facebook

By Jamie Lintner, Advertising Accounts Manager, BDX 

Only a few months ago, Facebook unveiled its advertising solution that would allow global markets to bid in real time for placements across the single largest source of inventory on the web, the online Facebook Exchange (FBX).  Our BeBack Advertisers have already started leveraging this platform and performance of these ads has been excellent, typically over 100% greater than that of traditional Facebook market place ads. What’s more impressive than the Click-thru rate (CTR) is the significant backend conversion.  We’re seeing some of the lowest bounces and greatest time on site with FBX retargeting than with other channels and a significant lift compared to direct Facebook marketplace ads.

In the past two weeks, the Facebook Exchange began beta testing its most recent advertising innovation, running retargeted ads across users’ Facebook News Feed.  For the first time ever this update will assure advertisers that not only will their messages retarget a user, but the message itself will actively be seen several times a day in a location that users can’t and won’t ignore.

Today’s Facebook market place ads have strict limits on image size and character count and only allow 25 characters for a headline and 90 characters for the body of the ad to drive users back to your site. With News Feed ads, the character count within the body jumps from 90 characters to 500, and there is additional space to link back to your site alongside the image as well as within the body itself.  The image size is about the same, but the image will now be located in the news feed that a user checks dozens of times per day; this makes me think that performance will jump exponentially. Early findings from Facebook reveal Retargeted News Feed ads garner 20-40x higher CTR than typical FBX ads. Even if these metrics don’t hold at these astronomical levels, News Feed ads can and might be a game-changer.

BDX is currently testing the new format to ensure it delivers all the hype and if successful, will begin integrating existing BeBack advertisers into the new format. As always, our goal is to help our clients stay abreast of new product updates and to ensure we’re delivering value. More details on our findings to come.  Stay tuned!

Jamie Lintner is the BDX Advertising Accounts Manager and is responsible for monitoring all campaigns through BDX advertising channels.

By: Jamie Lintner, BDX Advertising Accounts Manager

We have all read the analysis about the low click-thru rates for Facebook advertising.  Webtrends in particular has documented a downward shift from an already low click thru rate (CTR) over a span of three years, from a .063% in 2009 to a .041% average in 2011. This is half of the comScore recognized click thru average for all online display advertising — .10%. But what would the data look like if we were to measure the CTR of display ads against a previously engaged individual who already has some level of trust with a brand?

  In Q4 of 2012, Facebook launched a new Ad exchange that allows for advertisers to bid for placement in a real-time fashion. In order to avoid the historically low performance that Facebook has shown, we at the BDX have taken the exchange one step further and are now offering builders the opportunity to retarget visitors to their website and run banners with specific messages for those visitors. Similar to our BeBack program, we will cookie a builder’s site but will then retarget them only against the Facebook platform. These resulting ads fall within the same positions as a direct buy, with the same dimensions and specs and at the same cost, but they produce click thru and conversion rates that trump those of a non-retargeting campaign.  For example, in January, we ran our own internal campaigns and discovered that the CTR is roughly nine times the average of Facebook’s overall average with an incredible lift in backend conversions.

Not only that, but the results are just as strong when compared to traditional retargeting efforts. Here at the BDX we manage our own internal retargeting campaigns across 50 unique markets as well as unique BeBack retargeting campaigns for around 100 home builders. Without fail, a retargeted user is 10-15 times more likely to convert on the backend than one with no knowledge of the brand. Facebook ramps that up to another level. A user who has been on a particular site and has actively engaged with it is roughly 30% more likely to convert through the Facebook exchange than a typical retargeted user. While we were previously content with our cost/lead for retargeting, Facebook has provided a robust channel where we receive incremental traffic at a higher conversion rate. These numbers are hard to ignore.

Moving forward, as an added perk for BeBack advertisers we are now offering an additional campaign across only the Facebook exchange in order to improve backend lead conversion and drive clicks across a previously un-utilized platform. For additional information on how to set this up, please contact info@thebdx.com for additional details.

By BDX Guest Blogger, Carol Morgan, mRELEVANCE

Any good homebuilder or business person knows that giving away something for “free” is a great way to entice new potential customers or even keep current homeowners happy. No matter the size of the gift being given away, people flock to free. However, we all also know that nothing in life is truly free, including social media. Yes, technically, social media is still free to use, but as time has passed more and more sites are converting to a “pay to play” model. And, since they have your business relying on them to connect with buyers and drive sales, chances are, you’ll end up forking over the money to keep on playing.

Look at Facebook for example, builders heavily rely on this social media giant to reach new homebuyers, connect with current homeowners, share information and more. Lately though, you may have noticed that it seems like fewer fans are engaging with your page. It isn’t your mind playing tricking on you; engagement has been limited. Now that Facebook has become a publicly traded company, they upped the ante by creating new promoted posts and advertising campaign features. Unless you’re willing to pay (an amount that is decided by you), then chances are you will continue to see less traffic and less engagement to your page.

