How to Advertise Real Estate on Facebook

Advertising your real estate business on Facebook can feel like the single most effective way to reach qualified buyers and sellers in your local market. This guide will walk you through setting up, targeting, and running campaigns that generate real leads, from understanding special ad categories to crafting visuals that make people stop scrolling. We’ll cover everything you need to create a system that consistently brings new clients into your pipeline.

Why Facebook is a Goldmine for Real Estate Agents

Before jumping into the setup, it’s helpful to understand why Facebook ads work so well for real estate. Unlike traditional advertising methods like flyers or billboards, Facebook gives you an unparalleled toolkit to find exactly who you’re looking for. It comes down to three main advantages:

• Hyper-Specific Targeting: You can reach people based on their potential interest in buying a home, recent life events like getting married or having a child, or even their engagement with real estate platforms like Zillow and Trulia. You can zero in on potential clients with a level of precision that other platforms can’t match.
• Visual Storytelling: Real estate is fundamentally visual. Facebook’s platform, especially with placements like Instagram Reels and Stories, is designed for beautiful photos and captivating video tours. You can showcase a property in a way that helps potential buyers emotionally connect with the home before they ever set foot inside.
• Direct Lead Capture: With tools like Facebook Lead Ads, you can capture a potential client's name, email, and phone number directly within the app. This removes the friction of sending them to an external website, dramatically increasing the number of leads you can generate from your ad spend.

Getting Set Up for Success: Your Foundation

A successful ad campaign starts with a solid foundation. If you try to run ads from your personal profile or an incomplete page, you’ll not only look unprofessional but also miss out on powerful advertising tools. Take a few minutes to get these three things in order.

1. Create a Professional Facebook Business Page

Your Facebook Business Page is your professional hub. It’s where potential clients will go to learn more about you, see your listings, and read reviews. It’s also a requirement for running ads.

Your page should include:

• A professional headshot as your profile picture and your brokerage’s logo (or a team photo) for the cover image.
• A complete "About" section outlining your specialty, areas served, and what makes you unique.
• Contact information, including your phone number, email address, and a link to your website.
• A clear call-to-action (CTA) button like "Contact Us" or "Learn More."

Regularly post content like new listings, behind-the-scenes moments, client testimonials, and helpful market updates. An active page shows people you're an engaged, knowledgeable agent and builds trust for when they see your ads.

2. Set Up Meta Business Suite (formerly Business Manager) and Ad Account

Think of Meta Business Suite as the central control panel for all your Facebook and Instagram marketing activities. It keeps your business assets (your page, ad account, etc.) separate from your personal profile. If you plan to work with an assistant or marketing agency down the road, this tool makes it easy to grant them access without giving away your personal login information.

Inside the Business Suite, you’ll create an Ad Account. This is where you’ll manage your billing, payment methods, and all your ad campaigns.

3. Install the Meta Pixel

The Meta Pixel is a small piece of code that you install on your website. Don't let the word "code" scare you. Most modern website platforms like Squarespace, WordPress, and Wix have simple integrations where you just copy and paste an ID number - no actual coding required.

So, what does it do? The pixel tracks visitors to your website and the actions they take. This is incredibly powerful because it allows you to:

• Track Conversions: See exactly which ads drove people to your site to fill out a contact form or view a specific property.
• Build Retargeting Audiences: Create an audience of people who visited the "123 Main Street" listing page but didn't contact you. You can then run a specific ad just for them, saying something like, "Still thinking about 123 Main Street? Schedule a private tour today!"

Without the pixel, you're guessing what works. With it, you're making data-driven decisions that improve your results over time.

Choosing the Right Facebook Ad Campaigns

Facebook offers various campaign objectives. For real estate agents, most of your goals will fall into a few key categories.

Lead Generation Ads

This is the most popular and effective ad type for most real estate agents. A Lead Generation ad shows users a button they can tap to open a pre-filled form with their Facebook contact information (name, email, phone number). The user confirms their info and hits "Submit," all without ever leaving the Facebook app.

Because it's so easy for the user, conversion rates are often very high. You can offer something valuable in exchange for their information, such as:

• "Get a List of Off-Market Homes in [Neighborhood]."
• "Download Our Free Guide for First-Time Homebuyers."
• "Request a Free, No-Obligation Home Valuation."
• "See More Photos and the Price of This Stunning New Listing."

Traffic or Engagement Ads for Listings

When you have a beautiful new listing, your goal is to get as many eyes on it as possible. You can run ads featuring your best photos or a video walkthrough with a link driving traffic directly to the property's page on your website. You can also run an "Engagement" campaign to get more likes, comments, and shares, which helps the ad feel more organic and can expand its reach.

