Disclaimer: We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

As a real estate agent, my team runs Facebook Ads to not only acquire new leads and increase the number of conversations we have with potential clients but to also remain in front of our market area. Our team understands that having a presence where we know our target audience hangs out is critical to our business and Facebook is the one place where the majority of your target audience will be. But many times when real estate agents begin using Facebook Ads, many come away saying things like:

– “The leads suck…”
– “It doesn’t work…”
– “It’s a waste of money…”
– “They are not ready to go…”

But let’s touch on some of these objections and see why you need to stop thinking that Facebook leads are ready to go now.

Facebook Leads for Real Estate Agents Suck

So some real estate agents think that “The leads suck…”, but on the contrary, these leads if they have been targeted correctly are just as much in the market to buy or sell as someone on the big portal sites like Zillow or Realtor.com. Even with those leads, there will be many leads you will need to weed out due to not having money to put down, bad credit, and other issues.

Are you being creative and working with lenders who may be able to assist with leads who need down payment assistance? There are many areas still affected by the recession in 2008 and depending on the area they are looking to buy, may be able to provide the down payment assistance needed to purchase a home that they can afford.

Facebook Ads Don’t Work For Real Estate Agents

I hear “Well, Facebook Ads Doesn’t Work”. You have real estate agents who are not properly following up with leads. And this goes beyond how quickly you are initially contacting a new lead. But how many times are you following up with leads that don’t answer calls or texts? Many of the leads will not answer their phone when you call. Before you got in the business when you got a phone call from a number you didn’t recognize, did you answer the call?

But properly following up with new leads takes days, weeks, and even months of follow up. A lot of the follow up can be automated, but every so often, you need to be digging back into your CRM to contact these leads during your admin days. Our team will get leads who didn’t answer the phone for months and finally months later, they will either answer or call us and say “I was working on my credit, I am ready now”.

Just like with any kind of marketing, it is important where you fish rather than how your fish. If you are fishing in a lake filled with fish who are in need of food and you have the right bait, you are in a much better position to win vs knowing the proper way to fish and not many fish or fish with no desire to eat what you have.

Facebook Ads for Real Estate Agents Are A Waste of Money

Facebook is currently one of the best ways real estate agents can spend their marketing dollars on today. Facebook gives you the opportunity to spend money on targeted leads, but also spend less on staying in front of leads and people who have engaged with your content. So someone who is looking to buy may start off by clicking on a listing ad that you may be running, and at that time they weren’t interested in that particular home, but they may want a different type of home.

You can have a retargeting campaign and budget to stay in front of this person. Now, they have shown an interest in your content and you can begin to serve them content related to buying, videos of clients that you have worked with, and other videos to show how you help buyers. With the portal sites, either the person sends over the lead information at that time or you can’t reach them again. So a person who is looking to buy and who has not provided their contact information can’t be nurtured like you can with using Facebook Ads.

Facebook Leads Aren’t Ready To Go

So you think that Facebook leads aren’t ready to go now. That can be true because, with Facebook, you are interjecting their session on Facebook with your advertisement and may not be down the sales funnel ready at the time of viewing your ad on Facebook. But they have been searching some of the portal sites or they just know that they want to buy a home, but haven’t got their credit in order to start the process. These leads are golden because you are able to get to them before even the portal sites. And at this time, you can nurture them either using a drip campaign through your CRM or chatbot as well as retargeting ads.

Real estate agents will have to get out of the mindset of thinking that if a person is not ready to go in the next 2 – 3 months, then these leads are not ready and not worth your attention. But these leads will be ready and if you aren’t intercepting them before they are ready in 3 months, 6 months, or even a year when that time comes, those leads are missed and you could have had your pipeline full of leads ready to go in the future. We have closed on leads from Facebook who were ready to sit down with us that week and close in 30 days. That does happen.

And think about it, if someone is on Zillow or Realtor.com, don’t you think that they will be on Facebook and Instagram? You bet they will, so you need to make sure that you have your business out in front where they are and get in front of them before they start contacting agents on the big portal sites.

The Perfect Real Estate Lead

Sure, I would love to only get clients who are walking about with cash falling out of their pockets, 800 credit score, and have everything figured out, but that just isn’t gonna happen. Think about the last few leads who turned into clients you had. Being a problem solver is the key to truly assisting a lead because they are coming to you because they don’t understand all of their options. Be their expert and at the end of the day, you need to have more people know who you are and what skills and services you offer that can solve their problems.

If you would like to discuss how this all works and how this fits into our R.E.M.E. (Real Estate Marketing Ecosystem) System for closing more deals, be sure to schedule some time for us to chat –
https://calendly.com/getexecutable/30-minute-1-on-1-strategy-call-christopher-walker/