5 Steps for Successful Real Estate Ads on Instagram
Instagram is the new frontier for real estate advertising. It’s an incredible resource that allows agents to share their portfolio while generating leads at the same time. With 1 billion users, half of which use the platform every single day, there is an incredible audience on Instagram that is relatively untapped. Only 14% of realtors are on Instagram, meaning there is lots of room for new talent to advertise on the platform.
83% of homebuyers want to view pictures of properties online before they commit to a purchase, making Instagram, a visually oriented social media platform, the perfect place to advertise real estate. Instagram is also the fastest-growing app, meaning the number of users you can advertise to is just set to increase.When it comes to demographics, Instagram users, on average, have higher incomes than Facebook users. 70% of Instagram users are between 18 and 29, with a large number of millennials [Millennials: How to Succeed with the New Generation of Homebuyers] and first-time buyers using the platform. Facebook’s users, on the other hand, are predominantly between the ages of 30 and 65. If you’re looking to reach new homebuyers from a younger generation, Instagram is the perfect place to advertise.
5 Steps to Creating High-Quality Instagram Ads
If you’ve used Facebook to create ads before, you can easily begin making high-quality Instagram ads that will generate leads and traffic for your business. Here are five quick and easy steps to promote your work on the social media platform:
1. Establish Your Business’s Digital Footprint
Before you begin posting on Instagram, you first want to make sure you’ve established your business online. The first thing someone will do if they’re intrigued by your ads is to try to find your personal site. It’s essential to have a website with any information someone would need to confidently utilize your services. It’s also great to have a headshot and a logo to best convey a sense of professionalism and trust to prospective clients.
Additionally, before you begin creating your Instagram ads, you’ll have to have both a Facebook Business page and an Instagram Business page. On Facebook, this can be done when creating your business’s page. Any Instagram page can quickly be switched to a business account, which allows you to run ads and also provides important metrics for each of your posts.
2. Target Your Audience
Since Instagram is owned by Facebook, the process of building ads is very similar. The same targeting tools on Facebook also exist on Instagram. You have lots of options for targeting on the platform, so you can show your ads to those who will actually utilize your services.
Location is the most important factor to consider when creating targeted ads. You can advertise by zip code or drop a pin on a map and advertise to everyone in a certain radius from that spot. You can also target based on age, gender, income, marital status, or any interests to create an audience that will actually use your services. Instagram provides an audience meter when creating an ad, so you can see how many people will receive your advertisement, and whether your audience is too big or too small to be effective.
3. Find Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are an amazing aspect of advertising on Instagram. Instagram posts with hashtags have a 12.6% higher engagement than non-tagged posts. Anyone searching those hashtags might come across your post, so it’s another great way to make sure your content is shared far and wide.
The golden number of Instagram hashtags is 10. This is a great number to still reach new users on the platform, but not so many that you clutter your post. Recommendations for real estate hashtags include the location of your business or the property you’re selling, #justsold or #justlisted, your brokerage, #openhouse, #househunting, and hashtags for any of the unique amenities featured in the listing.
4. Plan Your Content
There are many different options for how you can create advertisements on Instagram. First, you can either share promoted posts or ads. Promoted posts are content you’ve already shared on your Instagram feed that you can pay to push to the top of your followers’ feeds. Ads are original content created exclusively for advertising purposes.
On Instagram, you can share traditional posts (either photos or videos shorter than one minute), with up to ten photos per post (these are called carousel posts). You can also share IGTV videos, which can be longer than a minute, which is a great way to share video tours straight to your followers. You can also have story ads that will pop up for a user between stories from those they follow.
5. Get Creative!
This is the fun part! Now is the time to actually create your posts. It’s important that any photographs or videos you share are of the utmost quality. Instagram is a visual app that is highly saturated with incredible photos. To stand out from the competition, make sure that every video and photograph you share is high-quality, well-lit, and is overall aesthetically pleasing. This will result in the most engagement on your posts
When it comes to Instagram captions, less is definitely more. Keep your posts short, sweet, and to the point. If you’re advertising an open house, make sure to share important information and direct any prospective viewers to your website to sign up for a viewing slot.
4 Tips for Succeeding on Instagram
Now that you’re sharing advertisements on the platform, keep these tips in mind to stay ahead of the competition and stand out on Instagram.
1. Engage with Others
Instagram is not only a great place to share your listings and advertise your services, but to connect with like minded professionals and increase your sphere of influence. It’s recommended to schedule a little bit of time as part of your daily workday to connect with other professionals on Instagram. Remember, the more you put into Instagram, the more you’ll get out of it.
2. Share Testimonials
Instagram is an incredible place to share testimonials, especially if they are in the form of an image or video. A great way to show testimonials is to compile them into one short video, with clips of your happy customers and the properties you sold them. Testimonials are highly effective because they help build trust in new clients and can be easily translated to Instagram.
3. Stick to Videos
Fun fact: when it comes to real estate on Instagram, video posts are four times more effective than still images. When possible, try to find ways to share your services in video-form. An investment into a videographer will transform into high-quality leads.
4. Schedule Yourself
One of the best parts of making advertisements on Instagram is the built-in schedule feature. Your advertisements – and Instagram account in general – will be most successful if you post consistently. Use the schedule feature to plan out your posts so you never forget to update your followers.
Overwhelmed by digital marketing and looking for some help? Listing3D has got you covered. With our exclusive marketing packages, we use the most up-to-date technology to advertise your work to the biggest and best audience. Our packages include immersive virtual tours (created using 3D cameras), video teasers of the property, a 3D Flyer with a scannable QR code, and a landing webpage with all of your contact information, helping future clients easily contact you. With your talent and our technology, we’ll advertise your listings far and wide to help you sell your properties faster and more efficiently.
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