5 Marketing Tricks for Property Developers

February 16, 2015

Did you know Pinterest has advertising options for businesses? Or that you can create finely targeted ads on Facebook? When property developers think about ways to advertise online, most of them are at a loss. Property is such a reality that it is sometimes hard to think of it in the virtual reality setting, but there are plenty of ways for property developers to advertise online.

Here are our top five digital marketing tricks most property developers don’t know about:

Custom and Similar/Lookalike audiences on Facebook

Several years ago, Facebook created the Custom Audience tool on its business-advertising platform and later followed it up with the Similar (sometimes called Lookalike) Audience tool. Both allow businesses to put their contact list (any client email addresses along with the email addresses of people who like your page) to work.

With the Custom Audience tool, you can reach your clients with targeted ads that you know will show up on their Facebook pages. When you import your email addresses, divide them further into audiences. After all, you don’t want to target commercial investors and owner-occupiers at the same time. They have different needs, and you only have so much space. Facebook will match the email addresses with any accounts associated those addresses and send the ads to them.

To reach out to new leads, the Similar Audience feature allows you to send your ads to people with either a similarity or a greater reach. The similarity feature goes out to Facebook users who closely match the demographics of those on your chosen Custom Audience list. For example, if you have a list of commercial investors, Facebook will find people with similar profile features and target them. The outreach is small, but more accurate.

You can also choose the greater outreach feature, which will send the ads to more people, but they may not be as close a match to your demographic’s profile as you would like. Both features have their pros and cons, and it’s best you experiment with both to see what works for you.

Sponsored pins on Pinterest

Pinterest is a great way to find people who are looking to buy homes or are just genuinely interested in interior design. Even if these people aren’t looking for homes right this moment, they might be in the future, and that’s where you come in.

Pinterest pins are a cost-per-click option that only charge you when someone clicks on the pin and through all the way to your website. They’re best used by developers who want to get the word out about a promotion, an event or a specific article. It also allows you to target people who are not already following you, which is great for expanding your reach. These pins also allow you to promote time-sensitive or seasonal opportunities in real time.

Choose a pin of yours that you want to promote. From there, choose keywords and narrow down your audience (gender, location, language). You can also choose how much you want to spend. After you run the ad, you’ll be provided analytics, which will break down the click-through-rate and determine how you will be charged.

This is a new service so even if you don’t see a lot of results quickly, do not dismiss it. Keep it in your back pocket for a rainy day.

Targeting nearby developments and keywords on Google Adwords

As a developer, you can practically hear it when a new construction breaks ground on a property. It’s like you have a sixth sense about it. With Google Adwords, you can target what you think your clients might be searching for and then draw them to you.

This option can work in two ways: you can either target developments by name or by keyword. If you know the name of a neighbourhood or a commercial building that is currently being developed, it’s best to start there. Neighbourhood names as well as school district names will target buyers hopefully looking for homes in these areas.

Targeting keywords will come in handy when you want to find new general leads. Choose keywords such as “houses Melbourne” or “beach houses Gold Coast” to hopefully target people who are looking to buy or rent homes in those areas. While these are a little more general, you do have a chance at getting buyers to notice your name. 

Split testing landing pages

Your clients all have different needs. So does it make sense to treat them all the same? Of course not. So why are your landing pages all the same?

Landing pages are a great way to create a seemingly personal ad for each client. While it’s nearly impossible to craft one add for each customer, you can create landing pages that address a common need that many buyers of a certain group have in common.

But how do you know if your marketing efforts are working? That’s where split testing landing pages comes in. By testing different ways of selling the same idea, you’ll be able to see what your customers respond best to.

For example, let’s say you want to advertise a new housing development to families. Which is a better seller: location in a good school district or great local shops and restaurants nearby? Create two different landing pages and see which ones lead to more click-throughs. You will identify what works, what doesn’t and possibly new potential markets. 

Retargeting

Your property development website probably has plenty of pictures of great houses and commercial properties, but how can you tell who is looking at them? This is where retargeting comes into play. If you don’t already have a retargeting tag on each of your website’s pages, get it on there.

With a retargeting tool, you’ll be able to see who is coming to your pages, which will allow you to target them with ads. There are many different types of tools, but they all work generally the same. A retargeting tool will add a cookie into the browser of those who visit your site.

Now as your target clicks around the web and bounces from site to site, ads for your property development will be shown regularly. This allows you to stay fresh in the minds of visitors and bring them back to your site.

To the smart property developer, the online world holds infinite marketing opportunities. Experiment with the types we listed above and see what works for you.