It is my opinion that real estate brokers today are overly focused on generating leads and do not spend enough time focusing on their Sphere of Influence or Database.

Common sense tells us that we would rather get a call from a friend of our aunts, then an alert from some software with a name and email address, and perhaps a bit of personal information.

 

I am not implying that internet leads are bad or a waste of time... just that we would rather get personal referrals. I would suggest applying the 80/20 principal. 80% of marketing dollars designated to nurturing our database, and 20% of those dollars adding internet leads to that database.Click To Tweet

 

How do we apply that principle to our Facebook Ads?

 

We can run ads that are only directed to our Sphere of Influence!

 

How To Run Adds To Our Database

 

The first thing we need to do is think about what kind of message we want our sphere to see.  This will be different than a typical ad because we are not trying to get them to sign up for anything… We already have their contact information.

 

What Content Should I Share

 

Ad Ideas:

  1.  Gentle reminder that we are real estate agents
  2. Testimonials
  3. Charity work
  4. Real Estate accomplishments (Awards won, designations earned, properties sold)
  5. Open Houses
  6. Interesting Real Estate Information

 

Media:

  1. Video
  2. Images
  3. Slideshow
  4. Carousel

 

We prefer using video.

“Videos have repeatedly shown that they have much larger organic reach and engagement than other forms of content. People are watching more than 100 million hours of video on Facebook every day, and you can tap into this market with your own videos.” (SEO.com)

 

If you don’t have video to share you can still get results with a single image ad, or combining multiple images into a slideshow or carousel ad.

 

What You Will Need

 

  1.  A Facebook Account
  2. A Facebook Business Page
  3. Media
    1. A Video File or
    2. An Image or
    3. Multiple Images
  4. Your Database Exported
    1. As a .CSV file
    2. Mailchimp Account Login

 

CREATING THE FACEBOOK AD

  • Open your Facebook Account
    • Home
    • Click On Ads Manager

Facebook Ads Manager

 

  • Click Create

 

  • Switch To Guided Tour
    • A Little More User Friendly

Guided Tour

 

  • Select Your Marketing Objective
    • Keep In Mind We Are Not Trying To Convert Leads (We already have their contact information)
  • For This Example We Are Selecting Video Views
  • Give Your Campaign A Name
    • Name Your Campaign Based On Your Marketing Objective

Select marketing objective

 

  • Create A Custom Audience
  • Click Create New
  • Custom Audiences >> Create New
  • Select Custom Audience

create custom audience

 

  • Select Customer File

add database

 

  • Select Customer File Source
    • Add Customers From Your Own File (CSV File)
      • I will be adding from file
    • Import From Mailchimp (Mailchimp Login)

 

Create a custom audience

 

  • Upload Your CSV Database

 

upload your customer file

 

  • Map Your Database Categories To The Facebook Categories
    • Map
      • First Name
      • Last Name
      • Email
      • Phone
      • City
      • State
      • Zip Code
    • Do Not Map
      • Everything Else

map your database

 

  • Once Your File Is Uploaded
  • Click Done

create a custom audience

 

  • Leave Your Placements On Automatic Placements
    • Facebook will probably optimize your ad better than you

Ad Placement

 

  • Set Your Budget & Schedule
    • Budget
      • I like to set a lifetime budget (when my budget is spent the ad stops)
      • You may want to set a daily budget
      • Facebook will have a minimum budget allowed based on your audience size, objectives, and schedule
    • Schedule
      • I like to set my schedule for 1 month
      • That gives me time to work on other things
    • Set Ad Delivery
    • Bid Strategy
      • I like to set a bid cap
    • Continue

facebook budget and schedule

 

  • Identity
    • Select The Facebook Page That You Want Associated With The Ad
    • If You Have An Instagram Account You Would Like The Ad To Display On
      • Connect Your Instagram Account
  • Video Format
    • Select Single Video If You Have a Video File
    • Select Slideshow If You Have Multiple Images You Would Like To Be Displayed As a Slideshow

Create Ad

 

  • For A More Robust Ad (but not necessary)
  • Check Add A FullScreen Experience
    • This will give your ad a “landing page” on Facebook when they click your ad.
  • Select the “Showcase Your Business” template

Facebook Ad Fullscreen Experience

 

  • Add Video or Image
  • Add Page Headline
  • Add Second Video or IMage

  fullscreen experience 3

 

  • Add Images To Carousel Display
  • Be sure to add links back to your website

Edit FullScreen Experience

 

  • Add Call To Action Video Or Image
  • Enter Call To Action Button Text
  • Add Link To Call To Action
    • For this example I used “Get Your Homes Value”
    • With a link to a home valuation tool
  • Click Done

Edit Fullscreen 1

 

  • Upload Your Ad Video

Upload Video

 

  • Choose Your Video Thumbnail or Upload A Custom Thumbnail
  • Add Video Caption
    • Generate Automatically and adjust yourself
    • Let Facebook Review

Choose video thumbnail

 

  • Add The Ad Text and Headline

 

  • Review Your Ad To Check For Accuracy
  • When You Are Ready “PUBLISH” Your Ad

 Publish The Ad

 

FACEBOOK WILL REVIEW YOUR AD

 

Once Facebook determines that your ad meets their guidelines they will send you a Facebook Message letting you know your ad is live.

