. Be sure to give them a try and see what works best for your business.
