I want to pose a question to real estate agents.

Why are you ignoring your largest demographic of homebuyers?

In case you aren’t aware, Millennials are your largest demographic. They make up 36% of homes sales and that number rises every day.

So why aren’t you marketing to them?

“But Brien, I do market to them what are you talking about?? I just bought billboard space, bus bench ads, urinal cakes, paper mailers and $1k worth of emails to cold call on!”

“SMH” says the Millennial (“Shake My Head,” in case you aren’t familiar).

Want to know how I know you aren’t marketing to Millennials like me? You aren’t advertising in the world us Millennials spend the most time in, Facebook.

The missed opportunity is huge.

Let’s do some math:

• There are roughly 75.4 million Millennials
• 85% of them are on Facebook
• That means over 64 MILLION millennials could be marketed to

Breaking this down to your local market still equals thousands upon thousands of people that you can market to in this demo alone.

An added bonus? The National Association of Realtors states that 90% of Millennial homebuyers choose to pair with an agent to guide them through their first home purchase.

They stated that the top benefit that their agent provided was helping them understand the homebuying process. Give one Millennial an exceptional client experience for their first purchase and you’ve created a client for life who will also happily refer you to their homebuying friends.

There are all sorts of silly reasons realtors don’t or won’t use Facebook Ads. But what certainly kills many businesses and leads to stagnation in others is lack of innovation, lack of adapting, and a lack of embracing the future.

That’s where many realtors are today, stuck in the belief that the traditional ways of marketing will yield them the best results. Most still refuse to adopt new methods of lead generation despite proof that it is incredibly lucrative. Almost as if proven results are a mere myth.

This behavior is what sunk companies like Blockbuster or the Taxi industry as a whole. Netflix was innovative. Uber was innovative. They took over.

Agents or agencies who don’t adapt or fail to innovate will surely fall behind their competition who do.

Facebook advertising for real estate is on the verge of being THE mainstream way to build your lead pipeline, connect with your prospects, build your authority, and sell more homes.

Act now, or come back in two years so I can tell you “I told you so.”

Let me know you're ready to take the next step in your marketing. Click "I'm Ready" and we'll get started!


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This past winter, my wife and I bought our first house. After we moved in, we realized something that we didn’t even think to ask about when we were shopping for homes. Our water was so hard that we could see the flecks of calcium and magnesium in a glass of water. So through the magic of Google, I discovered our town is well water, not city water, thus making it extremely hard. To remedy this, we needed a water softener.

So off we go to the home and garden show in search of a local company who could help us out. We spoke with three companies. We learned everything we possibly could about water quality (I swear I’m an expert now) and took home all sorts of information and system prices to digest.

Now, these three companies offered similar systems at similar prices. So what’s the difference, how did we choose which company would earn our business? It turns out the decision was pretty easy. Only one of these companies properly followed up with us consistently.

The Monday after the show, the sales rep called me and offered to schedule an in-home water test to which I agreed. By the end of the week, they completed the test and laid out the best solutions for our problem. Not ready to make the financial commitment yet, I told the rep maybe next month. So what did she do? Four weeks later she called to check in.

Long story short, I put her off for three months before we said yes. All the while, she politely checked it with me by phone and included me on her email newsletter every other week. In the end, she earned our business because she followed up with us.

Those two other companies? One didn’t call me for over a week and the other, I kid you not, just called me YESTERDAY. Ten months after we spoke! Needless to say, I was happy to inform them we chose the company who knew how to properly follow up with us.

Speed to the lead and lead nurturing in any business is key, but in real estate, it separates the top 1% of realtors from the other 99.

When you wisely utilize Facebook ads to build your clientele, you typically end up with anywhere from 1-5 leads per day. These leads must be contacted immediately and nurtured fully. This is why in all my discovery calls with prospective clients, I always ask what their follow up system is and how well they adhere to it. Without an effective system, your leads will be dropping like flies.

The cost of not following up properly can be enormous. For every lead an agent doesn’t follow up with, that could be one commission they’ll never see. Multiply that by the 30 leads they failed to properly follow up with over the month. There’s no telling how much revenue that they’ve left on the table. Not to mention the wasted advertising or marketing time and dollars spent to acquire those leads.
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Lead generation is a numbers game. The more leads you collect, the more you can follow up with and load your pipeline with current and future sales. Don't lose money by failing to follow up.

