Digital Ads For New Home Sales
PG
by Paul Giannotti
MY NAME IS PAUL GIANNOTTI
- I'm the founder of ROI Obsession
- 15 yrs digital advertising professional
- 8+ yrs direct response copywriting experience across 30+ industries
- 3+ yrs Strategy & Research lead at www.realestate.com.au
Click / tap to connect on LinkedIn:
some Property brands I'VE HElped grow
Over the last 18 months
Partnering with leading developers, this unique approach to running digital ads for new home sales is generating qualified leads at scale.
helping SELl ALL TYPES OF PROJECTS 🤝
Townhouses & Townhomes
Apartment Projects
Higher End Luxury Developments
Even Rural, Investor Focused House & Land
$85,000,000+ IN SALES FOR MELBourne Townhouse sales Team
✅ 10,000+ qualified sales leads generated.
✅ Sales team converting 1% into sales.
✅ Sold 100+ properties so far at an average sale value of $854,633.
✅ ROI on marketing spend sitting at over 13X!
1.3% LEAD to sale rate for a leading perth luxury apartment developer
✅ Lead to Sale conversion rate 1.3% across both Google (Search, Demand-Gen & YouTube) and Meta (Facebook & Instagram).
✅ ROI on marketing spend sitting at 1,807% (18X)
the 4 BIG new home sales constraints
SOLVING THESE constraints
ROI Obsession was built on the assumption that you want to solve these sales bottlenecks.
Operating with any one of these sales constraints in place is like being stuck in second gear with the handbreak on.
You can still make sales, but you won't be selling out your project as fast or as efficiently as you could be.
The great news is that these are all very "solvable" problems.
Once solved, it opens the floodgates to quality prospects – predictably, and at volume.
why you need to fix sales constraint #1 (not enough leads)
"I'll just book a suburb or two on the portals, and I'm good. Right?"
Aside from having to put up your home as collateral to book the placement (it's $$$) – there's NO guarantee of results.
Likely outcome?
Your sales team at the mercy of the property gods, begging the portals for a trickle of leads.
Now, we're not saying they're bad leads, but you have no control over the process, or the volume.
It's not unheard of to put $4k on the placement and get back less than 20 leads.
Which means a $200 Cost Per Lead (we'll dive into why this can be a serious contraint to sales below).
But there's something you may not have considered:
If you rely solely on the portals for leads…
You're missing a HUGE segment of potential property buyers.
Here's why…
At any given time, people enter the market and people exit the market.
I think of it as a "Moving Parade".
The time between when someone enters the market and when someone exists…
Is known as time in market.
For some markets, time in market is very short.
Take "emergency locksmiths" for example.
The time in market for an emergency locksmith is about the length of time it takes to open your phone and Google "emergency locksmith".
Therefore, if you're said locksmith, you MUST be at the top of Google in that critical moment of time.
But with home sales, we're playing a different game…
property HAS A long buying cycle
Research from Think By Google reports that the average home buyer journey takes 19.7 months.
High-level property purchase journey:
Looks pretty straightforward, right?
Wouldn't it be easy if it was a simple, linear pathway like this?
If buying a home was akin to hiring a locksmith, all we'd need to do is be on REA, Domain and Google Search.
But if you've been selling property for a while, you'll know…
The HOME buying journey is anything but linear
Here's one potential example:
Of course, this is just one of potentially hundreds of variations that illustrate an individual's home purchase journey.
Perhaps a more accurate way to show the journey is the following:
This explains why many on your database will buy 3-6 months after the initial lead (more on this later).
most of the buying journey is spent in consideration
Buyers will dip in and out of Active Search mode.
But they will spend the majority of their time in Consideration.
That's because over an 18 month timespan…
They're not actively looking through property listings every single day.
However they are in the market.
So what are they doing every day?
✅ They're on Facebook daily.
✅ They're on Instagram daily.
✅ They're watching YouTube videos daily.
✅ They're reading news stories daily.
✅ They're checking their emails daily.
Monthly hours spent by platform (Australia, 2024):
These platforms 👆 represent a 10X – 20X time spent.
Which is great news because leveraging digital ads can give us…
the opportunity to reach 10X – 20X The potential buyers
Simply by understanding how prospects use media allows us to access a dramatically larger segment of the market.
Here's how we do it using digital ads:
(Later I'll show you how we can – legally – run ads to people who have visited property portal websites, or used their mobile apps).
While your competitors are fighting over a handful of leads from the property portals, you can clean up by targeting the entire local market.
partners & REFERRALS HAVE LIMITS
Relying too heavily on channel partners and referrals will sabotage your sales.
