Social media is one of the best lead generation channels for homebuilders. Whether you build custom, spec or tract homes, the right strategy can showcase your work, build trust and turn followers into homebuyers.
Here’s how to make social media work for your homebuilding business.
1. Choose the Right Platforms
Not all social media platforms are created equal. Focus on where homebuyers who match your ideal customer profile (ICP) are looking for information.
Hear this: You don’t need to have a presence on every social media platform.
It doesn’t make sense to invest energy into a platform like TikTok if your target demographic is retirees who want to build a second home. This is a trap a lot of builders fall into.
You’re busy and you need the best bang for your buck out of your social media. Your target homebuyer won’t penalize you if you’re not on Instagram when they spend all their time on Facebook.
So how do you figure out where your ideal customers live online? By asking them.
Go to a homebuyer you loved working with and ask them how they did their research. Ask what types of content resonated with them throughout their homebuilding journey.
After doing this a few times, you’ll notice patterns. Take this information and use it to decide the best social media platform for your business.
If your target homebuyers are on multiple platforms, tap into the strengths of each. That way, you can maximize your impact. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Instagram & Facebook: Ideal for sharing home photos, community updates and client testimonials
- Pinterest: Perfect for home design inspiration and driving traffic to your website
- LinkedIn: Great for networking with realtors, investors and industry professionals
- YouTube & TikTok: Excellent for video tours, client testimonials and behind-the-scenes content
2. Showcase Your Homes with Stunning Visuals
Your homes are your best sales tool, and social media is your digital showroom. Homebuyers want to be able to imagine themselves in their next home. Great visuals make this easy.
Consider investing in these areas:
- Professional photos: Post high-quality images of kitchens, living spaces and exteriors
- Virtual Tours: Use video walkthroughs to help buyers explore homes and communities from anywhere
- Before & After: Show transformations from construction to move-in ready
Keep adding to your portfolio as you grow. It’s worth paying for great assets during and after every project.
The more successes you can showcase, the easier your sales cycle becomes. Plus, you’ll have a constant flow of great content for social media.
3. Use Video to Make a Personal Connection
Video builds trust and creates an emotional connection with buyers. And we’re not talking about expensive, high production marketing videos.
Simple video messages posted on social media go a long way towards building trust and relationships with your audience online. Even people you haven’t met before can feel comfortable with you because of your personable video messages.
Here are a few examples of when video messages come in handy on social media:
- Responding to a question: Rather than type out a long post, share answers to FAQs over a quick videos
- Market updates: Give people context on what’s happening in the local market
- Professional callouts: Give shout-outs to other local businesses and figures in the community
- Community highlights: Share your favorite places to visit near your communities
- Behind-the-scenes footage: Show the craftsmanship and care that goes into each home
Recording and posting short videos may be uncomfortable at first. It’s a vulnerable act. But the more you do it, the more confident you’ll be come.
Pro tip: think less about how you look and sound and more about the value of your message to your audience.
4. Run Targeted Ads to the Right Buyers
Organic reach is great, but paid ads help you reach buyers actively looking for homes. And the more work you’ve done upfront to understand your target buyer, the better your ads will perform. You’ll see better conversion rates and return on your investment.
Here are the three main types of ads:
- Geo-targeted ads: For people in specific areas or moving to your city
- Retargeting campaigns: For those who have engaged with you online but haven’t converted
- Lookalike audiences: For new buyers similar to your past customers
With geo-targeted ads, the best “creatives” (the images and videos you use for your ads) are those that include a geographic call-out.
“Attention new homebuyers in San Mateo county.”
“Looking to build a home in Wichita?”
This approach signals to those who see the ad that it is meant specifically for them. You need this type of language to grab attention in the newsfeed.
Retargeting campaigns are powerful because they involve pursuing people who have already shown some interest in your business. The goal is to get prospects over the line, which should cost less than persuading a cold lead to take some action.
You can run retargeting campaigns to people who have interacted with ads you ran previously on the social media site. You can also run them for those who visited your website. To make that work, you’ll likely need to install a short code snippet on your site so that the social media site actually knows who has visited.
(you can find plenty of online tutorials explaining how to do this)
Finally, lookalike audiences consist of people who share similar characteristics, interests and engagement patterns to another list you provide. So individuals in this group haven’t engaged with your brand before. But they are more likely to do so based on the fact that people like them have also shown interest in your business.
The key with all three ad types above is that you continue refining based on what you learn.
5. Engage With Your Audience
Social media is a two-way conversation. Responding to comments, messages and reviews builds trust. It allows you to prove your authority in the market over an extended period so that when people are ready to build a home, you’re the first person they consider.
Here are a few ideas on different ways you can engage your audience:
- Answer frequently asked questions about the homebuilding process
- Encourage past buyers to tag you in home photos and share their experiences
- Post polls, quizzes and behind-the-scenes content to keep engagement high
- Celebrate milestones, anniversaries and birthdays in your network
This is not an exhaustive list. As you interact more with your audience, you’ll discover the types of content and ways of engaging that work well.
And video messaging is effective here as well. Video showcases your personality better and adds dynamism to your content.
Try using a mix of text- and video-based posts to give your audience multiple ways to connect with your ideas. Use data to decide the best mix between the two based on your target audience (more on this below).
6. Partner With Influencers and Realtors
Working with micro-influencers and real estate agents can amplify your reach. Influencers already have engaged audiences who trust their opinions. And realtors have credibility in the market. Both can connect you with high quality leads.
Before partnering with anyone, it’s important to meet and discuss who your ideal homebuying customer is. You don’t want referral partners sending bad leads your way. You’ll spend too much time pursuing people who are unlikely to build a home with you.
If you agree there’s audience / target-customer alignment, great. Set up a partnership, and figure out how you’ll reward people for sending you business.
7. Track What’s Working (And What’s Not)
Use analytics to see which posts and ads drive the most engagement and leads.
- Instagram & Facebook Insights: Track likes, comments, and shares.
- Google Analytics: See which social channels bring traffic to your site.
- Ad Performance Metrics: Measure conversions and ROI on social ads.
Adjust your strategy based on data to maximize results.
Start Growing Your Homebuilding Business on Social Media
Social media marketing for homebuilders isn’t just about posting pictures—it’s about building relationships, showcasing your expertise and generating leads.
For a more thorough article on marketing as a homebuilder, check out this article. And for a deeper dive on generating leads as a homebuilder, check out this one.
Finally, if you’re ready to give video messaging a try, start a free 14-day trial with BombBomb here.
