Using Facebook Ads to find Motivated Sellers
Real Estate Investor · Newport News, VA · Member since 2017 · 29 posts · 7 votes
Hello BP,
I have been doing some research trying to find cheaper ways to market and better ways to find motivated sellers. I have come across facebook ads frequently, but many people are saying that they have mixed results with them. Has anyone used Facebook ads for finding motivated sellers and had success with it? Is there any one teaching any course for FB marketing for Real estate investing? All feedback is appreciated. Thanks
@Rashawn Stevens- Do you have a website? If you really want to be a ninja and you commit to Facebook ads as a strategy, try this:
Step 1- Create an epic blog post that addresses the pain points of a motivated seller (if you don't thoroughly know then research is step 1) and don't ask for anything like everybody else does. (Yes you ideally want their contact info... just not yet.) Invest time at this stage and actually create solid content because this will be your foundation for the future.
Step 2- Set up the Facebook retargeting pixel on your website (assuming you have one). I'm sure there's a tutorial on this somewhere.
Step 3- Drive traffic on Facebook to the blog post. The goal here is brand awareness, getting people over to your website and ultimately creating goodwill with someone that has fallen on hard times.
Step 4- You now have an audience at your disposal in Facebook from everyone that read your blog post and have positioned yourself in the mind of the seller that you are not a greedy savage like the 10 other investors that called them and sent them junk mail today.
Step 5- Continue the dance... Do another ad that goes out to this new audience you just created and that think you're awesome. Typically something low risk, so the seller can dip their toe in the water like email opt-in, invite to a webinar or no strings attached phone call, etc.
This process is called Facebook Retargeting. Again, I'm sure there's a 100 YouTube videos on this as retargeting has been hot for a few years now.
Good luck and keep us all posted on how it works out for you!
We are currently seeing some incredible results in a number of different markets.
➡️ The Offer:
The key to successful Facebook ads is the right offer…When doing ads for generating motivated seller leads, most people make the mistake of just putting up an ad saying: "We buy houses" or "Sell your house to us today" and expecting people to actually respond and give them their information...
Facebook ads are just like an interaction you would have with someone on the street. Meaning, you would never run up to someone you had never met before and say to them “Hey sell me your house!” Or “I want to buy your house now!” And expect them not to think you were a crazy person :)
You have to remember that the people seeing your ads are "cold traffic" meaning that they have never heard of you or your company before, so you first have to build rapport and trust with them. Especially because you are asking them to sell you their house, one of the most important and sacred things in their life.
➡️ The Correct Way:
The way you do this is by first offering them something of value instead of asking them for something…
We have seen great success running ads giving away different downloadable guides. These could be something like“10 tips to avoiding foreclosure” or “5 ways to sell your home quickly”.
Don’t worry, these guides can be created in 20 minutes and don’t need to be anything special.
Then to download the guide someone needs to give us their name, number and email. And we know with certainty that anyone who downloads a guide talking about foreclosure or selling their home quickly is 100% worried about those issues and would want to sell their home quickly!
➡️ Targeting:
We have seen the best results by leaving the interests open and targeting by radius around the specific zip code that we are trying to find deals in.
➡️ The Ads:
We usually will test out a Facebook lead form ad vs. sending people directly to a landing page to download the guides.
I have seen that the lead form ads convert better, but leads from the landing pages are slightly higher quality. So just test and see what works better for you.
💡 Pro tip: make sure your lead forms, landing pages and ads are all synonymous and the branding/look and feel are all the same.
Retargeting:
You will want to set up a couple of different retargeting ads.
✅ You will want to retarget people who engaged with the ad in any way (liked, clicked, shared) but didn’t actually enter their information. To these people you will want to simply show them the same ad as before, trying to get them to fill out their information this time.
✅ The other retargeting ad you will want to run is to anyone who engaged with the ad as well as anyone who filled out their info. The point of this ad is to build trust with the market.