You may be thinking to yourself that you’ll never buy in, but if spent wisely, this money is a solid investment. Statistics have shown that 16 percent of fans are reached organically on average per post on the site, and this number increases by 40 to 150 percent through paid advertisements.

An example of one business that is using this to their advantage is Atlanta Real Estate Forum. A product of mRELEVANCE, this Atlanta real estate news site has been promoting their weekly radio show posts for $10 a day, three days a week. In that time, radio show downloads have almost doubled, page likes are up significantly and these posts are reaching more than 50,000 people.

But, Facebook isn’t the only site that is “cashing in.” Twitter has started promoting users to pay for tweets and Tumblr charges for highlighted and pinned posts. They’re getting away with this because they know you’ll keep coming back for more, and of course, they’re in the business of making money too.

If your business is looking to effectively monetize your social media program in 2013, visit www.MarketingRELEVANCE.com to learn more about how we can help you.

Builder Advertising on FacebookIn 2011 Facebook became the largest Ad Network of all publishers representing almost 1/3 of display inventory.  Historically, I’ve not been too thrilled with Facebook performance. It’s had a reputation for high bot traffic, low clicks and relatively poor backend conversion.  I’m also convinced that to be successful with Facebook an advertiser needs a series of creative offerings since the high-frequency can result in ads getting stale quickly and losing their initial performance.

However, through some recent updates we can now retarget BDX new home shoppers in the Facebook marketplace ad position.  I was skeptical at first, but with the success of retargeting it was definitely worth a test and I’ve been quite pleased with initial results.

We started the initial test running a ‘generic’ ad driving people back to NHS.  We then rolled out a series of Market Specific ads leveraging our creative best practices. Since then Facebook Retargeting is one of our strongest advertising channels in terms of total conversion and bounce rate is in line with what we’ve seen with other retargeting ads.  That’s a big win.

What I think is most exciting is that our participating BeBack advertisers can also take advantage of this opportunity.  We’re extending Facebook retargeting as part of the BeBack offering at no additional cost for our builders.  Now, a builder truly can reach their users ‘everywhere’ and at the same rate as their previous campaign.

In addition to increased reach and improved conversion this is a big opportunity for builders to leverage the social aspect of Facebook.   Imagine retargeting a consumer who’s visited your website with an ad on Facebook and asking them to ‘fan’ your brand or to share ‘the home of their dreams’ or get their friends opinion on one plan vs. another.  Their truly is a whole litany of marketing strategies that can be applied to BeBack –  especially when incorporating a social component.

For more information about BDX BeBack retargeting or how to integrate Facebook Ads with your existing BeBack campaign contact your local sales rep or email info@thebdx.com.

Thane Tennison is Advertising Manager for the Builders Digital Experience and manages advertising for hundreds of homebuilding brands across a network of over a dozen real estate websites.

By BDX Guest Blogger, Carol Morgan, mRELEVANCE

The new Timeline layout for Facebook Pages has been around for a couple of months now, but many businesses still aren’t taking full advantage of the social media site’s redesign. Here are some ways your home building company could be using Facebook to build your brand:

  • Create a unique, relevant cover photo. Get creative with this critical space by using photos and collages of your homes and communities, photos of home buyers or highlight favorite features. Include your tagline or unique selling proposition, and make it fun.
  • Add content. The new timeline layout allows pages to go back and add dates of important company events. Pages can also choose what information they want to “highlight” or hide on their page. Page managers can now schedule posts for a future date, so feel free to plan posts for the future.  Just don’t forget to monitor your page!
  • Delegate. One of the most recent updates to Pages is the ability to assign administrative roles to the people who manage your page. The five roles include manager, content creator, moderator, advertiser and insights analyst. Descriptions of these roles can be easily found in the Admin Panel.
  • Promote it. You may have seen or gotten emails about the new Facebook Ads and Promoted Posts. These two options allow pages to pay Facebook to help increase their business’ reach. Businesses may create ads that encourage people to like their page or to view one of their posts, while promoted posts simply increase the reach of a specific post on your page.

The best way to acclimate yourself and your company with the new Facebook Timeline Pages design is to use it. By taking into account our suggestions of some of the design’s coolest features, and by playing around with the site, your home building business will be well on its way to improving your interaction with customers and potential buyers.

Carol Flammer is managing partner of Marketing RELEVANCE, LLC, a Marketing, Communication, Interactive agency with offices in Atlanta and Chicago. She is the author of “Social Media for Home Builders 2.0” published by BuilderBooks.