The Facebook Ads She Used To Generate 4 Listings In Her First Month

Taylor Onken:
I can tell you this, I've read books and done research and watched other podcasts and videos for other marketing companies, before I decided to go with Platform. They keep talking about what they do, but they never explained how they did it. And so I never decided to take the leap with anybody else, because there was no proof.

Tim Chermak:
This is the Platform Marketing show, where we interview the most creative and ambitious real estate agents in the country, dissect their local marketing strategy, and get the behind the scenes scoop on how they're generating listing leads and warm referrals. We'll dive into the specifics of what marketing campaigns are working for them, how much they're spending on those campaigns, and figure out how they have perfected what we call the Platform Marketing strategy.

Tim Chermak:
This is your host, Tim Chermak. I'm the founder and CEO Platform. I love marketing and I talk too much. So let's dive in.

Tim Chermak:
All right. Hey, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Platform Marketing show. I'm here today with Taylor Onken. Taylor is a realtor in rural, southwest, Minnesota. The closest, I mean, I can't really call it a major city, but the closest town to you is Marshall, Minnesota. I mean, Marshall only has, what, 12,000, 13,000 people?

Taylor Onken:
Yeah, not too many. There's about 25,000 people in our whole county.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, so it's small. By any means, by any definition, it's not a big city. So southwestern Minnesota, and let's just lead with the highlight, you picked up four listings in your very first month using Platform. And so this is going to be a little different of a podcast interview than the other episodes of realtors on the Platform Marketing show. Because most episodes, when we interview a realtor, it's someone who's been implementing this Platform Marketing strategy for six months, a year, two years, whatever. You are still in your very first month with Platform.

Tim Chermak:
So I thought it'd be cool to kind of get the perspective of someone who doesn't yet have the benefit of like, "Oh, I've been doing this for nine months," or, "I've been doing this for two and a half years," or whatever. You are, literally, you signed up for Platform about 30 days ago, so we're going to kind of get a behind the scenes look at what is it the first 30 days you start implementing this? And you're not really faking it or trying to remember what it was like, because you are in your first month implementing this Platform strategy.

Tim Chermak:
And there's some pretty cool news. You've picked up four listings here in this just generationally tight sellers market, low inventory. And so clearly what you are doing, Taylor, is working. And so give us the background. I mean, last year you were a part-time realtor, right?

Taylor Onken:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
What-

Taylor Onken:
About four years, I did part-time real estate, and then-

Tim Chermak:
Okay, so, to go for it.

Taylor Onken:
Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
You were a part-time agent, what led you up to this point that you decided to actually join Platform? Because Platform is, obviously, a pretty serious financial investment. It's not a $100 a month. It's a pretty major investment that typically agents make, if they're very serious about growing their business. It's not a minor decision. It's definitely something you're going to tell your husband or wife about, you're not going to hide it or something. The full platform fee, you're going to be investing over $1600 a month, once everything is factored in. And so that's a major decision for a part-time agent to make.

Tim Chermak:
So what led up until this point? How did you first get connected with us? And what made you make the decision to get going? Because I want to explore that background information and that story, before we dive into the specific ads that you ran to get four listings in your very first month. So what got you to this point?

Taylor Onken:
Well, basically, I was working full-time for a city job. Everything was promised, a paycheck, whatever, your health insurance. You can pay all your bills type of a thing, but punching a clock 9:00 to 5:00, I just wanted a way to get out of it. You know?

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. You had the stability of a regular paycheck and that's kind of addictive. There's that classic quote of, "The three most addictive substances in the world are heroin, carbs, and a steady paycheck." And you got to this point, where you realized like, "Okay, I think I could actually make a legit career in real estate, but I can't do it if I'm doing it part-time."

Taylor Onken:
Big time, yeah. And even if I were to make that decision to leave my job, that full-time job, and just try to do it on my own, there's so many agents in this area that's so rural that it's like, how do you differentiate yourself from different agents? What do you do that's better? How do you market your stuff?

Tim Chermak:
As we're recording this right now, I just want to splice in this fun fact, for those listening, because maybe someone might be listening to this years later, and they don't remember what it was this year. But when you signed up, you told me, "There are more licensed real estate agents in my town than active listings." So it wasn't you were going into this great market to be a realtor, where it'll be easy to sell a bunch of houses. It's been and it will be an extremely difficult time to be a realtor. I mean, there's so few homes on the market, such low inventory, there is more licensed realtors in your town than active listings. And you're like, "Now's the time I'm going to quit my job and go all in on this." What was the thought process?

