How to Target Local Buyers and Sellers with Ads

Reaching people in your own suburbs is the fastest path to more appraisals, more open homes, and more listings. The good news is that today’s ad tools make it easy to show your message to the right people, at the right time, in the right streets. This guide shows you exactly how to do it, step by step, using simple language and clear actions you can follow today.

What local targeting really means

Local targeting is choosing who sees your ad by suburb, postcode, street radius, or interest. The goal is to speak only to people who are likely to buy or sell near you. This keeps your spend low and your leads higher quality.

What this looks like
• Only show ads within five kilometres of your core suburbs
• Use the postcodes where you list and sell now
• Layer interests like home loans, renovations, and property portals
• Speak to sellers with one message and buyers with another
• Follow up website visitors and video viewers with retargeting

Before you start: simple setup checklist

Prepare these items once. It makes every campaign faster.

• Your core suburbs and postcodes written in a list
• One strong offer for sellers such as a free suburb price report or a same day appraisal
• One strong offer for buyers such as early access to off market or a weekly new listings alert
• A landing page for each offer with a short form
• At least five photos and two short videos that show local landmarks, streets, and recent sales
• A spreadsheet to track spend, leads, and appointments
• If possible, install the Meta pixel on your site for retargeting. Ask your web person if unsure

Targeting recipes that work

Use these as starting points. Keep the area tight. It is better to be a big fish in a small pond.

Sellers
• Location within three to five kilometres of your office or core farm
• Age twenty eight to sixty five plus
• Interests such as home loans, renovations, property portals, property flipping, interior design
• Look at life events like recently engaged or new parents if available
• Exclude current buyers list if you have one

Buyers
• Location within ten to fifteen kilometres of target suburbs
• Interests such as first home, house hunting, mortgage calculator, building and renovation
• Custom audience of people who viewed your listings or watched your videos

Landlords
• Location within your rent roll area
• Interests such as property investment, negative gearing, tax return, wealth building
• Layer with age thirty to sixty five plus

Step by step walkthrough: Meta ads for local leads

This covers Facebook and Instagram inside Meta Ads Manager. If you only use Boost, move to Ads Manager. It gives you control and lower costs over time.

1. Choose your objective
   • For seller leads pick Lead generation to use an in app form or Sales or Traffic if you send people to your own form

2. Set your budget
   • Start at ten to twenty dollars per day per audience
   • Use a seven day schedule so the system can learn

3. Name your campaign
   • Example Sellers SuburbName Free Price Report

4. Create your ad set
   • Location set to the postcodes or a radius around your core suburb
   • Age twenty eight to sixty five plus
   • Detailed targeting add two to five interests from the Seller recipe
   • Placements choose Advantage placements if new. If confident, keep Feed, Reels, and Stories
   • Optimisation keep Leads if using Meta forms or Landing Page Views if sending to your site

5. Build your ad
   • Format single image or short video
   • Primary text simple and local. See templates below
   • Headline clear action such as Free Suburb Price Report
   • Call to action Learn More or Get Quote
   • If using Meta forms create a Short form. Ask only name, phone, suburb, and timing to sell. Keep fewer than five questions

6. Publish and check
   • Review locations and budget
   • Publish the campaign
   • After twenty four to forty eight hours check results. Do not change too often at the start

7. Follow up fast
   • Phone within fifteen minutes when you can
   • Send a thank you email with the report or next steps
   • Book an appraisal while the interest is high

Pro tip
Run separate ad sets for Sellers, Buyers, and Landlords. Each audience gets its own message and creative. This lifts relevance and lowers cost.

Step by step walkthrough: Google Search ads to capture hot intent

Search ads reach people who are already looking. Use them for phrases like sell my house in Suburb.

1. Create a new campaign
   • Choose Leads as your goal
   • Pick Search as the type

2. Location and language
   • Target your suburbs or postcodes only
   • Language English

3. Budget
   • Start at fifteen to thirty dollars per day for one suburb group

4. Keywords
   • Use exact and phrase match like real estate agent Suburb, sell my house Suburb, property appraisal Suburb
   • Add negative keywords such as jobs, course, free rent to filter junk

5. Ads
   • Write three responsive search ads per ad group
   • Headlines example Top Agent in Suburb, Free Price Estimate, Sold Nearby This Week
   • Descriptions example Get a local price guide and a simple plan to sell for more. Book a quick call today

6. Extensions
   • Add call extension with office number
   • Add sitelinks such as Recent Sales, Appraisal, Testimonials, Auction Calendar

7. Conversion
   • Track form submits or calls from your landing page if you can
   • Ask your web person to add the tag if needed

8. Go live and review
   • Check search terms after two to three days
   • Add new negatives to block waste
   • Shift budget toward the ad group with lower cost per lead

Step by step walkthrough: retargeting warm locals

Retargeting keeps you in front of people who already showed interest.

