Facebook has launched its first ad product designed specifically for residential real estate brokerages.
“Dynamic Ads for Real Estate,” first reported by real estate news site Inman News, allow real estate brokers and agents to advertise directly to Facebook and Instagram users who have already searched for properties on that brokerage’s website. The product goes after a key money maker for Seattle-based Zillow, which allows real estate professionals to advertise to prospective home buyers and sellers on its site.
The new real estate product connects Facebook’s ad platform with a brokerage’s search data to understand a user’s preferences, then automatically shows that user relevant listings from the brokerage’s inventory. The ads are served on Facebook and Instagram.
“Real estate is an area we’re betting big on as a company,” Facebook’s real estate and financial services chief Keith Watts told Inman. “We think its content that consumers want to see.”
In October, Zillow rolled out a new feature that allows its Premier Agents to advertise to Facebook users under a partnership between the two tech companies. It’s not clear how Facebook’s move into real estate ads relates to that partnership. GeekWire reached out to Zillow for additional details and will update this story when we hear back.
“We’re really comfortable aligning our brand with you all, some of the finest real estate professionals in the world,” Greg Schwartz, Zillow Group chief business officer, said at a conference where the Facebook collaboration was announced. “But in technology partnerships we’re extremely choosy.”
Facebook Director of Industry Jerry Canning then took the stage with Schwartz.
“We’re really excited because we are putting together three powerful forces,” Canning said. “Zillow, the No. 1 real estate brand; Facebook, the world’s largest social network; and of course, our secret sauce — 1,500 or so Premier Agents who are going to get behind this product.”
Zillow stock dipped slightly in the hour following the Inman report but has since recovered.
