If you were to log in to LinkedIn now, chances are that you wouldn’t see many LinkedIn ads for real estate. Most marketers have used LinkedIn advertising campaigns exclusively for B2B leads and product sales – but there’s a big opportunity that real estate marketers are missing.

Did you know that LinkedIn’s audience has 2x the buying power of the average web user? We’ve discussed how to get leads for free from LinkedIn, but LinkedIn’s wide variety of ad formats offer notably faster conversion, endless opportunities to promote your personal brand, make referral connections with other professionals, bring users to your web pages, and capture real estate leads with lead magnets and web tools. You can also target your specific clientele based on everything from location to job title and industry.

Sounds great, right? Well, there’s a small catch. LinkedIn ads are infamous for being effective, yet expensive. While advertisements on other social media platforms such as Facebook may only cost a cent or two per click, LinkedIn ads could cost you a few dollars per click.

The key is to have a clear understanding of your goal and the audience you are targeting so that you don’t end up wasting valuable ad spend on campaigns that don’t provide returns.

Follow the steps below to squeeze the most out of your real estate LinkedIn ad and leave no lead unfound.

How to Set Up Any Type of LinkedIn Ad

There are a few basic steps to creating any type of LinkedIn ad. Here we’ve outlined the 6 main steps.

1. Create a free account in Campaign Manager. After your account is created, LinkedIn will take you through each step of getting your campaign set up.
2. Choose your ad objective: awareness, consideration, or conversion. Your ad objective helps LinkedIn make suggestions for formats, features, and bid types. Awareness is perfect for agents looking to push out their marketing content and grow their position as a thought leader in the real estate industry. Consideration inspires action when users see your LinkedIn ad, such as clicking on your website and viewing some of your post content. Finally, conversions are meant to directly generate leads from within LinkedIn webpages.

   

3. Target your Audience. LinkedIn Ads have over 20 categories of audience attributes you can choose from. Save your targeting criteria as a template to save time with future campaigns. You can also select the enable audience expansion option to allow LinkedIn to additionally show your ad to people similar to your target audience.

   

4. Choose your ad format. LinkedIn ads can be shown as single images, videos, an image carousel, sponsored messages, spotlight ads, text ads, and event ads. Choose the best format for your specific campaign. For example, if you are looking to develop relationships with real estate investors, a carousel with a few property options would be a good idea. Alternatively, if you’d like to generate client leads as soon as possible, a spotlight ad with a CTA leading to back your website could be beneficial.

   

5. Set your budget. There is a wide range when it comes to budget, but keeping an eye on ROI is key. Keep an eye on the cost of each campaign to control spending and validate your digital marketing strategy.
6. Set up your ad content. The range of content and topics you can post about are limitless. You may choose to reuse blog posts from your webpage, sponsor an old LinkedIn post about a listing miracle, and the list goes on. Just make sure to provide value with all content. LinkedIn users don’t really use LinkedIn to “shop”. Instead of posting your listings outright, consider something more info-packed like a family-buyers guide with a hyperlink to your current listings.

Types of LinkedIn Ads for Real Estate

Direct Sponsored Content

Direct sponsored content comes in the form of a single image ad, video ad, or carousel image ad.

This ad will appear in your viewer’s newsfeed alongside organic posts. These types of ads often have the highest click-through-rate of all ads types. However, these ads are difficult to personalize, so make sure to add a personal, distinct touch like a stand-out logo. High-quality imagery, bold headlines, and a clear CTA are essential.

Our AgentFire web designers can create the perfect customized branding and logo you need. Learn more about our branding and logo add-on here.

Message and Conversation Ads

Message and conversation ads allow you to contact your target clients right in their inbox through direct messages. It’s possible for Linkedin members to opt-out of receiving these messages, but it’s not common. This option is great to promote an event (such as a webinar you’re holding), a free product or tool (such as the Home Values add-on our clients love), or educate them about exactly who you are and why you’ve specifically reached out to them.

Spotlight Ads

Spotlight ads are incredibly dynamic. There are loads of options to customize and personalize this option. Each ad automatically fills with each individual member’s profile data including their profile image and name to get their attention quickly.

There are two types of spotlight ads that are especially relevant for real estate marketing campaigns:

1. Follower ads to encourage people to follow your page
2. Spotlight ads to promote a new listing, event or another type of offer.

PPC Text ads

Text ads can be found at the top of the LinkedIn page or in the right column when you’re on your feed. With these ads, you’ll only pay when a user clicks on your ad, making it the most budget-friendly way to advertise on LinkedIn.

