Nearly 2.8 billion active users as of the end of 2020, and a platform which keeps on defying the odds and growing significantly year after year, Facebook is one of the most comprehensive and diverse advertising channels of the digital age, and if, as an Estate Agent you are looking for more ways to generate interest and leads in your properties, then it’s a platform you really should be taking full advantage of, especially considering that 38.7% of users are within your target market (35-65+ years of age).
Initially Facebook started out as a way of users being able to connect directly with friends, however, as they’ve evolved, so has user functionality and some of those are perfect if you work in Real Estate, such as liking & following pages, commenting & sharing on posts, posting updates into various groups dedicated to Buying & Selling Properties, and running ad campaigns to directly increase page awareness or generate potential buyer leads.
If you look at the first quarter of 2010, there were 431 million active users and as of quarter four in 2020 there were 2797 (2.7 billion) which just shows the rate at which it has grown, and to add to this in February 2021 it’s monthly traffic hit 20.3 billion. Stats show that around 1.8 billion of it’s active users, use the app on a daily basis (equating to around 66%).
Before we go any further, let’s be clear with just a few things, because they are worth mentioning:
1) Firstly, not everyone who uses Facebook is going to be interested in Real Estate, of course not, we’d all be millionaire’s if that was the case, however, given the sheer numbers of people using it & depending on who you want to reach, there will be a significant number of people you can reach & engage directly with.
2) Facebook will target people based on their interests, rather than what they are interested in in now, so, not everyone that you target is going to want to buy at that particular moment.
Per day, in Europe there were 308 million users as of Q4 2020, it was 744 million for Asia Pacific, 195 million for the US & Canada and 598 million for the rest of the world. Breaking that down even further, in countries like the UK for example there are 38 million users, France there are 33 million, Italy 31 million users and Germany 29 million. It’s also really worth noting that English is the top language on Facebook at 50.4%.
Given that for most Estate Agents their target market is between 35-65+, I have to now mention the following stats which are of great interest.
1) In the US – it shows that in 2021 people between the ages of 35-54 used Facebook 60% more than other apps, and for people aged 55+ it was 70%
2) For ages between 35-65+, when looking at Facebook user activity by age and gender – a Female users 30 day median was 37 comments & 49 likes. A male user 30 day median was 16 comments & 28 likes.
3) For ages between 35-65+, when looking at Facebook monthly ad clicks by age and gender – it was around 70 for female users & 43 for male users
Don’t forget too that Facebook itself will organically target users with your content & your properties, so you will get engagement as a result, plus of course you can post in groups etc, so you don’t necessarily have to advertise, it just gives you another option if you want to be more specific or if you want other avenues.
Looking at marketing, over 90% of marketers use Facebook and from research that’s been carried out over 55% of marketers highlight Facebook as their most important platform. 70% of marketers who use Facebook also use it for advertising, with around 84 billion USD spent in 2020. The average cost per click is down at around $0.39 and per like it’s down at around $0.20.
At the end of Q3 2020, the average CPC for a lead gen campaign was $0.67, link clicks were down at $0.16, reach was $1.03 and impressions were $0.98.
Quite honestly, I really could go on and talk about so much more, but it really is a platform that shouldn’t be ignored, whether you want to use it organically or whether you want to further engage with it and run advertising campaigns. Of course, like anywhere else it has it’s pros and it has it’s cons so do your research & don’t go in blindly.
Thanks & credit go to https://www.businessofapps.com/data/facebook-statistics/ for all the above stats & figures.
