How to convert your Facebook ads into seller leads… this is probably the most asked question I get, ever.

Actually, the original question I got was this:

“…we struggle with utilizing Facebook ads to generate seller leads. We certainly don’t skimp out on our budget. We are spending about 30 bucks a day trying to get leads to get into our sales funnel but are not getting results. Our target audience is about 4000 fb users. Is that too small?”

But the underlying question is… how do I get seller leads from my Facebook ads.

I’m diving into this in this episode of The #RIBBIT Show: (video above)

The real issue here is that unless you analyze each step of the process, you can’t cherry pick a step and determine if that step is the problem or the solution.

Watch the video, I walk through it with you.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hello! This is Christina with Leads and Leverage and I just want to welcome you to The Ribbit Show! Every week I hop on here live with you on Facebook and I answer your questions and I go a little bit more in-depth than some of my shorter answers. So today, I actually want to help. I got a question from one of my members and the question is, he said,  “I’m struggling using Facebook ads to get seller leads. I spend about $30 a day but no results. My target audience is about 4,000. Is that audience too small, etc.” So actually that’s not just the question I’m going to answer “Is the audience too small” I’m actually going to answer the whole struggling with getting seller leads on Facebook. So, I’m going to help you guys with that.

This is Christina with Leads and Leverage. Thank you for joining me if you are watching this in replay, please comment below and just let me know where you’re watching from. I like to know where you guys are watching from and let me know. The other thing I would love it, if you’re watching this live or in replay, I would love it if you guys would let me know if you have ever run a Facebook ad. I’m trying to determine (for your real estate business, specifically) so I’m trying to determine kind of where you guys are in the process. If you run ads and you’re just not getting results, if you haven’t run an ads yet because you’re not quite sure what to do or what to set up. Let me know that in the comments, that would be great.

Hey, Donna! Hey, guys! Welcome! Thanks for hopping on. So let’s dive into this a little bit. Don’t forget to tell me that you’re here.

Let’s dive into the first part of this, so basically the overall theme to this video is helping you get those Facebook ads to convert to leads. That’s the goal right there. So here’s the thing, the original question said you know “I spent thirty dollars a day, my target audience is about 4,000. Now, the first piece of this is it’s not about the money, it’s not about how much you spend every day. What it is about is the process, so there is no one thing that makes it all work, it’s actually multiple things. So, when you’re running your ads when we think about, you know, the question said, “You know, I’m struggling, I’m spending this much every single day, here’s my audience size, is my audience too small.” I can see where the agent is focusing - that the audience size might be too small - but the problem is that there’s a whole lot of things that it could be not just the audience. So, welcome you guys thanks for joining! I’m going to do this if you’re watching this on YouTube and replay this is a Facebook live stream, it’s The Ribbit Show. So, there’s a little bit of breakup. It's not one of my consistent videos where I just answer the questions and for all you guys who are on live, thank you! Let me know that you’re here, where you’re coming from just comment below. I’m answering the questions that are basically going to help you get those Facebook ads to convert to seller leads. So, the first thing is it’s about a process; it’s not about a one thing.

You can’t just say “Is my audience is too small?” when I have really no idea who that audience is or a number of things, so let’s go on. The thing is when you’re running Facebook ads, you have got to always, always have at the very forefront of your mind; the very forefront is you have to be thinking, “What is the logical next step for the consumer?” Not for you or not what you want them to do next necessarily or what you think they should do next but what is really the logical next step for the consumer. For example, if they see your ad in the Facebook News Feed we, as real estate agents,  want them to go through and give us their name and phone number and say, “Hey! I’m ready for a listing appointment.” That is not the logical next step FOR THEM. So you have to always be thinking about the logical next step for the consumer.

So if they see your ad in the news feed first of all you’ve got to realize that they’re being hit with a whole lot of stuff. There’s a lot going on and a lot of noise. So, you need to make the logical next step - small, bite-sized, and just a first step - if that is simply to go to a source or go to a landing page where you can pixel that audience, that would be the logical next step. Our goal with our ads is not to get to an appointment, that’s the ultimate goal, but you’re going to think about the process that the consumer is willing to go through and actually wants to go through. And then you have to move them through their little steps to get them there, so always be thinking about the logical next step when you’re running your Facebook ads - their logical next step, not yours.

