If you’re like most agents, you play a lot of roles in your business, from CEO to admin to graphic designer to marketer and more.
Stretching yourself this thin is bound to lead to failure in one area or another and it’s typically the marketing and advertising “department” in your real estate practice.
Again, if you’re like most agents you don’t track the effectiveness of your advertising efforts and haven’t a clue about your response rates.
That is, if you advertise at all. Many agents rely on the less expensive or “free” advertising and marketing methods, such as email and social media.
With the loss of Facebook as one of the best ways to laser-target audiences, it’s time to consider other avenues. Many agents we’ve spoken with are considering Google ads.
“My assumption is going back to Google is the best bet right now,” said one agent on Facebook with plenty of others agreeing.
If you’re among them, take the following three tips to heart to ensure your real estate advertisements bring a respectable return on the advertising dollars invested.
What is the goal of your real estate advertisements?
The willingness to open your wallet to pay for real estate advertisements is evidence that you have a goal in mind. What is that goal? It’s important to get clear on your aim before doing anything else.
- General lead generation?
- Listings?
- Buyers?
- Investors?
- Establish yourself as the neighborhood authority?
- Brand recognition?
Who do you need to target with your real estate advertisements?
Once you have a clear goal established, it’s time to determine who will be most responsive to your ads.
For instance, if your goal is to get more buyer leads, figure out which type of buyer you want to target. First timers? Repeat buyers? Investors? International buyers?
Yes, it’s important to niche down for each campaign if you hope to laser-target your advertising.
Now it’s time to get to know this audience. For example, suppose you want to lure repeat homebuyers. Although some millennials may be working on buying their second home, the largest group of repeat homebuyers are members of the Gen X and baby boomer generations.
To narrow down your audience even more, choose one of those two groups. While both groups typically have home to sell before they buy, members of Gen X are (by ad large) seeking larger homes (which means more expensive).
Once you have a specific audience in mind, get to know them – from their communication preferences to what constitutes their dream home.
Constructing the real estate ad
Creating a compelling headline for your real estate advertisements isn’t easy. The internet is riddled with advice on how to do it, yet few seem to get it right (including yours truly).
The headline needs to grab attention. If it doesn’t, the ad won’t be read and you’ve wasted time and money.
Getting to know your target audience, as described in the previous tip, makes it a lot easier. Use their anxieties, their curiosity and their hunger for knowledge to pique interest.
Get the headline right and the rest of the ad should be a snap. Here are some tips:
- Offer information that they can’t find easily or solutions to a problem that is common to your target audience.
- Keep the ad simple
- Avoid redundancy
- Don’t focus on yourself
- Promote the benefits, not the features, of working with you. “I’ve been in real estate for 10 years” is a feature. “My listings sell, on average, within 24 hours,” is a benefit.
Learn more about Google ads and how to make yours slay the competition, here
Not all marketing is created equal. Here’s why Facebook ads tend to produce higher quality leads than organic traffic: