Facebook expands into real estate advertising

Facebook has launched an advertising product for real estate agents.

The Dynamic Ads for Real Estate tool is an advance on the company’s article “boost” option (a paid reach program which targets users likely to be interested in either the poster’s content or website).

Dynamic Ads for Real Estate will integrate with a real estate agent’s listing data and search engine to distribute relevant listings to Facebook users based on their search preferences and activity. It will include properties for sale and rent.

Like boosted articles, Dynamic Ad for Real Estate listings will appear in a Facebook user’s feed.

The tool can automate what many marketers currently undertake as a manual function (ie, posting a property listing to the agent’s Facebook page then paying to “boost” it for the campaign period). Facebook’s tool can also be connected to another social media page, Instagram.

Reported in many international real estate journals overnight, this realtybiznews article describes how the Dynamic Ads for Real Estate tool builds on the two year old and successful “Dynamic Ads” initiative.

 

And Google’s foray into real estate listings?

Those with long memories may remember Google entered into the real estate listing space in 2009. It abandoned the foray which would have seen it take on potential clients including some of the biggest global portals, realtor.com and rightmove.uk, and individual agencies, which also manage some sophisticated sites.

Google’s initiative has not been forgotten in Australia with agents still acknowledging the potential for it to quickly penetrate the market utilising initiatives such as Maps and Street View. Google’s tool made (sale and rental) listings, with photos, appear alongside a map users were searching. The multinational technology giant blamed “low usage” and “proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real estate websites” for closing the service in 2011.

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Marc Pallisco

A freelance property writer and experienced analyst, Marc is the co-founder of realestatesource.com.au