How Home Builders Can Outsell Resale Competitors with Paid Social Ads

The Power of Social Media in Home Builder Marketing

As a new home builder, who is your number one competitor? Some of you might name another builder in your market. But I would bet that resale is actually your biggest competitor. And if we want to capture more leads from the resale market, we need to have a marketing presence as good as or better than theirs. Home builder marketing strategies must be robust to beat resale competition at their own game. So how do we do that?

Start by looking at where they get their leads from. According to research by the National Association of REALTORS®, agents get the highest number of quality leads from social media. That's even more than they got from the MLS or their own CRM (Source: page 3 of this report).

And to be specific, 89% of them use Facebook in their real estate business, 59% use Instagram, 53% use LinkedIn, and 26% use YouTube.

In other words: including paid social posts into your digital media strategy significantly boosts your brand awareness and lead generation. This is the secret that real estate agents have known and used for years.

Why Paid Social Ads Help Home Builders Outperform Resale Competitors

One of the primary advantages of paid social posts is the ability to reach a wider audience and better target potential home shoppers. The robust marketing platforms of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer extensive targeting options based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location. Paid social ads for home builders ensure your marketing reaches the right buyers. With these targeting options, home builders can be sure their ads reach people looking for a new home - now or in the future. By utilizing these targeting abilities, you're improving the odds of connecting and resonating with the right prospects thus getting the most from your ad spend.

Targeting the Right Homebuyers with Social Media Advertising

Social ad targeting options available:

• Travel behaviors: reach people based on their travel behavior. Specifically those who recently traveled or frequently travel to an area can be used as targeted social media for home builders. For a home builder who builds in a known seasonal vacation area, being able to target travelers that might be looking for a second home, a vacation home, or even a rental is extremely beneficial.

Interest-based

• Hobbies and activities: do your homes have an amazing outdoor kitchen? What about target a dedicated fitness room? Or even a community pool and pickleball court? Well you can target individuals whose hobbies, activities, and interest match what you offer in your homes or as a community amenity. (e.g. fitness, cooking, music).

Custom audiences

• Customer lists: If you have a prospect list that you use for email nurturing, you have the ability to take that list and upload it to the platform. From there, you can begin to target your listed prospects with social ads and/or target people who share similarities - i.e. web searches like new homes available or new home builder, interests, or behaviors. Using this feature, a home builder can show their ads to people who are most likely to be searching for a new home to purchase.

Life events

• Milestones: This is a great option for home builders - you can target audiences who have experienced major life events like having a child, retirement, or moving to a new city. Wondering why this is important? If a couple has a child/children, the likelihood of searching for a bigger home is high so you want to target those searchers.

This precise targeting allows a home builder to create ads that connect with the right people at the right time - mixed with other paid marketing ads, home builders are able to create a comprehensive marketing strategy that reaches buyers at both the top of the funnel and bottom.

Enhancing Home Builder Brand Awareness Through Paid Social Campaigns

Another benefit of paid social posts is the ability for home builders to make their brand stand out online. Paid social ads allow you to showcase beautiful visuals of your homes, engaging videos of walkthrough tours or community amenities, and engaging content. Incorporating images, videos, and carousels helps you can create a strong brand presence that resonates with your target audience while highlighting the beautifully built homes you're known for. Features like these create a lasting impression and keep your brand front and center. When a potential homebuyer is ready to purchase their dream home, your brand will be top of mind, giving you a competitive advantage.

Increased Website Traffic and Lead Generation

Paid social posts not only contribute to your builder brand's awareness but also serve as a way to drive prospects to your website. By including strong call-to-actions (CTAs) in your ad and providing relevant/appropriate link to your website, you are able to guide interested homebuyers to learn more about your homes. For example, including a CTA that encourages the homebuyer to explore available homes, which directs the individual to a move-in ready home page. Strong CTAs that are relevant and placed accordingly, increase traffic to your website which opens the door to capturing the home shopper's information through lead gen forms. Think of paid social posts as your personal tour guide, leading interested folks straight to your website and turning them into potential leads.

An example of a high-performing social ad that includes a strong CTA and relevant link is shown below.

This home builder is focused on directing traffic to a specific community - College Park. The ad is successful because it combines several key factors:

• Imagery: interior images that showcase the spacious appeal / open concept
• A strong hook line: 'Your dream home awaits!' This immediately captures attention.
• Value Proposition: highlights key benefits of living at College Park
• Call-to-action: a very clear and direct CTA that prompts immediate action

Creating an appealing social ad that resonates with your buyer drives traffic to your website thus creating an opportunity to turn interest into action then conversions to sales.

Practical Steps for Builders to Create Their First Paid Social Ad Campaign

1. Define Your Target Audience: Use demographics, interests, and behaviors to identify your ideal buyer.
2. Choose the Right Platform: Focus on where your audience is most active (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn).
3. Set a Realistic Budget: Allocate enough to generate impressions and track ROI effectively.

Measuring the Success of Your Home Builder Social Media Campaigns

Unlike traditional advertising methods, paid social posts offer robust analytics and insights that enable you to measure the success of your campaigns. With detailed metrics such as reach, impressions, engagement, click-through rates (CTR), and conversions, home builders can accurately gauge the performance of their ads. Here at Bokka, we focus on the following metrics since they 'paint' a better picture of an ad's performance.

• Impressions: The higher impression number, the better. This number indicates how often your ad is seen by people.
• Click-through Rate (to website): A CTR of 2% or higher is excellent. A higher CTR means more traffic is visiting your site. While this does not guarantee conversions, it shows that your ad is reaching the right audience.

*It’s important to note that a high impression count but a low CTR may mean you need to rethink your messaging and call to action. On the flip side, a low impression count and a high CTR suggest your ad is relevant and likely generating higher quality leads.

Insights like these allow you to optimize your campaigns in real time, whether by tweaking your target audience, updating imagery, or revising messaging, to maximize results. By monitoring and optimizing, you can boost your conversion rates and make more informed decisions about future marketing strategies.

Outselling your resale competitors is about maximizing your advertising ROI, as well as ensuring your marketing efforts are genuine and purposeful. So, stop wondering and start adding those paid social posts to your marketing strategy. It's your ticket to connecting with the right target audience and driving more traffic, leads, and sales.

If you're stuck on the fence wondering if (or how) you should use paid social ads, we'd love to help. We have a proven program designed for builders to leverage the targeting options outlined above to reach more prospects and turn them into sales, crushing the competition.