Real estate advertising is inherently hyper-local. Brokers and agents want to reach people in highly specific local markets in a variety of ways, including "Just Sold" ads to attract new sellers and listing ads to attract buyers.
But big ad platforms, like Google Ads and Meta Ads, protect themselves from strict Fair Housing Act regulations by large geographic "bubbles" on any real estate ads. For example, both Google and Meta currently limit geo-targeting for real estate ads to a minimum of 15 miles. As a result, real estate agents and brokers are forced to spend massive budgets on broad audiences, driving up wasted spend.
"There was, for a long time, this roadblock where we weren't going to get past those rules," said Nicole Crisbacher, Senior Marketing Manager at Union Street Media.
For companies like Union Street Media, who manage hundreds of real estate clients, these targeting limitations were a major constraint. It was one of the reasons why their clients continued leaning on non-digital advertising approaches like "Just Sold" postcard mailers (even though these mailers cost upwards of $50 CPM).
Nicole and the Union Street Media team broke free from the limitations of both direct mail and display/search ads with automated programmatic advertising. With the help of Fluency's Digital Advertising Operating System, Nicole and her team could sync real-time MLS data right into dynamic programmatic ads. Running programmatic ads via Basis Technologies was Nicole's way of creating digital "Just Sold" mailers. Union Street Media calls them their "Magic Mailers."
Programmatic “Magic Mailers” check all the boxes Nicole and her team needed to make a compelling digital product for real estate brokers: greater measurability than physical postcards, better targeting than display or search ads, and all at a lower cost than any other advertising channel they offered.
By running programmatic ads via Basis through Fluency, Nicole and the team were able to:
- Set their own localized geo-targeting bounds: Programmatic allowed them to break free from the restrictive targeting rules of walled gardens like Google and Meta. Now, they can target potential buyers and sellers with pinpoint accuracy while still strictly adhering to FHA guidelines.
- Run dynamic and hyper-local ads within one mile of target audiences: Using Fluency, Union Street Media can sync real-time MLS listing data directly to their ad campaigns. Ads are generated automatically as soon as a home is listed. Best of all, each ad is dynamically displayed within a tight 1-mile radius of that address.
- Reduce wasted spend by automatically turning off "sold" homes: Fluency's automation rules ensure that "for sale" ads automatically come down the instant a home is no longer available. Budget is never wasted on outdated listings so clients are happy. Plus, there's no manual work for required for the Union Street Media team.
“The fact that our team can not only handle all the paid advertising efforts but also think of new ideas, test things out, help build out new products with engineering, work with the sales team…that wouldn't be possible without Fluency," said Nicole.
Nicole explains the impact that programmatic advertising automation has had on her team's workload capacity—and client results—in this short case study video.