Whether it's investment groups, buyers agents, overseas buyer groups, or financial teams…
No-one's going to argue that quality referrals aren't great. They are.
The problem with referrals is that they're:
❌ Unpredictable
❌ Out of your control
❌ Not scalable
After all, property is a numbers game.
If you don't feed your sales team a high volume of quality leads, they won't have the opportunities to sign more deals.
It's as simple as that.
why you need to fix sales constraint #2 (poor quality leads)
A common problem I see with project lead-gen ads is that they often use the wrong ad format.
This is may be a symptom of working with a lazy marketing agency.
Or that the person who was running your ads just didn't know any better.
I'm talking about Lead Form Ads.
And unfortunately, they've become widely used.
Here's an example:
The likes of Facebook and Google promote these heavily, since their main goal is to keep users on their platform (so they can make more advertising revenue).
Just take a look at the conversion options Meta present advertisers with when they setup a new campaign:
All of these options, except one, result in sub-par outcomes for property advertisers.
I will explain EXACTLY why in a moment.
First though, here's how these Lead Form Ads work:
- User sees ad.
- User clicks ad.
- A form pops up with the user’s contact information already pre-filled.
- User taps Submit button.
That's it!
Sounds like a recipe for easy, cheap leads, right?
So why is this an issue?
This usually produces (technical term here)…
Garbage leads.
Why?
Because it makes it too easy for an lead to be submitted.
Let's just say you won't be too popular in sales meetings if you continue running these ads.
to get quality leads, WE have to make them work for it
Think of it like dating.
You don't want the guy who texts at 8pm on Friday night saying "Netflix & chill?" – he's NOT a buyer!
You want the guy who books dinner three days in advance, scoops tickets to your favourite local band, then arrives at your doorstep to pick you up.
In the same way, we want leads to put in work to qualify themselves, before they go to sales.
This is SO important…
That it's an ROI Obsession Cardinal Rule:
✅ Ads must always take prospects to your Project Conversion Funnel.
Get users off the ad networks and into your funnel
Whether it's Google Search Ads, Google Display Ads, Demand-Gen Ads, YouTube Ads, Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads…
Every Ad must take users off the Ad Networks and into your Funnel.
Would you rather a "Netflix & chill" lead…
Or a lead that:
1️⃣ Clicked off the Ad Network to your Project Conversion Funnel.
2️⃣ Browsed through the photos and read about your project.
3️⃣ Made the effort to fill out their First Name, Last Name, Phone, Email and selected a Budget Range.
👉 Usually on a mobile phone – which is staggeringly annoying to do.
4️⃣ Then went though a Lead Enrichment Questionnaire to provide an additional 6-7 pieces of information.
I know which lead I'd prefer to send to sales.
We'll get into exactly how our Conversion & Qualification Funnels are structured in a moment, but before we do let's talk about high lead costs.
why you need to fix sales constraint #3 (HIGH lead COSTs)
I stated earlier that property sales is a numbers game.
So is running digital ads.
If you're suffering from high leads costs from advertising campaigns, it's due to one of two things:
1) Cost of advertising.
2) Conversion rate from Visit to Lead.
Here's the formula for Cost Per Lead:
A simple example:
This is your leverage point, right here.
If we can increase the volume of leads we receive for the same spend, we reduce our Cost Per Lead.
Breaking it down a little deeper:
Here's two simple scenarios so you can see the difference.
Scenario #1:
Now watch what happens when we improve the Conversion Rate %.
Scenario #2:
If you're wondering whether it's realistic to convert 5% of visitors from digital ads into leads…
Here's the stats on one of our live Project Conversion Funnels:
Always send ad traffic to a conversion optimised funnel
The Conversion Funnels we build for our client's draw on 15+ years experience and follow conversion optimisation best practices.
Here's a real example of the difference between using a typical project website vs a Conversion Funnel.
Our partners at Blackburne Property Group took us up on building a Conversion Funnel for their project.
Then they tested it.
Results of a direct eDM campaign split-test to REA's database:
(Images pixellated because the team preferred not to reveal as it's a live campaign we're running. But they're happy to share the results of the split-test).
This illustrates the power of a correctly built Project Conversion Funnel.
Exact same audience.
Exact same number of visitors.
234% more leads through our Conversion Funnel.
A QUICK word from our client
Across last 12 months:
✅ Leads from our Digital Ad Campaigns & Conversion Funnel are being converted to sales at over 1.3% across both Google Ads and Meta Ads.
“Thank you to Paul at ROI Obsession for collaborating with us to enhance our digital lead generating strategy!”
Patricia Cheah
BLACKBURNE MARKETING MANAGER
let's Run the numbers
By extrapolating this, you'll see the significance of using a heavily optimised Conversion Funnel.
