What nobody is telling you about Facebook lead ads for real estate

There’s something you should know if you’re interested in Facebook lead generation for real estate. And it could make a huge difference to both your campaign conversion rate and your bottom line.

In this short article, we’ll reveal why you may want to think twice about promoting your real estate services using Facebook lead ads. But first…

Fancy letting us cover your ad spend?

We’re Adbetter: specialists in pay per click advertising for real estate. We get results. We win awards. And we’re so confident in our process that we will cover your ad spend. Interested? Get in touch to arrange a short discovery and let’s talk about what you can expect within three months of working with us.

“Since working with Adbetter, our digital paid media channels have grown to be one of our most consistent generators of high-quality leads. Our lead volumes from paid media channels have increased over 1,400% whilst maintaining a low cost per lead.”

– Matthew Fawl, Director, Alesco Investment Property

A quick introduction to Facebook lead ads

Facebook lead ads made their debut in 2015 – launched as a mobile-friendly and efficient way to encourage lead conversion.

Their defining feature is that any click on the ad generates a native pop-up form within Facebook.

Contrast that with conversion ads, which direct audiences to a designated landing page on your website once they’ve clicked your ad..

Why use Facebook lead ads?

The general idea is that Facebook lead ads reduce conversion friction. By directing to a native form that’s pre-populated with the user’s data (such as email address or phone number) it’s thought that Facebook lead ads enhance conversion. After all, it’s easier to complete a popup form in Facebook than clicking through to an external website that disrupts the user’s Facebook browsing experience.

But that’s not quite the full story. While there are benefits to lead ads, keep in mind that Facebook are heavily incentivised to keep users on the app – rather than encouraging them to click away to an external website. And there are potential downsides to Facebook lead ads that they are less keen to trumpet.

It all comes down to lead quality.

Quantity vs quality: the problem with Facebook lead ads

By reducing so called conversion friction, Facebook lead ads may enhance the number of leads you receive. But more leads isn’t necessarily a better result for your campaign – especially if you receive a bunch of low-quality leads that are only half interested in your real estate services.

Consider the flipside. If a lead is willing to click through to an external landing page and complete a data capture form, there’s a good chance they are very interested in the service or property that you’re promoting. The higher cost of engaging signals higher purchase intent.

With most campaigns, native lead ads result in a lot of ghosting during lead nurture. It’s also impossible to sift out the high intent leads from those that are less invested. That can leave you wasting time and money trying to convert low intent leads – and missing opportunities to focus on converting the people who actually want to hear from you.

So what’s the alternative?

3 reasons to drive traffic to your website instead

·   Create a branded experience. Taking the journey out of Facebook gives you more control over how your post-click message is conveyed. It’s an opportunity to create a cohesive, congruent and fully branded journey that makes your campaign more memorable.

·   Filter out leads you don’t want. Yes, they’ve clicked your ad. That doesn’t mean you want them as a lead. Creating your own landing page questionnaire enables you to gather more information about how suited each lead is to becoming a customer. For example: if you only want to attract real estate investors with a high net worth, you could ask how much they are willing to spend – with the form options starting at a minimum of £250,000. This helps you separate wheat from chaff – and gives you a good chance of making sure you wind up with a good clean list of high intent leads.

·   Segment your leads for targeted nurture campaigns. The more information you can gather about your leads in a landing page form, the easier it is to make sure your nurture campaigns are segmented and highly targeted – boosting your chances of conversion and ROI.

How much do Facebook lead ads cost?

One of the best things about any form of pay per click advertising is the ability to keep close tabs on your budget. With Facebook lead ads you have the freedom to set daily or weekly spending caps, or caps for each campaign.

Broadly speaking there are two budget strategies to choose from. The first is to set a daily limit and ask Facebook to gather as many leads as possible. The other option is cost capacity: instructing Facebook that you only want to spend money on leads of a certain value.

Both strategies have their pros and cons. The first tends to generate leads faster but they may be of lower quality compared to the more premium leads.

Whichever strategy you choose, you need to be spending enough for Facebook to learn how to algorithmically optimise your campaigns for conversion. £10 per day isn’t going to cut it. However you can often begin seeing results from as little as £30-50 per day.

How to succeed with Facebook lead ads for real estate

If you’re still set on running a Facebook lead ads campaign, we have a step-by-step guide. It covers everything you need to know to get your campaign running – with tips that will help to enhance your results from the outset. 

 >> The no-fluff guide to Facebook ads for lead generation

Let us take care of everything

You work in real estate. You’re busy. Perhaps you don’t have time to set up your campaign. To build the landing pages. To set up the post-click performance tracking to measure onward KPIs.So let us do it! We know how to get big, big results for our clients. That’s why we win awards. And it’s why we are willing to cover your ad spend if you’re the right fit for our business. Find out what we do. Or get in touch to arrange a free discovery call.

Or teach yourself…

More about pay per click in Facebook:

>> Facebook ads for real estate: tips to grow revenue
>> Why Facebook Conversions API is so crucial for advertisers
>> Facebook dynamic ads for real estate
>> Why implementing Facebook Conversions API is so crucial for advertisers  

Enhance your lead generation knowledge:

>> The best lead generation strategy for real estate businesses
>> PPC for property: a guide to getting big results
>> 8 tips to nail real estate lead generation
>> Generate bigger returns with advertising for real estate
>> Lead generation services for real estate businesses
>> New home advertising: how PPC can unlock huge returns
>> Distressed property sales: growing your revenue with PPC
>> How to get more real estate leads: for new agents

Utilise PPC across other platforms:

>> Best practices for Google pay per click real estate campaigns
>> A complete guide to Google ads for real estate leads
>> Display ads for real estate: a short guide for success
>> YouTube ads for real estate: a guide to getting results
>> How to boost revenue with Instagram ads for real estate
>> TikTok ads for real estate: should you bother?

Target luxury real estate leads:

>>How to find luxury real estate leads through PPC
>>Luxury real estate advertising: the best strategies for ROAS

Target commercial real estate leads:

>> The secret to finding commercial property leads that convert
>> Commercial real estate PPC: 11 tips for big returns
>> A guide to getting better returns with commercial property advertising
>> Why you should use Facebook ads for commercial real estate