Are you looking to put pre-construction ads on Facebook to promote your latest condo development or a new phase of construction in a community?
You already know that Facebook is the world's most popular social media platform. And with around 2 billion users logging on every month, chances are pretty good that there's a load of prospective buyers in your city, too.
Reading time: 10 minutes
Level: Novice
Key Takeaways:
- the best format and sizing for images in your Facebook ads
- the major mistake many people make and what you should do instead
- the one key component you need to include in your ads
- tips on how to get the best audience for your ad, and what you should do to accommodate both desktop and mobile users
If you'd like to read a summary of this post, simply click here.
Effective pre-construction advertising can help you to tap into this huge market.
Read on to find out how to make effective pre-construction ads on Facebook which will create a lot of awareness and generate a lot of leads for your project or development.
So, are you ready to learn how to make great pre-construction ads on Facebook? Awesome!
So this one seems pretty obvious, yes? I mean, pictures are arguably the most important part of any ad.
However... you've seen those ads. The ones where the picture doesn't relate to the content - at all? Yeah. Don't be that guy.
Using the right pictures draws people in and creates interest, but using the wrong one mean your ads get overlooked and are a complete waste of both time and marketing budget. Your content could be fascinating, but if it's not paired with the right image, it may never get read. People will skim on by.
First of all, make the picture relevant to the message you want to get across. This may sound simple, but it's an important step to remember when creating effective ad campaigns.
The images you choose need to be bright and eye-catching to draw the user's attention. For example, try selling the vision of your new development or what the community will look like after you've finished building there. A picture of a happy family walking near a pond, with a vibrant community landscape around them shows your prospective buyers what their life may look like if they were to live there.
When choosing colours, keep in mind that Facebook is blue and white, so you'll want to use different colours to avoid blending into the background.
Now for the technical parts:
For the best quality, use a PNG file for your image.
The size needs to be right, too. Facebook requires all images for ads to be larger than 600 pixels, but recommend a size of 1200.
Images must be in landscape. Portrait images won't utilize the maximum space given and will be easily missed.
When creating your pre-construction ads, make sure the people you are targeting with your ad receive the essential information about your project or development.
It's easy to fall into the trap of bombarding people with more information than necessary in an effort to sell your project.
Don't do it.
Making your ads overcrowded and filled with unnecessary information will be detrimental to their effectiveness.
Keep it simple and only include the essentials.
For the most visually-appealing combination of photo and text, fill no more than 20% of your image with words. Any more than that may be overpowering. More importantly, your ads may not be approved or their reach will be limited if there is too much text.
A call to action, otherwise known as a CTA, is an instruction which invites the user to do something. Facebook has created five standard call-to-action buttons you can use in your ads. They include: Shop Now, Learn More, Sign Up, Book Now, or Download.
These buttons all serve to get the reader to engage with your ad, giving your pre-construction ads more exposure and eventually resulting in more success for your project or development.
You can also make sure that the copy you put in your ad has a call-to-action, too! You don't have to rely just on Facebook's built-in functionality to do this.
The best CTAs have a sense of urgency. They give users a reason to take action immediately. Otherwise, they'll put it off and likely forget about it altogether.
You can include a CTA either at the start of your ad or at the end to remind the reader to take action.
Before you create an ad, you need to determine who your target audience is.
Think about exactly what kind of people you're looking to appeal to and cater your advertisements to their wants and needs. The type of people interested in a new condo will be much different than those looking for a single-family home.
Facebook is designed to show different content to different users, based on their individual interests, age, and lifestyle. You can use this to your advantage.
If your target audience is people aged 25-35, but your ad is set to be shown to users aged 18-65, it's not going to be as effective as you hope it will be.
The more relevant your ad is, the more views and clicks it will receive.
Facebook gives all business ads a relevance score, which is a number between 1 and 10 to show how much feedback an ad is expected to receive from its target audience.
Before running your pre-construction ad campaign, you can run tests, assessing the relevance scores of different ad styles. This allows you to make an informed decision to choose the one that is likely to be the most successful.
If your target audience is more generalized, these tips are still important. You can create slightly different ads to target specific areas of your audience, adjusting each one to the behaviour of each group.
That way, you have a better chance of getting their attention.
Facebook users need a reason to click on your pre-construction ad. Without one, they'll just scroll past it and the money you invest in your campaign will be wasted.
If a user feels that they'll get something out of clicking your ad, they'll be much more likely to do so.
Great incentives include limited time offers such as lot discounts to launch a new phase of a community's development, or to sell the last ones available. Another example of an enticing incentive is free upgrade packages when selling units in a new condo development.
