Do you know how much you should spend on your ads?

You are not alone.

A question I was asked recently was “how much should I be spending on Facebook ads” and I actually modified the question just a bit because I wanted to cover a little more area on this in order to help you.

So what is the ideal Facebook ad budget for a real estate agent?

I answer that in Episode #55 of The #RIBBIT Show: (video above)

So when you are running Facebook ads, if you want results, you need to be focused on the long term strategy and bang for your buck. Budgeting what you have to spend over the course of a length of time, not a one-and-done methodology.

What Kind Of Budget Should I Run?

Real estate agents are always wondering what kind of ad budget should I run, how much should I spend on my ads or what should I expect or what should I plan for? Things like that.

So I want to talk a little bit about your Facebook ad budget today. Kind of on the concept that “what is the ideal Facebook ad  budget?” And there is an ideal Facebook ad budget depending on the type of ads and things like that so we’re going to talk about that today.

We’re going to talk about your Facebook ad budget, what’s the ideal Facebook ad budget for a real estate agent.

Now if you’re in another industry or anything like that your ad budget is going to vary because it depends on what you’re running, what you’re doing and how you’re doing it all but for real estate agents we have a couple of metrics that  we can use for our ad budget.

The Four Things To Review

So here it is basically you need to have and there are four kinds of things I’m going to review today.

A Sustainable Budget

The first one is when you are establishing your Facebook ad budget you need to have a budget that is sustainable. In other words you need to have something or you need to set a budget for yourself that you can sustain over the long haul and by over the long haul I mean months at a time.

I don’t mean “oh I can do it for ten days or I can do it until my next commission comes in or I’ve got a little bit now.”  You need something that is sustainable just like direct mail. The success that you’re going to have is based on your ability to be consistent, sustain it and to keep doing it.

That’s the exact same thing. A lot of people don’t have success via direct mail is because they do these “one hit wonders.”

Well it’s the same things with ads. We have $500 so we run an ad and we don’t get anything from it and then we don’t have any more money.

So take what you have available right now and figure out how you can make it last until your next closing so two, three, four months.

It needs to be sustainable. Your ad budget needs to be sustainable.

Getting Traction in the Facebook Algorithm

The second piece is when you’re running an ad you have got to run an ad long enough to get traction in the algorithm, in the Facebook algorithm and to see what the results are.

A lot of us do an ad and within 24 hours we’re looking at the ad and  going “I’m not getting this or it’s not getting that” or we run it for 24 hours or 48 hours and we think “boom that’s done.”

 Here’s the problem. In order to have a successful ad on Facebook, to get it into the algorithm, to allow Facebook to get it out there you have to run your ad for multiple days at a time just to see how it’s going to perform. 

Typically here’s what I recommend.  This is number three. Here’s what I recommend for real estate agents.

When you are running your ads to your audiences the first time you run that ad you need to run it for $10/day for 10 days.

Now why $10/day and why the 10 days?

Well based on your…I’m estimating your audience size to be since most of us are  not looking at the entire country, since we’re not looking at the entire state we’re going to have audience sizes anywhere from a couple thousand to maybe ten or fifteen thousand.

If our audience size is bigger as a real estate agent you didn’t do good enough targeting. You’re doing too much. You’re trying too much so that’s a whole nother subject.

So your audience size is going to be anywhere let’s just say five to twenty-five thousand okay so in order to get it out there you need to run it consistently over time $10/day for 10 days.

Run Your Ads For Several Days

The other piece is you need to run your ad for several days and some places say “oh three days is fine” or five days is fine.”

Here’s why I say ten days.

Number one experience.

Number two because that gets you through all days of the week, all potential weather changes, all potential holidays going on. Things like that.

When you run it for ten days you’ve gotten through potentially two weekends or potentially a couple different days of the week that overlap so you can actually get a decent average set up to figure out what’s going on.

So $10/day for 10 days.

If your ad is producing, if it’s bringing in the clicks or the leads that you want it to bring in then you either need to scale it up or scale it down and you’re like “Why would you scale it down if it’s working?”

Well if you have other ads you want to run and you can’t sustain $10/day for 10 days on one you need to scale it down and adjust it slowly so you can try other ads but keep that ad working.

 If an ad is working for you do NOT stop it!  Do NOT pause it. 

When you stop it, when you pause it, when you change the text, when you change a picture when you change anything it pulls it completely out of the algorithm and you have to start over completely with that ad.

So once the ad is out there if it’s working don’t change it! Leave it, leave it out there. Just reduce the budget slightly a little bit at a time so that it keeps getting pushed out into the algorithm and it keeps staying out there working for you.

You Can’t Hop In or Out of the Algorithm

And then that’s the big thing. That’s kind of number four. You can’t hop in or out of the algorithm.

