Why Does Ad Money Behind Your Listing Video Matter When You Sell a Home?

Because a video nobody sees does nothing for your sale. Posting a video of your home puts it online. Putting ad money behind it puts it in front of people who may want a home like yours. Those are two different things, and the difference is how many buyers actually see your home.

Tanja Odzak is a Top East Bay Realtor with eXp Realty, helping buyers and sellers in Oakland and across the East Bay. Lots of agents will make a video of your home. In my experience, very few put real ad money behind it. This article explains why that matters, what my own ad reports show, and what to ask any agent before you list.

No. A video posted on a personal page is a start, and that is all it is.

Here is what I see. Facebook and Instagram make you pay to get more than a few free views. A video that goes out with no ad money behind it mostly reaches the people who already follow the person who posted it. That is a small group, and it often includes friends and relatives.

In my experience, the best I see other agents' listing videos get is under 60 views. That is my own observation of what I see in my market. It is not a count of every video, and I have no way to check how much of any video was watched. It is enough to tell me that posting alone does not do the job.

I would rather call it by its name. A video that is just posted is a listing that is posted. A video with ad money behind it is a listing that is promoted. Both start with the same video. Only one of them is built to be seen.

You can check this yourself. You do not have to take my word for any of this, or any agent's. It takes about two minutes. Open the agent's Facebook or Instagram page and look at the view count on their listing videos. Then ask two questions:

• Was it posted on their business page? If they have one, that is where a listing video should live.
• How many views did it receive? Look at the number under the video.

That number tells you whether the video was just posted or actually promoted. A video that was only posted tends to show a small count, close to the size of the page's following. A video with ad money behind it tends to show a far bigger one. It is not a perfect test, because a view count does not show how much of the video was watched. It is a fast and fair one, and every agent's videos are open to the same check, mine included.

It pays Facebook and Instagram to show the video to more people, and to show it to people who may be looking for a home like yours.

That is the plain version. When I market a listing, I run targeted ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. The goal is simple: the people who may want your home should actually see it, instead of hoping the right buyer happens to scroll past a free post.

A few things this is not:

• It is not a guarantee that a buyer appears. No ad can promise that.
• It is not a one-time boost. The video and the ads work with everything else in the marketing, which I explain below.

I am a Master Digital Marketer, and I keep learning, because the way people find homes keeps changing. That includes how buyers use search tools and AI to look for homes and agents. I market your home for how buyers search now, not how they searched five years ago.

Reach means how many people an ad was shown to at least once. I take the numbers from Meta's own reports, which is the company that runs Facebook and Instagram. I do not estimate them.

Across 26 of my listings, my ads have reached more than 1.3 million people. Spread across those homes, that is about 50,000 people per home on average. Three of my homes each reached more than 100,000 people.

Two plain notes about those numbers:

• Reach is not the same as views. One person can watch a video more than once, and one person can see an ad without watching all of it. Reach counts people who were shown the ad at least once. It does not tell you how many watched to the end.
• The average hides the range. Some homes reached far more people than others. Every home and every market is different, so I never promise that your home will reach a certain number.

The more qualified buyers see your home, the more chances you have to get offers. Here is the chain I think about:

1. More views. More people see the video and the photos.
2. More interest. Some of them want a closer look.
3. More showings. Interested buyers book a time to walk through.
4. More qualified buyers looking at your home. That means buyers who can actually buy it.
5. More offers. And more offers can mean a stronger price and better terms.

Notice the word "can." Each step makes the next one possible. None of them is a sure thing. Your price, your home's condition, the season, and the buyers who are looking all play a part.

I cannot promise a result, because every home and every market is different. What I can say is that more people seeing your home is where a strong sale starts. A home that very few buyers see has very few chances to attract a strong offer. If you want to see how offers play out in the East Bay, you can read why Oakland and Berkeley homes sell so far over asking.