Ask me about my lead follow up system that my clients use to lock down new clients every month. While we're at it, we'll talk about your FB ads!
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Copywriting for your real estate ad may seem like the easiest aspect. Just say what you’re advertising, right? It’s quite possibly the most glossed over aspect of ads and it shows in many of the ads that are floating around out there.

Great ad copy isn’t just flawless grammatically. Great ad copy is strategic. It is written to get the reader to do EXACTLY what you want them to do; click on your ad and submit their information.

Agents who handle their own advertising or farm it out to someone who knows just as little as they do when it comes to copywriting typically have ads or posts that are word vomit.

Example:

JUST LISTED!!!! (emoji emoji emoji) Cute ranch at 123 street ave has all the charm in the world with beautiful kitchen remodeled floors updated bathrooms new roof fantastic master!!! (Emoji Emoji) Don’t forget the sensational patio with huge back yard for Rufus to run around in and kids to play! Open house this Sunday be sure to come visit or call me! This house won't last long! Price $XXX,XXX #annoyinghastag #annoyinghastag #annoyinghastag #annoyinghastag.

Nothing makes me want to smack a realtor upside the head more than posts/ads that look like this. Nobody likes reading this trash. It overwhelms their mind, screams amateur hour, undermines the quality of the property you’re trying to sell (not to mention your ability to advertise), and ultimately results in no clicks and no leads. If you’re a realtor reading this and this is exactly what your posts look like, sorry I’m not sorry. Tough love is a good thing.

Real estate copy is short, sweet and to the point. It should flow like a waterfall. There are different ways to achieve this flow, but here’s a pretty basic version that always converts:

• Call out the area you’re targeting.
• Give one sentence stating what’s for sale.
• Give 4-6 bullet points of the home’s best features.  
• Then (always, regardless of ad type) end with a call to action, “Tap ‘Learn More’ to receive price and home details.” ​

The top of the waterfall is bringing them in, the middle tells them what your listing offers, and the end encourages them to act.

Ad copy that isn’t compelling, doesn't stand out, isn’t easy on the eyes and doesn’t have a call to action will never result in warm leads for your listings. Do it right the first time and repeat. You’ll be thankful you did.

Does your ad copy stink? Let's get that taken care of. Click the button below and let us know.

Every day I’m baffled by the lack of real estate agents who use Facebook Ads to gather warm and exclusive leads. In fact, it’s the reason I got into this business. There’s a gaping hole in the utilization of FB ads in real estate and the potential for growth is absurd. But in addition to the agents who aren’t using ads, those who are, typically aren’t using the correct campaigns to their advantage.

I run into so many agents who are hesitant to even consider ads. I get it. It’s a newer marketing medium, in many areas it’s unused so there’s a dearth of testimonials, and it’s unfamiliar to many agents thus making it time-consuming to look into.
Let’s dive into the top 5 reasons why realtors aren’t using FB ads and why it’s actually hurting their sales.

   1.   Using FB Ads is too expensive.

Let’s knock this one out right off the rip. FB Ads is actually the LEAST expensive form of direct response marketing. Plain and simple. Let’s break FB ad spend down. As I’ve explained in a previous post, FB ad spend is calculated on a per day budget that you choose. My recommended starting point is $15/day budget per ad. So monthly, if you run an ad every single day of a typical 30 day month, you’re looking at an investment of $450/month. Depending on your area and the local competition, real estate ads on Facebook average anywhere from $1-10 per lead. For my clients, I average $1-5, depending on locality.

Now let’s compare FB ad spend to Zillow Premier Agent. On ZPA, you’re limited to zip codes you’re willing to pay for and the average cost per lead in the Midwest is $30. Oh, and did I mention these leads are shared by 3-4 other agents? And those results are based on a typical $3,000/ month budget. In my estimation, the ROI with FB is the clear winner.