It doesn’t work like that. Once you’re in it you want to stay in it.

You want to keep your budget high enough that Facebook is going to keep pushing it out to the algorithm so that’s why after 10 days you should be able to determine “Well okay if I’m spending $10/day and it’s costing me $.50 per click then you know that you can reasonably bring that budget down a little bit and still keep getting the clicks through to what you want to do.

So there’s the four main things you want to know and think about when you’re setting your Facebook ad budget and I gave you the ideal ad budget for real estate agents.

So first of all you need to make sure your ad budget is sustainable over the long term.

Two you need to make sure you’re running your ads long enough to get traction and get results, to check the average of those results.

That means number three you need to run your ads for $10/day for 10 days and then if the ad is working, do not stop the ad.  Don’t pause it, don’t change it, don’t tweak it. Just leave it working but reduce the budget slightly. Reduce it down so you can try other ads.

And then you don’t want to ever stop it or pause it because you can’t hop into or out of the algorithm. You just wasted basically if you run an ad for $10/day for 10 days and you just spent $100 testing that ad and it’s working and then you pause it, you just wasted that $100.

It might have gotten you a couple leads but over the long term you wasted it.

You have to start it back over again whereas if you had just gone through and taken the time to slowly bring it down to $3 or $4 a day or $2 or $3 or $4 a day it would still be out in the news feed and then you can slowly bring it back up again based on your budget.

This is why you don’t want to pause, you don’t want to stop, you just want to reduce and increase the budget according to how Facebook recommends it of course so that you keep it out there in that algorithm.

You Only Need to Spend $100 or $200 a Month Overall

So this was actually a really short #RIBBIT episode. I just wanted you to have access to the ideal ad budget for a real estate agent.

No you do not need to be spending $500 a month to actually get leads if you’re doing your targeting right, if you’ve got your verbiage right, if you’ve got your picture right, if you’ve got the landing page right, if you are targeting people that are warmer  vs. colder and you really know you’ve got that all dialed in, you only need to spend $10 a day for 10 days.

You only need to spend $100 or $200 a month overall. You don’t need to spend a minimum of $500 a month. That’s just a ridiculous amount, That’s when you’re layering ads but if you’re doing that on one ad not such a great idea for real estate agents.

Anyway so hopefully that helps you. Let me know if you have any other questions and let me know what you think.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, you guys! This is Christina with Leads and Leverage and I am here with Episode 55 of The Ribbit Show. Welcome! If you are watching this in replay, please let me know you're here. Whether you're watching it in replay on Facebook, on my blog or on YouTube. Wherever you're seeing this, let me know that you're here and where you're watching from, that would be great. And if you're with me live, of course, let me know you're here also, there is that.

So today, I've actually got this one's kind of a big one. A lot of agents or real estate agents are always wondering, “What kind of ad budget should I run? How much do they spend on my ads, or what should I expect or plan for?” Things like that, so I want to talk a little bit about your Facebook Ad budget today. So, you know, kind of on the concept that what is the ideal Facebook Ad budget and there is an ideal Facebook Ad budget, depending on the type of ad and things like that. So we're going to talk about that today. So again, if you're watching this in replay, please comment. Let me know that you're here and where you're watching from. And if you're with me live, let me know you're here and let's get you going.

Let's help you on this journey and let's get you starting on generating real estate leads on Facebook. Wow, I am stumbling over my words today. Not sure what's going on. Hey, you guys. So today we're going to talk about your Facebook Ad budget: What's the ideal Facebook Ad budget for a real estate agent?

Now, if you're in another industry or anything like that, your ad budget is going to vary because it depends on what you're running, what you're doing, and how you're doing it all. But for real estate agents, we have a couple of metrics that we can use for ad budget. So, here it is basically, you need to have the four kinds of things that I'm going to review today.

The first one is when you are establishing your Facebook Ad budget, you need to have a budget that is sustainable. In other words, you need to have something or you need to set a budget for yourself that you can sustain over the long haul and by over the long haul, I mean, months at a time. I don't mean, “Oh, I could do 10 days where I could do it until my next commission comes in.” or “I could do it, I've got a little bit now.” You need something that's sustainable, just like direct mail. The success that you're going to have is based on your ability to be consistent and sustained and keep doing it. That's the exact same thing a lot of people don't have success with via direct mail, because they do these one hit wonders. Well, it's the same thing with that. We have $500 so we run an ad and we don't get anything from it, and then we don't have any more money. So take what you have available right now and figure out how you can make it last until your next closing. So in two, three, four months it needs to be sustainable, your ad budget needs to be sustainable.

