Real estate and mortgage marketing Q&A: Should I run Facebook ads, Instagram ads, or both?

A question I'm getting from Realtors, mortgage lenders, and other small business owners a lot lately is,  "Should I run ads on Facebook, Instagram, or both?" 

So, today I enlisted someone a lot smarter than me - Jordan Glickman of ImpremisMarketing.com to chat briefly about the pros and cons of Facebook ads to generate leads versus ads on Instagram, and how they're sort of the same thing (but not entirely). 

Give it a watch and I'll summarize a few bullet points below.

Great info from Jordan, who is world-class when it comes to running ads that get businesses new leads and clients.

Here are a few key takeaways:

• Remember that Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same company, so they make it easy to run the same ad across BOTH platforms (for the same cost), just with one click!
• But there are some subtle - and not so subtle - differences between the platforms that you may want to keep in mind if you're scaling up your ad budget.
• The size of the ads, the amount of text, the Call To Action, and even the colors and other design elements may fit better on one platform than the other.
• Therefore, you may want to run the same ad campaign but customize the creative - and option you have when setting up Facebook ads. 
• But the biggest difference between effective Facebook and Instagram ads may lie with the end user, or your target demographic. 
• Instagram users are far younger, more likely to be renting instead of existing home owners,  have less purchasing power (damn student loans!), and therefore not often in the perfect position to buy a house today.
• However, there's a HUGE wave of Millennials and younger IG users coming - about 80 million in the US, and they are starting to look to home ownership (with the help of a FHA or other low down payment loan) as they near 30. In fact, the majority of first-time homebuyers are now Millennials! 
• I say that because if (and when) you're advertising on Instagram, you may want to adapt your ad messages and content accordingly, and think more of list building and the long game. Build up a huge database that you can sell to a year or two or three down the road.
• With Facebook ads, you'll reach an older demographic that's far more likely to be a homeowner now instead of renting, or just a little bit more mature (in years, at least!) and have a lot more purchasing power. Leads generated from Facebook will probably be ready to buy/sell/refinance today, but your ROI may be a little lower since ads aren't as well-received on Facebook. 

So, the answer is probably that you should be doing both - if you take your business seriously and want to not only generate leads this year, but ride the wave of future homebuyers, sellers, and home loan prospects. 

Hit me up any time if you have more questions for me or want some help with your marketing!

Go get 'em!

-Norm :-)

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