Social media has become a necessity when it comes to real estate agents’ marketing and advertising. There are so many things that an agent can do to promote their business from posting videos of homes they are selling to tips to help future buyers prepare for their purchase. With so much opportunity, there is one thing that every agent should use to enhance their advertising—Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ads are a great way to get more exposure for your business. Recently, Facebook Consultant and Houston Association of REALTORS® CE educator, Tristen Sutton joined us for one of our Secrets of Top Selling Agents webinars. He demonstrated the ins and out of using Facebook Ads for your real estate business.

What Is a Facebook Ad?

A Facebook Ad is exactly what it sounds like—it is an ad that is placed on the Facebook platform. However, there is so much more to Facebook advertising. Facebook Ads can be broadcast across Instagram and LinkedIn as well. If you have a limited marketing budget, you want to go where the most users are. There are over 1.7 billion people who log onto Facebook each day. Sutton’s tip: Those 1.7 billion are your audience, and you should use Facebook Ads to market to them.

Using Facebook Ads expands your audience to a group that is outside your normal friends and followers on social media. You have a huge pool you can use to make sure you are getting leads and making conversions to make your business as successful as possible. Most people go online to get the things they want, so make the best of Facebook Ads and target those people on Facebook.

You Have to Pay to Play

In the past, when you created a post on Facebook, you would generate leads. However, that is not the case anymore. Normal Facebook posts are being suppressed, which means that your content is not getting the exposure it used to. Now, Facebook prefers Facebook Ads when it comes to getting exposure on the platform.

Using Facebook Ads to increase your brand awareness or drive visitors to an open house (or virtual open house) will get you the results you are looking for, explains Sutton. Say you have 1,000 followers on your profile, when you post a generic post, the 1,000 followers that you have are the only people who will see your content unless they share the post, tag someone on the post, or someone searches for that specific post. With a paid Facebook Ad, you expand your reach and increase the chance for more traffic to visit your website or profile, which, in turn, increases your opportunities to make a sale. When you pay to play, you target specific audiences that you are interested in such as “luxury real estate “or “foreclosures.” Yes, they are two different audiences, but you can target them specifically to the type of business you conduct. Not only can you increase your reach, but you can also increase your engagement.

The 4 Types of Ads You Should Be Running

You have to play it smart when it comes to Facebook Ads. You can run as many ads as you like, but you have to know which types of ads to create. Sutton outlines four different types of ads that you should be running. Check out the different types below:

– Reach: These ads will function as your brand expander. You can use these ads to brand yourself as an expert in your area.

– Video: These ads will increase your lead generation and branding efforts.

– Website Visits: You can use these to drive people back to your website so they can see what listings you have.

– Open House Events: These ads are good for sharing an event, such as when you would like more people to show up to an in-person or virtual home tour event.

Creating Your Facebook Ad

Sutton also shares some tips for creating a Facebook Ad. Below, you can find step-by-step instructions for creating an ad.

1. Go to your Facebook Business Page and select Facebook Ads Manager.

2. Click “create an ad.”

3. After you have clicked “create an ad,” you will be prompted to select a special ad category. As a real estate agent, you must click the special ad category for housing. If you do not click this, your ad will be rejected by Facebook and their algorithm will deny your Facebook Ad.

4. Next, select which type of ad you want; Sutton suggests choosing engagement, and if the ad is for an open house event, click event response.

5. Now you will select your audience. Your audience is who you wish to target with your ad. You can select a specific area that you work in within a 15-50-mile radius.

6. After your audience is selected, you will select a detailed target audience. Here, you can select your specific area that you work in such as luxury real estate or even specific interests that you believe your targeted audience will interact with.

7. After you have done this, choose your image, add a little more copy to your ad and you’re good to go!

Keep in mind that Facebook does require about 24 hours to approve a Facebook Ad. If your ad doesn’t get approved right away, that’s ok. Facebook will audit your ad to make sure everything is right and will get your ad up and running. Sutton suggests that if you are running an ad for a specific event or offering, give yourself 10 days of time to run your ad so you can get the most out of your ad spend.

Running a Facebook Ad can be fun and exciting but can also be a little challenging. Make sure to stop by the Secrets of Top Selling Agents Facebook Group to watch the recording of Tristen Sutton’s webinar here. Or to check out the Facebook Live recap here.

Joe Sesso is director of Sales and national speaker for Homes.com. For more information, please visit marketing.homes.com.