Taylor Onken:
I got the wrath from a lot of people, because they're like, "Well, what happens when the market goes down?" "Well houses still sell. And with Platform they're going to sell even quicker. They're going to get out there to your perspective buyers." It was a big step, and just a month in here we are. And I can't wait to look back in a few years and listen to this again.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. You're a first month, Taylor, you ran a bunch of Facebook ads, running retargeting on Instagram. It's been photos. It's been videos. You really hit the ground running and launched a lot of campaigns, because I remember you made it really clear, "I can't cross my fingers and sit around and slowly wait for this to work. I've been a part-time agent. I don't have a massive database or sphere that's kicking off a ton of referrals or something. This needs to generate business right away."

Tim Chermak:
You basically told me, you're like, when you were signing up, it was like, "I need to be a case study. I have to have so much success that I am a case study or else this won't work for me. Anything short of that is not a success, because I don't have any other business to fall back on. It's not like, Hey, I'm already making a $100,000 a year as a realtor. And the reason I'm hiring Platform is because I want to go from a 100 to 250 or a 100 to 300, whatever." It was like, no, you're starting from basically scratch and Platform has to build your business very quickly, because there's not a plan B.

Taylor Onken:
Exactly. 100%, I basically was starting from scratch, when I finally reached out to you. I heard from my sister, for months, "You need to reach out to these guys. You need to call Tim. You need to call Andrew." And one day I had the day off, because I worked the weekend, and she's like, "Just give him a call." So I called you, and what? Two hours later I said, "Fine, let's just do it." I had contemplated for quite a while, especially with the investment and whatnot, but I've already made or have pending here, what? I had nothing to lose I guess. And what I did, I'm definitely seeing the reward and the return.

Tim Chermak:
We mentioned you picked up four listings in the very first month. I heard that some of the agents in your office were complaining to corporate that they're like, "How is she getting all these listings? Is she somehow cheating the system? Is she secretly stealing all of the office calls? Or are all the sign calls being routed to her? Why is she getting all these listings?" Because, again, you were a part-time agent. You were not this big producer and all of a sudden you have more listings in one month than the rest of the office combined, basically. And they're thinking like, "How is she doing this?"

Taylor Onken:
Many of them called up to our corporate office and complained, and I had to talk with my broker and whatnot. Because they were like, "How is she getting all these listings?" And I think quitting my job was a big thing too, that they're like, "What the heck?" So that's a good feeling, and-

Tim Chermak:
It was so shocking to them that this part-time agent who just quit her job, all of a sudden has four listings, and I don't have any listings. That they're like, "She must be cheating somehow. She must be breaking a law. She must have hijacked the system and routed all the inbound leads to her or something." They couldn't even fathom that, it's like, "No, I just invested in a marketing program, and it started working right away."

Taylor Onken:
And I can tell you this, I've read books and done research and watched other podcasts and videos for other marketing companies, before I decided to go with Platform. They keep talking about what they do, but they never explained how they did it. And so I never decided to take the leap with anybody else, because there was no proof.

Tim Chermak:
So that kind of gave you the confidence to move forward and just be like, "Let's do it."

Taylor Onken:
Yeah, 100%.

Tim Chermak:
That's a great segue, then, let's talk about some of the specifics of the ads that you've run. Because I always hate when you listen to podcasts, and it's just ambiguous, fluff, and they're all talking about just generalities of strategies. It's like, okay, cool. Strategies are awesome, but let's talk about the specific tactics that are part of that overall strategy. Taylor, let's dive into some of the actual ads that you're running, where have your best leads been coming from? What are a couple of the actual Instagram or Facebook posts? Whether they're photos or videos, where are these leads coming from, that it allowed you to pick up four listings in literally your very first month running these ads?

Taylor Onken:
Well, one of my highest ads that has had great return is the family is looking for homes. The specific families are looking for, you list your certain amount of homes, and what they're looking for.

