By the end of 2018, Facebook reached an all time high of 2.32 billion monthly active users – you read that right, billion.

• Americans spend an average of 58 minutes per day on Facebook

• If Facebook was a country – it would be larger that the US, Brazil and China combined

• Every 60 seconds there are:

• 317,000 status updates

• 400 new users

• 147,000 photos uploaded

• 54,000 shared links

Chances are…your audience is on Facebook, and so are your competitors. From large businesses to small, it’s essential to be allocating marketing dollars towards this incredibly powerful platform. 

Using paid social to reach your goals is nothing new – but the landscape is constantly changing. Ensuring you are following best practices in an ever changing environment is not an easy feat. Below, we’ve listed some best practices to follow for paid social in the multifamily space. 

Auto-Placement: Reach Users Where It Matters

Most of us are familiar with the standard ads we view when scrolling through our newsfeed on Facebook or Instagram. However, a huge market for opportunity lies with placements such as Messenger, Marketplace, and Audience Network. By enabling this feature, we allow Facebook’s algorithm to optimize towards a larger pool of users to ensure the most efficient use of budget. Facebook uses sophisticated data points to identify users who are likely to convert on your ad. By widening your audience to more placements, we allow for greater reach, lower costs and higher conversion volume. To enable automatic placements, simply navigate to your ad set and select Automatic Placements under the Placements tab.

Ad Copy: The Shorter the Better

People don’t come to Facebook to read a novel – don’t let your ad read like one! According to a study done by Microsoft, human attention span has dropped to a whopping 8 seconds – 1 second less than that fish you win at the local county fair. With this in mind, it’s imperative to engage users with short headlines and descriptions to ensure that information is relevant and worth their time (remember you only have 8 seconds).

In the multifamily industry, we suggest implementing your brand name alongside mobile-friendly text. We’ve included an example of ad copy that follows best practices and one that does not. The first example shows short, legible ad copy that doesn’t crowd an image. In the second example, the ad copy is too long (it’s more likely to get cut off), which leads to poor user experience. In short, keep thing concise and to the point!

Creative: Keep it Relevant & Sized Correctly!

In the multifamily industry, creative is one of the biggest levers you can pull.  Not only are you introducing users to your brand, but also, a potential new home! Using low-quality images may steer away users and ultimately result in lower conversion rates.

Images should be at least 1080x1080px while maintaining a 1:1 aspect ratio for newsfeed ads. Placements such as Instagram stories should be sized with a 9:16 aspect ratio. If images are sized incorrectly, you run the risk of truncating photos and serving a poor quality images or videos. Utilizing high quality, thumb-stopping creative is a key component to ensuring your ads are relevant and well received by your audience. In the multifamily industry, we see optimal creative performance from images that showcase updated features such as granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and hardwood floors. We encourage advertisers to show images of units that users can imagine themselves living in.

Have other questions about placements or paid social for your property? Drop us a line!