Social ads, explained

How it works

First, you give us advertiser access to your Facebook and Instagram business pages. It's a short permission request inside Meta, and it lets us run ads on your behalf while your posts and followers stay entirely yours. Start this early, because connecting a page can take a few tries.

Then we build the ads in feed, story and reel sizes. Reels do best, so send short vertical videos when you have them. Because the ads come from your page with your name on top, they look like you, and the people who tap through land on your page or the link you choose.

Meta is very good at finding people who act like the ones you want, including people who resemble your past clients. We set the areas and the kind of person, and Meta finds them as they scroll. Everyone stays anonymous.

Social ads are different from boosting a post. A boost hands Meta your money with almost no instructions. Our ads are built in Meta's full ad tools, with set areas, a set kind of person and a set place for every click to go. Social works especially well around events, when the people you want are on their phones posting about where they are.

Once your pages are connected and the ads are approved, social ads run every month alongside the rest of your brand ads, and your monthly brand report covers them with everything else. Leads are possible but never promised. What social adds is your face in the feed of the people you want to know you, week after week.

How Compass agents use it

• A Compass agent in New England went back for a 10-year Boston College reunion. We drew a boundary around the campus and ran four days of Facebook and Instagram ads from the agent's own page, so former classmates scrolling at the reunion learned the agent sells homes.
• A Compass agent selling a home near Lake Texoma planned four days of social ads around a celebrity charity golf tournament nearby, running Friday through Monday to reach players and guests before and after the event.
• The Compass offices in Santa Barbara and Montecito run monthly brand ads on Facebook and Instagram with two groups: people in the area and the contact lists of their agents.
• A Compass agent in Boulder ran four days of social ads around the Boulder International Film Festival, when the town was full of visitors posting from screenings.

How to explain it to your seller

Social ads are mostly about you, and sellers still like seeing your name everywhere.

"You'll see my ads on Facebook and Instagram too. They come from my own page, so people around here see my name and the homes I'm selling while they scroll. It keeps your home and my work in front of the people who live nearby."

• Send a reel. A 20-second vertical video of you in your market usually beats a polished graphic.
• Keep posting on your own. The ads bring new people to your page, and your posts show them who you are.

Which packages include it

Listing ads: Listing packages run on websites, apps and YouTube, and Facebook and Instagram ads belong to brand ads.

Brand ads: Social ads run from your own pages. Plans start at $600 a month.