Social Media Marketing To Buy Houses With Bryan Driscoll

Episode 499: Social Media Marketing To Buy Houses With Bryan Driscoll

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Social media marketing is all the rage when it comes to attracting clients. But are you doing it the right way? Bryan Driscoll is the SEO Expert and Founder of Think Big Marketing and Co-Founder of Motivated Leads. He helps real estate investors expand their portfolios by generating quality, motivated seller leads. Sure, your ads can catch the eye of a potential seller but are you responding fast enough to close those deals? Bryan’s company makes sure you don’t lose a client even while you sleep! There are many ways to start marketing your business, and he’s here to teach you how. Tune in and gain insight that helps you do better and earn more!

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I’m here with Bryan Driscoll and he’s over there in Pittsburgh PA. This guy specializes in helping you as a real estate investor find motivated sellers. That’s one of the biggest challenges of the day because markets are so hot. Is the market hot in Pittsburgh PA?

It’s crazy here. Everywhere across the US is hot.

Let’s get down to the bottom of what budget does it take, what do we need to do and how are they helping investors find motivated sellers so they can keep rolling that inventory, adding to their buy-and-hold portfolio or whatever it is they’re doing. Bryan also buys and wholesales real estate but uniquely enough, he only buys in one zip code. He has about twenty or so rentals but he’s cherry-picking it in a place exactly where he wants to be, which is interesting. He’s wholesaling all the stuff that he’s not interested in or not in that zip code. As if that wasn’t enough, he has this whole other company helping you find leads. He doesn’t have a whole lot of time to go out and build his own portfolio. He’s helping a lot of people across the nation build their portfolios. Without further ado, how are you doing, Bryan?

Social Media Marketing: If you’re just starting out, get involved with groups like local Facebook groups. Post in there because it doesn’t cost anything.

I’m doing well. Thanks for having me, Mitch.

Give us a little background real quick on how did you get here.

I’m a digital marketer by trade. I’ve been doing digital marketing since the early 2000s. Years ago, I got into real estate. Have you ever heard of Ron LeGrand?

I’m interviewing him next on my 500th episode.

That’s the first course right there.

I have that course. He, Lou Brown and those guys were the ones that I tapped into.

My dad took me to one of his seminars years ago. I didn’t have any money. Back in the room, they’re selling this course for $1,800. I pulled out the credit card and I get involved with that. I started following his systems. I failed miserably. A few years after that, I started getting into real estate again and I bought my first place. I got it for $30,000 up here in Pittsburgh. I put my $30,000 and it’s worth $120,000. I rented it out. I bought that off from a wholesaler. I found it on Craigslist. I found another deal and I started looking. I’m like, “I’m paying these guys $10,000,” whatever the wholesale fee is. I have a strong digital marketing background. I started doing marketing for myself in Pittsburgh and started getting a lot of leads. That’s how marketing and real estate coincided. I dabbled in real estate. I bought 4,5 places a year. Digital marketing is my primary focus.

I may even learn something here too. It seems like every time I get involved with digital marketing, it didn’t work out for me, either I get the wrong person or I don’t know what I do wrong but I know that it works because I know people that it works for. I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong. How’s that for pulling down my pants and showing my honey? That’s the point of this whole thing. I’m trying to be transparent. One thing I struggle with is digital marketing. Talk to us about digital marketing. Who is your perfect client?

We deal with flippers and wholesalers. What did you do when you did the marketing? Why did it fail?

It’s been so long since I tried it. I can’t even tell you. One of the things I did was I got SEO up to the top 2 or 3 spaces on the search for some pretty hefty keywords. The problem was I would be going into a house and there were five people coming out. When I was coming out, there were five people going in and it seemed like the people that were the calling buyers from that venue were calling everybody on the first page or so. I don’t want to pay all this money to go have a bidding war. I could have done that down at the courthouse if I want. That may not be exactly the digital marketing you’re talking about. I’m not so tech-savvy. Sometimes I don’t even know how to talk to you. I don’t know how to hear you.

It’s funny you bring that up too because we have the same problem especially with Google Pay-Per-Click because people are paying to be at the top. All the people that do want to sell their house open all three websites and fill out their forms. What I’ve found that you could even try it yourself too is if you go on my website and you fill out a form, you get a text message immediately saying, “Thanks for filling out a form. Here’s a link to my calendar to book a time for us to come give you an offer.” We found that weeds out a lot of the competition. Even at 2:00 in the morning, someone fills out my website. Right when they’re done, they get that text, which breaks that pattern of them going to the other websites. They book an appointment for us to come out and see it too so it gauges their motivation as well.

It might take them off the market. They’re not going to the other two. I just made an appointment.

They feel like, “I accomplished what I needed to. I got someone coming out to see it. I don’t need to fill out all these other websites.” There’s a tip for you there. You may want to try that on your stuff. That increased our archive. We have about 40% of people book those appointments right off the bat and it cuts on that competition. You have 5, 6 people going out there. It’s nuts and it’s a crazy town.

