How Much Should Agents Spend on Social Media Ads?

Why this matters

Social media ads can turn quiet weeks into busy weeks. The right spend helps you reach the right people at the right time. Spend too little and you will not get traction. Spend too much without a plan and the money vanishes. This guide gives you clear numbers, simple formulas, and ready to use plans for property campaigns and lead generation in your local area.

A simple rule of thumb

If you want one practical answer you can use today, use this:

• Spend five to ten percent of the income you want to create from social media in the next ninety days

• Keep forty percent of your ad budget for listing promotion

• Keep forty percent for prospecting and lead capture

• Keep twenty percent for retargeting people who engaged with you

This split keeps your pipeline full and supports new listings while warming future sellers and buyers.

Set your goal before you set your budget

Choose one primary goal for the month:

• Win more listing appointments

• Drive more buyers to open homes and auctions

• Build brand reach in a farm area

• Grow a database with local market leads

Your goal sets your budget and your creative. For example, if your goal is listing appointments, you will favour lead forms and valuation offers. If your goal is buyer traffic, you will favour carousel ads and event ads for open homes.

Budget formulas you can use

Monthly growth formula

1. Write your target income from social media for the next three months.
   Example: 30 thousand dollars in gross commission.

2. Set your ad budget at five to ten percent of that number.
   Example: 1 thousand five hundred to 3 thousand dollars across the three months.

Per listing formula

1. Confirm the vendor paid marketing plan.

2. Allocate ten to thirty percent of that plan to social ads.
   Example: If the total VPA is 2 thousand dollars, invest 200 to 600 dollars into social ads for that listing.

Cost targets to guide decisions

Use these conservative targets as a starting point. Your numbers will improve with better creative and tight targeting.

• Cost per click: 1 to 3 dollars

• Cost per lead with instant form: 10 to 40 dollars

• Cost per warm enquiry for a listing: 5 to 20 dollars

• Cost per appraisal request from prospecting: 80 to 250 dollars

Track weekly. Adjust bids, audiences, and creative to beat your own baseline.

Budget tiers that work in most suburbs

These tiers are guides. Start at a level that suits your cash flow, then scale.

Starter plan per month

• Total budget: 300 to 500 dollars

• Split

  • 120 to 200 for listing promotion

  • 120 to 200 for prospecting lead magnets

  • 60 to 100 for retargeting

• Expected outcomes

  • Reach: 10 thousand to 25 thousand local impressions

  • Clicks: 150 to 300

  • Leads: 5 to 15 with simple offers such as suburb report or price alert

Growth plan per month

• Total budget: 800 to 1 thousand five hundred dollars

• Split

  • 320 to 600 for listing promotion

  • 320 to 600 for prospecting lead magnets

  • 160 to 300 for retargeting

• Expected outcomes

  • Reach: 30 thousand to 70 thousand local impressions

  • Clicks: 500 to 1 thousand

  • Leads: 20 to 60

  • Two to four appraisal conversations

Accelerator plan per month

• Total budget: 2 thousand to 4 thousand dollars

• Split

  • 800 to 1 thousand six hundred for listing promotion

  • 800 to 1 thousand six hundred for prospecting lead magnets

  • 400 to 800 for retargeting

• Expected outcomes

  • Reach: 100 thousand plus local impressions

  • Clicks: 2 thousand plus

  • Leads: 80 to 200

  • Four to eight appraisal conversations

Per listing social plan and budget example

Assume a 450 dollar social budget inside your vendor paid marketing.

• Warm up phase

  • Spend 50 dollars over two to three days

  • Goal: build awareness with short videos and image teasers in a 3 to 7 kilometre radius around the property

• Launch week

  • Spend 200 dollars over five to seven days

  • Goal: drive clicks and form fills using carousel, video, and instant forms for inspection times

• Open home week two

  • Spend 120 dollars over five to seven days

  • Goal: retarget viewers with reminders and send new creative such as a floor plan tile and feature highlight video

• Deadline week

  • Spend 80 dollars over three to five days

  • Goal: push urgency such as final inspection, price guide update, or auction reminder

Creative mix for the listing

• Five to eight assets

• One hero video 20 to 30 seconds

• Three photo carousels

• One floor plan tile

• One local lifestyle tile

• One short vendor quote if available

Prospecting plan and budget example

Run this every month as your always on engine.

