Many of you are probably on Facebook and hoping to generate leads through your posts and contacts, but there’s another way: Facebook ads. They are a paid form of advertising that shows the content you choose to people beyond your “friends” list.
Sounds great? Well, yes and no. Facebook ads need to be well executed in order to generate leads.
Follow the steps below to begin your Facebook-ad lead generation campaign:
Sculpt an offer:
In order to generate leads you need to create an offer that is tempting enough for people to give up their precious contact information. This is generally an offer of information or services that are important to them. A few examples are:
- Has your family outgrown your home? Learn how to get a bigger home – on a family budget!
- Is it time to downsize? Learn about our successful downsizing plan for financial freedom!
- See my list of houses with basement apartments – to pay off your mortgage faster!
- Learn how 90 per cent of millionaires achieved wealth through real estate!
- Learn how to buy a home for less than you’re paying in rent!
- Find homes in X area for under $X…
- An advertisement of your listing (video works even better!), perhaps without the address or MLS number so that they have to contact you for more information.
Keep in mind that you can target specific markets (geographic, demographic). For example, if you’re going to target tradespeople, mention that in the ads to get their attention. Using targeting can be an effective tool, just remember that it decreases your audience size (so you don’t need as big a budget.
Create a landing page and call to action:
Since you’re creating a targeted ad with a specific offer, you need a page on your website to send those visitors to. Create a new page on your website and write some compelling copy that will help convert those visitors into leads. Once that is done you’ll need a compelling call to action (a lead form that literally “calls them to action”). Ideally you want to make the form short (one compelling sentence, then ask for their name, email and/or phone number). The longer it is, the fewer people will fill it out.
An even more powerful way to get prospect’s leads is to send them to a page with something called a content gate, which requires them to put in their contact information before accessing your content behind it. Content gates get three to four times the number of leads.
Create an ad:
Now that you have a tantalizing offer, you can create your ad. Note that an ad is different than a promoted post. Promoted posts can reach more people for less money, but their targeting isn’t as effective and they are more promotional in nature (as opposed to ads, which are goal-oriented).
To get started, visit this page.
You may need to activate your Ad Manager. After that you’ll need to input your credit card information for ad payment. From there you:
- Click “Create Ad” (you’ll need to select the type – if you’re using a landing page click “Website Clicks”).
- Select your target audience (geographic area, age group, job).
- Set an amount you’d like to pay (if you’re running it daily the minimum is $5 per day).
- Click continue and then add an image or video.
- Next, select the Facebook page you’ll use for the ad.
- Then add your headline and text.
- Input the landing page you want them to land on.
- Place your order – and you’re done!
Now you have created your ad (you just need to wait for it to be approved by Facebook) that sends people to your landing page that will collect leads…hopefully. However, it often takes a few tries to start getting leads in, so don’t fret (or give up!) if your first one go doesn’t generate leads. Just pick another offer and try again!
If you need help (it does take a fair bit of effort to set it up), contact me for advice or setup assistance.
Robin Wilding is the creative mind behind The Lead Gen Factory and The Realtor Pipeline. The Lead Gen Factory is a boutique real estate online marketing company hyper-focused on lead generation; The Realtor Pipeline is a digital DIY platform showing Realtors how to generate online leads, lead conversion, Social Media Marketing, sales pipeline building, and more. She also leads The Realtor Pipeline Facebook group, a group for Realtors to learn new online techniques, technology and share best practices.