Tim Chermak:
And that's just a photo ad, for those listening to this podcast, who maybe don't know what she's talking about. It's just a photo ad, so it's not even you have to go out and film this complicated, complex video. It's just a photo. And what is the photo of you? Are you standing by a listing sign or standing-

Taylor Onken:
I'm standing by a tree pointing up, so that people can-

Tim Chermak:
Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah.

Taylor Onken:
... see this is the list of homes or whatever, that people are looking for.

Tim Chermak:
And then you basically just list it out in this Facebook post, "I have buyers that are looking for the following: a home in Marshall at $200,000 or less with at least four bedrooms, or a home in Slayton at $300,000 or less with at least three bedrooms, two baths, and preferably in such and such neighborhood." And you basically listed out this list of all these homes of what your buyers are looking for. And then it says, "If you know anyone thinking of selling and who has a house that might fit any of these criteria, please reach out to me." And so when you launch that ad, what happened?

Taylor Onken:
Well, first of all, just content wise, I've had so many people comment on it saying, "This is for sale." "I have a for sale by owner," and then that gives me the in to reach out to them. "Hey, well, why are you doing for sale by owner?" Get a conversation going with those kinds of people. But the lead that I did get off of that one, someone messaged me and said, "Hey, we have a lake home for sale. We would you to come out and take a look at it, give us a price. It doesn't match anything specific that your buyers are looking for." and I said, "Oh, that's no problem." So that's generated me a listing for $680,000 that is currently active on the MLS.

Tim Chermak:
And I would be not doing my duty here as a podcast host if I didn't mention that, when Taylor says she picked up a lake listing, you said it's a 680,000, is that right? Okay. So a 600,000 plus lake listing, I mean, it's actually closer to 700,000 than 600,000, this is in a market, where a lot of homes in your area are $150,000. So that is way out of the realm of a normal priced home in your area. Because in that area of southwest Minnesota, there's a lot of small communities farm communities that have $150,000 houses. There's one kind of luxury lake area, Lake Shetek, did I pronounce that right? So Lake Shetek, and there, it's like, yeah, that's where you'll get the $500,000 homes, $700,000 homes, et cetera. But if you're not on Lake Shetek, it's like, your house is $150,000 somewhere around there.

Tim Chermak:
So to get a listing that in your very first month, I mean, that's the equivalent of picking up almost four or five other clients, and yet you get all that in one for probably the same amount of work, too. So that's a huge, huge marketing win. I mean, that would be the same ratio, of if you lived in a market where most houses are 400,000, and you're used to working with $400,000 buyers, if you all of a sudden picked up a one point five million dollar clients. So that's a very big deal to you.

Tim Chermak:
So that came just because they saw the post and they reached out to you and said, "Hey, looks you have some buyers..." And I mean, essentially, it sounds they were just impressed by your marketing in general. And so how did that conversation go? So you went and met them in person pretty quickly. It sounds like, how did that conversation go? Did they bring up your social media ads? Or how did they know you? Did they know you from before?

Taylor Onken:
I did not know who these people were. They had said, "Well, we were out to dinner with our friends, and they said something about you. So they had said that they saw you're looking for a home for a buyer." And so she's like, "Then I went and looked on your page, and was looking through." And actually, I got a message over Instagram, which, I don't know how that works, but your guys must pay to sponsor it on there too. And that's where I received the message from them. And-

Tim Chermak:
Yep. Facebook owns Instagram for those listening to this. So when we run ads for clients in the Platform Marketing program, it's just kind of how GM owns Chevy and Cadillac. They're all part of the same company. Audi and Porsche own Volkswagen. Ford owns the Lincoln brand, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're the same company. So Facebook owns Instagram. So if we're running ads on Facebook, the cool thing is, it allows us to also run ads, retargeting those same people on Instagram. So what would've happened is they clicked on it and then they kept seeing you on Instagram as well. And it sounds that's how they eventually reached out to you.

Taylor Onken:
Yeah. And so they basically asked, "We have something, it doesn't meet any of your specific buyer needs, but..." And I said, "Hey, can I come out and take a look at it? And I can either talk to my prospective buyers or we could maybe list." And we came down to the option that listing would probably be better, because with that high of a dollar house, your pool of buyers really slims down. And then I used my Platform Marketing, I said, "Hey, I do this and this and this. I have a marketing company, this will get out to a lot more people than just listing it on the MLS, as a regular agent would do. I'll do a HD video and all that stuff that we do with Platform to reach more potential buyers," and that's all it took.

