We’re currently in an unusual landscape for social media and Google based paid ads. Events are being cancelled or postponed worldwide, companies have re-assessed their marketing budgets, but this could be good news for you if you have a strong platform to nurture and invest in online leads now.
When advertising on Facebook, a more crowded queue of ads means less people see each ad, and advertising dollars don’t stretch as far. During times of fear and panic, many professionals and business owners scale back their marketing budgets and efforts. The majority of agents pushing pause creates an amazing opportunity for anyone willing to step up and spend an increased amount on marketing during this time of decreased competition. We’ve been spending a lot of time talking about digital marketing and advertising, especially with the situation we’re facing today. Right now, we need to take things into consideration when it comes to our ad spend budget and marketing. It’s important, now more than ever, to optimize your ad spend while also continuing to post content without a professional photographer, and being able to visit the property itself. Due to COVID-19, I started sitting down with various experts to Mastermind in order to support professionals in our industry. We wanted to help give insight into what you can do to optimize your business to stay in control, and focused during these trying times. For this session, I invited some of my favourite experts in social ads; Andrew Fogliato from JustSellHomes.com and Google ad spend; Ado Topuz from Agent Locator, to present their view on how real estate agents and teams need to focus their advertising efforts in these trying times. Both of these fantastic experts work with the top teams in our network for social media content and ads, and pay per click. We know that teams lead spend is a huge consideration, for any real estate team, big or small. We’re here to tell you how you should control your lead spend in a crisis. Facebook Advertising Andrew Fogliato is a specialist in Facebook and social media advertising for real estate agents. His company Just Sell Homes is a full-service digital marketing agency dedicated to helping real estate agents, teams, developers and vendors make a greater impact online. Facebook ads are paid messages from businesses that are written in their voice and help reach the people who matter most to them. Advertisers create campaigns that have specific goals, which we call advertising objectives and they create ads within those campaigns to help them reach those objectives. These ads aren’t new, but Andrew Fogliato says now is definitely the time to invest your money into your digital advertising. We do find ourselves in a time where you may not make your ad money back as quickly as before, so this is only an investment if you can afford it. “We are seeing a shockingly low price per ad on Facebook, almost everything is under $1.50 per lead. The truth is, it’s worth it to spend, at least, some of your budget on Facebook advertisements. People are still going to need to buy and sell their houses,” said Andrew Fogliato on the KBCC webinar. He also added, “It’s not that people aren’t moving, it’s that most of them are tapping the breaks and slowing down for a quick pause. There is still a real estate market now, and it will continue after all of this.” Now is the time to use your budget to get your ad’s out there, the only thing that is really changing within the market now, is how you follow up with leads. Instead of booking appointments with them, you’ll need to book zoom calls and phone calls with them. Advertising on Facebook will help you get leads, and organize everything so it’s ready to go as soon as this fog lifts. Google Advertising Ado Topuz is a Google advertising specialist from Agent Locator. The company is based out of Canada with offices in Sarajevo & Mostar. They assist real estate agents in expanding their client base by giving them the tools they need to convert visitors to leads. Their LeadGen formula has helped hundreds of our clients to gain the necessary exposure to boost their businesses. Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google. Advertisers can pay to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, video content, and generate mobile application installs, within the Google ad network to web users. When it comes to the actual quantity of leads, Google has seen a reduction in buyer searches, which was sitting at 16% in a year-to-year reduction, in March 2020. This means that there are 16% less people searching for homes currently on Google. As for the quality of the leads from Google, they are currently people who need to buy or sell. These are the people who were caught in the selling or buying process when COVID-19 hit, or people who absolutely need to buy a house with the interest rates and prices right now. “There has been an influx of people who are going immediately to the showing button or sending online requests, primarily because their agents aren’t going out to show them properties. These are people who are among the leads you’ll find on Google,” says Ado Topuz. The cost per lead on Google has dropped, it depends on the area you’re located in, as some areas have dropped lower than others, but there has been a 2 % to 20% decrease in the price per lead. One of the primary differences between advertising digitally before COVID-19 and after, is that agents can actually form a relationship with their leads right now. We’re all going through the same thing at the same time. It’s about being there for them and letting them know when something happens you’ll be there for them to give them an update. That is where the key is right now. Although most agents and brokers are scaling back their digital spend, there are still low-cost marketing strategies that will help you generate leads for your team. Once you generate leads, you will need to have a strong lead strategy in order to convert them into sales. A client process improves the client experience and the number of clients who will choose to work with you in any market. In the Virtually remote market around COVID-19 this step by step client process is the key to planting seeds now that will come to fruition later. Build your sales funnel by using marketing automation software and customize drip campaigns to the current tone of the market to stay top-of-mind with prospects while you nurture your leads. Leverage your social media profiles to generate more exposure and shareable content. In the end ad spend strategy at this time will depend on your financial reserves, risk tolerance, and the conversion skills of your team overall. For those who choose to adapt to the unique needs of a crisis market many opportunities currently exist to maintain or expand your digital advertising platforms.