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.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Internet leads are not a waste of time… but we would rather get personal referrals. Try applying the 80/20 principal. 80% of marketing $ designated to nurturing our database & 20% of $ adding internet leads. #realestate #realestatetips” quote=”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.” theme=”style3″]
How do we apply that principle to our Facebook Ads?
We can run ads that are only directed to our Sphere of Influence!
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.
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.
Once Facebook determines that your ad meets their guidelines they will send you a Facebook Message letting you know your ad is live.
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”.
After running my Video to my sphere of influence using Facebook Ads for 1 week here are my results:
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.
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.
Objectives that generate interest in your product or service.
Reach people more likely to recall your ads and increase awareness for your brand.
What platforms support the brand awareness objective?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the brand awareness objective?
Learn more about brand awareness.
Show your ad to the maximum number of people in your audience.
What platforms support the reach objective?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the reach objective?
Objectives that get people to start thinking about your business and look for more information about it.
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?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the traffic objective?
Learn more about traffic.
Send people to an app store where they can download your app.
What platforms support the app installs objective?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the app installs objective?
Learn more about mobile app ads .
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?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the engagement objective?
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.
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?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the video views objective?
Learn more about video ads .
Collect lead information, such as email addresses, from people interested in your business.
What platforms support the lead generation objective?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the lead generation objective?
Learn more about lead ads .
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?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the messages objective?
Learn more about click to Messenger ads .
Objectives that encourage people interested in your business to purchase or use your product or service.
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?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the conversions objective?
Learn more about conversions.
Show products from your catalog based on your target audience
What platforms support the catalog sales objective?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the catalog sales objective?
Learn more about catalog sales and dynamic ads .
Promote multiple business locations to people who are nearby.
What platforms support the store visits objective?
Which ad formats can I choose from in the store visits objective?
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.
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View Comments
I have been using Adwerx for years but have grown disenchanted with them recently due to some errors with my contacts. I use FB all the time for advertising but had not thought of using them to focus my sphere. Would you recommend FB over Adwerx?
Hey Robert, Yeah you can stay in front of your sphere fairly inexpensively. I would always choose the direct marketing platform in this case Facebook. However, if you do not have the time or resources to manage your own PPC campaigns than Adwerx is a great tool.
I spoke to Adwerx re Facebook. Their comeback was they advertise on different sites (WSJ, Barrons, etc) and FB only advertises on FB. I have to think about that one for a minute.