Tim Chermak:
And you got the listing of this premium lake shore home. Again, in a market where most other houses are $150,000, you got this listing that was almost $700,000. And so you've picked up a couple other listings. What were the stories on those? Whether they were photos or videos? What were the specific ads that created those leads that led to the other listings?

Taylor Onken:
The other one that we did was the acreage homes list, basically, where you guys created a website where people could click to find a list of the acreages in the area. And the guy clicked on it, and he somehow got my phone number and he called me. And he said, "Hey, if you're from the area and you know about acreages, would you mind coming and out and looking at mine? I'm looking to sell." And so the ad that you guys ran, the acreage homes list, that's the one that scored me that listing.

Tim Chermak:
Yep. I love that ad, because it sounds it was working exactly according to plan in that situation. Because the type of leads it attracts, anyone clicking on that is a higher price point buyer. They're probably a move up buyer. Because if you're interested in homes on acreage, homes with at least one or two acres, you're not a first time home buyer buying a starter home that has five acres or something. You're an existing homeowner, you're a move up buyer, you're probably buying your dream home, forever home that you hope to raise your family in type thing.

Tim Chermak:
And that's going to be in a pretty good price point, usually relative to most other homes. And so it brings in good leads that are at a better price point than typically whatever the average in your area is. And it looks a guy just called you straight off of that acreage homes report ad, and sounds you picked up a listing off of it.

Taylor Onken:
Yep. That's basically what happened with that one. There's another one that I had, I received a call from the girl and she said, "Hey, I saw your Facebook ads and it just kept popping up and stuff. And we did have one realtor here who gave us a price opinion, but we were wondering if you'd be willing to come to our place and give us a price opinion." So there was no specific ad with that one that I really... I guess, I didn't ask too much in-depth. But I went there, gave her a price opinion, and I talked about my marketing strategy, and we hit it off, and I got that listing as well.

Tim Chermak:
I mean, so it sounds we don't know maybe what specific ad, but you do know that they actually mentioned, "Oh, yeah, we've been seeing your post and we've been seeing your videos on Facebook."

Taylor Onken:
Yep.

Tim Chermak:
And so, I mean, that's obviously the retargeting kicking in there if they saw multiple posts, because obviously as soon as you engage with one of them, you're now on Taylor's retargeting list, and you'll keep seeing her posts over and over again. And so, cool, it created another listing appointment for you.

Taylor Onken:
Yes. That is how that one worked. And I'm blown away by it. Not only have I picked up these listings, I can't keep track of my schedule almost, because I've been on so many showings with new people who are now in my sphere. I got them on my MLS list where a new listing comes up and they're notified, you know?

Tim Chermak:
Yep. And so in your first month, how many new leads registered and gave you their contact information? How many nude leads has Platform generated for you in your first month or whatever?

Taylor Onken:
Well, it's been a while since I looked, but there has been 500 leads, at least, who people have signed up, where you get their information, who are clicking on your, on your ads and stuff. I know. Have you looked lately?

Tim Chermak:
I haven't looked recently, but I know that it was somewhere around 500, which is absolutely fricking nuts, because that means you were on pace to add 6,000 people to your database in the first year. Again, this is in a county that has 25,000 people. So if we usually assume that half of a population somewhere is children, not adults, there's probably 12 to 15,000 adults living in your county. And this year you're on pace to have 6,000 of those people in your database. So basically, at the rate you were going, within two years, you would have every adult living in the county, in your database, where they've given you their name, email or phone number. That's absolutely insane. And so when you see numbers that, it's like, "Oh, it's really not surprising she picked up four listings in her first month, and is working with all these people," because the numbers bear that out. That's amazing.

Taylor Onken:
And keep in mind, I don't even know if I should say this, but you and I had that conversation a few weeks ago, where we turned down the ad spend on that, because I can't really keep up with... You know what I mean?

Tim Chermak:
Yep.

Taylor Onken:
And good problem to have, but, yeah, it's working.