And the thing is, when you have an ad, a lot of time, as agents, we’ll set up a target audience, like this one has 4,000 people in it which is not too small, but we set up an audience and we just kind of hit the same people over and over again with the same ad. So, we create an ad, picture, words, link, home value ad, let’s say, and we just start running it. And we’ve put more and more money to it we run it, run it, run it, run this. So, basically, we’re just hitting the same people over and over again with the same message and that’s kind of useless and it’s actually a waste of your time and    money to do that. What you need to be doing is to really convert leads, first of all, you need to make sure that your Facebook targeting is on point and so many of us, what we do is we get so myopic, so microscopic with our choices that there’s really no audience, that’s first of all, the audience is too small.

The next thing is we try to project; we project things like who’s most likely to be on Facebook or we try to project that this age range or who is most likely be able to afford a house or whatever. Really, on Facebook, what you want to do is remember it is always better to target sellers, first of all, especially move up sellers because the data is very accurate. All of the other data relating to likely to move or renters, not so accurate; homeowners, really accurate. So you want to target zip code and homeowner, that’s your primary thing that you want to start targeting.

The next thing is your message. So, you can’t keep doing the same message, you’re going to have to create multiple messages. What do they want to hear? What do they need help with? What’s the logical next step? If they’re on their phone on Facebook waiting in line for something and your ad scrolls through and they get interrupted, are they likely to remember you or come back? No. If they click on your ad and they get interrupted, do you have logical information that’s in line? Does it look exactly like the ad where you’re taking them so that when they come back to their phone so you don’t they haven’t forgotten? Or they’re quickly reminded of why they’re there and what they were doing? So, there’s that.

You need to make sure the message, you have multiple messages,  because people have multiple different problems that they want solved and they want done. So you want to make sure that you have a lot of messages, not just one, not just here-get-your-home value, you want a lot of messages. So when you’re targeting an audience you need to target them with a lot of different ways, a lot of different things that you’re going to say. Your image is, see, a lot of times we just do a home value and we’ll run an image of houses, okay? Well, that’s great! They have to be thinking already about wanting the home value of their house. They have to be kind of ready and primed, but really the next thing would be to find some different pictures that speak your message, but don’t necessarily sell your product. So, I know that sounds funny, but again with the logical next step, what is the logical next step for that consumer within that message?

So if you have a specific message, for example, let’s say that you want to hit move up buyers. So they own a home, you’re using zip code homeowner, and they own a home and you want to target people because you’ve got a listing in a golf course community. Now, you’re not going to just target them with that single listing. What you are going to do is find people in that zip code who are homeowners, who have an interest in golf, and then you’re going to run an IDX Home search to golf course homes to that targeting audience. And you’re going to see it different ways; you’re going to be hit them with different things, maybe they just want to walk out their back door and play golf everyday. Maybe they want a place to store their golf carts, maybe they just really like the idea of having a groomed community because of the golf course. Maybe they’re snowbirds and they want something that’s a little less to maintain than it would be if you had eight grades or something like that. I mean, I’m just making multiple different messages that that kind of interest would have so you need to run your ads around those multiple messages.

So now that you’re targeting, you have a message, you have an image but your landing page. All of these things I can’t tell you why your ads aren’t working because it could be anyone of these things. Then the landing page actually needs to be set up for conversion. I can tell you right now that you probably need lead pages not some real estate created one, not any others because lead pages, actually,  are the best at converting so you probably need a lead page or landing page, first of all. And it needs to see the exact same thing as the message that you just got them to click through on through the ad. So, yes, you’re going to have multiple landing pages.

And then of course you need to have where you’re going to drive them - you’re going to drive them into your email database. And so then you need to send them emails every single week. Every single week. Every single week. Did I say that three times? You need to send emails every single week and not hereby this come to this open house and do this. You need to actually start building a relationship with them, you need to start helping them with more of their questions, more of their logical next step. Help them through that process just to help them so that they feel secure that, “Hey, this person’s got my best interests at heart!”. So you need to do that and then you need to repeat the process.

