Apartment marketers have long relied on full color brochures and flyers to advertise their communities. Relatively cheap compared to signage, radio spots, and print media, it’s easy to see how brochures and flyers could appeal to the apartment marketer on a budget. But with the rise of social media advertising, spending money on these pamphlets makes less sense each day.
Need proof?
Here’s a look at the cost of print brochures according to PSPrint, a company that sells print brochures:
| Quantity | 1000 | 2000 |
| Total Price | $342.54 | $386.63 |
| Price/Piece | $0.342 | $0.193 |
Now compare that data with the following table, which shows the average CPM (Cost per 1,000 Impressions) for multifamily Facebook ads:
| Quantity | 1000 | 2000 |
| Total Price | $1.81 | $3.62 |
| Price/Piece | $0.018 | $0.018 |
Simply put, Facebook ads promise a savings of over 90 percent!
As impressive as that may be, smart marketers know that a huge savings in CPM doesn’t mean Jack if your audience isn’t qualified to make a purchase (or in this case, sign a lease) in the first place. Unfortunately for print brochure manufacturers, demographic targeting is yet another area where Facebook has a serious advantage.
Any multifamily marketer who has ever ran a cold brochure mailing campaign knows that targeting options are fairly limited. In most cases, you can only narrow audience by gender, age, and income level. Furthermore, mailing campaigns don’t make sense for multifamily properties – since brochures are sent to people who, for the most part, already own homes – which means that most brochures are distributed to local businesses like convenience stores, where demographics are all over the map!
Contrast that approach to how Facebook allows you to refine your audience:
- Custom Audiences (these are groups you create based upon your email lists, phone numbers, app users, or website retargeting)
- Location (DMA, zip code, city, county, state, or country)
- Age & Gender
- Demographics (income, job title, employer name, language, relationship status, education, financial, home ownership, parental status, etc.)
- Interests (everything from brand pages to celebrities and most topics you can think of)
- Behaviors (charitable activities, online shopping habits, car shopping, financial spending, mobile devices, travel habits, etc.)
- More Categories (expats of specific countries and their friend/family)
- Connections (people connected to your page, app, or event)
…and remember that most of these categories contain thousands of sub-categories, you can combine or segment interests in an infinite amount of ways to reach your ideal demographic targets – and your ads will only display to people who meet those requirements!
Want to target single, young professionals living in Philadelphia who make over $50,000 and who love Thai food and indie bands? Done. Want to target married seniors who love to golf and have close friends who live in Fort Lauderdale, which just so happens to be where your retirement community is located? Done.
Your targeting options are limitless.
And on top of that, you can reach these more qualified prospects for less than 10 cents on the dollar of brochure pricing.
So why spend another cent on print brochures when you can try Facebook ads instead?
Contact Respage and see the power of social advertising for yourself. Our plans start at less than $10 per day and you can cancel at any time, free of charge.
