Facebook Ads for Real Estate Investors

Facebook is a wonderful channel for advertising to homeowners because the vast majority are there. In 2021, this social media channel continued to be a favorite for people ages 35 and up. Even your senior niches are there.

Not that long ago, you could literally select to target Homeowners with a remarkable accuracy rate. Facebook knows that information through data triangulation, but I am not going to dive into that, because, unfortunately, homeownership is no longer something you can select, since the Special Ad Category was implemented.

Why was the Special Ad Category created?

Facebook has been a hot topic since they introduced the ads capability in 2007 and started monetizing based on the collected user data.

The Special Ad Category was part of a settlement it reached with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), and Communications Workers of America (CWA), which accused Facebook of allowing discriminatory practices with its targeting options. It became effective in August 2019 and was fully in place by October of the same year.

Special Ad Category for Motivated Seller Leads

Most real estate investors have a specific target area, often narrowed down by the zip code, and even those that have wide areas, from metros to states, still look for the same thing: homeowners.

All ads fall under the “Housing” category, which prevents you from directly targeting someone based on their ownership or lack thereof and potential household income. Facebook still has that information, but it requires finesse and time for the ad campaign to know who you are targeting: homeowners potentially interested in selling their houses, who may or may not have some financial issues. As of 2021, other limitations included:

• Age: default is 18 to 65+, and it cannot be changed
• Gender: all, and it cannot be changed
• Zip Codes: not available, but you can choose landmarks within a minimum 15-mile radius
• Detailed Targeting: most demographic, behavior and interest options are not available, so options are but a small sample of what they used to be
• Saved Audiences: it cannot be used for Special Ads
• Lookalike Audiences: these were replaced with the Special Ads Audience option

Are Facebook Ads worth it for Real Estate Investors?

Absolutely! Again, who you are trying to reach is on Facebook, and most are checking their social feeds multiple times a day.

Yes, Facebook advertising has become more complex, and yes, even experienced Facebook Advertising experts sometimes scream “C’mon!” when Facebook algorithms reject ads for no clear reason, because their AI is far from perfect. But your motivated sellers are spending a considerable amount of time on Facebook and are far more receptive when they are the ones initiating the conversation.

Patience is required. It takes time for the campaign to mature and a good level of expertise and attention to optimize it. However, once the campaigns have matured and learned based on the conversions (the sellers who showed prior interest or submitted a form), Facebook starts showing ads to the right people who have similar characteristics as those that converted before.

Another option is retargeting by creating an audience from a skip traced homeowner list. The efficiency of these campaigns is highly dependent on the quality of data, so a high-accuracy skip tracing will yield better results.

Why do this? There will be homeowners who hang up or simply do not answer cold calls, ignore or block all text messages, and say “not selling” or “sold,” but then see the Facebook ad and request an offer for the same “not for sale” or already sold house. Yes, we have seen it happen.

GoForClose works differently today. Here is how it works now.