You do this by showing a customer testimonial video that you create really highlighting how you helped someone get out of a bad situation by purchasing their house, or if you don’t have any testimonials yet, you can make a video introducing yourself and talking about what your company does and how you can help them.
➡️ The Follow Up:
Once someone enters their information to download a guide, they are automatically added to your email automation series. We run a 6-week automation with the goal being to introduce them to your company, build trust and rapport with them, while educating them on their options… (because most people only think they can only sell with an agent or deal with the bank)
Once a lead comes in you need to be automatically notified so that you can follow up with them right away (15-20 minutes if possible). You will first want to text them twice and then call a few days later depending on the initial response you get.
💡 Pro Tip: Since you have their name, number and email, you can also find their address using Spokeo.com
🔑 Key to succeeding at FB ads:
Don’t be afraid to test - Different things work for different markets and different offers work better depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Test everything - Images, creative, offers, etc.
I hope this helps everyone one. FB ads are so underutilized right now in the investing space, and you can literally see leads start pouring in right after you turn on the ads…so get on it!
If anyone needs some more help, I am an open book so feel free to PM me. I love helping out. Cheers!
@Rachel Rendall FYI, read this post about trandemark Infringement:
https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/93988-trademark-question
That is a very interesting thread. I'm not a lawyer, but it seems as though that would be an uphill battle for the attorney trying to claim rights over the phrase ugly houses. It would be like KFC trying to coin the phrase fried chicken. The takeaway from all of this, however, is that you need to do your research when creating a marketing plan.
@Account Closed would you suggest creating our own content- (blog etc) or finding something open source that applies?
Hi @Rachel Loduca
Yes, you want to create your own content to use as your "Lead Magnet". This way you can put your company branding and phone number, email, etc. within the guide.
You want to make the guide point people towards your company being the best solution for them. For example, if you were to create a guide called "5 Way To Sell Your Unwanted Home Fast". You could include:
1. Real estate agent
2. FSBO
3. Short Sale
4. Sell To A Home Buying Company (Make this the best choice)***
5. Auction
Then at the end you can talk all about how great it is to sell to a home buying company and how they can contact you.
Hope this helps!
@Account Closed thank you!
I am definetely up for the challenge to learn how to manage and run campaigns but am worried I may spend a lot of time & money in this space trying to learn effective marketing for FB before we are able to actually generate leads from our efforts. What would you suggest is the best way to accelerate the learning curve? Any tips that helped you? And would you suggest hiring someone to run your Facebook campaigns or do you think it's totally doable alone?
Thanks!!!
@Lucifer Vîrroc Hey Lucifer! That's pretty killer, that is what one FB ad manager told us we could expect. Can you share how long it took in FB marketing before you were generating 2-4 deals a month? Do you mind opening up and sharing a bit more of what type of marketing you are doing on FB?
Thanks!!
following
I am definetely up for the challenge to learn how to manage and run campaigns but am worried I may spend a lot of time & money in this space trying to learn effective marketing for FB before we are able to actually generate leads from our efforts. What would you suggest is the best way to accelerate the learning curve? Any tips that helped you? And would you suggest hiring someone to run your Facebook campaigns or do you think it's totally doable alone?
Thanks!!!
If you are looking to teach yourself, there's a lot of good content on YouTube, both generally on how to run Facebook ads as well as real estate specific. You will want to figure out whether you are driving ads directly to a specific offer, a lead magnet, or growing an email list for ongoing marketing as all will need slightly different objectives. You need to bring value in whatever form/offer you are providing - why would your client avatar stop scrolling through their feed to click on your ad? Other marketing fundamentals, like audience identification and copy writing are also important for creating a high performing ad.
As with most other aspects of business and RE, you have to weigh out the cost/benefit of your time and money to learn and do it yourself vs "subbing" /hiring it out.
