Keep Up with These Seasonal Trends for Google and Facebook Ads

'Tis the season — to master your digital ad strategies and scale your real estate business.

Marketing your real estate business with paid advertising campaigns on Facebook and Google helps you gain visibility with internet buyers and online leads. However, the paid ad playing field isn't necessarily evenly distributed all year long.

Just like the real estate market goes through its market cycles where the environment is determined by the levels of supply and demand, your paid ad experience will fluctuate over time, too.

Depending on how many buyers are shopping online and the volume of advertisers at any given time, your cost-per-lead will adjust accordingly—another critical factor that affects your paid ads performance is the time of year.

2 Need-to-Know Trends for Google and Facebook Ads

To prepare you for the changes that are going to impact your digital marketing and paid advertising performance, here are two need-to-know trends that real estate teams will be coming up against in the next few months.

1. Search Volume Matches Market Activity

Every real estate professional knows that the high season is usually spring. In recent years, the pandemic did influence the sales cycle and disrupt the industry's normal market pattern.

However, the holidays do typically slow down as buyers and sellers settle down to enjoy the holly-jolly end of the year.

As fewer buyers typically hit the market in the fall, online searches tend to dip, too. Expect to see the demand fall in October and continue to slow down into December.

The market begins to regain its momentum at the beginning of the new year, and it continues to pick up into the spring and summer months — kicking off the spring buyer's rush.

If you start to see your paid ad performance decline during the holiday months, keep in mind that it's the natural pace of the market.

2. Expect the Expenses for Social Media Advertising to Rise

Real estate professionals aren't the only ones who leverage social media ads to boost their businesses. Around the holiday season, retailers invest heavily in advertising on popular social media channels to capture digital consumers.

What does this have to do with real estate agents? Since retailers are flooding ads onto social media, the prices increase.

This means that agents who are continuing their usual real estate marketing strategy will see their marketing spend raise during the prime holiday gift shopping months.

If you notice that the prices go up around October and November, don't be alarmed. They should balance out again at the end of December and into the new year.

• Pro Tip: If you're a new real estate team that's just getting started with paid digital advertising, keep in mind that the prices are inflated at this time of year.

Don't think that these prices are the baseline and abandon this critical avenue for attracting and keeping in touch with your sphere!

2 Ways to Overcome the Seasonal Shifts

Do you want to overcome the seasonal hurdles and establish a more solid paid ads performance to keep your real estate business top-of-mind? Follow these two best practices.

1. Diversify Your Marketing Plan to Balance Out Your Performance

Since you know that your paid advertising on Google and social media may dip during the holiday months, you can overcome the seasonal cycle by diversifying your marketing efforts.

Now is a great time to branch out and expand your marketing strategy to balance out your real estate brand's overall performance.

This is a classic pivoting strategy that helps real estate teams stay on their A-game, even as the market takes its annual turns. By expanding into different areas, your business won't take as big of a hit as it would if you were fully relying on one tactic.

4 Digital Marketing Avenues to Explore Over the Holiday Months:

• Microsoft Bing
• Facebook
• Amazon
• Instagram

2. Don't Follow the Competition and Leave the Arena

Many real estate businesses will see the paid digital ad market begin to stall and stop investing in it.

Yes, demand may slow, and prices may even hike up. But, that doesn't mean the right strategy is to stop your digital ad campaigns altogether.

The top-performing real estate teams know that this seasonal adjustment actually clears out the competition, giving your business and your message more visibility.

Let your less strategic competitors leave the arena. Even if you continue to advertise at your usual pace, you'll stand out and get more eyes on your marketing campaigns.

The logic is simple. As competitors leave, there's less traffic crowding the platforms you're creating ads for.

• Pro Tip: One paid ad area you should never surrender is Google. Why? Because Google Ads reward consistency. If you create campaigns that don't pause, Google will actually prioritize your ads — helping them perform better when the demand regains its usual pace. Marketing hack, unlocked.

To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.