When you’re helping people find these motivated leads, imagine you’re going to the sources that we know that you’re scraping lists in certain areas, zip codes or counties.

We don’t even do the scraping. We run Facebook Ads or Google Pay-Per-Click. For example, we’ll put ads on Facebook that says, “Sell your house fast. Cash home buyers.” It tries to get the people that are looking to sell that are motivated versus just selling on the MLS.

What budget does a person need to be effective in that? It’s like radio advertising. I’m pretty sure you have to get in it for a long haul or else you’re not going to see the results. I wanted to hear what your opinion was on that.

It depends on the market. In Pittsburgh, you can get away with an ad spend of maybe $1,500 a month. Down where you’re at, it’s probably closer to $3,000 since it’s more competitive. Each city is going to be different but between $1,500 to $3,000 a month is a good budget. Normally, you’ve got to let it at least run for three months too. Someone may see your ad and then we retarget them. It takes a little while sometimes to get those deals closed.

When I was asking who’s your perfect clientele, I figured you were selling to wholesalers and flippers but I was expecting to say in someone who can afford, who’s far enough down the road, has the gumption or the nerve to spend some amount of money per month. I found if you stick with anything long enough, you’ll at least breakeven at the point but I’ve always been able to pretty much breakeven even when I did my SEO and got ranked high. We noticed we kept going out and there was all this competition. When we hit a couple of hits and bought a couple, worked hard to buy a couple then we decided we were going to shift those resources in a different direction, someplace where there wasn’t so much competition. At $1,500 a month, how many exposures is that?

That’s where it comes down to the area in the competition. In Pittsburgh, I can generate a lead for about $75. It’s what it averages out to. Across the US, I see the average is $75 to $125. By a lead, I’m talking about someone that reached out and told us why they want to sell, how fast they want to sell, how much works or property need on that thing once they sell their property. Down where you’re at, it might cost $150 to get a lead though. I’m going to get double the leads in Pittsburgh then you’re going to get off of the same dollar because of the competition.

Social Media Marketing: When you’re starting, be conservative with your marketing budget. Find out what works for you.

They charge by how many people are demanding those keywords in the areas.

On Google Pay-Per-Click, you’re paying per click. On Facebook, you’re paying per impression like how many times your ad shows. It comes down to how many other people are showing ads because it’s a bidding war. Let’s say 100 people in Pittsburgh don’t want to show ads to Pittsburgh for an even number. You might have 1,000 people down there bidding, which drives the cost up.

Did Facebook change its algorithms on Pixel?

They changed a couple of things due to discrimination and everything. They changed so we can’t target people based on age and sex. They’ve pulled back a lot of the targeting options we have on Facebook. With the iOS 14 update with Apple, they’re holding back even more data due to privacy. It’s getting harder and harder to target online because of all the privacy and the trouble that these social companies are getting into.

Find something, stick with it and make it work until you exhaust it or you find a better way. How many people can you handle at a time? Do you have a limited amount of people you can deal with?

We have a pretty good team. We have about 150 clients. We can handle a decent amount of people. The main thing is we’re looking for clients that are seasoned, that know how to close deals. Sometimes guys just get into the business. We can get them leads but they don’t know what to do with them or they don’t call back quick enough. On an online lead, you got to call them within minutes of it coming in.

The thing in the business is you can’t steal houses in slow motion. You got to be lightning fast. The faster, the better. You’ve run a lot of tests. You do a lot of A/B testing and everything. You know what it takes to get the results from an ad.

I do a ton of tests. I spent $15,000 a month testing ads on ourselves because I need to know what works. It’s weird. We had ads during the elections that had the White House in the background. They look political. Those ads crushed it then but they don’t do anything now. Ads are constantly changing. You got to constantly be keeping up on them.

Early in my career, I bought everything from bandit signs. I bought a lot of houses from bandit signs and then they got to where they didn’t work at all. They were starting to cause problems. People were turning you in and assigning police everywhere. It went away for 1 year or 2. I had this new kid in the office. He didn’t have much of a budget so he said he was going to go put out signs so I didn’t argue with him. He started crushing it with these signs again. These things go in and out. They have a lifespan. They disappear and then sometimes they come back.

They all work. Everything works and nothing works. If you do something consistently, it’s going to work for you.

Somebody says, “I tried bandit signs and it didn’t work.” I said, “How many did you put out?” They said, “Ten.” I said, “Go on and put out 600 then call me back. What’s ten? That’s like telling me you went swimming and you put your hand in the water.”

We get the same on Facebook and stuff too. They’re like, “Facebook didn’t work.” “How much did you spend?” “$100.” Give it a fair test.

Does everyone have to create their own ad? Do you suggest what works and move it to that?

I have a pretty good feel. We make everyone’s ads for them. If people have ads or have testimonial videos, we can run those also. I have a good feel for them because of all of our tests and what works, what doesn’t. That’s one of the benefits there. You get to bypass that learning process.