Since I do manage FB marketing, I'm not an objective source, so with that disclaimer, but here's my opinion:
It is definitely possible to run your ads yourself. However, Facebook often makes changes to the algorithm and rules for non-discrimination in targeting. For example, there's a big change coming up that impacts a lot of the direct targeting for RE, such as age demographics) so you definitely need to keep on top of your ads and strategy.
What is working now may not work in 3 months, but if you aren't watching and testing different things, you won't realize until the leads have dried up while you still spend money and then you are rushing to pivot and find the next strategy. It isn't a set it and forget it method of marketing.
A good ads manager will understandably stay more on top of these changes in Facebook since they are in the platform every day and engaging with other professional. They can test and make adjustments to your ads as needed to ensure that you keep leads coming in.
A major selling point for my work is that you can focus on the value add parts of your RE business that only you can do- the "work on your business, not in your business" mentality of specialization and outsourcing. I also help set up systems and tools on the back end to assist with follow-up, since even the best leads won't close themselves!
Hope that helps you think about the decision- please feel free to ask any more questions or for clarification
Ohh boy...
OK how will I put this....
It doesnt matter what you use. FB, DMM, Bandit signs. Seriously!
People think that there is some magic force going on that makes FB better than .. well any other medium.
Then you have people that think handwritten letters are the magic wonder.
Then you have people think that postcards are the shnitzdik
Then you have those that think SEO is the thing of the future (ohh please... oh wait... it is!)
See my little fellow Yoomanz
As a REI you ARE a marketer. So you need to learn what marketing is. You NEED to invest time and effort understanding what marketing is.
Most of you seriously have no clue about marketing. You ask what works to others that supposedly know, and if their answer is yes then it must be true. Dudes.. stop that.. seriously.
Here is the problem with this. So everyone is amazed.. OMG 600 to 1000 dollars a month and 2 to 4 leads (dude I am not belittling you.. I am using you as a point I want to make).
So to everyone here that gets far worse results instantly say.. wow omg that really works!!
But are those good numbers?? What is the criteria to conclude something works? As long as it is better than what you are doing now? If it is better than DMM?
Consider this:
Notice these are only the leads from half a day!
So some of us get about 20 to 40 leads a week. Without spending a cent. Some of us close 1 deal every 4 walkthroughs (this is normal when dealing with highly motivated seller leads ... SEO leads).
All this for free... except for my 99 dollars a month to host my site. So this corresponds to about 10 closes a week. for virtually no money.
Why? how?
Because we do not follow others. We do not ask others/competitors what works... and then run out to do the same. HOW does that make any sense?!
In fact. I scan BP and see what everyone is doing... and I do the exact opposite. I will develop a strategy that goes exactly against the latest fad and I will always stand out.
And you can ONLY do this when you understand what marketing is!
So here is what marketing is.
Marketing simply is drawing as many people in, as effectively as possible, filtering out the duds from the studs! (filtering out the motivated leads from the just curious to see how much you will offer... leads)
So...
You need to be where people are.
Wait .. let me rephrase that... you need to be where people that most likely will want your services are.
Then you have to make people aware of the services you offer so that they realize you ARE offering what they need offered.
Then if you want ONLY motivated leads, you do NOT try to convince them what amazing things you offer. You ONLY need to convince them why you are better than the next guy.
The more you convince them of all the benefits you offer the more you will attract... well, everyone vs, laser targeted motivated leads.
Example.
1) Sell me your house, and you will get a 200" flat screen TV, and 2000K off your new car.
Vs.
2) We buy houses in cash and can close fast, before your next mortgage payment.
Example 1, will get you people that were considering selling their house, and you made it a bit more attractive to to do so.
Example 2, will attract people that NEED to sell their house fast, as in this month.
Not all traffic is the same. This is why Organic SEO leads are ALWAYS better than any ad any FB shenanigans and any DMM. Does this mean don't bother with FB and the other stuff? Of course not... BUT you need to KNOW and UNDERSTAND what marketing is. Once you do, you know what to do how to do and when to do... vs. asking others for some magic method.
