With rising real estate prices, buildings are practically selling themselves, right? Not exactly. In fact, that’s the biggest misconception surrounding marketing in real estate. While a property’s demand can affect how quickly it will fly off the shelf, the way you present it to potential buyers determines the perceived market value. So, the higher you elevate its value through real estate ads, the better!
However, plastering pictures on the web isn’t the only thing that you need to do to sell a property. If you’re interested in learning how to market your real estate business, then you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll cover the best platforms, strategies and practices for you to succeed in the real estate sector.
Real Estate Ads and Advertising: What Are They?
Real estate ads are any ads specifically created for the real estate industry. You can create real estate ads to touch on every important point of the marketing process and all points of the customer’s journey, too.
- Awareness and interest: A user recognizes their need to purchase, whether to live in or to invest. At this point, they become aware of your firm.
- Consideration: They compare various options based on different factors, such as price and location.
- Decision and purchase: Based on their comparisons, they make a decision. And assuming their offer was picked and that the underwriting comes through, the purchase is finalized.
Please note that there are various laws and regulations surrounding this industry; therefore, it is paramount that you ensure your real estate ads are in accordance with the laws of this sector.
Potential Key Audiences
Every real estate marketer will approach advertising in a slightly different way… even if we’re talking about the same property! So, it’s important to identify which of the key audiences you want to focus on.
- First-time buyers: They may be looking for something affordable. Real estate ads can also include any grants the property qualifies for.
- Investors: Profitability is their driving motivator. Remember that they’re either flipping or renting out the property when formulating realtor ad ideas.
- Renters: Renters are looking for fair rental terms and a place in a good location.
- Luxury home seekers: They’re looking for an elevated lifestyle, so the most effective real estate marketing ads for them may be different from the others.
The Role of Online and Offline Advertising in Real Estate Advertising
Incorporating both online and offline advertising into your strategy has its benefits. The best real estate ads online can widen your potential market, allowing you to include out-of-state prospects looking to move locally. It also allows you to reach a more targeted market more quickly.
However, having real estate ads offline creates credibility and a sense of locality, indicating you really are from the area. It helps immensely in building trust once you have established your presence. Marketing for a real estate company will do well to create an integrated approach that widens reach. Plus, it also ensures a seamless experience for both online and offline interactions.
Effective Platforms for Your Real Estate Marketing Strategies
With offline advertising, the determining factor is usually the budget. For example, the costs for a billboard will be way higher than the price of printed fliers. Where you post real estate ads will also affect your budget.
However, you’ll find the difference isn’t as stark with online alternatives. This is good news because you’ll have more freedom over which platforms to use for your ideas for real estate marketing ads. There are so many ways to advertise online. From our experience, these are currently the most effective platforms in the industry.
Google Ads
Using Google Ads for a real estate promotion is effective because it’s based on search intent. This means that you’ll be able to reach users who are already looking for real estate in your area. Additionally, there are other reasons that this platform is amazing for marketers using real estate ads.
- It’s the most popular search engine in the world; therefore, more likely than not, your target audience uses Google to search for real estate promotions.
- Google supports many types of ads, allowing you to implement various strategies.
- Google has millions of partner publishers around the world, allowing your real estate ads to be practically anywhere your target audience is.
Social Media Ads
Major social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are also home to real estate ads. Even outside the real estate industry, social media has played a crucial role in humanizing brands. But even without this general advantage, it’s still a good place to launch your most creative real estate ads because these platforms possess the following:
- Visual ad options that are more engaging to the user;
- Advanced demographic targeting, which ensures you show real estate ads to the most relevant users;
- Messaging integration so they can ask questions right away.
Visual platforms tend to be popular for real estate offer ads as their inherent design allows the audience to explore the property even before clicking.
Native Ads
Native ads are designed to blend in with the existing content to create a seamless experience between the host platform and the ads. This makes the users more likely to consume the content (and the ad) in front of them. Display ads are the alternative, but these days, they tend to be ignored.
If you want your marketing real estate ideas to have the desired effect, then native advertising can make that happen. To subtly promote your real estate properties, MGID uses programmatic advertising and AI-based matching technology to match your real estate ads with the most relevant content.
YouTube Advertising
YouTube advertising is more than just video ads. While that’s still a big part of advertising on the platform, real estate agent ads don’t necessarily have to be in video format. They have banner ads now as well!
So, when using YouTube, you’ll be able to experience a greater range of publishing options based on the purpose and your budget. Plus, it’s also integrated with Google Ads, so all the interactions across both platforms will be considered.
Real Estate Advertising Sites
Today, many real estate advertising sites allow people to post listings for free. If such services are popular in your area, they could be a good place to publish your real estate ads. Chances are your target market is already active there, so utilizing such platforms makes it easier for you to reach them.
