Targeted Social Media Prospecting: A Better Paid Ad Strategy
Social media has become an essential lead gen tool for businesses, and real estate is no exception. More than 80% of agents know social media needs to be a part of their strategy. Unfortunately, less than 30% are satisfied with their ability to implement it. Why? Because social media lead-generation strategies can be complicated, costly, and yield low conversion rates.
This article explores a better paid ad strategy for targeted social media prospecting that can help agents like you achieve better results with paid ads.
The Limitations of Traditional Lead Gen Strategies
Traditional lead-generation strategies on Facebook and Instagram often involve generic ads that aim to generate leads from broad audiences. However, these strategies can be expensive, with the average cost per lead around $16 in the real estate industry.
Furthermore, the conversion rates for these leads are typically low, ranging from 0.4% to 1.2%. This means agents spend a significant amount of money to generate leads that have a low chance of converting into actual transactions.
Moreover, the sales cycle for real estate transactions can be long, ranging from 14 to 24 months. This means that realtors are investing in social media lead generation that may not yield results for a long time. While this approach may work for some agents with a large budget and a lot of patience, it’s not feasible for most agents who need immediate results.
Targeting the Right Audience
To improve your social media prospecting effort, you need to target the right audience. Instead of focusing on a broad audience, agents should concentrate on individuals closest to transacting.
This includes expired listings, for sale by owners (FSBOs), pre-foreclosures, high-turnover neighborhoods, and vacant rental properties. By targeting individuals who are actively looking to buy or sell, you can increase your conversion rates for more “now” business.
Just remember, Facebook’s limitations on real estate ads can make it challenging to target specific audiences. But with the right tools, you can still create custom audiences by uploading your own lists of contact and lead data for paid ads. This allows them to target specific individuals and tailor ads to their needs. Tools like Ad Builder simplify this process, allowing you to create ads and target specific lists of transaction-ready homeowners.
Creating Relevant Ads to Get Attention
It’s absolutely crucial to create ads that are relevant and capture the attention of the target audience. To do this, agents need to understand the problems, emotions, and thoughts of their target audience. By addressing these concerns in your ads, you can break through the audience’s mental filters (known as the reticular activating system) and make a lasting impression.
The key to creating relevant ads is to follow a creative brief that outlines the primary and secondary problems of the target audience, the emotions they are experiencing, the questions they may be asking, and the actions they need to take.
By understanding these elements, you can craft ad copy that resonates with your audience and motivates them to take action.
Leveraging AI for Ad Creation
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a valuable tool for agents in creating effective ads. By using AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT, you can generate effective ad copy using a creative brief. This allows you to automate the ad creation process and ensure that your ads address the relevant problems, emotions, and thoughts of your target audience.
ProTip
Copy and paste these Creative Brief Prompts into ChatGPT to better understand the problems your ideal clients are facing as you create ads. (NOTE: these prompts are written for FSBOs, but you can change the prompt to speak to any lead type.)
Prompt 1 – Understand Your Audience:
As a senior marketer for real estate agents, help me understand a for-sale-by-owner by answering these questions, assuming the solution ultimately is to hire a real estate agent:
- What is the primary and secondary problem they are experiencing?
- What are they feeling because of this problem?
- What questions might they be thinking about or what are they saying in their mind about the situation?
- What do they need to do to take action?
- What can you say to help them feel it?
Prompt 2 – Ad Creation Prompt:
Turn this information into a Facebook ad with the Primary Description being what they’re feeling because of what they’re experiencing
Link Headline being the solution to their problem
Also include a 60-second video script that will validate their feelings and their thoughts, help them feel what they need to feel to take action, and a strong call to action
The Power of Combining Paid and Organic Social Media Strategies
While paid ads can effectively target specific audiences, agents shouldn’t neglect organic social media strategies. By combining paid and organic approaches, you can build a strong brand presence and increase your conversion rates.
Remember to post regular content on social media to engage with your audience and establish themselves as an expert in the field. Additionally, you can boost organic content to the same target audiences you are running ads for. This ensures that your target audience sees consistent messaging and increases the likelihood of engagement and conversion.
The Future of Social Media Prospecting
Targeted social media prospecting is a powerful strategy for realtors to generate leads and increase conversions.
By targeting the right audience, creating relevant ads, leveraging AI, and combining paid and organic strategies, you can maximize your chances of success on social media. As platforms continue to evolve, remember to adapt your strategies to stay ahead of the competition and build a strong brand presence.
For in-depth free training on the strategies discussed in this blog, check out “Targeted Social Media Prospecting: A Better Paid Ad Strategy” from REDX. You’ll discover more tips, tools, and strategies to make the most of your paid ads on Facebook and Instagram.
About REDX
REDX offers real estate professionals a complete all-in-one prospecting platform for generating listing appointments. The platform includes seller leads, a dialer with up to three lines, and a lead management tool for simple follow-up. REDX maintains the position that all agents should be compliant with state and federal telecom laws – learn more here.
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