The second piece is when you're running an ad, you have got to run an ad long enough to get traction in the Facebook algorithm and to see what the results are. A lot of us do an ad, and within 24 hours we're looking at the ad and going, “I'm not getting this” or “It's not getting that.” or “Are we running for 24 hours and 48 hours?” And we think, boom! That's done. Here's the problem: In order to have a successful ad on Facebook to get it into the algorithm to allow Facebook to get it out there, you have to run your ad for multiple days at a time just to see how it's going to perform. So typically, here's what I recommend.

This is number three, here's what I recommend for real estate agents: When you are running your ads to your audiences, the first time you run that ad, you need to run it for $10 a day for 10 days. Now, why $10 a day and why the 10 days? Well, I'm estimating your audience size to be, since most of us are not looking at the entire country, since we're not looking at the entire state. We're going to have an audience size of anywhere from a couple thousand to maybe ten or 15,000. If our audience size is bigger as a real estate agent, you didn't do good enough targeting. You're doing too much, you're trying too much. So, that's a whole nother subject. So your audience size is going to be anywhere, let's just say five to ten thousand, okay? So in order to get it out there, you need to run it consistently over time - $10 a day for 10 days.

The other piece is you need to run your ad for several days and in some places. Say, three days is fine, and five days is fine, here's why I say 10 days: number one experience; number two because that gets you through all days of the week. But all potential weather changes all potential, you know, holidays going on, things like that. When you're running for 10 days, you've gotten through potentially two weekends or potentially a couple of different days of the week that overlap so you can actually get a decent average set up to figure out what's going on.

So, $10 a day for 10 days if your ad is producing. If it's bringing in the clicks of the leads that you wanted to bring in, then you need to either scale it up or scale it down. And you're like, “Why would you scale it down if it's working?” Well, if you have other ads you want to run and you can't sustain $10 a day on one ad, then you need to scale it down and adjust it slowly so that you could try other ads, but keep that ad working.

If an ad is working for you, do not stop it, do not pause it. When you stop it, when you pause it,  when you change the text, when you change a picture, when you change anything, it pulls completely out of the algorithm, and you have to start over completely with that ad. So once the ad is out there, if it's working, don't change it, leave it. Leave it out there; just reduce the budget slightly a little bit of time so that it keeps getting pushed out into the algorithm and it keeps staying out there working for you.

And that's the big thing; that was kind of number four, you can't help into and out of the algorithm. It doesn't work like that. Once you're in it, you want to stay in it. So you want to keep your budget high enough that Facebook's going to keep pushing it out to the algorithm. Which is why after 10 days, you should be able to determine, “Well, okay, if I'm spending $10 a day and it's costing me 50 cents per click.” Then you know that you could reasonably bring that budget down a little bit and still keep getting the clicks through to what you want it to.

So there's the four main things that you want to know and think about when you're setting your Facebook ad budget and I gave you the ideal ad budget for a real estate agent.

First of all, you need to make sure that your ad budget is sustainable over the long term. Two, you need to make sure you're running your ads long enough to get traction and get results to check the average of those results. So that means, number three, that you need to run your ads for $10 a day for 10 days. And then if the ad is working, do not stop the ad. Don't pause it, don't change it, don't tweak it. Just leave it working, but reduce the budget slightly. Produce it down so you can try other ads and then you don't want to ever stop it or pause it because you can't hop into and out of the algorithm, you’ll just waste it. Basically, if you run an ad for $10 a day for 10 days and you just spent $100 testing that ad and it's working and then you pause it, you just wasted that $100. It might have gotten you a couple leads, but over the long term you wasted it. You have to start it back over again, whereas if you had just gone through and taken the time to slowly bring it down to $2 or $3 or $4 a day, it would still be out in the news feed and then you could slowly bring it back up again based on your budget.

This is why you don't want to pause, you don't want to stop. You just want to reduce and increase the budget according to how Facebook recommends it, of course, so that you keep it out there in that algorithm. All right, you guys.

So this was actually a really short Ribbit episode. I just wanted to have you guys have access to the ideal budget for a real estate agent. No, you do not need to be spending $500 a month to actually get leads. If you're doing you're targeting right, if you've got your verbiage right, if you got your picture right, if you've got the landing page right, if you're targeting people who are warmer versus colder and you really know you've got all that dialed in, you only need to spend $10 a day for 10 days. You only need to spend $100 or $200 a month, overall. You don't need to spend a minimum of $500 a month, that's just a ridiculous amount. That's when you're layering ads, but if you're doing that on one ad, not such a great idea for real estate agents.

So, hopefully, that helps you guys let me know if you have any other questions. If you're watching this in replay, let me know. This is actually a pretty darn short Ribbit episode. I think I'm only on for eight minutes, so that's really short. But this was pretty cessation to the point today, so let me know what you think.

Have a fabulous day, you guys, and I will see you on the next episode next week.