Many also support boosting real estate listing ads, which bumps an ad’s current position in the search list for an advertising fee. This lets you improve the visibility of the ad on a platform designed for it.
Core Real Estate Marketing Tactics
While there will always be platform-specific practices that you have to consider when creating real estate ads, there are also some universally applicable tactics that you can use regardless of the platform.
So, in the following subsections, we’ll share our tried-and-true tactics for making real estate ads. Most of these have been incorporated into our online real estate marketing examples, which have attained impressive results for our clients.
Targeted Digital Advertising
In any form of online advertising, targeting is needed to allow you to reach the people who are most likely to be interested in your offer. The same goes for real estate ads, but you have to make sure to consider these two factors.
- Location restrictions: With location-based targeting, your marketing strategy for a real estate property will only reach users in your desired location. So, if someone from the other side of the world looks up your target keyword, nothing will appear.
- Behavior qualifications: Your real estate ads should also only appear when a user takes certain actions, such as previously visiting your website or a competitor’s site. By identifying the behaviors of interested prospects, real estate ads will be more effective.
High-Quality Visual Content
Of course, the condition of the property in real life will also affect how quickly you’ll be able to sell it. But how do you persuade users to reach out? No matter what your real estate digital marketing ad ideas are, make sure that high-quality visual content is on your list. This includes:
- Professional photos: These allow you to highlight the best features of the property.
- Virtual tours: Virtual tours are great for high-value luxury homes to highlight how they’re different from your average properties.
- Video walkthroughs: These are useful in attracting out-of-state buyers who can’t visit the property in person.
Emphasizing Local Market Knowledge
Real estate ads should also demonstrate your expertise in the local market. This is done by including information that an outsider may not know. For example, if you’re selling in a city where most people rely on public transportation, your real estate ads should feature how close the property is to the nearest bus or train station. These details give them a glimpse of what life could be like if they moved to the neighborhood.
If your real estate ads are targeted to investors, talk about how it’s a good investment. Include what trends you have noticed in terms of rental values or house prices.
Leveraging Urgency and Scarcity
Real estate ads can also create a sense of urgency and scarcity. Here are a few ways that you can do this with real estate ads.
- Limited time offers: If the seller is in a hurry, perhaps you could advertise a price reduction that is valid until a certain date.
- Special deals: For example, your real estate ads can highlight special deals, such as buying a few investment properties as part of the package for more flexible payment terms.
- Exclusive listings: If they sign with you, they’ll get special perks.
However, use these with caution. For luxury real estate ads, these techniques may not work because the market there is much smaller.
Customer Testimonials and Social Proof
It’s not just about the property. It’s also about the level of service that you can deliver to your clients. Why would an owner decide to have you list their property? That’s something that real estate ads can demonstrate as well. You can build trust through the following.
- Reviews: Having amazing feedback from your past clients helps convince both buyers and sellers to trust you.
- Ratings: This numerical representation of client satisfaction in real estate ads establishes why they should go with you.
- Client success stories: To get into more detail about how reliable you are, create real estate ads that highlight your success with other clients.
These work to attract buyers and sellers who need an agent, not to sell a specific property.
What is the Best Way to Advertise Real Estate: Best Practices to Take Note Of
What works for one property may not work for another! The question is how can you ensure your real estate success? The effectiveness of your campaign strategy can depend on the minute details. So, If you want your real estate ads to have the highest chances of success every time, start with these best practices.
Personalized Messaging
A deep understanding of your target audience is central to the implementation of real estate marketing campaign techniques. With that deep understanding, comes the opportunity for personalized messaging. Personalizing your messaging exudes professionalism. After all, it shows that you’re willing to put in the work to ensure that your real estate ads show something they’re interested in. So, base the messaging on:
- Home type: Is your property an apartment in the middle of the city or a home in the suburbs? Your real estate ads should communicate the associated experiences of the property, whatever it is.
- Price range: Using terms like affordable and highlighting any grants can help attract first-time home buyers.
- Location: Mentioning the location is always crucial in real estate.
These are the key elements you should take into account. However, if there’s enough data to create a more in-depth audience persona, then the messaging should reflect that. For instance, if the target client is a parent, then the messaging could mention the school district as well.
Clear and Compelling Calls to Action (CTAs)
Let’s say that a user has seen the picture of the property and is very interested. What’s next? Real estate ads need to direct a user to their next course of action. Depending on what you want to happen next, your call to action can be any of the following:
- Schedule a viewing: If there’s an open house, you could mention that in your real estate ads as well.
- Contact agents: If they want to make an offer, it should be clear how they can reach you. The same goes for those who want you to list their property.
- Download listings: Real estate ads should have a clear download button if there’s something that requires this action.
