4 data-driven real estate Facebook ad ideas

4 min read – Real estate Facebook ad ideas

Many years ago – likely too long for younger property professionals to remember – property listings and business services were primarily advertised using channels like newspapers, radio, print collateral and, for bigger budgets, traditional billboards.

Something all of these advertising methods had in common, is information about who saw the ads was all driven by who paid for the subscription or who answered surveys.

And as far as knowing who actually read the ads when they saw them – well, that was some fun guesswork too!

These days, we have a lot of advantages in advertising that we didn’t have in the past. For one, we have much more certainty about who we are trying to reach out to, and confidence we can actually reach the right people.

Digital advertising allows us a much better opportunity to target by real demographics, behaviours and trends, then ever before.

As far as this more targeted advertising goes, Facebook and Instagram (also Facebook-owned) really lead the pack.

With some of the most niche targeting options of all platforms, they allow you to zoom in on specific geographic locations, and find people with relevant interests, education and even age (depending on the product or service being advertised).

But developing Facebook and Instagram ads in property is not a guaranteed win.

In order to make them work for you, you still need to ensure you aren’t simply casting the net wide, but you really understand what characteristics might apply to the people who make up your most lucrative target audience – your potential buyers.

This is where data comes in.

The property space, like most now, is full to the brim with valuable data you can use to drive better advertising and make better marketing and business decisions.

National Property Data users are not just using our online property data platform to develop comparable reports, but are seeking search and real estate Facebook ad ideas, and honing in on the people most in need of their selling services, or most likely to purchase a specific listing.

1. Make a data-driven target audience profile

In marketing, when we start developing our plan of action, the first step we take, is to develop a profile of our primary target audience, and from it, to create target personas.

We identify the demographics of the people most likely to buy our product or service – their gender (if applicable), age, income, education, background, family status – and their behaviours and motivations.

What do they want? What are they moved by? What problem do they have? How can what we have to offer solve that problem for them and deliver what they need?

In real estate, for many years, we have cast the net wide, but now, if we choose, we can narrow our advertising down just to those most likely to purchase a particular property listing, or require our services, and achieve a much better return on our investment.

When selling a property, using National Property Data, you can draw on historic market data and census data to better understand the composition of the listing’s suburb. You can know, for sure, what the people there are like and how the market has changed over time.

Using this information and your own local knowledge, you can map out the profile of the most likely vendor or buyer, so you know exactly who you are trying to reach, and what channels they are most often exposed to, so you can reach them faster, easier and cheaper!

2. Identify the best real estate Facebook ad ideas for your audience

With your audience profile in hand, you can then create personas. These are specific examples of ‘imaginary’ people who fit the profile, and specifications around how they might spend their day, what they might watch and be interested in or exposed to – this helps you visualise who you are talking to.

As a salesperson, this is often a highly useful step. You are a relationship-driven seller, meaning, once you have a good read on the person you are selling to, you can often tailor your approach to meet their needs.

Now, you can also do this in marketing, before you even get the chance to meet face-to-face.

Using your personas, select ad imagery that your primary target audience will most relate to and help bring this listing to life for them. Is it the front of the house? The giant backyard?

Or, do you take it a step further, and stage a kids birthday party to show the beauty of this family home, or a lazy and happy couple relaxing on the apartment lounge? What is going to appeal?

Similarly, develop copy that not only complements that image you have selected, and you are trying to create of the property (or whatever you are selling), but that appeals to those same audience needs, behaviours and motivations you have identified in your personas.

3. Retarget engaged users more effectively with data

Now you have your primary ad, remember, many buyers (when buying anything), will need to experience several touch points before they make a move. So, you’ll want to retarget anyone who is interested – show a second ad to anyone who engages with the first ad.

Drawing once again on your data-driven buyer profile and your first-round creative, create your second set of creative that includes a call to action that will really appeal to this specific audience.

For example, you can say to any audience, ‘call now for an inspection’, but if targeting a young couple, perhaps ‘call now to view your forever home’ might be more motivating.

4. Create your ads on Facebook and Instagram

As noted, Facebook has a great ad centre that allows you to really easily target people based on niche qualities, interests and behaviours.

Once you have set up your campaign, your adset will allow you to select your audience.

Using your data-driven profile and the personas you have created from it, select the right geographic location, then really start to zoom in, by also selecting demographic and interest attributes, and excluding interest and behaviours that don’t fit.

If you don’t have a data-driven profile already created, you can spend way too long at the keyboard at this stage, trying to target effectively, or worse, cast the net too wide, and end up paying for tyre kickers and prolific facebookers who engage with everything they see, despite no specific interest.

Once your ads are running, don’t forget to regularly check in on performance, and tweak the creative or the targeting until you are achieving the optimal result. 

While gimmicky ideas and catchy ad lines can get you cut through, one of the best real estate Facebook ad ideas is simply to know who you need to reach, and to find the most powerful way to reach them.