Realtors & Mortgage Loan Officers were hit hard when Facebook was sued by HUD and decided to over-correct their ads platform. Now, in addition to having to display ads to 18 year-olds, those promoting housing ads must also target a minimum 15 mile radius around any property or city.
This doesn’t affect agents that work in large markets, like Chicago or New York, but what about agents that work in small markets that may only be 2 or 3 square miles?
A custom audience can still be used, however, the average Realtor or Loan Officer doesn’t have a database large enough to make this option feasible. Saved audiences are also not available.
So how is the average Realtor expected to advertise to their market without throwing dollars out the window? The answer is simple: Stop using Facebook.
A couple of weeks back, I told you how you could be a shark in a small, crowded pond. All the Realtors and Loan Officers are clamoring for what amounts to be a shrinking pool of Facebook users.
Now, the frustration is hitting a boiling point. Facebook “coaches” are out there telling everyone to stick with it, knowing that the game is over.
Recently, I witnessed first hand a conversation that went like this:
Loan Officer: “Hey coach, will these targeting changes matter? Should I move to Google?”
Coach: “No, absolutely not. Stick with my plan because it still works!”
Loan Officer: “Have you ever advertised on Google?”
Coach: “Yeah but it costs triple to do it. I spend about 98% of my budget on Facebook.”
If you’re spending 2% of your budget on Google, then you aren’t advertising on Google.
You can use zip code targeting on Google. You can use interest targeting and exclusions on Google. The platform is solid.
So why is everyone scared to use it? Primarily because they don’t know how! They hear it costs more, and they run for the hills.
You know why it costs them more? Because they don’t know how to leverage Google Ads. They don’t want to put in the up front work to run smart ads that generate higher intent leads.
But all the features that Facebook removed are available there. And a skilled practitioner can get leads for $3-5.
So think about it this way. You’ve spent how many hours grinding on Facebook leads to get them to turn into clients. And so have your competitors. I suspect if you cross referenced every CRM in a given market, you would see SEVERAL people in the same databases, receiving drip emails and auto-texts.
What if you could get 36 phone calls in 30 days? What if those 36 calls translated into $750k in commissions? That’s exactly what happened with our client Maureen.
Wouldn’t it be better if you were in the right place, at the right time when these people were ACTIVELY seeking your services, rather than passively scrolling past them among the hundreds of other posts that look exactly the same?
And wouldn’t an increase of $2 per person be more than worth it?