Here's an example using conservative, yet realistic numbers:
Where else can you make a 2.7% tweak in your business and get a $1M+ uplift?
SPEED OF SALES & REVENUE IMPACT
Here's where things get interesting.
Watch what happens when we plot this over a 12 month sales period.
A modest increase in Visit to Lead Conversion Rate of 2.7% to 5.4%…
Has a profound impact on sales volume and velocity.
Projected outcomes after 12 months:
why you need to fix sales constraint #4 (LEADS NOT BEING NURTURED)
Of course, we'd all love to see every lead to come in with pre-approval, saying "We absolutely must buy something this month".
And while it can happen, and there's things we can do to target these people, unfortunately it's not the norm.
Remember that the average buyer journey takes 6 - 12 months.
Which means that often, the majority of sales occur several months after an lead comes in.
We may not like it, but this is a fact of life, and needs to be dealt with.
marketing & sales, Working together 🤯
Unless you just hired a new Sales Manager by the name of Clark Kent, not all leads are going to get the time and attention they really deserve.
Let's face it.
The majority of the time, most leads are being nurtured for...
7-10 days.
2-3 weeks if we're being generous.
When we look again at the typical property buyer journey…
A 2-3 week lead nurture process obviously misses the mark:
marketing needs to catch what slips through the sales cracks
Your marketing needs to have the sales team's back by rolling out an effective lead nurture program that is "constantly on" or lasts 12 months (at minimum).
Without this, you will miss out on a significant volume of sales.
Use your NURTURE PROGRAM To remove obstacles & objections
A helpful lens to think through your lead nurturing is to ask the question:
"What stops my prospects from buying"?
Some of the common obstacles and objections to new home sales:
(FYI – these are just a FEW, there are many, many more).
Some of these are out of your control.
But a lot of them can be overcome, with the right information.
This is the job of your Lead Nurture Program.
plan to be in your prospects' email inboxes weekly
Once you've generated the lead, you've done the most expensive part.
Incrementally, it costs almost $0 to continue sending emails to prospects.
So it doesn't make sense to stop.
Half of the battle of marketing is building the 'Know', 'Like', 'Trust' factor.
Think of it as needing to "keep showing up".
You want to constantly show up.
So your prospects see your brand over, and over, and over.
Week in and week out.
Familiarity breads trust.
There's a ton of research stating that we need at least 7 exposures with a brand before we considering buying.
When it comes to property, I would argue it's much, much more.
Over the period of a 6 - 12 month buying cycle:
Every email has a chance to hook a prospect and re-engage them with sales.
Time to go fishing!
1. WE BUILD a PROJECT Conversion funnel TO unblock constraints 2 & 3
conversion funnel 10,000 ft view
This is a high-level view of our proven Conversion & Qualification Funnel we use across our client campaigns that’ve generated 10,000+ leads and led to $200M+ in new home sales:
Hand crafted for your project
Pre-Sell, Qualify & Convert visitors from digital ads into quality leads:
✅ Efficiently run Digital Ad Campaigns on Google Search, Google Display, Google News, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram (maximising the reach of your project with local buyers).
✅ Accurately track leads back to the Ad Networks (and specific Ads) so that Ad Network targeting algorithms can systematically improve results over time.
✅ Know which exact Ads worked from click right through to sale (you can have confidence in your marketing spend).
✅ Qualify prospects through a multi-stage process, ensuring they're interested and engaged (rather than just clicking on something random in their feed).
✅ Routinely capture 6-7 additional high value data points which allow your sales team to respond with the most compelling offerings (improving sales results).
✅ Give you the ability to run segmented and personalised marketing campaigns to new leads based on segment (First Home Buyer, Upsizer, Downsizer, Investor), property size (Bedrooms) or any other data point.
✅ Use proven conversion design best practices to generate quality leads at volume (reducing your Cost Per Lead).
The LEAD ENRICHMENT Questionnaire IMPROVES Lead Quality
Our data shows that 80% - 85% of leads complete this process, providing high-value data points.
Designed to uncover a richer picture of prospects:
👉 First Home Buyer / Upsizer / Downsizer / Investor
👉 Number of Bedrooms Sought
👉 Key Features Sought
👉 Timeline to Purchase
👉 Amount of Savings
👉 Finance / Broker Requirements
LAST Funnel Page positions the PROCESS as incomplete
Ironically, we complete the Conversion Funnel's final Thank You page by informing the prospect that the process is incomplete.
This page is designed to prepare prospects to engage with your sales team.
It's the ideal place to provide any and all the information that will help move prospects closer to a sale.
