Build a Real Estate Audience

Beginning with the release of Marketing API v15.0, you will no longer be able to create Special Ad Audiences. See Special Ad Audiences for more information.

Create a real estate audience:

Step 1: Set Up User Signals for Real Estate Events

These are predefined event names you can send from your website or app that allow you to both measure the performance of your campaigns and to capture intent from your audiences. See Facebook Pixel Setup.

Real Estate ads requires these standard events from your website pixel and mobile app:

Pixel EventApp EventRequirement LevelDescription

Search

fb_mobile_search

Someone searched home listings

ViewContent

fb_mobile_content_view

Someone viewed of a specific listing

InitiateCheckout

fb_mobile_initiated_ checkout

Someone saved, liked or showed special interest in a listing

Purchase

fb_mobile_purchase

Someone contacted an agent about a listing

  • Required: Ads will not work without these parameters.
  • Recommended: Not strictly required but enables better recommendations and more targeting options for your ads. Provide as many as possible.
  • Not Required: Not required and may be ignored.

For example, to report a Search event for a listing using FB pixel or App events, place this code on your search-results page:

<!-- Facebook Pixel Code -->
<script>
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;
n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,
document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');

// Insert Your Facebook Pixel ID below.
fbq('init', '<FB_PIXEL_ID>');

fbq('track', 'Search', { 
  content_type: 'home_listing',
  content_ids: ['1234', '2345', '3456', '4567'], // Top search results
  city: 'New York City', //Required for Search event
  region: 'New York', // region is the state for the US. Required for Search event
  country: 'US', //Required for Search event
} );
</script>
<!-- End Facebook Pixel Code -->
Bundle parameters = new Bundle();
parameters.putString(AppEventsConstants.EVENT_PARAM_CONTENT_TYPE, "home_listing");
parameters.putString(AppEventsConstants.EVENT_PARAM_CONTENT_ID, "[\"1234\", \"2345\", \"3456\", \"4567\"]"); // top search results

// we must prefix all travel-specific parameters with fb_
parameters.putString("fb_city", "New York City"); // Required for Search event
parameters.putString("fb_region", "New York"); // region is the state for the US. Required for Search event
parameters.putString("fb_country", "US"); // Required for Search event

logger.logEvent(
  AppEventsConstants.EVENT_NAME_SEARCHED,
  parameters
);
[FBSDKAppEvents logEvent:FBSDKAppEventNameSearched
  parameters:@{
    FBSDKAppEventParameterNameContentType : @"home_listing",
    FBSDKAppEventParameterNameContentID : @"[\"1234\", \"2345\", \"3456\", \"4567\"]", // top search results
		// we must prefix all travel-specific parameters with fb_
		@"fb_city" : @"New York City", //Required for Search event
	  @"fb_region" : @"New York", // region is the state for the US. Required for Search event
	  @"fb_country" : @"US", // Required for Search event
  }
];

Once you determine which events should fire, you should provide each event's parameters.

Event Parameters

The table below lists required and recommended parameters.

Pixel ParameterMobile ParameterRequirement Level

content_ids

fb_content_id

content_type

fb_content_type

lease_start_date

lease_end_date

preferred_baths_range

preferred_beds_range

preferred_price_range

currency

fb_currency

property_type

listing_type

availability

city

fb_city

neighborhood

region

fb_region

country

fb_country

Parameter Details

Parameter NameData TypeDescription

availability

string

Value must be available_soon, for_rent, for_sale, off_market, recently_sold or sale_pending.

city

string

Provide the user's city of the interest, e.g. 'Menlo Park'

content_ids

string or string[]

Any IDs in your listing catalog. For example, for ViewContent event, send the ID of the item viewed, or for Search send an array of IDs for top results: ['1234', '2345', '3456', '4567']

content_type

string or string[]

e.g.

  • 'home_listing'
  • ['home_listing', 'product']
  • ['home_listing', 'hotel']

country

string

Target country of the interest, such as 'United States'

currency

string

Specified using ISO 4217 currency format: 'USD'

lease_start_date

string

Allows us to recommend properties based off their date availability (using available_dates_price_config in the catalog), and improve the user landing experience (using template tags). Specified using ISO 8601 date format: 'YYYY-MM-DD' (e.g. 2018-01-01).

lease_end_date

string

Specified using ISO 8601 date format: 'YYYY-MM-DD' (e.g. '2018-02-01').

listing_type

string

Value must be for_rent_by_agent, for_rent_by_owner, for_sale_by_agent, for_sale_by_owner, foreclosed, new_construction or new_listing.

neighborhood

string

Neighborhood of interest: 'Menlo Oaks'

preferred_baths_range

[int(min), int(max)]