No, and it should not be. The video is one part. Here is how the pieces fit together when I sell a home:

• Preparation. A stager visits and gives you a list, so the home looks its best before anyone takes a photo.
• Photos and video. I schedule a professional photographer and videographer, so the photos and the video show what makes your home special.
• The MLS. Your home goes on the Multiple Listing Service, where agents find homes for their buyers.
• Targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram. This is where the ad money goes, and it is what puts the photos and video in front of people who may want a home like yours.
• A website that is built to be found. A website is no longer just a website. Underneath the pages is coding that tells search engines and AI tools what each page is about. My own website is built that way, and when I create a property page for your listing, it is built so it can actually be found, including by the AI tools buyers now use to search.
• A property page that performs, not one that only looks good. Lots of agents create property pages, and in my experience many of them perform very poorly. I know, because I used to do the same thing. I have talked with other Realtors about this over the years, and we agreed that a page is often made because the seller likes it, not because it performs. A page built to be admired and a page built to be found are two different jobs.
• YouTube and Google. Your video goes on YouTube too, and the pages are set up so Google can see all of it.
• One connected presence. I do not post these pieces separately. I build one interconnected presence on the web for each listing. The targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram, the AI tools, my website, and YouTube all connect to each other, and Google can see the whole picture. The goal is simple: your listing has a strong presence and is easy to find.

Take any one of these away and the others do less. A great video with no ads is seen by very few people, and ads with weak photos waste the attention they earn. They are meant to work together as one presence, not a pile of separate posts.

You can read more about how I sell a home on my selling your home page. If you are curious about the cost side of a sale, I explain it in what it actually costs to sell a house in Oakland.

Do not just ask whether an agent does video. Ask who sees it, and how. As a Top East Bay Realtor with eXp Realty, helping buyers and sellers in Oakland and across the East Bay, I welcome these questions. Here are the ones I would ask if I were choosing an agent to sell my own home:

• Is there ad money behind the video, or is it only posted?
• Where will the ads run, and who are they shown to?
• How do you measure it? Look for numbers from the platform itself, not a guess.
• Can I see results from a past listing? A real report beats a promise.
• What else is in the plan? Photos, the MLS, and the preparation matter as much as the video.
• Will my home have a property page that is built to be found? Ask whether search engines and AI tools can read it. A page the seller likes is not the same as a page that performs.
• Will I see how my own home's ads are doing while they run?

An agent who has good answers will not mind being asked. If the answers are vague, that tells you something too.

Assuming a video means the home is being promoted. A video can exist and still be seen by almost no one. Ask what is behind it.

Treating video as a substitute for preparation. A video shows what is there. If the home is cluttered or needs small repairs, the video shows that too. I walk through your home the way a buyer would and give you a short list first.

Leaving the marketing plan out of the agent interview. Many sellers choose an agent on price or personality and never ask how the home will be shown to buyers. This is one of the most useful questions you can ask.

Here's a common situation. A seller in Oakland interviews two agents. Both say they will make a video of the home. The first agent says the video will go on their social media page. The second agent says the video will also have ad money behind it, shown on Facebook and Instagram to people who may be looking for a home like theirs, and shares a report from a past listing.

The seller asks both agents how they will know whether the video is reaching anyone. The first agent is not sure. The second shows how the platform's own report counts the people an ad was shown to.

Nothing here guarantees an outcome. What the second answer gives the seller is a clear picture of who will see their home and how they will find out.

Start by asking any agent you are considering how your home will be shown to buyers, and what is behind the video. Tanja Odzak is a Top East Bay Realtor with eXp Realty, helping buyers and sellers in Berkeley and across the East Bay. When we talk, I will walk through how I would market your home: the preparation, the photos and video, the MLS, and the ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.

You can read how selling works in Oakland or Berkeley, or see what your home is worth first. When you are ready, text me your address and I will show you how I would put your home in front of buyers.

This article describes my general process and is not legal, tax, or financial advice.