Facebook is no longer the new frontier of marketing. It’s become an established channel many real estate agents use to obtain more (and better) leads.
Facebook should be your starting point for social advertising for two primary reasons: the ability to reach almost anyone and the ability to target your ads to specific audiences.
More adults are on Facebook than any other social platform. More importantly, Facebook allows you to target consumers in a wide variety of ways including demographic information, online behavior and third-party data.
However, getting the best results from the powerful marketing platform isn’t easy. One of the best ways to generate great results is to optimize your target audience.
We outline three of the best ways to hone your audience on Facebook below. With these strategies, you’ll get the biggest bang for your Facebook buck.
Build custom audiences
Targeting a custom audience typically involves uploading a CSV file into Facebook. This allows you to match advertise to the contacts in your database on Facebook using the information you have – names, emails, phone numbers, etc.
Uploading a custom audience is one of the most effective ways to reengage your best-performing clients. If you’re ready to upload your own custom audience, start here.
Facebook pixels
Have you ever searched for anything on Amazon – let’s say, a pair of shoes – and then taken a break to scroll through Facebook?
There’s a good chance you saw those same shoes advertised on your Facebook wall. This may be creepy, but it isn’t by chance. A Facebook pixel fired when you visited Amazon, allowing the site to retarget you.
You can do the same thing! A pixel is just a piece of JavaScript code that tracks a specific action. You can get this free snippet of code from Facebook and place it on your website code. Visitors to your site have shown intent, so it makes sense to show them an ad for your services.
More importantly, you can place the pixel so that it triggers when visitors take a specific action. For example, if your goal is convert more leads, you can place a pixel on your lead form’s thank you page.
When you optimize your advertising for a lead conversion, you’re telling Facebook to find engaged prospects who filled out your lead form. Facebook then uses its algorithms to target your ads on the platform to the best possible prospects — those who have already filled out your contact form. This is much more effective than simply targeting prospects by their interest.
If you’re ready to place a pixel, you can start with this guide. And don’t worry! It’s easier than it sounds.
Lookalike audiences
Another targeting option involves uploading your client email list to create a what Facebook calls a “lookalike audience”. Facebook takes this list and creates an audience that has some of the same characteristics — a “lookalike” audience.
It creates an audience for your ads that’s similar to your contacts who’ve successfully bought or sold a home with you in the past.
As with custom audiences, you can upload a CSV file into Facebook to create a lookalike audience or you can use the audiences you pull in with your pixel as the lookalike audience blueprint.
This can be a great way to find high-quality prospects. For information on how to make a lookalike audience, check out this guide to making a lookalike audience.
Getting started with Facebook is easy, but making it work can be challenging. Use these three methods to get the most out of your social media spend!