Hit Your Target: Retargeting for Real Estate

Retargeting is like getting a bullseye, over and over.If you've done any online shopping recently, you may have noticed that items you've looked at online seem to follow you around on other websites. Maybe you're looking at a pair of shoes. For the next few days, you see those shoes all over the internet as you read news articles, search the web, and scroll through social media. And you know what? The more you see them, the better those shoes look, until you buy them.

This experience is called retargeting. Retargeting allows advertisers to stay in front of warm leads who have been on their website, showing interest in their service. It's especially useful for businesses and industries with a longer decision cycle, like real estate!

Let's say someone visits your website. They might have seen your yard signs, gotten your name from a friend, or saw a post on Facebook. Are they ready to buy a house right then and there? Probably not. They need to be nurtured from a warm lead into an active lead (a call or a contact form submission). It can take seven (or more) touches before a person converts into a lead. Retargeting gives you more opportunities for those touches.

The easiest ways to run retargeting ads are through Google and Facebook. Either (or both) allow you to create campaigns targeted only at people who have already been on your website. Here are the basic instructions on how to set yourself up for a retargeting campaign.

Retargeting on Google

The first thing you need to do is set up Audiences on Google Analytics. Here's how:

• Sign into Analytics.
• Click Admin, then click into the property where you want to set up the audience.
• In the Property column, select Audience Definitions > Audiences.
• Click "New Audience."
• Establish your audience from one of the following definitions: All Users, New Users, Returning Users, Users who visited a specific page, Users who completed a coal conversion, or Users who completed a transaction. (All Users will probably do the trick if this is your first audience.)
• Set your audience membership duration to anything between 1 and 540 days. How long do you want to follow people? 30-60 days is what we generally recommend.
• Enter the name of your audience.
• After clicking next step, add Google Ads as an Audience Destination (where you want to use the audience).
• Publish!

Now any site visitor who meets your criteria will be eligible for retargeting ads via Google.

To use remarketing lists for Display:

To retarget people with banner ads, you will be setting up a display campaign. Have some short slogans and photos ready to use. Google makes display campaigns super easy - here's our crash course on setting up basic display campaigns.

Here's how to set up a retargeting campaign via Google Ads:

• Choose "Display Network” as your campaign type when you create a campaign, and select the goal of "Drive action" > "Buy on your website". It’s not necessary to choose a marketing objective (goal), you may build your campaign without one.
• After you’ve provided the remaining campaign details, create an ad group. Under “People: who you want to reach”, click to expand the “Audiences” section and select the remarketing lists you’d like your campaign to target under the “Remarketing” audience picker.
• You can choose to use the remarketing lists you’ve created, or use lists that were automatically created for you by Google Ads.

To use remarketing lists for Search ads:

In Google Ads, choose "Search Network” as your campaign type. After you’ve created your campaign:

• Click the tools icon in the top right corner of your screen.
• Under the section labeled “Shared library”, click Audience manager.
• Select the audience list you’d like to add to your campaign.
• In the blue bar that appears above your audience lists, click “Add to…” and select “Ad groups.”
• In the picker, select your campaign, then add your audience list to the ad groups that you choose.
• Click Next, then choose a targeting setting for audiences in the selected ad groups
• Click Add audiences.

Retargeting on Facebook

Facebook requires a small snippet of code on your site, called a Pixel, in order to retarget. If you don't have it set up, here's a step-by-step guide to setting up your Pixel. If you need to verify that your Pixel is working, install the Pixel Helper. Now...

• In Ads Manager, navigate to Audiences under Assets in the dropdown menu.
• Create a custom audience. 
• Select "website traffic" option.
• Define your audience, such as "anyone who visits your website" or "people who visit a specific page."
• Build an ad campaign that matches your audience, and choose this custom audience as the target.

Seriously, it's that easy to start serving ads to people who have already shown interest in your website.

Bottom Line

Retargeting gives you multiple opportunities to connect with a user who has already shown interest in you. Keep that in mind when writing/designing your ads: they need that extra push to get in contact with you. Keep refining your strategy and audiences (ie, set up one for buyer page visits versus seller page visits) so you're being specific and effective with your retargeting.