As a REALTOR®, you know that creating real estate Facebook ads is the perfect cornerstone for your social media marketing strategy. With over 1.56 billion daily users, advertising real estate on Facebook is a fantastic and inexpensive way to connect with new clients, engage with your client network, and showcase your listings to specific audiences. Hopping onto your Facebook ad account, you decide to join the thousands of real estate agents who reap the benefits of Facebook advertising on a daily basis. With a smartly-written caption in tow, the correct objective set, and an attractive, high-res image to seal the deal—your ad is clearly a winner. With a click of the publish button, you sit and wait for the traffic to roll in.
Only for nothing to happen.
What gives? What went wrong? You take a peek into your ad account only to find that your Facebook ad was not approved.
Due to Facebook’s regulations and policies, advertising real estate on Facebook can be surprisingly tricky. Here at AvenueHQ, we successfully run hundreds of real estate Facebook ads for our clients every single day. For REALTORS® looking to dip their toes into social media marketing, here are three of the most common reasons why your real estate Facebook ads might not be approved.
You Have Not Accepted Facebook’s Non-Discrimination Policy
Facebook strictly enforces its non-discrimination policy upon any new advertiser or the creation of a new ad account. This policy is essentially an agreement between the user and Facebook which states that any ads you create will not discriminate against any individuals or groups. This policy is mandatory—any ads relating to real estate are often immediately rejected until the policy has been accepted.
If you are brand new to real estate marketing on Facebook, this is most likely the reason your Facebook ad was not approved. Thankfully, the fix is quite easy and generally does not require any edits to your ad copy. Simply open the disapproved ad (if you are using ad manager, make sure you are opening the ad, not the campaign, or ad set) and a prompt should be displayed requesting you accept Facebook’s Non-Discrimination Policy. Once the policy is accepted, all of your future Facebook real estate ads should run without issues.
One thing to note is that once you have accepted the policy, the Facebook ad that was not approved will not start running. Unfortunately, Facebook will not let you simply republish an ad if there were no changes made since the last time the ad was published. If you would like that ad to run, make any small tweak to the ad or ad set (such as removing and re-adding a letter from the text) and republish the ad. This will resend the ad to Facebook to review and run.
There Is Too Much Text in Your Facebook Ad’s Image
When it comes to using Facebook for real estate advertising, having attractive call-to-action overlays on top of an image is a great way to increase engagement and raise brand awareness. In fact, this approach is so successful that AvenueHQ now adds call-to-action overlays on all of our Facebook real estate ads when promoting our clients’ listings. However, having too much text on your image can result in your Facebook ad not being approved.
In fact, Facebook’s guidelines state that less than 20% of your image should feature text. Any more than that and you are at risk of having your ad rejected. Even if you have an ad with plenty of text that manages to slip past Facebook’s notice and appears to be running correctly, Facebook might actually reduce the number of people your ad reaches because of the amount of text. Essentially, you will be paying the same amount to reach fewer people.
Your Facebook Ads Discriminated (Unintentionally)
It's a common selling tactic to try to speak directly to a hypothetical buyer when listing a property. “You and your kids are sure to love this home,” or “You will love spending time with your kids in the expansive backyard,” aren’t uncommon to see in a property’s description. However, when it comes to Facebook advertising for REALTORS®, these types of phrases are a no-go. Remember that non-discrimination policy you had to agree to before creating any real estate Facebook ads? These types of phrases are considered by Facebook to be discriminatory.
For instance, in both of the examples provided, the statement assumes that the user viewing the ad has a family with children—which Facebook considers to be discriminatory against those who do not. Because of this, the ad stands a chance of being rejected for not being in line with Facebook’s advertising policies.
To avoid this issue, try focusing your ad’s description text on the subject you are advertising rather than who an ideal client might be. An easy trick to ensure success is to remove words such as “you” and “your” from your vocabulary when advertising real estate on Facebook. These words can often trigger Facebook’s algorithm and lead to a rejected ad.
Learn More About Social Media Marketing for REALTORS® with AvenueHQ
Interested in Facebook marketing for REALTORS®? AvenueHQ offers a variety of free digital marketing webinars to help you learn the tips, tricks, and best practices for advertising real estate on Facebook. If the thought of using Facebook for real estate marketing sounds a bit too daunting for you—that’s okay! Our team of marketing experts is happy to handle it for you so you can spend more time with your clients and doing the things you love! Meet with one of our experts today to find out what AvenueHQ can do for you.
