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+Ad Studio is a digital advertising solution from Lion & Orb, a real estate media relations company
Platforms: Browser; mobile responsive
Ideal for: Customers of Lion & Orb
Top selling points:
- Promotion of media mentions
- Built, supported by Evocalize
- Categorized ad campaigns
- Included media library
Top concern
While very good at their core competency, Lion & Orb is not a software company. The product was built by Evocalize, which is a software company; thus, be wary of how support is handled and how campaign data integrates with existing marketing software.
What you should know
+AdStudio is software to create and manage digital ad campaigns, primarily for Facebook. Campaigns can be devised for multiple Facebook and Instagram pages and campaign goals, such as listing promotion, agent branding or website traffic. What helps this product excel, and what’s ultimately its lone standout feature, is PressLeads, a way to use earned media mentions for lead generation. As of this writing, the product is reserved for customers of Lion & Orb’s media relations services.
Lion & Orb has long worked with Inman, as well as a number of other prominent business news outlets, to promote and share news about its clients. We don’t bite on every pitch. Still, representatives of their company attend Inman events and for the most part, are ever-present entities in our inboxes. That is, after all, their job.
In this instance, however, they’re pushing their own product. And it’s not bad.
Third-party Facebook campaign builder solutions are common today, a byproduct of Meta’s brutal interface for building ads and controlling campaign details. There always seems to be another box to check or text field that if not filled will result in an extra $5,000 spent. That’s not the case here. +AdStudio makes clear how much is being spent, what your ad will look like, and what it’s saying to your audience.
So while it’s easy to work with, know that the UI is a little clinical and not particularly engaging, like corporate-furnished office space. Functional.
I found the user experience nicely thought out, designed specifically for how brokerages and top producers would use digital advertising, and that’s to bring attention to a specific home just sold or listed, to recruit new agents or attract new leads, for which it uses Facebook’s Lead Forms. Ads can be saved for later use as templates, too.
Recruiting ads are a nice value-add, by the way. They demonstrate that a broker is willing to spend money to pull in the best agents and that they embrace and understand modern marketing tactics. Because you can connect separate Facebook pages to different campaigns, you have the flexibility to recruit to different teams or office locations.
The star of +AdStudio plus is PressLeads, a feature that builds ad campaigns around organic press mentions and feature stories. This is a natural overlap for Lion & Orb, given its core competency.
PressLead campaigns are built directly from the story, meaning they’ll highlight the headline, link to the original story and help build credibility around your brand. Additionally, you can use data from collected contacts to create look-alike audiences for other campaigns.
There are a number of use cases for PressLeads, from podcast appearances to public speaking events; basically, anything that generates media attention can become the source of a marketing effort, especially if Lion & Orb made it happen for you.
There’s a media library for often-used imagery and logos, a stats board for monitoring ad performance, and the ability to use a single-image ad or dynamic (carousel) ads.
This is the first iteration of an actual product from Lion & Orb, so I suppose some leeway should be granted.
I can’t help but think that Evocalize, a very competent technology company, simply wasn’t pushed to build something overly custom. It appears white-labeled, to be honest.
Nevertheless, PressLeads is a sharp idea by a known industry name, and I don’t doubt Lion & Orb’s clients will see a good deal of success with it.
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.