Are your areas exclusive? Are you running multiple campaigns in one county?

We offer SEO, Facebook and Google Pay-Per-Click. SEO is exclusive because there’s only one number one position there. Facebook, we limit it to 2 or 3 because we’re not in direct competition.

What’s your advice to the veterans out there about your experience in social media marketing?

If you’re doing it on your own, number one, I would make sure you have the pixel events set up properly on your website. It’s one of the basic things. When I see a lot of people come there, they have a pixel on their website but they don’t have that event code on their Thank You page that lets Facebook know what type of people converted. Also, don’t get fancy. Keep your messaging simple and direct. I see a lot of people try to get a lot of leads that are garbage doing home valuations or, “How much is your home worth?” Fluff stuff like that. I find it better be direct like, “We buy houses. We’re cash home buyers. Sell your house fast.” Use that type of messaging so that whenever someone comes through, they’re the right type of person that wants to sell your house too, not just someone who’s like, “Everything is for sale for the right price.”

What’s your advice to the new guy starting out?

Hustle. Go out there and work hard. Facebook takes money. If I was just starting out, I would get involved with the local Facebook groups, post in there because that doesn’t cost anything. You can post in the groups, “Are you’re looking to sell a house?” I know a lot of guys that get deals off of those places. That doesn’t cost anything at all. You’re just spending time instead of money.

As a new guy, my opinion is you got to get out there and hustle. You got to make something happen because you don’t have a budget. Whether that’s putting up as many bandit signs as you can possibly put up around town and then at night posting in the Facebook groups or wherever you can think to post. Hopefully, you make a strike. You make $15,000, $20,000, $25,000 and then you say, “I’m going to budget $6,000 for the next two months, $3,000 a month for my area or four months at $1,500 a month.” Take some of the house money and put it back into your business so you do not have to earn every single lead by the stress on your own backbone. Delegate some of it out to Bryan and let them help you bring some leads.

That’s what I see too. When you’re starting, be conservative too with your marketing budget. Find out what works for you. I see a lot of guys go to see a shiny object and they’re like, “Let me stick a whole bunch of money there.” It then flops. If you get a deal of $20,000, conservatively budget it out. Start slow and then scale it up too.

I appreciate you being on the show. I want everyone to go to 1000Houses.com/Driscoll. You’ll be able to get in contact with Bryan. It’s evergreen, Bryan. If you ever have anything over there you want to give away, a website you want to mention or anything you want, you can always call up my people and you put it in over there. If you have some testimonials or something for people, put them over there, whatever you want to do. That’s where you go.

If you’re interested in this marketing, there’ll be contact information over there. Bryan will talk to you about your area, your budget, you can come up with a plan and start trying certain things. Hopefully, you latch onto something that works. I feel a lot better trying this with someone who’s been down the road and does it every single day than I would by myself. Some people go, “I can do that.” You can do a lot of things but you can’t do everything. At some point, you have to delegate something out so delegate it out. Anything you want to say to the readers before we wrap it up?

That’s pretty much it. If you’re getting started, go out there and hustle. If you’re crushing it, keep doing more.

Don’t forget to roll some of that money and make it back into your business. You can’t rob the business of every penny every time you make some money. You got to put some money back in the business. The business got to eat too. Don’t think it doesn’t. I appreciate everyone out here taking the time to get you some Bryan Driscoll. Get yourself a consult with Bryan or someone at his company and find out how you can start generating some leads in the background while you’re sleeping. It’s all about speed. When the lead comes in, you have to get right back.

I would also to thank LiveComm.com. There are smartphone numbers over there and they capture the incoming call or cellphone number. I can show you how I’m using LiveComm to not have to put out any signs from my houses for sale, how I’m selling my houses in four days on market and how that’s driven my owner finance down payments from 10% to 15% because there’s a lot more competition for my houses. All you have to do is watch the video on the homepage. Also, know that LiveComm.com can help almost any business because you’re able to text these businesses $0.02 per recipient or $0.02 a minute recording. There are a lot of ways to use this thing for all kinds of businesses. I’m out there trying to help the world realize how powerful LiveComm can be so check it out. We’re out of here. Bye, Bryan.

Thanks for having me, Mitch. Talk to you soon.

Important Links

• 1000Houses.com/Driscoll
• 1000Houses.com/TFF
• 1000Houses.com/Grow
• 1000Houses.com/aof
• 1000Houses.com/Coaching

About Bryan Driscoll

Bryan Driscoll is the Co-Founder of Motivated Leads, a digital marketing agency that helps real estate investors expand their portfolios quickly by generating quality motivated seller leads. They handle online marketing so investors can focus on what they know!

Bryan and his Co-Founder, Chad, have run Facebook marketing and SEO for local businesses, startups, and fortune 500 companies with Bryan being the SEO expert of the agency.

Digital marketing is their craft, and they have been recognized by Forbes and other major publications for their work perfecting it over the past 12+ years.

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