The Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Writing Ad Copy That Converts

Copywriting is another activity you can file under “Random skills that good real estate agents should have that aren’t taught in real estate school.”

From Instagram captions to real estate newsletters to listing descriptions, knowing how to write engaging, effective copy is crucial to successfully marketing your real estate business.

That includes advertising copy — copy for pay-per-click ads, Facebook ads and other ads you might run to promote your real estate business, a specific listing, or an upcoming open house.

If you’re going to run ads for your real estate business, you need to be able to write ad copy that converts. That is, real estate ad copy that convinces your audience to click and take an action.

Writing effective ad copy for real estate isn’t rocket science. It just means writing with a few very important principles in mind.

Which is what we’re going to dive into.

Here’s a quick-and-dirty real estate agent’s guide to writing ad copy that converts.

Remember to Speak to Your Audience

First and foremost: remember who you’re speaking to. Write for your audience.

Your audience won’t be the same for every ad you write. It will depend on:

• the goal of your ad (for instance, to bring people to your listing or to grow your contact list);
• the location of your ad (such as on Facebook, Instagram or in Google search results); and
• the specific type of lead you’re trying to target (maybe it’s buyers, sellers, first-time buyers, or investors).

Whoever your real estate ad audience is, it’s important that you speak to them in your ad. Think of what they need, want, or would be intrigued by. Speak in a way that will resonate with them. 

The more you personalize your ad copy to the audience you’re trying to reach, the better chance you have at actually getting through to them.

Offer a Benefit

An ad is trying to convince its audience to do something. Like visit a website, sign up for an offer, buy a product or service, or register to receive information

Real estate ads are no different.

If you want your audience to take an action, you need to make the value of that action clear. What will they get if they follow through? What is the benefit to them?

Every real estate ad you run should clearly communicate a benefit in order to convince your audience to follow through. Here’s what we mean.

If the goal of your ad is to get open house RSVPs… The benefit is a close-up look at a great listing with highly desirable attributes (and maybe cocktails or hor’dourves). 

If the goal of your ad is to grow your email marketing list… The benefit is all the highly valuable real estate market insights that your newsletters will deliver, plus perks like first looks at exclusive listings or maybe even giveaways and coupons for local businesses.

If the goal of your ad is to get website traffic… The benefit is what they’ll find when they visit, such as sold listing data, customizable real estate searches and detailed neighbourhood guides.

Push With Data, Urgency, and/or Exclusivity

Including a benefit in your real estate ad copy is half the job of getting your audience to follow through.

The other half: communicating that benefit in such a way that it pushes your audience to follow through now.

The most effective ways to do that: include data in your ad, or create a sense of urgency or exclusivity.

Data

Buyers and sellers (and those curious about buying and selling) love data. From what their neighbour’s house sold for to how much prices are climbing in their area, they want to see numbers and statistics to help inform their thinking and decision-making.

Tap into that hunger for data by including stats and figures in your real estate ad copy. It’s a pretty much guaranteed way to generate clicks.

There are some rules when it comes to using data in your real estate ads: make sure it’s current; make sure it’s accurate; and don’t use data out of context.

Urgency

Think of ads promoting sales or discounts. They almost always tell you when the sale is ending. 

Why? Because this creates a sense of urgency for the audience. If they don’t click at that very moment, they could miss out on a great deal.

Real estate agents can use this strategy in their real estate ads. Create urgency by communicating that the open house RSVP list is nearly full, or that free access to your first-time buyers’ course is closing at midnight. 

Exclusivity

Who doesn’t love to feel like they’re in on a secret, or part of a privileged, restricted group? Think of VIP tickets or private clubs.

The exclusivity hook doesn’t work for every type of real estate ad, but if you want to advertise to real estate investors or luxury buyers or sellers, for instance, it can be a powerful strategy.

To incorporate exclusivity into your ad, the benefit must be exclusive, too. Such as an insiders-only newsletter where you share detailed write-ups on upcoming investment opportunities with only a small group of vetted investors. Or a special luxury homes network for buyers and sellers of homes worth over $5 million, where you provide sneak peeks at upcoming listings. 

Be Specific and Brief

The ideal number of words and characters for your ad copy will depend on what kind of ad you’re running, and where it will appear.

But no matter the length, there’s a golden rule that every ad should follow: keep it tight. Specific, brief and clear. 

Your ads will almost always be seen as someone is scrolling, swiping or scanning their screen — meaning, they’re not going to take the time to read every line word for word, no matter how engaging the writing is.

To make sure you’re getting your message across, you need to communicate in as few words as possible, and make sure those words are carefully chosen. 

This doesn’t mean your writing has to be dry or boring. Constraint breeds creativity; needing to keep your ad copy brief and specific forces you to find ways to make it engaging without adding a ton of extra words.

What else do you want to know about copywriting for real estate?