You need to then keep running different ads, different things, you need to send them emails, ask them what their problems are, help them with their problems and questions. So in other words, this whole process, it’s not a “do an ad, get a lead.” It is a journey for both you and the consumer and you need to go on that journey with them and figure out what are they willing to do next. It’s very very microscopic, it’s small. The consumer, the lead, lead before you know them is willing to do tiny little bits and it’s almost like you’re rewarding them for each step that they do. Give them something of value every single time they do something so when they actually click through on your ad, give them what the ad says that you’re going to give them. Don’t hound them with anything else.

Then, send them an email with more giving to help them then keep doing that, keep solving their problems golf course homeowners, I’m using this as an example, they have a plethora of problems.  I mean how do you keep the dings out of your siding with siding is recommended? What can you do to prevent damage to your vehicles from the golf balls? I mean, all these things, tell them about the golf course community, all this kind of stuff. So there’s a lot that they want to know and the thing is it seems like a lot of work, but it’s actually not because you do it once and then you reuse it a lot. So it’s pretty much it.

Let me recap all that, but let me say hi to everybody who’s hopped on. Hi, Aliyah! Hi, Jerry! Hi, Chris! Hi, Donna! Hey, you guys, looks like Donna is struggling a little bit. Facebook keeps knocking you out of. I don’t know what that is Facebook or Wi-Fi, I’m not sure what it is, sorry about that! I hate that you’re getting knocked out of it, but hopefully you’re getting something from this. So, let me just kind of recap that real quick, not the welcome but the actual how to convert the leads. It’s not just how much you spend, it’s not just your audience size, it is a compilation of everything. You need to have the right targeting and you have need to have the right message, multiple different messages, not any chat, multiple different ads with a different message in each one, a different image that suits the message, a different landing page for each message, and you need to have a series of you creating them. Not necessarily auto-responders, but emails that you send out every single week building a relationship with your database, the people that you brought into your database and you just need to keep repeating this.

Repeating this, repeating this, and repeating this. This is not a one-time thing; a lot of times we put an ad out there and think why is it not working. And we have to analyze each aspect of the thing. It’s not just, you know, we used to put ads in newspapers and go, “Okay, we got leads from that one so let’s do that one again.” And then it doesn’t work the second time and that’s just like them, looks like a one thing ad. This is a whole series, it’s a whole journey, so you need to look at the whole journey on each step: Was the audience targeted? Did you have the right audience? Did you have the right message? Did you do multiple messages? Did you just keep hitting them with the same message over and over again? This is where home value ads tend to suck! They work very briefly and then they suck.

One, because people are actually always looking for their home value; that’s a big thing. And two, we keep hitting the same people over and over and over and over and over again and with you keep doing the same things, you’re going to get the same results, you’re not going to get the results that you want. You need to have a different message. You need to have something else that they need help with, you need to answer a different question, solve a different problem. So, multiple different messages, multiple different images, different ads, different landing pages, a different landing page for each message and ad, and then emails. And so basically, wash-rinse-repeat, that’s how it works, that’s how it keeps going. And the key to this whole thing, you’ve got to build that email database; that email database is going to be your business.

So yeah, it’s great to run ads on Facebook, that’s awesome! But if you aren’t building your email database and getting people into your database, they’re just commenting on your ad or blah blah blah on Facebook. You need to get them in your database, that’s the goal. Because once they are in your database and a lot of agents don’t know how to do this, but once you’re in their database that’s where you can actually build a deeper relationship with them. Offer more value with them etc.

[Laugh] Cherry, you don’t have to turn off the ad but if that’s what you’re experiencing is just hitting the same ad, same picture, same message, hitting the same people over and over again, that’s why it’s going to become ineffective. Now you can do multiple different types of home value ads. Different types based on different things but you just want to make sure you walk through the process. Cherry’s actually one of my members so she’s going through a lot of the trainings and stuff and she’s been going through it for almost two years now, I think maybe three years. So going through all that and getting different things to work. Yes, yeah, Cherry that’s perfect and that’s a really great example. It got great results but not recently. I need to try something new, yes, so I would take that ad. Run it to a different audience that you’ve already targeted and then I would create new ads for your other existing audience just so they’re not overwhelmed with the same message.

