Selling Houses Through Social Media Ads: From Zero to $4.4M in Revenue in Record Time

Marketing budget: $10,000 - $12,000 per month

Comment to the case study

In the case study, it's important to note that the houses were not ready for immediate occupancy. Clients who wished to live in the development had the option to pay for the construction and await its completion. This process differs from the traditional approach of selling pre-built houses. To get a glimpse of the progress, here is an image showcasing the initial state of the territory during the start of the selling phase:

Aerial image of the territory at the beginning of the project, showcasing the layout of future streets

Typically, we create a comprehensive mind map that encompasses competitor analysis, advertising analysis, market research, and targeted audiences. 
This mind map is shared with our client as it can greatly benefit their social media marketing and sales endeavors:

MindMap of analysis

Then, we launched ads, obtained initial results, and initiated the process of optimizing ad costs and improving the sales team's conversion rate.

Our actions included:

• Integrating marketing and sales by implementing CRM, IP-telephony, and end-to-end analytics
• Optimizing conversion and sales costs through testing different offers and maintaining communication with the sales team
• Launching a remarketing campaign to engage potential customers who have previously visited our resources but haven't yet submitted a request
• Testing new geographies and audiences

After achieving results with one advertising channel, we typically move on to the next. In this instance, we initiated our launch with Meta Ads, specifically ads on Facebook and Instagram. Subsequently, we commenced working with Google Ads (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and SMM, which includes posts, stories, and reels, to engage and warm up our audience.

Example of houses for sale

It's interesting how the most vital aspect of every launch, which is establishing feedback from sales to marketing, often surprises our potential clients. Many companies tend to underestimate the significance of this moment. A clear feedback enables us to make necessary adjustments to our ad campaigns.
However, this time, we had the pleasure of working with an experienced entrepreneur. So we got access to our clients' CRM and established interaction with sales.

Also, we have implemented an end-to-end analytics system and gained .This allows us to have all the necessary data for each ad channel right at our fingertips, including:

• CPM (Cost Per Mille): Cost of 1000 ad impressions
• CPC (Cost Per Click): Cost of individual clicks on our ads
• CTR (Click Through Rate): Measure of how engaging our ad creatives are
• CPL (Cost Per Lead)
• CV (Conversion Rate) of our landing pages
• CPS (Cost Per Sale)

Moreover, all this data is available for each ad channel and every ad campaign, such as:

• Meta Ads: Facebook & Instagram
• Google Ads
• SEO
• Retargeting campaigns
• Offline campaigns
• Affiliate programs
• And more

"You can manage it if you can measure it"

With this infrastructure in place and feedback from the sales team, we could test our hypotheses more effectively and quickly. We can identify areas where we are losing marketing budget and getting bad leads and determine what needs to be scaled up to drive more good leads and sales.

The company lacked an experienced sales team, and the team itself comprised only two members.
Upon launching our ad campaigns, we were pleasantly surprised to receive dozens of leads per day. The sales team was equally astonished.
You never know the exact results until after the launch!
Recognizing the sales team's need for support, we swiftly took action and implemented the following measures:

• Introduced a lead qualification stage 
• Established a CRM system to manage other stages of the sales funnel
• Developed sales scripts for phone calls and messenger communications
• Created sales materials
• Coordinated the production of photo and video content

The results materialized rapidly, and client's small team secured its first sales. The achievement served as an inspiration!

As usual, we tested various targeting methods based on interests such as real estate, investment, finance, and many other standard approaches for our favorite niche. We thoroughly explore each idea using different ad creatives, ad copy, and offers. By conducting dozens of tests, we consistently achieve positive results.
This time, after achieving stable results, we began experimenting with more unconventional hypotheses to identify potential target audiences. One such idea was exploring different geographical areas for displaying our ads.

Initially, we focused on launching in a narrow geographic location where the audience could easily visit the construction site, being in close proximity to the project. However, we decided to take a less obvious approach by analyzing relocation patterns and attempting to engage people from different states to consider our project.
Surprisingly, we showcased our ads to individuals living thousands of miles away from our city, and the results exceeded our expectations. We obtained leads at a lower cost than anticipated.

Additionally, we developed a specialized WhatsApp script to facilitate remote showing and negotiations. As a result, several leads visited us to purchase a house.
This intriguing experiment provided valuable insights and opened up new possibilities for our marketing strategy

This was just one single example of such experiments. Another example: We promoted a private school of this housing development to attract new audience: successful people with children. There were more of these experiments.

We are deeply engaged in long-term projects like this, and we take a comprehensive approach to provide assistance beyond the core requirements.
For example, for this project our team:

• Coordinated the production of photo and video content, including aerial filming and the creation of CGI/3D materials.
• Prepared materials for partners, such as real estate brokers and developers.
• Collaborated with the PR department and media.
• Participated in negotiations with suppliers and contractors for better understanding the product.

We worked closely with a client's team, as we firmly believe that teamwork is the key to a successful and thriving business.

4k Drone Footage of the housing development construction site

We achieved remarkable results!
Starting from scratch, we launched a successful marketing campaign, generated qualified leads, resolved sales challenges, and secured our first sales within just one month!

Here is an example of the statistics for our Facebook Ads campaign over a one-month period. We can see the results:

Facebook Ads monthly report example

Roman, founder, in marketing since 2015