Facebook Remarketing as Part of Your Real Estate Strategy

This time of year, as things are winding down, I find myself reflecting on the past months. Specifically, I think about what things really resonated with our client base and prospects, which took off, and what things did not. This year, there was one thing that grew exponentially more than anything I can remember in prior years.

What is this thing, you ask? It is Facebook advertising. Facebook advertising is a fantastic platform for Realtors to generate leads and get new business. It's fantastic because you can target your "ideal customers" using their Ads Manager Audiences tool. It is also fantastic because, unlike many other marketing platforms out there for Realtors, Facebook advertising is open to anyone, whether you have a huge advertising budget, or are just starting out on a shoestring.

It took a while for the real estate industry to so completely embrace Facebook advertising, but now that they have, I am extremely happy to see it. Understanding technology is difficult for some agents. The fact that even those that are somewhat "technologically challenged" are embracing it is very encouraging to me.

That said, there is still a long way to go. In fact, I would suggest that many Realtors have only reached the first stage of this journey and that there are many, many more things they can use to enhance their campaigns, and get even more qualified leads to put into their pipeline.

With that in mind, today I'll touch on one often overlooked feature of Facebook advertising that will help you nurture prospects and turn them into qualified leads in ways you never thought possible. This is done using the Facebook Pixel, and creating what are referred to as Facebook remarketing campaigns. There are four great ways you can take advantage of this tool and help turn more prospects into qualified leads.

First, What Exactly Is Remarketing?

Remarketing has historically meant targeting those who visited a website you own with an ad — in this case, a Facebook ad. Advertisers are able to show ads related to a blog post that was read, product that was viewed, search that was made, etc. So as you can see, with the proper strategy, this can be a very powerful tool that you can use to push people through your pipeline.

Three Ways YOU Can Use Remarketing in Your Real Estate Marketing Plan

Facebook has always had remarketing features in their ad manager. Recently, they've made some great improvements, making the number of remarketing options more in-depth than ever. Some basic ways you can use remarketing to build your lead pipeline include the following:

1. Target Those Who Have Visited Your Website

One great way to expand your exposure is remarketing to people that have visited your website. Why not have ads show up on those people's Facebook Timeline, further engraining your brand in their minds? You can highly target these types of campaigns. Specifically, you can target:

• People that visited your website
• People who visit a specific page on your website (or a landing page)
• People that went to specific pages on your website, but not others (e.g., listing search pages but NOT buyer information pages)
• People who haven't visited your website for a particular period of time

THAT'S NOT ALL THOUGH! Now there are even more metrics for your website, that make this even more powerful. You can target:

• People that viewed a certain number of pages on your website
• People that performed a certain number of searches on your website
• People who have spent the most time on your website

What about off your website?

2. Those Who Viewed Your Video

Do you want to remarket to people who have engaged with your ads? YOU CAN. The above graphic is a great example of how you can remarket to people based on a certain amount of time they watched a video you posted.

Those Who Clicked on a Form Button on Your Ad

You can also choose to remarket to those that opened an ad lead form on your ad. For those of you that aren't sure what this means, below is a sample of a Facebook ad. This type of remarketing would track people who clicked on the "learn more" button in this ad.

3. Those that opened a Canvas Ad

Canvas ads are growing rapidly in popularity because they are so mobile friendly, immersive and easy to consume. You can remarket to people that have viewed your Canvas ad, watched a video on your Canvas ad, or even clicked on a link on your Canvas ad.

4. On Your Business Page

Obviously your business page is a great source of leads, so why not capitalize on those as well? With remarketing, you can. You can target:

• Anyone who engaged with your page
• Anyone who visited your page
• Anyone who sent a message to your page
• Anyone who saved your page or a post

The Long and Short of Remarketing

Much like any other real estate marketing vehicle, remarketing isn't the "end all, be all." As with everything in life, the key to success is a little bit of everything in moderation. Remarketing, however, is a fantastic way to boost the strength of your Facebook advertising game, helping you nurture prospects more effectively, and turning them into qualified leads more easily than you imagined possible.

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.