Imagine if you could advertise your services in such a way that only those who are most likely interested would even see the ads.  And better yet, you only paid for when they acted on those ads.  Sounds a lot better than traditional print advertising doesn’t it?  This is what “hyper-targeted” advertising is all about and nowhere is the opportunity greater for this than on Facebook and yet few people in the real estate industry have taken advantage of it.

Facebook vs. Google

Facebook is huge with close to a half a billion members and continuing to grow rapidly each month.  What makes the advertising potential so great however is that by the very nature of the data found in “personal profiles”, Facebook has amassed incredible demographic and psychographic information on its members that is the envy of even companies like Google.  This information includes personal likes, dislikes, affiliations, interests and so on.  It doesn’t stop there however because Facebook also has the ability (and the necessary funding) to cross tabulate their internal member information with purchased third party data like magazine subscription information, group membership affiliation, etc which allows them to further refine their targeting ability.

When Google serves up ads to users of its search engine, the ads typically are targeted based only upon the search query because that’s limit of Google’s knowledge about that particular consumer.  Whereas when Facebook serves up ads to members, it knows far more about the member and can show ads (on the right side of the page) that are tremendously more targeted and hence more likely to convert. And Facebook ads can leverage built-in “social proof” to add credibility and increase conversion rates since your ads can show who else of the viewer’s Facebook friends have interacted with you or your services.  Also, the amount of time an average member spends on Facebook eclipses even the most avid searcher on Google.

Like Google Adwords, you can pay for Facebook ads either as Pay-Per-Click (PPC – recommended in most cases) or per 1,000 impressions (CPM).  The process of setting up, managing and tracking your Facebook ads is very straightforward.  And frankly, no one does a better job of explaining it than Facebook.  Just go to http://www.facebook.com/advertising to review the steps and best practices. (TIP: Facebook suggests ad pricing to best reach your defined ad target.  Let’s just say they can be a bit biased about this.  Experiment using PPC values that start out about 10% less than suggested and then continue to lower your bid amounts until you see a significant drop off in impressions.  This strategy can save you a lot of money!)

Now let’s take a look at all the ways you can use this high-powered advertising rifle to grow your business…

Hyper-Targeting for Hyper-Growth

The ways in which you can use Facebook advertising to grow your business and differentiate yourself are limited only by your imagination.  The following came out of a recent brainstorming session with my Online Dominance students.  To help organize these ideas, I’ve broken them down into categories:

• Win New Listings – show your prospective sellers how you can advertise their listings on Facebook and receive literally thousands (if not tens of thousands) of impressions.  Chances are very good that none of your competitors are doing this and it will help you stand out considerably.
• Sell Targeted Listings – if your listing is unique or fits a particular profile (e.g. Florida waterfront property) you can create an ad that is shown only to those who would likely have interest in this including “snow birds” from other areas that have a proven track record of purchasing this type of property.
• Property Tours – advertise just about any kind of tour you can imagine (the more out of the box the better) to targeted Facebook members in your area.  Here are just some ideas that came up for this:
  • Riding horse property tours
  • Bicycle property tours
  • Waterfront property tours ending in a wine-tasting party
  • Luxury high-rise condo bedroom tours
  • Boat tours of waterfront properties
  • Golf course / property tours that include short presentations by the golf pros at each course
  • Foreclosure property tours, or pre-foreclosure tours (with the permission of the owners of course.)
• Seminars – either in person or Webinar-based.  There are tons of possibilities here including:
  • Investor seminars
  • Foreclosure / Short-sale seminars
  • Invest with IRA funds seminars
  • First-time Buyer seminars
  • How to get around today’s mortgage maze seminars
  • How to prepare your home for sale seminars.
• Community Involvement – you can advertise your community involvement by getting local people to participate.  For example:
  • Charity food drives
  • Client appreciation parties
  • Neighborhood block parties
• Irresistible Offers – if you Website has irresistible offers, using Facebook ads is a powerful way to drive targeted traffic to take advantage of them.

Advertising without targeting is just taking shots in the dark.  Your chances of actually hitting something are pretty slim.  Advertising without the ability to measure your ROI is just throwing money at something and hoping it sticks.  Neither are a viable way to grow business profitably.  Facebook on the other hand offers a convenient, inexpensive way to hyper-target your advertising dollars and almost instantly measure the results.  And the good news for you is that very few real estate professionals have even started taking advantage of this potential.  Now is your chance to grow your business in a way that will have your competitors guessing and you smiling, all the way to the bank.

NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.

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Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He’s dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Website at http://www.russer.com

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This article is reprinted in its entirety from the June 2010 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark of RUSSER Communications.