1. Build custom audiences
   • Website visitors in the last ninety days
   • Video viewers who watched at least three seconds or more
   • People who opened but did not submit your Meta lead form

2. Create a retargeting ad set
   • Location still set to your suburbs
   • Use the custom audiences above
   • Exclude people who already became leads

3. Creative ideas
   • Short video with three recent sales and one quick tip
   • Carousel of testimonials
   • Offer a free five minute pricing call

4. Frequency and budget
   • Small budget five to ten dollars per day is enough for most areas
   • Check frequency weekly so people do not see the same ad too many times

Creative that speaks to locals

Keep it local, clear, and helpful.

Images and video
• Use a map pin over your suburb
• Show a quick pan of a local street, park, school, or cafe
• Add before and after from a styled home you sold
• Smile and speak to the camera for fifteen to thirty seconds

Copy formula
• Hook plus Local proof plus Offer plus Call to action

Examples
• Sellers in Suburb. See what homes like yours are selling for this month. Free report in five minutes. Get yours now
• Buying in Suburb. Join our private buyer list for early alerts and off market. Free sign up today
• Investors in Suburb. Get your rental price estimate and a plan to lift yield. Book a quick call

Landing pages that convert locals

Your ad is only half the job. The landing page must be simple and fast.

Must have
• Headline that repeats the offer word for word
• Suburb name in the headline and image
• Short form with name, phone, email, and suburb
• One clear call to action button
• Social proof such as three testimonials and logos of portals
• Recent local sales with prices if allowed by your office policy
• Simple privacy note that explains how you handle details

Budget and schedule for a typical area

If you work across three suburbs, try this plan for four weeks. Adjust for your market.

Week one and two
• Meta sellers ten to twenty dollars per day
• Meta buyers ten dollars per day
• Retargeting five dollars per day
• Google Search sellers fifteen to thirty dollars per day

Week three and four
• Keep the best two ad sets
• Shift budget toward the ones with lower cost per lead
• Pause any ad set that does not reach your target after one hundred clicks or ten leads

Daily habits
• Check comments and messages
• Call new leads within fifteen minutes when you can
• Update your spreadsheet

Measure and improve with simple numbers

Focus on a few clear metrics.

• Cost per lead target twenty to sixty dollars for Meta and thirty to one hundred dollars for Google. Your market may vary
• Click through rate aim for one percent or higher
• Landing page conversion aim for ten percent or higher
• Appointments booked aim for twenty to forty percent of leads
• Listings won track monthly and celebrate wins

Simple test plan
• Test one new image and one new headline each week
• Keep the winner and replace the loser
• Do not change more than one thing at a time in each ad set

Compliance and care

Keep trust high and protect both you and your clients.

• Be truthful about results. Do not promise a price
• Get consent before uploading any client list for custom audiences
• Respect privacy laws. Explain how you use and store personal details
• Follow your office brand rules and state based advertising rules
• Include your office name and licence details where required

Ready to use ad templates

Seller lead ad
• Primary text
Thinking of selling in Suburb. Get a free price guide based on sales this month. See what buyers are paying and how to prepare for a strong result
• Headline
Free Suburb Price Report
• Description
Delivered to your inbox in minutes
• Call to action
Learn More

Buyer lead ad
• Primary text
Buying in Suburb. Join our local buyer list. Get early alerts, off market, and open home times every Friday
• Headline
Join the Suburb Buyer List
• Description
Free weekly alerts
• Call to action
Sign Up

Retargeting ad
• Primary text
You viewed our listings in Suburb. See three recent sales and get a quick price estimate for your home today
• Headline
What is your Suburb home worth
• Call to action
Get Quote

Google Search ad copy
• Headlines
Top Agent in Suburb
Free Price Estimate
Recent Sales Near You
• Descriptions
Get a local price guide and a clear plan to sell for more. Book a quick call today

Step by step follow up workflow

Speed wins. Use this simple process for every new lead.

1. Instant reply
   • Send an auto email that says thank you and sets the next step
   • Attach the report or ask two short questions about timing and address

2. Call within fifteen minutes when you can
   • Use a simple script
   Hi Name. Thanks for requesting the Suburb price guide. I have a few quick questions so I can make it accurate. When are you planning to move and what street are you in
   • Offer value
   I can drop a two page estimate and a few recent sales to you this afternoon. Would you like me to pop by for ten minutes

3. Same day nurture
   • Send a second email with two recent sales and one tip to add value
   • Invite them to an open home or a quick pricing walk through

4. Weekly nurture
   • Send a weekly update for their suburb. Keep it to one chart, two sales, and one tip

One page execution checklist

Use this with every campaign.

• Clear offer for sellers and buyers
• Local images or video ready
• Landing page tested on mobile
• Meta campaign set to your suburbs
• Google Search set to your suburbs
• Retargeting audiences turned on
• Budget set and start date set
• Spreadsheet ready to track
• Auto email reply ready
• Daily call block for new leads
• Weekly review of results and changes

You do not need to reach the whole city. You only need to reach the streets and postcodes where you want to list and sell. Keep your area tight, your message clear, and your follow up fast. Build one simple offer for sellers and one for buyers. Use the steps above, review your numbers each week, and your local ads will start turning attention into real conversations and real appointments.

Author Ken Hobson
ken@agentslibrary.com.au