Inviting people to sign up is good, but offering something valuable in return is even better. Provide an incentive for people and increase your chances of getting clicks and new home sales.
If you're looking to put pre-construction ads on Facebook, chances are that you want to get new customers and expand your reach across the market.
So what's the point in advertising to people who already know about you?
Great question.
When you create a Facebook ad, you can customize its audience in various ways.
One such way is including people who have already visited your website.
You can use the 'custom audiences' drop-down menu to include people who have already visited your website. This means that anyone who has visited your site will be shown your construction ads.
It's a good idea to use this feature so you can focus on a warm audience who already knows about you and has spent time browsing your site.
You can also try including people who have already visited a specific sign-up page, but haven't seen the success or thank you page. This is a way to target and pull back in people who may have seen your registration page but not submitted the form. These types of retargeting ads are incredibly effective for converting visitors that didn't convert the first time.
Once you've crafted the perfect advertisement for your business, you can customize the times at which it's shown to your target audience.
Facebook's Ad Scheduling feature allows you to set specific days and hours at which your pre-construction ads are run.
In order to have access to this feature, you need to change the budget of your ad campaign from 'daily' to 'lifetime'. After that, you can control the specific timing of your ads.
When setting run times, keep in mind the time zone of your target audience, especially if it's different from your own.
Also, attempt to determine the times at which your target audience is most likely to be online. An easy way to check this is by looking at your Facebook Page Post Insights. If you choose the wrong time, they may not see your ads at all.
While people generally view Facebook on mobile devices most of the time, it is still widely used on laptops and computers.
Facebook is presented differently depending on the device on which it's viewed, and this should be taken into consideration when creating ad campaigns.
Running one generalized campaign across all devices overlooks behavioral differences and may mean that you miss out on valuable clicks.
This also applies to our previous tip about ad scheduling. People may use different devices at different times of the day. For example, they might view Facebook on a smartphone throughout the day when they're out and about, but on a desktop when they're at home using their computer in the evenings.
Running separate campaigns for different devices is just another way you can customize your ads to get the most out of them.
The pre-construction ads you create aren't the only thing you need to be posting on Facebook.
As well as Facebook ads, you'll need to keep your business' Facebook page up to date with regular content.
If a user clicks your ad and visits your page only to find it bare or inactive, they'll be put off from engaging with you any further.
But coming up with ideas for posts isn't always easy.
If you're a home builder or condo developer, it's essential to have a blogging strategy. Writing about topics that your ideal buyer would find value in and then sharing them on your page shows you're an expert at what you do.
Video tours of show homes are also an excellent way to invite people to take a look at some of your work.
Don't forget to keep your Facebook page fun, too! Share things like seasonal decor ideas, tasty recipes, or fun events happening in the communities you build in.
For more information about how to create and maintain a successful Facebook page, see our post on how to double your Facebook Likes in 5 minutes a day.
You don't need to be a tech wizard to create a successful Facebook ad campaign.
You also don't need to spend hours on end at your computer to maintain it, either.
Read our post on how to get your social media marketing done in 30 minutes to learn how to be effective with your time and quickly build ad campaigns so that you're not slaving away at your computer all afternoon.
It truly is a "pay to play" field with Facebook, but that doesn't mean you need to go into the game without maximizing your advantage. Using the strategies and tips we've discussed will ensure your playbook is full.
When it comes to your images, don't settle. Make sure you're using the right imagery, vibrant and eye-catching, and that it's relevant to the message of your ad.
Please, we're begging you! Don't try to cram your ads full of text and unnecessary information. Trust us when we say it will only cause harm, like trying to gain those extra yards by running in the wrong direction down the field.
When working on your ad, make sure you've got a solid CTA. How are all those eyes on your ad going to know what to do if you don't tell them? Remember, the incentive you offer is going to play a big part in convincing users stop and check out your ad. So make sure they know what the next step is. And speaking of all those eyes...
Your audience is key. You must define your target audience - and don't forget about people who have already visited your website! We know that Facebook shows different content to different users, so use that knowledge! Ensure you do all you can to increase your relevancy score. We are huge fans of testing, and this is no different.
Our last couple of tips for your pre-construction ads include 1) optimizing for both mobile and desktop and 2) keeping your page active. Now, the types of people who use mobile are different than those on desktop, don't leave anyone out. And keeping your page active and engaged shows users that you aren't just trying to sell them.
The main thing you need to remember when it comes to your pre-construction Facebook ads? Keep your users in mind.