The Compass’ Marketing Center looks like the control panel to a science fiction spaceship. A stark, Kubrick-inspired spread of features and buttons and commands designed to take an agent, team and brokerage from one stage of the business atmosphere to another.
Designed to augment brand awareness, broadcast listings, and collect leads, the tech-forward brokerage’s Digital Ads console, a part of Marketing Center, is a nimble, minimalist solution for launching paid campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.
It’s as easy as punching a few buttons and knowing what you want to spend, much easier than what the social media giant offers its users directly.
Listing videos — animated slide shows — are produced by linking a series of images with creative transitions and home data graphics. They emanate from Marketing Center’s Video Generator.
If you’re not marketing a seller’s property, ads can be used for “just sold” announcements, price adjustments and general branding.
Ad text and headlines are populated automatically based on the ad’s intent and template, but for those adept at crafting catchy copy, an edit function is available. Images are also ready for you.
It’s easy to plug in timelines and budget, and audiences can be pulled directly from your Compass CRM or from persona-based mirroring, meaning the algorithm will find and target people similar to those tracked visiting Compass.com.
Facebook and Instagram ad performance is measured with separate line graphs in the Insights panel. It offers more than impressions and clicks, letting users view spending per social channel and a metric called “Lift,” which reports the percentage of increased traffic since launch to the ad’s subject listing or web page — something sellers would love to learn.
A valuable byproduct of using your CRM’s list is that friends and past clients are likely to comment, per the general draw of social media. Even social interaction provides suitable “communal proof” in your reach and appeal.
In true Compass fashion, expect a very spartan but visually ergonomic user experience, exemplifying its black on white color schemes.
On the roadmap is the ability to build audiences from specific CRM groups, as well as more advanced video. I’d like to see multiple ads on each platform compared and maybe an ad testing environment. Of course, that’s my wishlist.
Compass agents continue to be privy to some pretty sharp technology advantages, this being the latest. Discussions are underway for a full demonstration of its Marketing Center.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