All right you guys, so that's how you convert them. I know there’s a lot of other elements in there that would take way too long to do on a Facebook live stream, but hopefully your understanding that it’s not just how much you spend every day. You can keep throwing more and more money at the same problem and it’s not going to change anything. It’s really it’s about your targeting, it’s the whole equation, it’s the whole recipe; if you leave a piece out it’s not going to work and a lot of times it’s hard to go backwards and figure out what we left out.

So it’s like baking bread and you forget the yeast, you know, you can’t salvage it you gotta move it aside and start over. So always remember you need to make sure your target is on point, you need to make sure your message is on point in the ad, the image in the ad, the landing page that you’re driving people to, the emails that you’re sending after that, and then you need to repeat the process and don’t keep sending the same message to the same people, you need to have multiple messages. All right you guys so hopefully this is good.

That’s good! That’s the other piece, you guys. Remember you need to have follow-up! So Donna is sharing right here, so this is good. Donna said, “I just got a call today from a home seller, from a home value ad, she responded to two months ago” and put her on a send out cards campaign I give all my members of send out cards account with points in it so that they can send cards automatically and it gives them the campaign and she called. She said, “I put her on her set up cards the campaign and she called me after receiving the last piece of the campaign, I keep the campaign is either eight or ten (I think it’s eight or ten pieces) over a two-month period. For people to get them to respond, to move them through that gateway, to show them that you’re not just about the deal (although the deals awesome) so you’re not just about the deal it’s about the real relationship, and then going, “Okay, this person actually is interested in a little bit more than just a commission check.” So anyway, yes, that’s a perfect example, Donna.

One of the things we’re doing is we’re running a lot of ads and if we get leads we’re just looking for the ones who are ready right now and then we’re not doing anything with the rest. So Facebook lead generation is like every other piece of lead generation - we have to have a follow-up process - a long term, like multi-year follow-up process going and even if we’re building it as we’re going along,  it needs to be going. It needs to be in place and moving along. That’s awesome, Donna! So she was very impressed with the marketing pieces and wants to meet me. That’s awesome! Sounds good!

Okay, Bob said, “How do we get to send a cards campaign that you used, Donna?” Bob, if you are a member of Leads and Leverage, if you ask this in the Facebook group and you tag Charis in the private Facebook group for members, if you have a send out cards account or we can get you the new send out cards account. If you don’t have a send out cards  account with Leads and Leverage, I’ll give you one, tag Charis and say, “Hey, could you send out cards in that campaign?” and she’ll help you in there. If you are not a member, I’ll give you a send out card account. It doesn’t have any points on it, but I can just open an account for you. Members get one with points, members get the campaigns, etc. So I don’t know where you are or what you are, I mean, whether you remember or not but that will help. Any other questions, guys? Anything else? This is awesome! I love Ribbits. I love them.

I’ve got some good questions coming up for you guys that I’ll be answering over the next couple of weeks. Okay, so, Bob if Charis has already set you up with an account, thank you! I thought you  are a member but I wasn’t positive. If Charis already has, go in the group or send an email right to charis@leadsandleverage.com and what she’ll do is just say, “Could you send me the partial address campaign.” I think that’s what it’s called, right Donna?

Ryan says, “My page looks so different than everyone else. What did I do wrong?” Ryan, put that in the group then also we’re going to do another hot seat so maybe you should be on that other hot seat. I will put this to a hot seat schedule on there (and try and make sure) send email to Charis at charis@leadsandleverage.com and ask her to put you in line for the next hot seat so we can go through your page. Lena’s page is coming along, our database is coming along. That is the key, build that database! Yes, Donna, would you let Charis know so she can get back to Bob, that’ll be great.

All right you guys if you have questions, if you’re watching this on YouTube after the FAQ, go ahead and put your questions below. If you’re watching this on Facebook after the FAQ as in replay, please let me know that you’re here. Let me know where you’re popping in from and let me know your questions, they really help, that should be awesome.

Ryan, please make sure to email Charis so you could get on to the next hot seat. Bob, email Charis and Donna just to make sure Charis knows. Yes, do all those things. You guys are awesome! Thank you so much for being here with me and I will see you all at the next Ribbit! Have a fabulous afternoon, you guys!