• Lead magnet ad

  • 40 percent of the prospecting budget

  • Offer ideas

    • Suburb report

    • Price guide for streets in your farm

    • Market update video

  • Use an instant form and deliver the item by email to grow your database

• Brand reach ad

  • 30 percent of the prospecting budget

  • Short video or image with a clear promise such as Free suburb report in 60 seconds

  • Aim for frequency of two to four per week so people see you enough to remember

• Test offer ad

  • 30 percent of the prospecting budget

  • Rotate offers such as free pre sale consult, auction strategy call, or landlord checklist

How to set your cost targets with simple maths

1. Write your average fee per sale.
   Example: 12 thousand dollars in gross commission.

2. Estimate funnel steps

   • Leads to appraisal: one in ten

   • Appraisals to listings: one in two

   • Listings to sales: three in four

3. Work back to a maximum cost per lead

   • To make one sale you need about 20 leads

   • One sale brings 12 thousand dollars

   • You can invest up to ten percent to acquire that sale which is 1 thousand two hundred dollars

   • That gives a lead target of 60 dollars

   • You now know that 10 to 40 dollars per lead is very healthy and 60 dollars is the ceiling

Use your real numbers once you have a few months of data. Your own data is the truth.

Presenting social ad spend inside vendor paid marketing

Offer three clear choices so sellers can pick with confidence. Use simple names and one page menus.

• Bronze

  • 200 to 300 dollars on social

  • Teaser video plus carousel

  • One retargeting round

• Silver

  • 400 to 600 dollars on social

  • Teaser video plus two carousels plus floor plan tile

  • Two retargeting rounds

  • Open home reminder ads

• Gold

  • 700 to 1 thousand dollars on social

  • Full creative suite with lifestyle clip and agent message

  • Three retargeting rounds

  • Auction or deadline countdown

Explain that social spend follows the eyeballs in the area and helps reach passive buyers and quiet sellers who are not on portals every day.

How to scale spend safely

Raise your spend when

• You beat your cost per lead target for two weeks in a row

• Frequency drops below two and reach is falling

• A listing needs an extra push in deadline week

Lower or pause spend when

• A creative has frequency above six with falling click through rate

• Cost per lead rises above your ceiling for seven days

• The listing has gone under offer

Use small changes of ten to twenty percent when you adjust budgets. This keeps performance stable.

Creative and audience tips that save money

• Use five to eight creatives per campaign to stop ad fatigue

• Refresh the first frame of videos every week with a new hook line

• Show people, places, and price range in the first two seconds of video

• Target a tight radius around your farm suburbs

• Build retargeting groups from video viewers at 25 percent and 50 percent

• Send different messages to cold, warm, and hot audiences

Common mistakes and easy fixes

• Spending without a clear goal
  Fix by choosing one outcome per campaign and matching the ad type to that outcome

• Using one creative for weeks
  Fix by planning a content set for each week of the campaign

• No retargeting
  Fix by keeping twenty percent of spend for people who watched or clicked

• Broad national targeting
  Fix by using suburb level and radius targeting within your service area

• No offer in the ad
  Fix by adding a clear next step such as Book a free price update or Get the suburb report

A weekly checklist to keep you on track

• Monday

  • Check spend, reach, frequency, cost per click, cost per lead

  • Swap in one new creative for each active campaign

• Wednesday

  • Review lead quality and form answers

  • Send follow up messages to all new leads

• Friday

  • Raise or lower budgets based on results

  • Prepare next week creative set

• End of month

  • Export results and update your own cost per lead, cost per appraisal, and cost per sale

  • Set next month budget using five to ten percent of your income goal

Final guidance

Start with the Starter plan if you are new. Hold the split of forty percent listing promotion, forty percent prospecting, and twenty percent retargeting. Watch your numbers weekly. Once your cost per lead and cost per appraisal are stable, lift spend in small steps. Social ads work best as a steady engine, not a one off burst. With a clear goal, tight local targeting, and regular creative refresh, your ad dollars will produce real appointments, more open home traffic, and stronger results for every property you market.

Author Ken Hobson
ken@agentslibrary.com.au