   2.   I “tried” ads before, wasted money and found no leads.

When an agent tells me this, I will ask “Tell me, are you “Boosting” your posts and think that you’re advertising on Facebook?" Nine times out of ten the answer is “yes.” I’ll say it again and I’ll forever scream it from the mountain tops, BOOSTING IS NOT FB ADS!!

When you’re actually using FB ads, you’ve set up the platform from where you run ads, FB Business Manager, and it’s from there that you choose the correct lead generation campaign types. When all you do is Boost posts, you will inevitably waste money. Use the Business Manager platform (I can help with that!), choose the right campaigns and it will be impossible to waste your money.

    3.   Already spending lots of money on other forms of marketing.

Many realtors feel as though their marketing budget is already stretched thin, which I understand, you need to be smart with your marketing dollars if you want to be profitable. But you need to do an audit from your current efforts and assess what forms are actually contributing to sales and resulting in a positive ROI.

FB ads are going to be your least expensive option for warm leads and highest potential recurring ROI. And it’s all measurable. We know this already. Some of the top realtors who have allotted as little as $300 per month in FB ads have netted 30-40 extra sales per year. Compare this to spending $300 per month on local mailers and I’m willing to bet sales from FB ads will win every time.

   4.   Nobody will willingly submit their info for ads.

Simply put, this just isn’t true! Besides the fact that people submitting their info to my agent’s ads is how I make my living, people who are compelled to want to learn more from a professional and well-targeted ad will submit their information willingly because they’re genuinely interested in what you have to offer. Have you ever submitted your information to receive more info on a product, service, newsletter etc.?

It’s the same concept, people who are interested in your listing or interested in finding a realtor will be compelled to enter their information and excited to receive a call from you. And with Facebook’s targeting ability, you can be sure your ads will be seen by people most likely to take an action. When you have great advertising help on your side, the leads will come!

    5.   It’s too much work.
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Well, I can’t argue with this one! It is a lot of work to curate successful Facebook Advertising campaigns. It’s not a simple 5 click process like Boosting a post. It takes months of training, continual learning and experience to become an ads expert.

You wouldn’t expect me to get my real estate license on Monday and start closing multiple deals by Friday, would you? Likewise, I wouldn’t expect a realtor to set up an ad account on Monday and be flooded with leads by Friday. It takes knowledge, expertise, and experience in any field to start seeing results. Realtors need to be focused on serving clients, nurturing new leads and selling homes. Any good agent wouldn’t half-ass any of those duties, so why risk half-assing your FB ads? Hire an expert, cultivate your new daily leads, and close more deals!




Take your sales to the next level with Facebook ads. Let me know you're ready by clicking the button below!

As a real estate agent in today’s day and age, it’s vital to have a presence on Facebook. If you’re reading this, chances are you understand that already.

But what exactly does it mean to have a “presence?” Does it mean posting once a week? Five times? What should you be posting? How much time will this take?

Ultimately, it’s up to you. But if you’re serious about growing your book of business, you better be engaged on Facebook.

Millennials are quickly making up the majority of the home buying market and where do they all hang out? On Facebook. You do the math.

Now, for those of you agents who think just posting a few times a week on your page is an adequate “presence,” here’s a little secret you may not be aware of: Facebook has greatly cut the organic reach of posts. Down to 2-3% to be more specific.

This means that only 2-3% of your followers will even see your generic, organic posts. You’re probably thinking, “well what the heck am I even posting for?” I can tell you there’s still good reason to do so, but it needs to be done strategically. This is where employing the power of Facebook ads can make a huge difference in your reach.

By using ads, you can be sure that your ad (which can even be written to look like a post) will be seen by hundreds of people every day. As I’ve said before, Facebook has us all by the horns. You have to pay to play the game, however, the good news is that it’s extremely affordable and lucrative when done correctly.

Advertising on FB will net you warm leads every day, so it’s something you should already be doing or considering. Pairing well-done ad campaigns with consistent organic posts will improve the reach of both and can even lower your ad costs. It’s a win-win.

It should now be clear that there are two routes you can take: Only post organically and have next to nobody ever see your content...or unleash the power of Facebook ads for your benefit and have your ad/message seen by hundreds of people every day and collect WARM leads consistently. 


Have questions about your organic approach? Want to start running ads? Let us know and we can start strategizing today.
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