A simple and effective approach is the Carousel Ad. This format lets you showcase up to ten photos or videos in a single ad, each with its own headline and link. It's perfect for a virtual tour of a single property, highlighting the kitchen, living room, master bedroom, and backyard in sequence.

Targeting: How to Find Buyers and Sellers

This is where the real power of Facebook advertising comes into play. But for real estate, there's one very important rule you must follow.

IMPORTANT: The Special Ad Category (Housing)

Due to fair housing laws, all ads related to housing, employment, or credit must be declared in the Special Ad Category. When you create your campaign, you’ll see a checkbox at the very top of the setup process to select this category.

You must select this box. Failing to do so will get your ad rejected and could get your ad account disabled.

Selecting the "Housing" category places some limitations on you to prevent discrimination. Specifically, you cannot target by:

• Age or Gender
• Zip Code (you must target a minimum 15-mile radius around a city, address, or dropped pin)
• Certain detailed targeting options tied to race, religion, etc.

This may seem restrictive, but it simply forces you to focus on the targeting options that are most relevant anyway: location and interests.

Targeting Strategies Within the Rules

Even with the Special Ad Category restrictions, targeting is extremely effective. Here’s what you can use:

Location-Based Targeting

Instead of zip codes, you target a city or drop a pin at your listing's address and set a minimum 15-mile radius. This captures the entire local community, including surrounding commuter towns where potential buyers might live.

Detailed Lookalike Interest Targeting

This is your best tool for finding people who are actively thinking about real estate. You can target people who have shown interest in:

• Real Estate Websites: Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com
• Terms: "First-time homebuyer grant," "Mortgage loans," "For sale by owner"
• Behaviors: Facebook has a powerful behavioral category called "Likely to move," which identifies users whose online activities suggest they are preparing for a move.

Custom & Lookalike Targeting

Remember that Meta Pixel we discussed? This is where it pays off big time.

• Website Visitor Audience: Retarget anyone who has visited a landing page about buying or selling a property. They've already shown direct interest.
• Lookalike Custom Audience: You can upload a list of your past successful clients (buyers or sellers) on Meta's advertising platform. Meta will create a new Lookalike Audience - an audience of millions of new users who share common characteristics with your top customers. Lookalike Audience targeting usually gets excellent results with your real estate Ads.

Crafting Ads That Attract Ready-to-Act Clients

Once you’ve locked in your targeting, your success comes down to your ad copy and visuals.

Your Ad Creative

Visuals are absolutely critical for your ads. Fuzzy, dark photos taken on your cell phone from a bad angle simply won’t work.

• Invest in Professional Photography: This is non-negotiable for listing ads. Bright, crisp, well-staged photos are your greatest asset.
• Embrace a Video Walkthrough: A simple video shot on your phone while walking through a property can make your ads much more effective. It gives potential clients a better grasp of what you're offering from the perspective of actually living there. This helps them feel more connected to the property than text-based descriptions can, helping them to imagine, 'This could be our home.'
• Highlight a "Hero" Shot: Your ad's first image or video thumbnail is your only opportunity to get someone to click. Choose the best photo you have – for instance, the kitchen at sunset or a view of the swimming pool.

Ad Copy Formulas That Work

Keep your ad copy clear and straightforward. An effective formula is:

[Engaging Question] + [Feature/Benefit-Driven Bullet Points] + [Clear Call to Action]

Here’s an example for a new listing:

"Searching for the perfect family home in Scottsdale? 🏡

This brand new listing in the Cactus Acres neighborhood has everything you’ve been looking for:
▪️ 4 bedrooms, 3 baths with a split floorplan
▪️ Gourmet kitchen with quartz countertops and a massive island
▪️ Private backyard oasis with a sparkling pool and covered patio
▪️ Located in a top-rated school district!

➡️ Tap 'Learn More' to see all 25 photos, the price, and view the virtual tour!"

Final Thoughts

Running effective Facebook ads for your real estate business isn't about finding a secret hack, it's about following a repeatable system. By establishing a professional presence, correctly using the Special Ad Housing category and its targeting options, and using high-quality visual content, you can generate leads and consistently grow your business.

Of course, successful ads are stronger when they're supported by an organic and authentic online presence. We built our company, Postbase, to make this part simpler. It's a simple yet powerful social media management tool designed for organizing your content calendar by helping you schedule 'just listed' posts, client testimonials, and market updates effortlessly. This makes growing and managing your presence consistently easier every day.