Tim Chermak:
She was drowning a couple weeks into signing up and we ended up talking on the phone, and you're like, "Hey, I don't want to build a brand here, and then not have time to follow up with all the leads that are coming in. And then have people start badmouthing me in the community that they emailed me and they never got a response type thing." Because you were getting so many leads, that's like, "I literally do not have the time of day to follow up." Because, I mean, for several days you had 20 leads a day coming in, on top of all the people who came in the day before, then there'd be another 20 leads the next day. hat's how well Taylor's ads are working.

Tim Chermak:
It was like, "I don't have time to do this. We need to turn the lead gen ads off, and just focus more on the community branding ads. Because I can't have any more leads coming in, I don't want to let people down and get them mad at me that I'm not following up with them in a timely manner." And so I was like, "Yeah, you're probably right, we don't want that to happen." So we shifted to more of a content marketing and retargeting strategy for you recently.

Tim Chermak:
And you're still kicking butt, because now you're just setting a lot of appointments and you're converting these leads. I mean, how many total people Taylor are you working with right now that you're either actively showing them houses, you're emailing back and forth on what they're looking for, and they've given you specifics on price and all that? I mean, how many would you say you're actively working with now?

Taylor Onken:
Probably 40 to 50 people I have signed up on my MLS re-email thing, if a new listing comes up. So whenever a new listing does send out to them, I follow up with them, "Hey, did you see this? What do you think about that?" So there's around, roughly, 40 to 50. But, again, the market, we don't have many new listings coming on. So as you guys say, "Nourish your leads, keep talking to them-

Tim Chermak:
Yep. Yep.

Taylor Onken:
... check in with them here and there," and that's what I've been doing. If a house is not the subject, just checking in with them.

Tim Chermak:
That's incredible. I need to put that in its context again, that in one month of doing this Platform style marketing, you now are working with 40 active buyers or sellers that are looking at making a move. 40 clients are basically working with you right now, and it's just a matter of finding them the right home, in the first month, you have this marketing program set up.

Taylor Onken:
Yep. And so, therefore, of course, they'll see that retargeting for the next how many months, plus, the MLS emails that get sent out. So I think I'm on track.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. I think you're on track to probably be the top agent in your area by the end of the year. Even though, before this year, you were just a part-time no name agent that no one had heard of, and probably by end of year, you will be the top realtor in the entire county.

Tim Chermak:
And so obviously, part of the process that makes that all work that we really think is a key part of Platform is we have a pretty robust retargeting strategy. So you know that it's not enough to just get a bunch of clicks. It's not enough to get a bunch of leads, and then just hope that they work with you and they don't pick some other agent. You have to have a retargeting strategy to stay top of mind with all those leads throughout the sales cycle.

Tim Chermak:
Or maybe even in this case, it's like, you to stay top of mind with them every day throughout this crazy low inventory sellers market, so that they don't abandon ship and they don't lose hope that, "Oh, I just can't find anything. There's no listings available." You want them to stay positive, stay encouraged, and keep thinking of you, so that they don't just give up. Could you explain to those listening to this podcast, Taylor, what is retargeting?

Taylor Onken:
Well, I honestly have some of those questions myself. I don't know what you guys do on the backend, but when somebody clicks on read more, on my Facebook ad, sometimes they tend to be lengthy, but that's kind of the point I think. And when they click on that, after they have clicked on that or clicked on the link for acreages, then it basically keeps on retargeting. And they keep seeing your face. So when you see that pair of shoes that you were looking at online, the next time you open up a webpage, that's what retargeting it is. And it keeps going back to them, and they keep you top of mind.

Tim Chermak:
And so anytime someone clicks on any of Taylor's ads, they're added to her retargeting database, and they will keep seeing photos of her or videos of Taylor pop up on Facebook and Instagram. And so it becomes impossible to forget about you. If they're seeing you, literally, every single day, for the next six months, they keep seeing these retargeting ads. So it's about not just generating a lot of leads, but actually having a strategy to convert all those leads, and make sure that you make it to the closing table with them and not some other realtor.

Tim Chermak:
Taylor, what are some examples of retargeting photos or retargeting videos that you've run with Platform? Keep in mind, we're only a month in. And so I know you filmed a couple videos. What are some examples of what you've done here, just in your first month? Because, again, I think this is a really, this is a cool perspective for a podcast interview, because you haven't been doing this right for six months. So I can't ask you, "Taylor, what's your greatest hits? What are the all time, best videos you've done?" Because it's like, "Well, I've only been doing this for a month. Here's what I've done so far."