 

KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR STATS

 

The only way to truly determine if your ad will be successful is to watch the analytics.  If the ad is not performing well make some adjustments… or turn it off and try a different strategy.

If your friends start telling you that they are seeing you on Facebook all the time, just smile and say, “Huh, that is weird”.

 

PROOF

 

After running my Video to my sphere of influence using Facebook Ads for 1 week here are my results:

facebook video ads proof

Highlights:

  • Video Ad run only to my uploaded .CSV sphere of influence for 1 week
  • Cost per video view:  .03¢
  • Total cost for the week:  $9.88
  • Number of times the video was watched for at least 2 seconds:  337
  • Number of sphere of influence reached:  243
  • I only ended up with a relevancy score of:  4 (out of 10)

Having a relevancy score of only 4 means that my audience did not respond to my ad very well.

I will be tweaking the ad to try to increase that score to at least a 7.

CHOOSING YOUR CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVE

 

Your advertising objective is what you want people to do when they see your ads. For example, if you want to show your website to people interested in your business, you can create ads that encourage people to visit your website. When you create an ad, you first choose your objective. The objective you choose aligns with your overall business goals.

Some of these objectives may look different when you create an ad. Learn more about the changes to objectives.

Awareness

Objectives that generate interest in your product or service.

Brand awareness

Reach people more likely to recall your ads and increase awareness for your brand.

What platforms support the brand awareness objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Messenger

Which ad formats can I choose from in the brand awareness objective?

  • Single Image
  • Single Video
  • Carousel
  • Slideshow

Learn more about brand awareness.

Reach

Show your ad to the maximum number of people in your audience.

What platforms support the reach objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Messenger

Which ad formats can I choose from in the reach objective?

  • Single Image
  • Single Video
  • Carousel
  • Slideshow

Consideration

Objectives that get people to start thinking about your business and look for more information about it.

 

Traffic

Increase the number of visits to your website or get more people to use your app. With traffic as your objective, you can:

What platforms support the traffic objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Audience Network
  • Messenger

Which ad formats can I choose from in the traffic objective?

  • Single Image
  • Single Video
  • Carousel
  • Slideshow
  • Collection

Learn more about traffic.

 

App installs

Send people to an app store where they can download your app.

What platforms support the app installs objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Audience Network
  • Messenger

Which ad formats can I choose from in the app installs objective?

  • Single Image
  • Single Video
  • Carousel
  • Slideshow

Learn more about mobile app ads .

 

Engagement

Get more people to see and engage with your post or Page. With engagement as your objective, you can:

What platforms support the engagement objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Which ad formats can I choose from in the engagement objective?

  • Single Image
  • Single Video
  • Slideshow

Note: Some ad formats and platforms may not be available for selection depending on the type of ad you create. For example, if you choose to promote your event in the engagement objective, you can only create a single image, single video or slideshow ad and show your ad on Facebook.

 

Video views

Promote videos that show behind-the-scenes footage, product launches or customer stories to raise awareness about your brand.

What platforms support the video views objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Audience Network

Which ad formats can I choose from in the video views objective?

  • Single Video
  • Carousel
  • Slideshow

Learn more about video ads .

 

Lead generation

Collect lead information, such as email addresses, from people interested in your business.

What platforms support the lead generation objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Messenger

Which ad formats can I choose from in the lead generation objective?

  • Single Image
  • Single Video
  • Carousel
  • Slideshow

Learn more about lead ads .

 

Messages

Get more people to have conversations with your business to generate leads, drive transactions, answer questions or offer support.

What platforms support the messages objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Messenger

Which ad formats can I choose from in the messages objective?

  • Single Image
  • Single Video
  • Carousel
  • Slideshow

Learn more about click to Messenger ads .

 

Conversion

Objectives that encourage people interested in your business to purchase or use your product or service.

 

Conversions

Get more people to use your website, Facebook app, or mobile app. To track and measure conversions, use the Facebook pixel or app events.

What platforms support the conversions objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Audience Network
  • Messenger

Which ad formats can I choose from in the conversions objective?

  • Single Image
  • Single Video
  • Carousel
  • Slideshow
  • Collection

Learn more about conversions.

Catalog sales

Show products from your catalog based on your target audience

What platforms support the catalog sales objective?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Messenger
  • Audience Network

Which ad formats can I choose from in the catalog sales objective?

  • Single Image
  • Carousel

Learn more about catalog sales and dynamic ads .

Store visits

Promote multiple business locations to people who are nearby.

What platforms support the store visits objective?

  • Facebook

Which ad formats can I choose from in the store visits objective?

  • Single Image
  • Single Video
  • Carousel
  • Slideshow
  • Collections

Learn more about store visits.

 

It is important to remember in this ad example we are sending ads to our sphere of influence.  We already have their email address and contact information… so any type of lead generation would be redundant.

We are simply trying to send our sphere a message reminding them that we are a trusted, knowledgable, and active real estate point of contact.

I am choosing to send my sphere a video and will choose VIDEO VIEWS as my objective.

 

VIDEO VIEWS