Everything works, but how well it works is the question.
SO back to the explanation about marketing.
Once you know where the people are, on Facebook.. (FB ads), or in their homes (DMM), driving to work/school/grocery store (Bandit signs) you can try to intercept them flashing your ad/dmm/bandit sign in front of them hoping they will bite.
Or.... an other way (even better way) is anticipating where people will be and be there waiting for them (Organic SEO).... far less competition.
For this method, you will find people that are motivated enough for them to take action first. They log into internet, and actively do a search to find people like us.
Once your ad/mailer/bandit sign is seen and is effective, people will take action, DEPENDING how easy it is to reach you.
Bandit signs are bad because they have to memorize the sign, take a picture of it, write it down.
DMM is better as it came to them, but they still need to manually take action.
FB is a bit better, but there is just way too much distraction on FB.
See,.. NO ONE will log into Facebook TO find a way to get out of foreclosure. So the only reason why FB ads is even a thing is because everyone is there... well almost everyone. Not sure if my grandmama is on FB.... and thus the elderly will not be reached.. which is a huge loss as these often are very motivated.
But as explained before... everyone being there is not the ONLY thing you need to consider doing marketing!
So the trick here with Marketing is figuring out how to improve all these issues.
see... these 3 points shouldn't be seen as any of these points will do. NO, ALL of these points need to be satisfied all at the same time! Otherwise you are wasting time and money!
Most people simply do not think, no research, no analysis and those people will ALWAYS be followers never trendsetters never doing something better than what is out there.
THAT is the mindset you NEEEED to CHANGE desperately to be successful at marketing.
Do you know WHY I have no faith in FB? Because do you think you will be the only one doing these FB ads? No... more and more people will do it because "that is the in thing to do now".. the less effect it will have. And then again you are stuck in a saturated marketing strategy just like DMM, bandit signs etc. etc.
You need to think and invest time money and effort that will give you continuous results.
So if you were launching a FB ad, and I will do the same thing in the same market... you will lose to me hands down. Why? Because I have a super credible highly converting website I drive traffic to (if I were to use FB ads).
See what I am getting at?
No it is NOT FB Ads that is the magic thing to do and wonders will happen. FB ads should be used to reach as many people as possible, WHILE filtering out the motivated from the curious, sending them all to your money site.
So boys and Gals,
reality check..
there is NO substitute for a website. FB is SIMPLY just an other way to drive traffic to your site... improve brand awareness, and have internet presence.
Do you have ANY idea how many leads I get in because the seller checked out a FB ad, and then did a search online and they found me with a superior website?
Do
You
KNOW
How Many times??
many.
Same for DMM leads, bandit sign leads and PPC leads.
They will almost ALWAYS do an online search and they will find the highest ranking site. Period. Yes you will make some deals doing FB ads, I am sure.. that doesn't mean "it works".
@Lucifer Vîrroc I sent you a DM. I would love to know more about getting fb ads set up
Facebook advertisement is crazy cheap. Use it to supplement your existing marketing methods. You can choose your target demographics interests,age, locations, etc. It's really great.
Facebook marketing has my vote. I have used it for years now.
Facebook and websites are good to have in your marketing tools. However they require that someone be actively looking. You can use mail to reach people who haven't taken any steps yet.
Someone is ALWAYS looking!
As long as the graph does not hot 0 (even if it hits 0 people are still looking... just not on my website), someone is actively looking!
We are currently seeing some incredible results in a number of different markets.
➡️ The Offer:
The key to successful Facebook ads is the right offer…When doing ads for generating motivated seller leads, most people make the mistake of just putting up an ad saying: "We buy houses" or "Sell your house to us today" and expecting people to actually respond and give them their information...