Tim Chermak:
So this is a really cool angle to have this conversation, because I know there's probably a ton of people listening to this podcast, at some point in the future that are thinking about signing up. And what you're saying right now is what they will be experiencing in the next 30 days, if they choose to sign up. You're still brand new at this. You haven't even really, frankly, started to see the long term results of Platform. You're still learning the ropes. You're still new within platform. You're asking us questions all the time.

Tim Chermak:
And so just keep that in mind, when I'm asking Taylor these questions, she's still learning herself. She's in her first month of the Platform program. So what have been the first couple videos or the first couple retargeting ads that you ran to stay top of mind with all of these people.

Taylor Onken:
The four homes above asking price, that was one that I ran. And I have had, again, so much content that people have commented on there, that I can't believe how many people just even care to read that, but they do. And that was one of them. I don't even know the marketing stats on the clicks or anything that, but that one, I think is probably the top hit, so far.

Tim Chermak:
What is that add? Could you explain that to those who are listening to podcast that maybe have no idea what you're talking about?

Taylor Onken:
Yeah. Basically Tim asked me to find four homes that sold in our rural area above asking price. So I listed four homes, the addresses, and I explained to the readers why the property sold above asking price. And it was a photo of me holding up a number four, so they see my face, they recognized me. And, yeah, that's basically what it is.

Tim Chermak:
It's just four photos, right? It's not a video you had to film. It's just, we took four photos of listings that recently sold. The actual photos of the homes, not stock photos.

Taylor Onken:
Right. Right. Not stock photos. I personally just did a photo of myself holding the number four, because-

Tim Chermak:
Yep, yep.

Taylor Onken:
... this area. But, otherwise, the photos of the homes, then people are kind of seeing why did that house self are over asking? You know what I mean? And then they know that you know what's going on in this market.

Tim Chermak:
That you're paying attention to the market, you know the trends you're on top of everything that's going on. So I mean that post got a lot of comments for you and that got a lot of engagement.

Taylor Onken:
Yeah. And then one other one was the we need listings ad. So I did the free pizza, so if anyone listed me this year, I would buy them free pizza.

Tim Chermak:
And that's obviously, again, for those listening to this podcast, you can't see us right now, but Taylor and I are kind of laughing, because it's such a ridiculous post. It's so stupid. It's, it's sarcastic. It's like a joke. It's like, "Hey, if you list your home with me, I'll buy you a pizza." Or we've had some agents do, "If you list your home with me this year, I'll buy you tacos." And it's like, "Well, yeah..." It's a joke, because the agent's going to make thousands and thousands of dollars on commission, if they help you sell your house. So it's kind of just a sarcastic joke that like, "Hey, if you love pizza, now's the time to sell your house."

Tim Chermak:
So you're kind of just making light of how crazy the seller's market is right now. But, because you filmed, or, again, it actually wasn't a video, it was a photo, right? Yeah. Because you took this photo at a local business, and you tagged this local business in the photo, and people in the area recognize, "Oh, that's such and such pizzeria," whatever. It just pops up in people's newsfeed. And it doesn't really look an ad, because you're not standing next to a house for sale. You're not standing next to a new listing sign. It doesn't look the typical realtor posts you see of agents running ads. It just looks you went out for pizza. And then it says like, "Hey, if you list your house with me this year, I have a special announcement. I will buy you a pizza." It's just kind of dumb. It's a stupid post-

Taylor Onken:
I've literally had people ask me if I'm going to buy them a pizza though.

Tim Chermak:
Yeah, no, exactly. The point is, it's working and it gets people to reach out to you, because it's kind of just fun in kind of an informal fun way, that just reminds people that like, "Hey, I'm cool." Like, "Yes, I'm a realtor. I'm a business person. I'm very serious. But I also am not too serious that I don't know how to have fun. This is just a fun, stupid post. And, also, by simultaneously doing this post, I'm helping promote a local small business." Because it probably drove some business, and some awareness for that local pizzeria, too.

Taylor Onken:
Yeah. Yep. No, it definitely did. And you can just tell by who likes it and that type of a thing as well.