A combination of these CTAs can be used. A real estate ad could mention an open house viewing that they could attend. At the same time, leaving your contact information allows them to reach you for any other concerns.
Mobile Optimization
The world is slowly abandoning desktops, and real estate ads should go where the audience goes! Many home buyers are now using smartphones for browsing. So, it’s important that the listings are also available where they are.
A great real estate ads creative also has a chance to make a bigger impact on mobile. Because mobile ads will cover a bigger percentage of the screen, they become harder to ignore. The image dimensions of your real estate ads should fit well on all mobile devices. The same goes for messaging. It’s important to make good use of white space so that the ad doesn’t feel like one huge chunk of text.
How to Maximize ROI for Real Estate Marketing
Achieving decent returns from your real estate marketing efforts requires your attention at every step of the process. In this sense, real estate ads are like any other type of advertisement. You need to focus on key areas to achieve your desired results.
We will discuss these areas in the following subsection, while taking into account any considerations specific to real estate ads. Maximize the impact that your advertising budget can have by taking care of the following.
Effective Budget Allocation
No one has an unlimited budget. So, you’ll always have to make hard decisions on which real estate ads you should prioritize. In allocating your budget, consider the following factors.
- Historical data: What has worked well in the past? It might make sense not to deviate much from that.
- Real estate value: It makes sense to focus your real estate ads on properties that allow you to earn more.
- Experimentation: You should set aside a budget that will allow you to experiment and discover even more effective ways to use real estate ads.
Remember, always diversify! This lets you balance the risks associated with advertisements.
Setting Campaign Goals
It’s hard to determine success or failure if you don’t know what you want to happen in the first place. Before you try to create real estate ads that work, make sure that you already have your campaign expectations in mind.
- Goals: Do you want to sell a property? Do you want to boost your reputation as a realtor or agent? Understand your goals and consider the different audiences for them as well.
- KPIs: What will you use to measure the success or failure of your real estate ads? Based on your goals, you should create key performance indicators, such as impressions, engagement rates and more.
Tracking and Analytics
Now that you already have your goals and KPIs, the next step is setting up your tracking tools. This ensures that you can monitor your real estate ads so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. For this part, you should be able to:
- Monitor incoming data;
- Evaluate conversion rates;
- Get regular reports.
Real estate ads that are not immediately effective don’t have to be the end of the road. The information and insights that you get can help you improve the returns.
Adjusting Campaigns for Optimal Results
Even if the real estate ads generated the desired outcome, the work isn’t over yet. After all, wouldn’t you want to improve the results further? Based on the data that you’ve gathered and the insights that you’ve formulated, try to adjust elements of your real estate ads. Split testing is very common here.
Meanwhile, dynamic personalization creates automatic adjustments based on the user. You may even revisit how you allocated your real estate ad budget to support high-performing versions of the campaign. Feel free to make tweaks as you see fit!
What to Consider in Deciding the Details of a Property Marketing Campaign
There are many ways to promote a real estate business. Which will be the most appropriate in your case? That depends on many factors.
- Who are you targeting? If you’re going for a high-end, luxury crowd, funny real estate ads may not deliver the desired results.
- How much is your budget? Bigger budgets mean you can advertise on many platforms. However, for a more affordable approach, real estate ads can focus on just one platform for now.
- What property type are you selling? High-end properties will need high-quality walkthroughs, while real estate ads for budget homes will need professional pictures that focus on functionality.
For consistency, any decision that you make based on these questions must be aligned to a goal.
Best Real Estate Ads Examples
To give you inspiration on what your ad can look like, check out these examples that demonstrate the best about implementing real estate ads.
- Peter Ashe Real Estate Walkthrough video: To give potential buyers the feel of what it would be like to live in this high-end apartment, they created a walkthrough video. This gives viewers a first-person perspective of the property. It definitely worked since it’s currently not for sale!
- Provident’s quality housing promotions: For this project, our team at MGID adjusted the length of time that the ad appeared as well as the specific variation that was displayed. In doing so, we were able to outperform all other real estate ad channels that the company used.
- ESSEX lead acquisition: To drive interest, MGID featured a view from Telangana’s capital in our ads. Paired with a CTA, our efforts brought in 295,857 clicks!
Use Compelling Real Estate Ads to Fuel Success and Cash That Commission
As a realtor or real estate agent, you serve many markets. So, if there’s only one out of all the real estate marketing tips that you should remember, it’s to set a goal. The approach that you’ll need can wildly differ depending on what you want to do and who you want to target.
Standing out doesn’t necessarily mean making the most creative Google Ads for real estate. It’s about knowing what your audience wants and delivering it. If you want an expert team and manager to help you create successful real estate ads, sign up on MGID. We’ll give you access to the top tools needed to maximize your profits. Let’s build your real estate empire together!
