6 Reasons Your Digital Ads Aren't Generating Real Estate Leads

Digital marketing ads are powerful tools for real estate lead generation. They offer crucial benefits for real estate agents that want to scale their business or streamline lead generation by offering the ability to hyper-target consumers, reach a larger audience, and track performance.

But what good is a powerful tool if you don't know how to use it properly? If you're experiencing challenges with your digital marketing ads, you've come to the right place. In this article, we'll review the top six reasons your digital marketing ads aren't generating real estate leads and offer tips for solving them.

1. Your Target Audience Is Too Broad, Too Narrow, or Just Wrong

One of the most important steps in digital marketing ad creation is figuring out the right audience to target. If you don't, you'll feel like you're taking a shot in the dark. You must have a clear understanding of your audience or you'll waste valuable time and money generating irrelevant leads.

To determine your target audience, consider the demographics (age, gender, job title, type of work, education level, income, home ownership status, marital status, family size, and geography/location) and the psychographics (personality, values, opinions, attitudes, interests/hobbies, and lifestyles) of the consumers you want to work with. Once you determine these characteristics, you can input that information into your Facebook and/or Google Ads Manager to create a targeted audience.

2. Your Ad Content Is Too Passive, Does Not Provide Value, or Just Isn't Good

If you're reaching the right consumers but aren't getting enough clicks, you must assess each part of your ad copy to see if they provide value to the consumer. A good indicator of this issue is a high Cost Per Click ratio (CPC). The primary parts of a typical digital ad include the visual content, headline, caption, and call-to-action. If your ad's visual content doesn't grab attention, your headline and caption don't provide value, and the goal of your ad isn't clear, then consumers will not click on it. Here are tips for each part of a digital ad:

• Visual Content – Use high definition photos and/or videos that highlight the best features of a home.
• Headline – Use power and action words that motivate and compel your target audience to complete the desired action.
• Caption – Provide value to the consumer, show them how your ad is the solution to their problems, and provoke consumers to click the call-to-action with concise/persuasive ad copy that creates a sense of urgency.
• Call-to-Action – Choose a call to action that fits the goal of the ad, e.g., "Call Now" if you want to speak with a consumer, or "Learn More" to direct them to your landing page.

3. Your Ad Format Isn't Optimal or Is Just Incorrect

Digital ads come in a variety of useful formats that enhance their functionality and appearance. Choosing an ad format that is consistent with your goal creates a better experience for the consumer, which increases the ad's performance and your ROI.

For Facebook Ads, the ad formats include image, video, slideshow, carousel, event, instant experience, and collection. For Google Ads, the ad formats include text, responsive, image, video, and call-only ads. Let's go through some examples of correct ad formatting.

Ad Format Examples for Promoting on Facebook Ads

• New Listing – Use a Slideshow or Video Ad format to highlight the best features of a home and virtual walkthroughs.
• Multiple Listings – Use a Carousel Ad format to showcase multiple listings that link to their corresponding page on your website.
• Website and Website Tools – Use an Image or Video Ad format to show off your services and entice consumers to click on the ad to visit your website or a specific page on your website.
• Open House – Use an Event Ad format to share the date, time, and location of the open house as well as record RSVPs and more benefits.

Ad Format Examples for Google Ads

• New Listing – Use an Image, Video, or Call-Only Ad format to show off the best features of a home.
• Multiple Listings – Use a Text Ad that directs consumers to your listings page.
• Website and Website Tools – Use a Text or Image Ad that directly links to the corresponding page on your website.
• Open House – Use a Text Ad to show off upcoming open houses in your area that links to a list that prioritizes your listing.

As you can see, many real estate ads will have overlapping ad formats based on their goal, so put yourself in your target audience's shoes and pick the that one resonates most, communicates your message, and entices consumers to your desired action. If you're still not sure, run an A/B test to see which format is more successful.

4. Your Landing Page Doesn't Provide Value, Is Inconsistent, or Has Poor Functionality

A landing page can perform poorly for many reasons. The most common include inconsistent messaging with the ad, not enough perceived value, slow loading speed, the format is off, and there's too much information being requested. Let's address each issue individually:

• Inconsistent Messaging – Review your ad copy and make sure the messaging, goal, and value points are consistent and clearly communicated. The information on your landing page should elaborate on the information in the ad copy.
• Slow Loading Speed – Use Google's PageSpeed Insights to determine rooms for improvement on your landing page. Additionally, you can dramatically decrease load times with the Lead Capture Ad type, which includes a customizable landing page built into Facebook.
• Incorrect Format – Make sure your website pages are mobile-friendly.
• Not Enough Value – Assess each aspect of your landing page and make sure it contributes to the goal of the landing page by communication value.
• Too Much Information – Reduce the amount of information requested or create a two-step form.

You must A/B test to figure out the perfect combination for your target audience. Remember to change only one part of the landing page when you do, let it run for at least two weeks, compare your stats, choose the winner, and create a new A/B test.

5. You Don't Analyze Data or Do It Incorrectly

Data analytics is key to optimizing your digital ads. Your ad's performance tells a story and indicates issues with your ads. Change only one part of the digital marketing ad or landing page when testing. Depending on your budget, run your ads for at least two weeks so they accumulate enough data to make an insightful decision.

Focus on impressions, clicks, and conversions when you analyze digital ads. Impressions indicate how many consumers viewed the ad and made an impression. Clicks indicate someone clicked or tapped on the ad and visited your landing page. Conversions indicate the consumer found value in your landing page and gave you their information. Impressions, clicks, and conversions are the steps in the digital marketing ad funnel. As you gain more data on your ads, you'll establish a benchmark for each of these metrics – how much you're willing to spend for each. Once you get a good cost per impressions ratio, work on getting a good cost per click ratio, and then a good conversion ratio.

When you optimize properly, you will generate more leads at a lower cost.

6. You Don't Like Digital Ads or You're Not Cut Out for Them

It takes time, money, and testing to discover the right formula for generating leads from digital ads. Although it is possible for real estate agents to get an ROI from them, many who struggle seek assistance from professionals. By outsourcing your digital ad responsibilities, you can cut the learning curve while saving time and money. You can let a business who has years of experience generate leads while you focus on meetings, showings, and making dreams come true—you know, the reasons you got into real estate in the first place!

Digital marketing ads are powerful lead generation tools that can grow your real estate business. Even though they take time and money to discover the perfect formula, the benefits are incredible. To figure out your perfect formula, target the right audience, use persuasive ad content, apply the correct ad format, test your landing pages, and analyze your data to find optimization opportunities. Then test, test, test!

To view the original article, visit the TorchX blog.