Tim Chermak:
That's awesome. That's an example of an informal retargeting ad. The whole philosophy of retargeting and what we teach in the Platform Marketing program is that the best retargeting ads don't look like ads. It shouldn't look like an ad, and the less, it looks like an ad, the better it'll perform as retargeting post. Because when that starts popping up on people's feeds on Instagram or popping up on Facebook, they don't even realize they're seeing an ad. It doesn't activate the part of their brain like, "Oh, I'm being advertised to."

Taylor Onken:
Yeah, no. And then the other one that I had was the... ruffle some feathers one, regarding the for sale by owner. Do you remember what one I'm talking about?

Tim Chermak:
Yeah. Taylor ran this ad, we've done this for a lot of platform realtors, where it basically says, "Hey, in this crazy seller's market, I know that you might be considering selling your home for sale by owner, because you're probably thinking, if my home is going to sell quickly anyways, I might as well save the commission and not work with a real estate agent, and I'll just sell it myself. While I normally don't advise people to do this, here's what I would recommend if you're absolutely, positively determined to sell your house without working with an agent."

Tim Chermak:
And then we typed this essay, I mean, I think it was a 1,000 words, a really long marketing essay about like, here's what I would do if I were selling my house. And it just lists your photography strategy, your video strategy, how you would recommend promoting the home on social media ads, you gave staging advice, you gave negotiating advice, and advice on the legal and paperwork of what you need to be aware of. It was a pretty in-depth post, where you were actually giving genuinely good information.

Tim Chermak:
This one wasn't a joke where it's like, "Ha ha ha, you'd be a moron if you sold your house for sale by owner." This wasn't a joke. It was you actually saying, "Hey, if for whatever reason, you've decided I'm not going to work with an agent. I'm going to sell my house for sale by owner." You were honestly giving substantive information of like, "Here's what I recommend, if you want to sell your house by yourself." And obviously, obviously running this as a retargeting ad, what happens is all the people seeing this ad are in the market to buy or sell a house.

Tim Chermak:
And so they see this and they read it and they probably don't even read the whole thing, because it's a really long post. And they might read a couple paragraphs and they're like, "Wow. Taylor puts a lot more work into this than I realized, and I don't want to have to do any of that stuff. I don't have time to coordinate video marketing and social media advertising and photos and the legal paperwork. And it sounds she puts a lot more work into it that I'm willing to. And so maybe I actually should just list with her." And so have you gotten any messages or comments on that ad?

Taylor Onken:
I've had a few people kind of reach out to me, but they already have a buyer. They mentioned that they did see that ad. So I didn't get listings off of it, but I did facilitate a couple transactions with that.

Tim Chermak:
Oh, cool.

Taylor Onken:
Because they don't realize that the behind the scenes stuff of listing a home from the beginning to end is way more than just saying, "I want $50,000 for my house," you know?

Tim Chermak:
Yep. And again, I need to just hop in here with the reminder that, Taylor is in her very first month running these Platforms style ads. And so when she's saying, "Oh, here's the results I've gotten so far. Here's how many messages I've gotten from that one." This is the first 30 days running these ads. And so imagine, once you give it a couple more months to work and these ads are running, how many more messages you'll have had. How many more listing appointments you'll have set. Because all this has just happened in your first month.

Tim Chermak:
The other thing I think is worth mentioning here is that, I mean, we've already discussed what, four or five ads that you've run, the acreage homes report, the for sale by owner ad. You said you ran like, "Hey, here's the buyers I'm looking for." You ran a listing video for that lake shore home. You did kind of the funny joke photo of like, "Hey, free pizza. If you list your home with me this year." I mean you've already set up half a dozen campaigns in your very first month. And I think that's a huge part of your success too, because no one wants to see the same ad over and over and over again.

Taylor Onken:
Right. Let us help you buy and sell your home, it's just... Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
The cheesy generic stuff that most agents do. And then they might spend 50 bucks on a Facebook boost. And then they say, "Oh, I tried Facebook ads. It didn't work." It's like, well, that's cause everyone was-

Taylor Onken:
Well, that used to be me. I didn't know how the heck it worked. And I'm like, "How do you guys get all these likes and comments and people actually reaching out?" It's-

Tim Chermak:
People actually messaging you? And I mean, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that, obviously, what a Platform does, behind the scenes, is we test all the ads before we ever roll it out to you guys, the realtors. And so if we roll out a new ad, it's because we've already tested it, we know it's going to work. And then if we have a particularly ambitious agent, like you, who's like, "Yeah, it's my first month, but I want to get six campaigns going." It's like, cool. So we have ads ready to go that we already know will work.