The main goal of these ads is to generate more traffic to your real estate website with hyperlinks and generate leads directly from inside the platform.

Event Ads

After creating an event on LinkedIn, you can promote it to your target prospective clientele with an event ad campaign. Some great LinkedIn event ideas for real estate agents include, info sessions about your hyperlocal area, online workshops, FAQs and more. Event ads will look similar to single image ads, but with an added date and the option to click in and learn more about the event. 

A few things you’ll need to set up an event ad include: 

• Campaign Manager access 
• A LinkedIn Page or Showcase Page associated with your ad account
• Admin access on the related LinkedIn Page 

To make sure your ads don’t run past your event date, choose a start and end date in the schedule section. 

LinkedIn Lead Generation Forms

This option is a guaranteed real estate agent favorite. Similar to spotlight ads, LinkedIn’s lead generation tool will autofill your target audience’s info based on their LinkedIn profile. When prospective clients submit in the form, you’ll have access to their contact information. Consider adding manual fields such as long-term home goals and other relevant real estate information you’d like to get from the outset.

It is essential to use an enticing lead magnet that makes people want to share their contact information with you. Check out these ideas on how you can repurpose content to make tons of attractive lead magnets. For example, you could use a first-time buyers guide with a CTA headline that motivates them to engage with your ad.

For easy client organization, Linkedin lead generation forms can be connected to your CRM or other tools such as Mailchimp. Keeping all of your client contact information from digital marketing campaigns in one place will definitely help to lower your stress levels. Your AgentFire website also integrates seamlessly with any CRM of your choice. 

LinkedIn Advertising Best Practices

Setting your bid

All add types besides PPC text-ads, have unique pricing based on a bidding system. Depending on your ad type and objective, you may be charged for each video view, click or impression. Take a look at this detailed pricing chart for more information. 

Does bidding mean that you’re competing for ad space? To a certain degree, yes. LinkedIn has limited ad space on its pages. If you and a competitor are targeting the same group, you may find yourself having to raise your bid in order to get ahead of them. The higher the amount, the more likely you will be to win the auction – but don’t forget about your overall budget and per-lead cost.

The first step in bidding is choosing the optimization goal. Optimization options include reach, impressions, landing page clicks, engagement clicks, video views, leads and web conversion. In some situations, limited optimization goals will be available depending on the ad format.

When your ad is all set up, LinkedIn will give you a quality score. A quality score is LinkedIn’s estimate of how interactive and successful your ad will be with your chosen audience. The higher your quality score, the more likely you are to win the auction.

What affects your quality score?

• Performance on previous LinkedIn ads (shares, likes, comments on your ads).
• Relevancy based on the quality of chosen keywords and the message of your ads.
• The relevance and usability of the linked pages. If your pages are unprofessional and irrelevant to your visitors, LinkedIn will take note.

Assuming you’ve passed LinkedIn’s hurdles and are ready to get your campaign going, you’ll want to keep an eye on your ads for the coming weeks and measure their effectiveness consistently.

Measuring Analytics and Optimizing Your Ads

Your campaign analytics are available in the campaign manager and should be checked often. If you want conversion tracking, you’ll need to set this up when you put your ad together. Keep your eye on your results such as impressions, ad spend, clicks, conversions, and conversion rate. 

If you find that an ad needs to be modified, try moving around a few elements. This includes changes in graphic elements or text, adjustments to the message, and offering a different value item. Then, check what your prospective clients are responding to best. With time, you’ll have a better idea of what your potential clients are looking for.

Helpful Tips

Before we wrap up, check out these tips to go the extra mile with your real estate LinkedIn Ad.

• Headlines and descriptions are character-limited, so stick to the point. A high-quality photo will also help to get clicks. LinkedIn suggests that for sponsored content, headlines should be under 150 characters and descriptive copy under 70 characters for higher engagement.
• Make sure that your profile is up to date. You’ll be driving viewers to your other pages and you’ll want to show your good – and most professional side.
• Avoid picking a target audience so small that it doesn’t have real value
• All ads should typically end with a clear CTA, often in the form of a text button.
• Always keep your website updated and up-to-par with lots of valuable content for prospective clients to explore.

In Conclusion…

LinkedIn ads are one of the few under-utilized real estate marketing techniques out there, so it’s a great opportunity to stand out. With LinkedIn ads, real estate agents can be sure that they are reaching an audience of home-buying age who are information hungry and within your target audience. 

It’s easy to generate leads, establish your brand, and entice viewers with your awesome content on LinkedIn ads if you know how. When you’re ready to make this smart investment, follow the steps above and let the results roll in.