Number of bathrooms chosen as range: [1, 2]

preferred_beds_range

[int(min), int(max)]

Number of bedrooms chosen as range: [1, 2]

preferred_price_range

[float(min), float(max)]

Price range: [1000.99, 2000.99]

property_type

string

Must be apartment, condo, house, land, manufactured, other or townhouse.

region

string

State, district, or region of interest: 'California'

Step 2: Associate Signals to Listing Catalog

Associate your event sources with each of your listing catalogs. See Business Manager's Catalog Page To select the pixel and app via API which send events, make a HTTP POST:

curl \
  -F '0=<PIXEL_ID>' \
  -F '1=<APP_ID>' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/<PRODUCT_CATALOG_ID>/external_event_sources

Specify these parameters:

Field NameData TypeDescription

external_event_sources (required)

int[]

List of Pixel and App IDs to associate with the catalog.

Step 3: Create And Share Real Estate Event Source Groups

To build an audience, an admin for your business must create an event source group. This groups all of your sources that send listing interest signals. Making an HTTP POST:

curl \
  -F 'name=My Real Estate Company Events' \
  -F 'event_sources=['<PIXEL_ID>','<APP_ID>']' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/<BUSINESS_ID>/event_source_groups

Then share this event source group to any ad accounts that will run ads to audiences generated by these event sources. Making an HTTP POST:

curl \
  -F 'accounts=['<ACCOUNT_ID_WITHOUT_ACT>']' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/<EVENT_SOURCE_GROUP_ID>/shared_accounts

Step 4: Create Audiences

At this point you have signals from pixels or app events set-up and associated with an event source group and your real estate catalog. To target people interested in your listings, create a dynamic audience of people. Include orexclude people from the audience based on the intent signals. You can also apply additional rule-based filters to customize your audience as you do with Website Custom Audiences. See Custom Audiences.

To set-up a new audience, make an HTTP POST to /act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences.

Required Parameters

Field NameData TypeDescription

name

string

Audience name.

subtype

enum {CLAIM}

Type of custom audience. Must be set to CLAIM.

claim_objective

enum {HOME_LISTING}

Objective of audience. Must be set to HOME_LISTING.

event_source_group

id

Event source group to build audience.

inclusions

object[]

Array of JSON objects. Lists each intent signal that makes someone eligible for this audience.

inclusions: event (required)

enum { Search, ViewContent, InitiateCheckout, Purchase }

Event name of a signal. Used for inclusion in audience: {'event': 'Search', …}.

inclusions: retention (required)

object

Minimum and maximum amount of time since event received. Determine if event considered for inclusion. Example: {…, 'retention': {'min_seconds': 0, 'max_seconds': 259200}, …}. Retention must be at least 4 hours.

inclusions: count

JSON operators

Number of times event fired. You can use both equality and numeric comparison operators such as {…'count': {'lte': 3}, …}.

Optional Parameters

Field NameData TypeDescription

content_type

enum {HOME_LISTING}

Type of signals used to build this audience.

description

string

Description of audience.

exclusions

object[]

Array of JSON objects listing each intent signal that excludes someone from this audience.

exclusions: event (required)

enum { Search, ViewContent, InitiateCheckout, Purchase }

Event name of a signal used for exclusion: {'event': 'Search', …}.

exclusions: retention (required)

object

Minimum and maximum amount of time since event received. Determines if event considered for exclusion, for example, {…, 'retention': {'min_seconds': 0, 'max_seconds': 259200}, …}. Retention must be at least 4 hours.

rule

object

Audience Rule from Website Custom Audiences. Filter event stream by these rules before any inclusions and exclusions processed.

See a list of specific fields available. You can use these with any of standard JSON Operators for Audience Rules.

rule: home_listing_set_id (required)

object

Listing set ID: {'eq': '1234'}}

For example, to create an audience that targets people who viewed or purchased in the last 14 days:

curl \
  -F 'name=Viewed or Purchased Last 14 days' \
  -F 'subtype=CLAIM' \
  -F 'claim_objective=HOME_LISTING' \
  -F 'content_type=HOME_LISTING' \
  -F 'event_source_group=<EVENT_SOURCE_GROUP_ID>' \
  -F 'rule={"home_listing_set_id":{"eq":"<HOME_LISTING_SET_ID>"}}' \
  -F 'inclusions=[
    {
      "event": "ViewContent",
      "count": {"gt":0},
      "retention": {"min_seconds":0,"max_seconds":1209600}
    },
    {
      "event": "Purchase",
      "count": {"gt":0},
      "retention": {"min_seconds":0,"max_seconds":1209600}
    }
  ]' \
  -F 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/customaudiences