Facebook ads are just like an interaction you would have with someone on the street. Meaning, you would never run up to someone you had never met before and say to them “Hey sell me your house!” Or “I want to buy your house now!” And expect them not to think you were a crazy person :)
You have to remember that the people seeing your ads are "cold traffic" meaning that they have never heard of you or your company before, so you first have to build rapport and trust with them. Especially because you are asking them to sell you their house, one of the most important and sacred things in their life.
➡️ The Correct Way:
The way you do this is by first offering them something of value instead of asking them for something…
We have seen great success running ads giving away different downloadable guides. These could be something like“10 tips to avoiding foreclosure” or “5 ways to sell your home quickly”.
Don’t worry, these guides can be created in 20 minutes and don’t need to be anything special.
Then to download the guide someone needs to give us their name, number and email. And we know with certainty that anyone who downloads a guide talking about foreclosure or selling their home quickly is 100% worried about those issues and would want to sell their home quickly!
➡️ Targeting:
We have seen the best results by leaving the interests open and targeting by radius around the specific zip code that we are trying to find deals in.
➡️ The Ads:
We usually will test out a Facebook lead form ad vs. sending people directly to a landing page to download the guides.
I have seen that the lead form ads convert better, but leads from the landing pages are slightly higher quality. So just test and see what works better for you.
💡 Pro tip: make sure your lead forms, landing pages and ads are all synonymous and the branding/look and feel are all the same.
Retargeting:
You will want to set up a couple of different retargeting ads.
✅ You will want to retarget people who engaged with the ad in any way (liked, clicked, shared) but didn’t actually enter their information. To these people you will want to simply show them the same ad as before, trying to get them to fill out their information this time.
✅ The other retargeting ad you will want to run is to anyone who engaged with the ad as well as anyone who filled out their info. The point of this ad is to build trust with the market.
You do this by showing a customer testimonial video that you create really highlighting how you helped someone get out of a bad situation by purchasing their house, or if you don’t have any testimonials yet, you can make a video introducing yourself and talking about what your company does and how you can help them.
➡️ The Follow Up:
Once someone enters their information to download a guide, they are automatically added to your email automation series. We run a 6-week automation with the goal being to introduce them to your company, build trust and rapport with them, while educating them on their options… (because most people only think they can only sell with an agent or deal with the bank)
Once a lead comes in you need to be automatically notified so that you can follow up with them right away (15-20 minutes if possible). You will first want to text them twice and then call a few days later depending on the initial response you get.
💡 Pro Tip: Since you have their name, number and email, you can also find their address using Spokeo.com
🔑 Key to succeeding at FB ads:
Don’t be afraid to test - Different things work for different markets and different offers work better depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Test everything - Images, creative, offers, etc.
I hope this helps everyone one. FB ads are so underutilized right now in the investing space, and you can literally see leads start pouring in right after you turn on the ads…so get on it!
If anyone needs some more help, I am an open book so feel free to PM me. I love helping out. Cheers!
Wow...
No offense meant but dude... no no no no noooooooooooo
Yes you absolutely say "We buy houses" Or "sell your house fast".
Here is why. Who are you looking for? People to CONVINCE to sell their house? Or do you want MOTIVATED sellers that are ready willing and EAGER to sell their house at a discount.
What you are doing is trying to lure everyone and anyone, and THEN try to convince the to sell their house.
You make the mistake SO many marketers make. This is not an eCommerce site where you can convince someone to buy the latest pen, when they were never looking to buy a pen.
Not all traffic is the same. You ONLY want motivated sellers otherwise you are wasting your time.
You want people that already have looked into selling their house... not with an agent.
That is exactly why websites, and SEO is the FAR better way of marketing because you automatically and inherently target motivated sellers (i.e. people that are actively looking to sell their house fast ... otherwise they wouldn't have found me on my website).
Will got get leads your way? Yes? No? Maybe? Who knows! BUT I bet you are going through a hell of a budget and effort for these leads.
