Facebook Custom Lists Put You in Front of Motivated Prospects
There are over 200,000,000 US Facebook users, including about 35,000,000 over the age of 55 (see source).
That’s 200M people who have the potential to see your ads.
But you don’t want to advertise to 200M people. You want to advertise to YOUR people, the ones that you want to work with, people like, say, homeowners with high equity who live in Portland (OR) and are thinking about selling their 2-bedroom 60’s house that needs work and moving into a retirement community…
In other words, you want to reach specific people with a specific message.
Why We Love Facebook Custom Lists
Facebook custom lists is just that: a targeting technique that allows you to reach those specific people with that specific message.
The mechanism is pretty simple: you upload a list of names, emails, phone numbers, and/or mailing addresses that you specifically want to target with Facebook ads, and Facebook matches your list against its massive user database. We see match rates of 50-80%.
For most of our real estate investor clients, these uploaded lists are based on whatever direct mail database is already being used for sending mailers. You can also use subscriber lists or really any data set that includes things like name, email, phone and address.
The key thing to understand about using Facebook custom lists is that it’s 100% efficient. What we mean by that is that when using custom lists for audience targeting on Facebook, your ads ONLY show when someone on your list is logged into Facebook and is scrolling through his/her newsfeed.
In other words, there are no wasted ad impressions. Every ad served is an ad served to the intended person. This is a huge advantage over most other forms of advertising.
When are Facebook Custom Lists a Complete Waste of Money?
Facebook Custom Lists are super-efficient, and our clients are getting good results with them, but there are cases where they are destined to fail miserably.
For an explanation of the Achille’s Heel of this kind of audience targeting, here’s what Chris Richter, Data Scientist and founder of Audantic Real Estate Data & Analytics, says:
Listen, this critical piece is the most important today, it will be the most important tomorrow, and the most important until the end of time.
It’s your list, or more specifically, it’s your targeting.
You might like Sriracha. I do.
You know what’s weird? My 3-year-old won’t eat it. At all.
You couldn’t sell it to her at half off, give it to her for free, or even pay her to eat it. This is completely regardless of the fact that it is outright otherworldly.
So here it is, an old marketing axiom:
70% of your success comes from your list, 20% from your offer and only 10% from copy.
If your targeting sucks, everything else will fail. Period.
Never forget the old rule, “You can’t sell lingerie to lumberjacks.“
-Chris Richter, Audantic.com
Many of the successful real estate investors we work with also use Chris Richter’s data for their direct mail campaigns, so it’s safe to say that he’s a guy you want to listen to.
Chris’ point here is simple but powerful…
Start with the wrong list or database, and you will fail using Facebook Custom Lists.
(And if you want the right list, get in touch with Chris, and tell him we sent you.)
How to get Started Once You Have a Solid List
Good list in hand, there are just a few steps to follow to build your custom audience on Facebook…
- Format your data according to Facebook’s guidelines. Best practice is to upload as many permitted columns of information in order to ensure the highest match rate.
- Go to Facebook Business Manager, select “Audiences” from the menu, and create your new audience by uploading a .csv or .txt version of your data.
- Facebook will hash your data and begin populating your audience by matching your data with corresponding Facebook users. (It can take up to 24 hours for Facebook to create an audience).
- Create your campaign by targeting your new custom audience and start generating leads.
Facebook Custom Lists Are Powered by Specificity
No matter the platform, specificity proves to be more effective over and over again.
Why? Because people want a solution to their specific need.
For example, if you have a list of those high-equity homeowners in Portland, you can upload that list into Facebook and target them with your solution-based ads… “Want to sell your house but don’t want to spend money on repairs? We’ll buy it as-is for CASH!”
Getting specific messages to specific audiences is the beauty of Facebook custom lists.
While your competition might be targeting everyone in the Portland area, you are way ahead by only showing your ads to people who have the right kind of house, almost certainly lowering your cost-per-lead and increasing your chances of getting a deal.
Data from our Real Estate Investor Clients
Several of our clients are using Facebook custom lists to target motivated sellers or cash buyers in their respective areas.
It’s important to Note that this method is by no means a replacement to Google (or Bing) Search Marketing. Google is a problem-solving machine, and you definitely want to be there with a solution when someone searches for a solution to their house problem.
But Facebook sure is a great add-on, especially when you max out your ad spend on Google and Bing.
Better Cost Per Lead with Facebook Custom Lists
We decided to look at all of our clients using Facebook custom lists and compare their cost-per-lead (CPL) and conversion rate (CR) to their regular targeting campaigns (i.e. targeting based on demographics, interests, age, etc.)
Here’s what we found:
The average CPL for Facebook custom lists was $139 compared to a CPL of $156 for regular campaigns.
The average CR for custom lists was 8.3% versus a CR of 5.6% for regular campaigns.
Looking at these two metrics alone, we can see the benefit of Facebook custom lists: an increase in leads while spending less money to get them.
But money isn’t the only benefit from using custom list audiences…
Touchpoints Seal the Deal.
You can’t always expect someone to interact with your brand the first time they see you.
That’s why custom list audiences provide a platform for greater brand awareness through an idea called customer touchpoints.
A touchpoint is when someone sees or interacts with your brand in some way.
So in theory, the more touchpoints, the better!
Here’s an example:
First touchpoint:
A Portland homeowner receives your mailer in their mailbox.
Second touchpoint:
The same homeowner searches Google for “companies that buy houses as-is” and sees your ad on her results page.
Third touchpoint:
You upload your mailing list to Facebook and start running ads to them. The homeowner hops on Facebook to see pictures of her grandchildren and sees your ad while scrolling through her news feed.
Fourth touchpoint:
Retargeting on Facebook and the web!
The bottom line is that because they are now more familiar with your company and what you offer, they decide to call you for an offer on their home.
Voila. Another deal done.
Ready to use Facebook custom lists for your PPC real estate campaigns?
Facebook custom lists are an easy way to expand your marketing to a specific group of people. If you are an existing client, contact your account manager to get started using this Facebook feature.
If you are new to PPC, we want to help you grow your business and bring in more leads for you. Get a quote from one of our team members on how to get started with PPC today.
