Google & Facebook: Digital Strategies that Actually Work

We don’t have to tell you how important it is to have a strong digital presence. Among nearly all generations of home buyers, the very first step is to look for properties online. In fact, 74% of buyers across all generations (and 92% of home buyers 37 and younger) frequently search the internet for their home in 2018. In addition, there are over 2.20 billion monthly active users on Facebook, with five new profiles created every second. That’s a lot of buying power.

Google and Facebook are easily the most impactful tools for digital advertising. BoomTown teamed up with our Google and Facebook Partners at BoomTown UNITE 2018, to share their insight on digital strategies that actually work .

Meet your panelists:
Tyler Johansson – Google Partner
Raya Khayat – Facebook Partner
Dotty Bell – BoomTown Digital Marketing Team Manager

Full-Funnel Strategy

Always have the “full-funnel” on the back of your mind when you run an ad campaign. Building brand awareness and getting exposure (top of the funnel), will align with Facebook Live and videos, whereas converting a lead (bottom of the funnel) will align with maybe a carousel ad, or a lead ad.
 

Raya: “There are two levers to the success of any campaign.

• Targeting – Making sure you’re targeting the right people. Either by using advanced targeting (custom and lookalike audiences), or just targeting geographically and making sure you have a broad reach.
• Creative – Users scroll at the average speed of 1.7 seconds on the user feed – this is extremely fast! Even if you’re targeting the best leads, you don’t want them to just keep on scrolling. We recommend engaging video. You have to catch them within the first 3 seconds.”

Behavioral and Advanced/Lookalike Targeting

Raya: “The lookalike audience is basically, you send in a list of your current leads, and the Facebook algorithm will find leads that “look” like them, with the current behaviors and behavioral traits that they have. You can definitely control that reach and frequency within our tools, to make sure that you’re not overwhelming them. The frequency that I recommend is 1-3 times.”
 
Keep the content fresh. Once you see that the ad has landed with your target audience, swap it out with a new video, or switch it up to a carousel ad or go live. You don’t want to hit you audience with the same ad over and over and over.
 
Always be Testing! Content works differently for different teams in different markets. We recommend that you test as much as possible. Try all different types of advertisements and see what works best for you.

Partner with Your CRM to Maximize Your Advertising Spend

If you have already begun digitally marketing for your business, you’ve likely explored Search Engine Marketing (SEM) through Google Adwords (Pay-Per-Click), as well as optimizing your website to get more organic traffic through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In conjunction with Facebook advertisements, this is the bulk of your digital strategy. So how can you maximize the money that’s in your ad budget and get the lowest cost per lead (CPL)?
 

Learn More About Lead Generation with BoomTown. Click Here

Tyler: “When you’re just getting started out it’s not a bad idea to try to self-manage, get educated, and have a useful conversation with a partner such as BoomTown. But then you get to a certain size where the cost of those mistakes, or just the cost of your time, where your time is better spent bringing in the revenue and making the sale. It’s probably better at that point to look for outside help and leverage BoomTown and their partnerships to say… “help me invest my dollars.” Really that’s where the difference lays, when digital marketers take that leap, and they start to see digital marketing as a driver of revenue, rather than a cost source.”
 
Raya: “You guys already have so much on your plate, with calling leads, nurturing them – I think the stat was, 26 times to call – it’s a lot of calls, it’s a lot that you’re already doing. I consider BoomTown to be this additional hand… it’s this 1 + 1 = 3 approach.”
 
Furthermore, if you work with a CRM partner like BoomTown that has a digital marketing team, consult with them on the cost-per-lead (CPL) you’re looking for. At BoomTown, we work closely with you to reach your business goals. We can give insight into similar CPL’s in your area, as well as recommendations for how to allocate your budget.

Facebook Pixeling (What is it?)

Raya:
“Facebook Pixel, in short, is a piece of code that you place on the back end of your website. It tracks your funnel – going from the ad on Facebook or Instagram, when they convert on your website, and the steps that they take once they’re on your website. You can track people that actually view your properties, add to carts and products, or just search for different types of things.
 
The piece of code “fires” when someone takes an action. Facebook tracks it, but it also optimizes. Let’s say you want to optimize for people viewing your property. You can tell Pixel that that’s the ‘event’ that you want to optimize for, and then our algorithm will find the people that are most likely going to view the property based on the signals it gets from the website. Data that we learn from the system and your website, to optimize and get better leads are more efficient CPLs.”

Best Performing Ads for Real Estate

For real estate professionals, Facebook Live, video, and carousel ads are the best performers.

• Facebook Live: This is one of the best strategies for top-funnel marketing, which means getting brand recognition and getting face time with your leads. It personalizes you and helps leads feel connected to you as a trustworthy agent. Additionally, Facebook live has 10x more engagement than regular videos.

 



 

• Video: While Facebook live videos should be at the top of your list, don’t ditch regular recorded videos on Facebook! “Video is still one of the best things to use, because it’s super engaging, and your making sure that you’re really capturing peoples’ attention.”

 

• Carousel Ads: Carousel ads are one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website. This is for the bottom of your funnel, when leads are ready to convert. They are scrollable, engaging, and paired with good copy and photos, they can be invaluable.

 

Recycle Content Across Platforms

Content takes time. Every video or advertisement that you create was time out of your day, so why not get the most possible use out of it. While you need to continuously add fresh content onto one platform (don’t bore your audience with the same ad week after week on Facebook), you can share across platforms to maximize exposure.
 
Share on Instagram, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, your personal Facebook page, email blasts, the blog on your website, etc. This is improving your organic search on Google as well.
 
Additionally, keep a personal library of your content so that you can recycle anything that is still relevant down the road.

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