In the begining I used them and got good results.  A $10 ad spend over a week's time would net me 1-3 viable leads, however none became clients.  My focus was on advertising listings and open houses with the intent to sell them to respondents, rather than just fishing for leads.  This was quite some time ago and I stopped once it started getting more heavily used and more of the "gurus" started talking about them.  At that point the costs went way up.  Then they changed how we're allowed to target and implemented other changes that increased their cash-flow but decreased the ad's effectiveness, so I have had no desire to go back.

Shorter version:

They were great when few people were doing them.  Now that everyone does them and they're built into the promotional tools that the big box chains offer everyone, they are considerably less effective.

I know people who use them that still get results

What results are you expecting?  Are you trying to establish your brand?  Are you using it for lead generation?  I am having a very good time with lead generation and targeted posts.  

FB ads do seem to definitely pack less punch for the price these days.  Still cheap but I think their biggest value is your client seeing their listing ad run and helping to brand your business.  Serious buyers typically don't use Facebook to find their new home.   

I haven't used them so I don't know, but I have heard a fair amount of younger people are getting off facebook or not spending as much time on it anymore. 

I am not sure.  I have not done much with them and it seems they change all of the time.  I try to have all of my advertising be organic.

I do a Google pay per click for my construction loan webpage and it works very well. I've tried Facebook a couple of times with no luck. 

We still get leads by boosting our walk thru videos to specific markets

Have had zero return of income with the ads Shannon, so I make my own ads up and post. Sold a property that way when a friend of a friend knew someone looking!

I have only done a few, and never had much success, so put my efforts and dollars elsewhere.

Facebook ads of the past were very effective. Then two things happed that are pure revenue augmentation by Zucky.

#1. Targeting become to cosmic requiring a bigger spend for lower quailty engagement.
#2. Implementation of 'lists' with messenger.
These do make traditional Zuck ads DOA.
My preference is CPA on Google AND solely owned surragates on Zuckland.
Are you doing something wrong? How would we know?

Never started but when few were involved results were better 

They went to their new system because of discrimination. They do not let us dial down like they used to. It made a big difference to me so I stopped. Some people have found away around it but I have not wanted to pay to learn the 'secret'. 

Like Ryan said, less effective for us & it costs more.

I think a lot depends on your goals with Facebook ads.  Is it to get sellers to see your listings in the hope of obtaining more? Targeted ads to a particular demographic are harder to do now on Facebook, but you can still do some customization. Is your goal for other agents to see your listings? That is pretty easy to do still. Is it to obtain buyers? Perhaps still doable with certain customizations on the ad.

The answer may be found elsewhere

I think we are not able to target like we used to. I see fewer people spending money on marketing right now so, I don't believe it's the competition. I just think we're not able to drill down to our targets like we were once able to.

I have never used FB for business. Only for contact with family and friends. A few exceptions for close Realtor and Team friends. I don't want to fill my FB feed with posts by real estate agents.

Shannon Jones - I never used FB ads - it looks like you have some great comments from people who have.  

I usually scroll by and ignore all agent facebook ads. My feeling is that many people don't take facebook seriously. When i tried them, i didn't receive any serious interest.

In teh oast they seem to work better. I think it depends what you want to promote or advertise. 

When you get right down to it, though, even a great cost-per-conversion doesn't mean a Facebook campaign will be worth the money. In general, if you get more than $4.00 in revenue for every $1.00 you spend on advertising, that's a pretty profitable campaign.

I have created about seven of them in the past several months and each one has been rejected.  So no

Shannon,

It depends on the market place you are working in..there is no blanket answer, each market differs.  A

They can be, its been a while since I have taken the time to put any out there, but when I do, I generally see results.

I get a ton of organic business from FB

Hi Shannon,

I have paid for marketing on FB as well as other formats. I do think marketing today is for our sellers as leads do not come back to us with so many capture programs out there. 

 Best of Luck

My sales on Facebook were not from paid marketing on Facebook.