Tim Chermak:
But that's a key part of this is that, it's not you just set up two campaigns, where someone might have clicked on campaign A and they just keep seeing campaign B over and over and over again. That would just be annoying if they saw the same retargeting ads over and over and over again. So by running multiple different ads at the same time, people are seeing new posts from you and new videos constantly. So actually, it feels you're running even more ads than you actually are.

Taylor Onken:
Yep. Yep.

Tim Chermak:
So how many, how many closings have you had so far this year, total?

Taylor Onken:
How many what?

Tim Chermak:
How many closings or pending have you had so far this year, total?

Taylor Onken:
Before Platform?

Tim Chermak:
Well, just total right now, yeah.

Taylor Onken:
I got, I think six properties pending, some of them I'm the buyer's agent and the seller's agent. So six pending, and I got three or four active, another one coming on the market tomorrow, and another one coming here in mid May.

Tim Chermak:
And 40, you're actively working with to try to help him find a house.

Taylor Onken:
Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Chermak:
And so last year you sold how many homes?

Taylor Onken:
14.

Tim Chermak:
Cool. I mean, you're going to just absolutely destroy that record you set last year.

Taylor Onken:
Looking at my projected pending, it's more than what I made last year.

Tim Chermak:
Just in what you have pending is already more than what you made. That's incredible. So what has been the biggest surprise do you think in your first month here of... It sounds you did your research on us. You did the due diligence of you talked to a bunch of agents who were already with Platform, and you kind of said like, "Hey, is this legit? Is this as good as they're making it sound? Or what's been your actual experience?" And you called some of our clients just to make sure that we weren't full of BS. Right. So you did your research, all that being said, what do you think has been the biggest surprise of, "Oh, wow. I didn't expect this to happen, or, "I didn't expect it to be this"? Or what has been the biggest surprise in the first month?

Taylor Onken:
Honestly, just the amount of people that are reaching out to me to get listings. It's great to be the buyer's agent, but on the list side, that's even better. And I get calls upon calls every day from people, and that never happened before I started Platform. Just, again, the amount of conversations and people that I'm talking to about, who are looking to list and looking to buy as well. But honestly, I didn't expect it to happen this quickly.

Tim Chermak:
Taylor, what would you say if someone's listening to this podcast and they're actually thinking of signing up for the Platform Marketing program, but they're just not sure, they're kind of scared to take the plunge? They think they want to do it deep down, maybe, but they're kind of scared to make the decision and actually commit and go for it. What would you tell them as an agent who you made that decision just 30 days ago? You're a month into this. That wasn't you two years ago or three years ago, in the distant past. You very recently were in that same emotional state, where you were afraid to sign up. And it was just 30 days ago that you joined Platform. What would you tell someone listening to this podcast, knowing what you know now?

Taylor Onken:
Two words, I would say would be jump in, head first, give it your all, and that's what I decided to do. Again, I'm a single mom, two kids. I have a mortgage. I have all these payments, student loans still, I'm only 28 years old, so it has by far been worth it, and it's scary, but honestly, it's worth it.

Tim Chermak:
Awesome. Well, if you're listening to this, I want you to go over to platformmarketingideas.com and check that out, because that's where we're giving away some of our strategies and video ideas, and where you can learn more about the specifics of this Platform marketing system for realtors, so that's platformmarketingideas.com.

Tim Chermak:
Thank you for joining us on this episode today. Taylor, thank you for sharing your experience 30 days in. You're still brand new to platform, so thank you for coming on the podcast. And we'll have to do a follow-up episode, maybe six months from now or a year from now, where we can kind of get a part two of like, "Hey, you heard about Taylor's first 30 days, how did you continue to build your business a year later?" I think that'd be a lot of fun, because it doesn't happen all the time that someone joins Platform and gets four listings in their very first month. But, man, when it does, it's pretty cool to celebrate that win, and dissect your marketing campaigns that got you there. So Taylor, thank you for joining us today and we'll talk soon, all right.

Taylor Onken:
Yep. Thanks Tim.