@Jerryll Noorden I love your responses! Insightful and entertaining!
@Angela Russo I know I could use help in the area of FB ads. I would love any guidance you could provide. Thanks!
@Jerryll Noorden I love your responses! Insightful and entertaining!
Thank you Thank you my man.
I will be here all year!
(I paid for that yearly membership)
Facebook advertisement is crazy cheap. Use it to supplement your existing marketing methods. You can choose your target demographics interests,age, locations, etc. It's really great.
"Cheap"... is relative.. is 2 dollars/lead cheap? how about 200/lead?
The fact you can choose your target audience is an illusion. It gives you that warm feeling you are doing it right. ALl you do is rolling dice. "The odds will "probably" be better if I choose people that according to "my" logic will be more likely to sell.
The reality of it all simply is this.
Not because they have 15 houses, single, 0 mortgage, old will it mean that they want to sell.
Same as, not because one person only has one house has 40% mortgage left, means they are NOT willing to sell. You simply roll the dice. The more people blindly follow what "everyone" claims on BP (mind you without ANY backup, proof, evidence) the more this kind of stuff will become "written in stone". Targeted marketing IS an illusion!
Period!
"Free" is not. Free means, it cost you nothing. No other way to interpret this.
Sure if there was no other way to get leads.. sure it is what it is.
But.. there are.... much... better... ways... and we all know this. Don't we.
Facebook marketing has my vote. I have used it for years now.
Hey Tony,
Consider this..
The fact that you have used it for years, does not in the slightest mean it is good, that the results are good, that it is worth it. If people would just add proof, evidence to back up their claims people can really see the contribution you are trying to make.
I know you are just casting your vote and you have all the right to, and you should no matter who agrees or disagrees with you. Absolutely.
So allow me to disagree with you. Not with your vote per se, but with your delivery, intention and goal of that response.
OK so let me make that response mean more for everyone involved here.
Here are my leads that came in yesterday.
Now I will say..
"SEO has worked for me for years. I get leads in every day. Not just dumb leads... no no, super motivated seller leads. They already are convinced they want to sell.. AND they are are convinced they want ME to buy it, why else would they pick my website to enter their info".
Now my sentence.. my claim means something. It now is a quantifier. It has a value. A rating. Now other people can compare their numbers with mine. And NOW they can make an educated decision whether SEO is indeed better than their current method. This provides value.
The reason I am speaking so against your post, is because doing stuff like this WILL steer people in the wrong direction. SEO is better than any form of marketing and this is not an opinion. This is fact. Sure, although better doesn't mean that it SHOULD indisputably the only choice for consideration. I totally get that. But those are their personal reasons not to choose the best form of marketing. That is not the gist of this discussion however.
The OP stated this:
I have been doing some research trying to find cheaper ways to market and better ways to find motivated sellers.
Well, SEO IS the cheaper way and better way to find motivated seller leads. Period! Again, this is not opinion, this is fact. Numbers, graphs diagrams. Evidence!
I won't force anyone to do SEO, but the answer to that question OP asked, simply is... you guessed it.. SEO
@Angela Russo I know I could use help in the area of FB ads. I would love any guidance you could provide. Thanks!
Peter- sent you a DM last week but haven't heard back. Check your inbox and let me know if you're still interested in talking about ads!
Hi Angela! So very sorry, I didn't see these notifications until now. I just responded to your email. Thanks so much!
What are some scripts you all use when creating Facebook content to find motivated sellers? I don't want to come off as the classic we buy ugly houses, I want something unique! Just getting started with this and would love some help.
95% of the deals I close are from Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads are a great way of generating leads and becoming your markets go-to home buyer. If you're trying to find a cheaper way to find motivated sellers I wouldn't suggest using Facebook Ads. A solid Facebook Ad Campaign will cost the same as any Direct Mail Campaign. If you need help setting up your ads DM me.