Remember last week we said “Print is back?”

Well, that’s true, but you can still generate quality leads online if you’re smart about it. And online leads can be a lot less expensive than your print/mail campaigns – if you do it the right way. And that way is NOT buying a thousand cold leads from some online lead service.

Generating leads online has become more powerful every year as technology grows by leaps and bounds.

So, what is the best way to generate leads online? And not just any random lead, but GOOD leads from potential clients who are actually looking to buy or sell now.

Some of the most common methods for online lead generation include your website or a site like Zillow or HomeSnap, Google AdWords, utilizing SEO, Craigslist, and Facebook advertising.

This week, we’re going to cover what has become the most powerful avenue for driving online leads… Facebook. In particular, Facebook Ads.

Why Facebook?

Let’s be honest, except for a rare few, everyone you know is on Facebook… to the tune of 1.95 Billion active users worldwide including 79% of the US Population.

It gets better though. With such a huge audience, there’s only 5 million advertisers! What an opportunity to reach your potential clients without all the noise that exists in other types of advertising.

The number of advertisers is growing quickly as others see the opportunity, and many of your colleagues are diving into Facebook Advertising… because they see how powerful it can be. Just make sure you’re not the last one to adjust the sails.

So, what’s the real power of Facebook Ads?

When you put an ad in a newspaper or magazine, you may get in front of 100,000 people, but how many of those people are ready to buy or sell soon? And even if they are, you still don’t know that they’re your target client. So, you end up paying to get in front of 100,000 people, when in reality you probably only need to get in front of the RIGHT 1,000.

With Facebook Ads, you don’t have to worry that you’re paying to get in front of people that aren’t your target clients. If you target your advertisements correctly, you can get in front of only the people you want to, at a very reasonable price. But that’s just where the power starts!

Ready to get your first leads from Facebook? Or take what you’re already doing to the next level? Follow these 5 steps for the ultimate Facebook lead capture system.

1. ENTICE. Create something to entice them.
2. ENGAGE. Build your ads. Get them to stop and read the ad.
3. TARGET your audience.
4. RETARGET your audience.
5. Capture and FOLLOW UP.

Create Value to ENTICE

Why would someone give you their contact information if you haven’t given them something of value first? Would you give your information away with no reward?

The notion we’re talking about is “reciprocity.” When someone gives you something of value, in some ways, you feel compelled to give back. A few weeks ago, Seth Price contributed a fantastic article about creating a great offer… a way to entice them. Think about something your target audience will appreciate and can use. 

3. Facebook’s “Call To Action” buttons, on average, increase the number of people clicking through by 2.85x. So, whether you’re setting up a carousel ad, or just a single post, adding “Call To Action” buttons will help get more clicks, and therefore more leads.

Just don’t forget, making your ads valuable and interesting is your primary goal.

TARGET Your Audience

As we mentioned before, one of the most valuable parts of Facebook Ads is your ability to target your audience. For Real Estate professionals, this can be an extremely powerful tool.

Facebook lets you target your audience based on a wide variety of criteria like, age, location, interests and even purchasing behavior. Beyond that, you can even upload your list of clients to target them specifically, or build a lookalike audience based on the demographics of your existing clients.

Our friends at A Social Strategy, an online tool developed to help streamline your social media posting and scheduling, have this inside secret: you can use your competition’s audience to target your ads. Think about this for a minute. You can leverage the time and energy competitors have put into their online presence to help you find your target clients! It’s amazingly clever…and almost diabolical 🙂

To do so, when building your ad start by including people who like your direct competition’s Facebook Pages. Then, make sure you exclude anyone with that page as an “employer” as well as titles such as Realtor, Real Estate Agent, Broker and any other professionals you wouldn’t want your ads appearing in front of.

But targeting for your ads doesn’t stop there.

RETARGET Your Audience

Once people have started interacting with your website, Facebook Page or videos, you can start targeting just those people based on their behavior.

For example, if you’ve been posting videos to your Facebook Page, you can have ads appear in front of people who have watched more than say, 25% or 50% of the video. At this point, you’ve drilled down and are showing ads to people who are truly interested in what you have to say, and who are therefore a lot more likely to become a lead and eventually a client.

Capture and FOLLOW UP

Whether you capture the lead on your website or directly on Facebook, the most important part is what you do to follow up. So keep providing value, and be consistent!

Remember, the optimal frequency to contact your clients both online and offline (email/social media postings and print newsletters or a phone call) is at least once a month. We recommend using a monthly newsletter that’s pre-written for you, so you spend your valuable time doing what you do best – selling real estate.