Using Facebook Remarketing Ads to Drive Apartment Tours

As Facebook continues to move away from its organic feeds for business, Facebook remarketing ads are becoming more and more relevant for the apartment space.

The tricky part with most Facebook ads for apartments is that it can be hard to figure out exactly how to target prospective residents. Some leasing managers think they can target prospects by using lookalike audiences similar to their residents and including people who Facebook marks as “likely to move.” However, targeting people in these groups can waste your Facebook ad dollars as these aren’t strong indicators that someone is interested in your property at this time.

The strongest indicator that someone is interested in your property is if they visit your site, so you want to be able to advertise to those people who are researching apartments and have visited on your site. How do you do this? Using the Facebook pixel to create remarketing ads for your apartments.

How the Facebook Pixel Works

If you’re not familiar with the Facebook pixel, it’s a tiny bit of code that you put on your website that connects to Facebook. You can then use the code to track visitors on your website, send Facebook ads to visitors who visited certain pages or completed a form, and track conversions from Facebook ads.

You’ll need to set up your Facebook pixel through your Facebook Business Manager Account as an administrator to that account. From there you’ll create the pixel and follow the instructions for pasting the code onto your website. If you want detailed instructions on setting up the code, here’s an in-depth article on setting up the Facebook Pixel from Social Media Examiner.

A key part of creating and using your Facebook pixel to track visitors on your site is to know what the goal is for your campaign(s).

Why Scheduling Tours Should Be Your First Goal

One of our clients found that 50% of their prospects who came to their property and completed a tour went on to sign a lease. The trick for them was to make it easy for prospects to schedule the tour, whether online or offline.

One of the ways you can invite past website visitors to schedule a tour is by sending them remarketing Facebook ads inviting them to schedule a tour. They can then either schedule the tour by using a Facebook lead ad or have the ad linked to a form on your site. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for people interested in your property to schedule a tour.

Type of Remarketing Campaigns to Create

We recommend starting with three different Facebook remarketing campaigns you can use to target visitors to your site and invite them to schedule a tour.

3 Facebook Remarketing Campaigns for Apartments:

Campaign #1: Remarketing to those who visited your site and didn’t schedule a tour

Audience: Those who’ve visited your homepage, floor plans, etc, but didn’t fill out the schedule a tour form.
Creative: Ads with time-sensitive specials, deposit specials, or highlighting your property’s amenities

Campaign #2: Remarketing to those who viewed a floor plan

Audience: Those who’ve visited a category of floor plan such as studio, 1-bedroom, etc, but didn’t fill out the schedule a tour form.
Creative: Carousel ad showcasing other floor plans for your property that are in the same category (studio, 1-bedroom, etc.) that they visited on your website.

Campaign #3: Promoting similar sister properties when someone visits one of the sites

Audience: Those who visited your property within the past two weeks but haven’t scheduled a tour yet.
Creative: If you have sister properties nearby, showcase them in an ad and invite them to schedule a tour at another property.

Fine-tuning Your Ads

Once you’ve set up your ad(s), you can test them to improve their performance. Try different creative to see what version leads to the most tour sign-ups. Since your audience is dynamic and constantly changing, you won’t have to update your Facebook ads as often as with your other campaigns.

Want more Facebook Campaign Ideas?

If you’re looking for more Facebook remarketing ad ideas for your apartment, check out our Multifamily Funnel Guide. This guide shows you 5 Facebook campaign ideas and teaches you how to match your ads to where your prospect is in the buying cycle to get the most performance from your ads.

Photo Credit: 123rf.com/bialasiewicz