Some of the elements we like to include:
2. next we roll out Digital Ads to Reach Local Buyers & Drive Quality Leads
Now that we have an optimised funnel to convert visitors into leads, it's time to push your project out to local buyers using modern digital ads.
✅ Clients are reporting a 1% - 1.3% sale rate from both Google and Meta Ads.
Google Search
We target one of the highest-intent traffic sources, AKA people who are actively searching buying terms on Google.
✅ Professional level account structure & setup (Campaigns, Ad Groups, Keywords, Ads, Ad Extensions, etc.) already heavily tested to convert.
We target buyers in three ways:
1️⃣ Prospects searching for your specific type of new home:
“House and land estates” (GEO-targeted to your catchment area)
2️⃣ Prospects searching your property type and location:
“new apartments Brisbane”
3️⃣ Prospects searching for your Brand Name / competitors
Youtube, discover & Gmail
These ads get your development in front of local prospects using methods your competitors (most likely) haven't even heard of.
✅ High-impact image & text Ads that run on YouTube's image placements, Google Discover, Google News and Gmail.
We target buyers in a number of ways:
1️⃣ Prospects that searched Google for specific terms:
“new apartments fremantle”
2️⃣ Prospects that visited specific websites or used specific mobile apps:
"www.realestate.com.au"
"www.domain.com.au"
"www.urban.com.au"
REA & Domain mobile app users
3️⃣ 20+ Google In-Market Signals:
"Residential Properties (For Sale)"
"Retirement Planning"
"Mortgage"
✅ We can setup campaigns to target specific segments with tailored messaging:
👉 First Home Buyers
👉 Upgraders
👉 Downsizers
👉 Investors
facebook & Instagram
We're generating hundreds of qualified leads monthly using Facebook & Instagram.
✅ Optimised Ad Copy & Creatives based on 18 months of split-testing across thousands of dollars in Ad Spend.
✅ Options to split-test different market segments with tailored messaging:
👉 First Home Buyers
👉 Upgraders
👉 Downsizers
👉 Investors
✅ Clients are reporting a 1% - 1.3% close rate on Facebook & Instagram Ads using our process.
3. support for effective lead nurturing
WE DELIVER LEADS in real-time
To maximise your sales team's success, we deliver leads instantly:
✅ Real-time email notifications (options to CC and BCC anyone).
✅ We can set up a round robin system if you have multiple sales people.
✅ If your sales CRM has an API, we can pipe leads directly in.
Leads are 100% owned by you and never re-sold, shared or re-marketed to.
LEAD tracker spreadsheet
We set up an Lead Tracker for your Digital Ad campaigns.
It's hosted as a Google sheet, making it easy to share with your sales team and have them provide feedback on leads.
✅ This sheet stores each prospect's Lead Enrichment Questionnaire responses and tracking data from the Ad campaigns.
✅ Gives you complete transparency from Ad to Sale (allowing you to see exactly which Channels and Ads are driving sales results).
🧠 Regular feedback from your sales team allows us to optimise Ad Spend to the Channels & Ads that are delivering the highest-quality prospects.
Real-Time Reporting Dashboard
Keep your finger on the pulse of your digital marketing results with access to a Google Sheet reporting dashboard that provides real-time data:
✅ Ad campaign data updated hourly.
✅ Breakdown of Leads, Ad Spend, Cost Per Lead by Ad Network and Channel.
optimal lead nurture series
We can assist with a pre-built 12-month lead nurture email series designed to introduce your project, overcome sales objections, and deliver value over time.
Nurture leads the easy way:
✅ Regular emails that can be programmed into 12-month sequence.
✅ Or use as an email database for your sales team to send out weekly newsletters.
✅ Designed to provide value, overcome objections and maintain top-of-mind.
You Pay Only for results
You decide On AD Spend Volume
One of the strengths of Digital Ads is the flexibility.
It's generally viable to upweight or down weight spend as required to hit the desired lead volumes to meet your sales goals.
✅ You decide on monthly ad spend volume.
✅ We agree and bill for ad spend upfront.
✅ Only after we deliver real results do we charge you for our services.
✅ You pay purely for results.
Stay Stuck with the 4 big lead-gen constraints
Or accelerate your Project sales with roi obsession
$85,000,000+ IN SALES FOR Townhouse sales Team
✅ 10,000+ qualified sales leads generated.
✅ Sales team converting 1% into sales.
✅ Sold 100+ properties so far at an average sale value of $854,633.
✅ ROI on marketing spend sitting at 1,388% (13X)
1.3% LEAD to sale rate for a leading perth luxury apartment developer
✅ Lead to sale conversion rate 1.3% across both Google (Search, Display & YouTube) and Meta (Facebook & Instagram).
✅ ROI on marketing spend sitting at 1,807% (18X)
