1. Structure: one campaign per project, one ad set per audience intent
Keep it boring. A project gets one lead campaign and one retargeting campaign. Inside the lead campaign, split ad sets by intent, not demographics: broad geo with interest in property, lookalikes built from site visits (not from form fills), and a brand-search catch-all for people who saw the ad and later searched the project name.
2. Special Ad Category: comply, then stop worrying
Housing ads in India fall under Meta's Special Ad Category. You lose age, gender and narrow location targeting. This matters less than people think. Broad audiences with good pre-qualification outperform narrow ones in almost every account we have run. Focus the creative on the project, not the buyer's identity.
3. Creative that actually converts
In order of performance across our accounts: construction-progress Reels filmed on a phone, floor-plan carousels with price on request, a 20-second walkthrough with captions, UGC-style testimonials from actual buyers, and only then the agency render. Refresh the top two creatives every three weeks or frequency will kill them.
- Lead with location and configuration in the first line of copy
- State the price band or possession date; vagueness attracts the wrong lead
- Use the project name as the headline so brand search picks it up later
4. The form question that filters junk
Add one custom question to the instant form: 'When are you planning to buy?' with options like 'Within 3 months', '3 to 6 months', 'Just exploring'. Lead volume drops by a third. Site visits per rupee go up. Add a budget question only if your sales team will actually use it.
5. The first 60 seconds
A lead answered within a minute is five to ten times more likely to visit than one answered the next morning. Connect the form to WhatsApp automation that sends the price list and asks for a visit slot, and route the lead to a salesperson's phone at the same time. If you cannot do this, do not scale the campaign.
6. Measure cost per site visit, not cost per lead
Send site-visit and booking events back to Meta as offline conversions. Optimise the campaign for them once you have 50 in a month. Cost per lead will rise. Cost per booking will fall. That is the trade you want.