What Is the Best Way to Get Listings in 2025: YouTube, Facebook, Google, or Zillow?
Noah Haupt compares paid real estate lead sources through the lens of lead quality, targeting, personal branding, conversion, and follow-up workload. His recommendations are based on his experience and conversations with agents, not universal platform benchmarks, and help agents choose a channel that fits their skills and business stage.
By Noah Haupt, founder of Peak Presence
What does this video cover?
- —Compare Facebook and Instagram lead volume with follow-up demands.
- —Use Google search intent and exclude irrelevant searches.
- —Understand shared portal leads and the need for fast outreach.
- —Evaluate YouTube’s branding benefits and higher setup demands.
- —Separate lead arrival from appointments and closed transactions.
- —Choose a platform based on sales skills, time, and execution capacity.
Why does Haupt say the best platform depends on the agent?
The comparison is not simply a contest to find the cheapest form submission. Haupt weighs how quickly leads arrive, whether they remember the agent, how much control the agent has, and how hard the follow-up conversation will be. A channel that produces a large database can still be a poor fit for an experienced agent who does not want to spend hours chasing contacts.
He also distinguishes a first lead from a first deal. When he describes Facebook as fast, he means leads may arrive the day the ads start, not that a transaction will close that week. Likewise, a promising appointment or future opportunity should not be counted as a completed sale.
The numbers in the comparison are Haupt’s reported observations. He gives Facebook roughly a 1% lead-to-deal conversion rate, Google roughly 2% to 3%, and YouTube roughly 5% to 10%, with exceptions. He reports mixed portal experiences as well. These are his experience-based comparisons, not guaranteed results or industry-wide standards.
When might Facebook and Instagram ads be a useful starting point?
Haupt sees Facebook and Instagram as potentially useful for newer agents who need practice converting online leads. Their volume gives an agent more opportunities to learn phone conversations without treating every imperfect call as the loss of the only prospect. He contrasts that with experienced agents who may prefer fewer conversations with stronger intent.
The trade-off, in his account, is that many people respond to a home valuation or list of homes out of curiosity. Some do not remember clicking, do not realize an agent will call, or are not planning a move. He describes the follow-up as sometimes resembling cold outreach despite a submitted form.
He characterizes the housing-ad targeting he discusses as interest-based with a city-centered 15-mile radius, rather than the tighter local choices he prefers elsewhere. For agents who do use these platforms, he recommends video rather than generic ads. Video is his way to improve personal branding and reduce the anonymity of a standard lead-generation offer.
How do Google ads combine search intent with limited personal familiarity?
Google’s appeal in Haupt’s comparison is that a person can actively search for real estate for sale in a specific market. He describes location controls that include cities, neighborhoods, counties, and ZIP codes, along with exclusions. His Miami example targets real estate-for-sale searches rather than waiting for a casual social-media scroller to notice an ad.
He emphasizes negative keywords as a practical fix for irrelevant inquiries. Exclude terms associated with renting, hotels, and vacations when the objective is home purchases. Otherwise, a local real estate search campaign can still attract people whose goal is not buying a home.
Haupt sees Google as particularly useful for buyer business and broadly suitable across experience levels. However, he says search intent does not automatically create trust in the individual agent. Text-led ads and landing pages may look professional, but prospects can still be unfamiliar with the person calling them. In his experience, leads can begin arriving in the first few days when the campaign is set up correctly.
What should agents consider before buying Zillow or Realtor.com leads?
Haupt reports sharply different experiences with portal leads: some agents credit them with substantial business, while others dislike the competition and follow-up burden. He describes the leads as having property-search intent but often little familiarity with the specific agent who reaches out.
Shared leads create a speed problem. When several agents can contact the same person, Haupt says agents need to be quick on the phone and consistent afterward. He describes portal targeting as ZIP-code based, with less neighborhood-level control than the Google and YouTube approaches he favors.
His financial concern is not just acquisition but what remains after the work. He describes arrangements in which a portal takes a referral share after closing, citing a 40% share in the experiences he discusses. That should be understood as his reported example, not a statement that every portal contract has the same terms. He recommends weighing profit, exclusivity, responsiveness, and control alongside deal count.
Why does Haupt favor YouTube for established agents who can execute the funnel?
Haupt’s case for YouTube combines intent-oriented audience targeting with an agent-led video. The prospect can see the agent, understand the offer, and hear that someone will follow up before submitting information. He reports that these leads often remember what they clicked and respond more readily than the social leads he previously handled.
The difficulty is execution. He says an agent needs direct-response creative, landing pages, and a complete funnel rather than a platform lead form and a hastily assembled video. A weak ad can undermine the campaign even when the targeting is sound. He generally favors YouTube for more established agents, noting that many strong fits he has seen were around $100,000 in annual GCI, while acknowledging exceptions.
For speed, he describes YouTube as medium to fast, with some campaigns receiving no leads for the first two or three days and others generating appointments during the first week. His Seattle example reportedly produced three booked appointments in week one. He still urges patience: agents need enough runway to keep testing and operating the system rather than assuming the first few days determine its long-term value.
What else should you know about this video?
What is the best paid platform for getting real estate listings in 2025?
Noah Haupt does not present one platform as the best fit for every agent. He favors YouTube for established agents able to build strong video creative and a complete funnel, while describing Facebook, Google, and portals as useful for different skills, goals, and follow-up capacity.
Are Facebook real estate leads good for newer agents?
Noah Haupt says Facebook and Instagram leads can give newer agents more practice handling online inquiries because of their volume. He also warns that many contacts may be curious rather than ready to buy or sell, so consistent follow-up is essential.
How can agents reduce irrelevant Google real estate leads?
Noah Haupt recommends excluding keywords associated with renting, hotels, and vacations when a Google campaign is intended to attract home buyers. He also recommends location targeting and search terms that explicitly relate to real estate for sale.
Why do shared Zillow leads require quick follow-up?
In Noah Haupt’s comparison, shared portal leads can be contacted by multiple agents. Fast outreach matters because the prospect may speak with another agent first, and property-search intent does not mean the prospect already knows or prefers a particular agent.
Are YouTube ad conversion rates guaranteed to beat Facebook?
No. Noah Haupt reports stronger YouTube conversion rates in his own experience, but the video does not establish universal benchmarks. He stresses that video quality, targeting, landing pages, follow-up, and the agent’s ability to sustain the campaign influence results.
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