Facebook is growing as an advertising platform for the real estate industry. Recently, Facebook even added first time homebuyers as a targeted demographic. No other social network has been able to utilize extreme amounts of personal data like Facebook has, which makes it the most valuable online advertising platform apart from Google itself. Because the advertising platform is accessible to any Facebook user that manages a page, it's easy to view Facebook advertising as something to DIY, but unless you have an online marketing background and have studied heavily the ins and outs of Facebook targeting and ad design, it's likely you won't see the kind of return you could be getting. If you've tried Facebook marketing in the past and despaired over the results, it's likely you just need to hire the right advertiser to help you set up the ads. When you take some time to do a cost-benefit analysis of advertising on Facebook, you'll see that it's really a no-brainer to funnel some of your advertising dollars into this channel. Depending on if you're working with an agency or doing this solo, as a builder you can get excellent results just by spending around $2,400 to $5,000 over the course of a year. The benefits you get are threefold: awareness, traffic, and leads. Those benefits also lead to other wins in SEO: reviews on your Facebook page, Facebook fans, and link building opportunities through content sharing. All of these things can contribute in a positive way to your Google ranking. And considering what you might pay for one print ad that runs for a limited time and reaches a limited audience, a year's worth of targeted, trackable awareness marketing alone justifies the cost. Leads from Facebook should be looked at as icing on the cake. If you're running Facebook ads for the sole purpose of lead generation, you're probably better off investing in Google Adwords. When you consider the value of the awareness, traffic, and leads you're getting for less than $5,000 a year, when you do happen to get a lead that turns into a sale, you're already profiting from the advertising. To illustrate how Facebook can play a role in your lead generation, here is a story of an interested homebuyer who came to our client's site several times before converting. Let's call her Amy. Amy first came to the site on June 4th, 2015 after discovering our client's site via a Google search. She stayed for about 7 minutes and then left. About an hour later, she went back to the site via direct entry and browsed for another 7 minutes. She came back the next day for less than a minute, and then didn't visit the site again until June 26th. On June 26th, she saw our client's Facebook post directing first-time homebuyers to a landing page on their site with their starter home plans and a form to fill out for more information. No pages on their site address this demographic specifically, so we created a hidden landing page on the site to use with Facebook ads in order to provide more targeted content (which hopefully would increase conversions). Amy clicked this link and went to the first time homebuyers landing page, where she filled out the lead form. Our client contacted her and set up a meeting for the next week. Since her meeting, Amy has been back to the site twice, both times through Facebook. Amy initially discovered our client through Google search and showed genuine interest based on her visit, but it was actually Facebook that brought her back to the site after a 3-week absence and ultimately helped drive her to convert. Home builders can't rely on Google search alone to bring leads to their website. Sometimes even the best referrals from Google drop off the map until they stumble upon you through a remarketing ad or some other channel like Facebook. It's important to extend your reach online however you can through inbound marketing. We especially recommend Facebook since it gives back multiplying returns for a minimal cost. Have questions about this post or want to learn more about inbound marketing for SEO? Email your questions to abby@builderdesigns.com or give us a call at 913-393-3367.