Meta Ads Case Study
Balfour Place
Client
Balfour Place
Period Measured
Jul 2025 – Sep 2025
Data Sources
Meta Ads
Services Used
Meta Ads Management
Overview
Balfour Place were looking to drive awareness of their new, five-property development in Felixstowe Ferry. In addition to achieving high reach, they also hoped to drive interest and concrete leads from people looking to purchase one of the luxury homes.
Key Stats
Ads reached 2,230,894 people
23,810 new website visits
217 brochure downloads
£1.62 average CPM (Cost per 1,000 Views)
1 property sold during campaign, 1 property sold STC during campaign
The Challenge
The biggest challenge during this campaign was that the properties were in development, and thus, we didn’t have a finished home to show off. This meant that, in addition to using expert CGI images, we had to focus on selling the dream life potential homeowners could look forward to. This meant highlighting the beauty and history of the location and pushing the fact that buyers could customise certain aspects of their future home.
Our strategy
In order to create a full-funnel Meta Ads strategy, which covered all of the goals we were looking to achieve, we split the 3-month campaign into 3 parts. This allowed us to layer audiences, match each stage to the relevant intent, and ensure the budget was distributed effectively across the entirety of the campaign. In the case of budget distribution, we chose to front-load the campaign by spending more during the first month, allowing us to hit the ground running, build momentum early and create a strong audience to re-market to later on.
Awareness
With the goal of awareness, the first month was spent trying to reach as many people as possible. To ensure the messaging matched this stage of the campaign cycle, we used the ad copy to introduce the development to various groups of people, including general information about the location, to try to pique the interest of as many people as possible.
Consideration
This time, the goal was ‘website visits’. The messaging was shifted to mention more details relating to the individual properties, including key selling points such as amenities, floor plans, and the stunning beauty of the AONB in which the properties are situated.
Conversion
For the final month, the campaign had a ‘leads’ goal, intending to push people from consideration into action. This action included key conversion events such as downloading the brochure, booking a private visit or, of course, putting an offer in on one of the properties.
To match this, the copy was evolved again to include even more detail. Key mentions included pricing, the turn-key nature of the properties, and specific customisation options for the different areas of the home. This is also where we introduced a sense of urgency and, for the first time, strong calls to action like ‘book your viewing now’.
A snapshot of one Meta Ads awareness campaign that shows the Reach achieved, but also how the campaign was tapered to allow for more lead generation.
A Culture Of Testing
As always, there were plenty of testing opportunities throughout the campaign, including ad copy, headlines, landing pages and CTAs. However, the main thing we wanted to test was the audience.
We stipulated three personas that represented the different types of people we knew would be most interested in purchasing one of the luxury properties. These were tested alongside Meta’s ‘Advantage+’ audience option, where no guidelines are given other than geographical location. At each stage of the campaign, the audience with the lowest performance was removed until just the best-performing option remained for the final phase. The three personas we created were:
London Leavers
Middle-aged professionals looking to swap the fast-paced surroundings of London for the peaceful Suffolk coast.
Family Planners
Couples living in East Anglia who are planning on, or already in the process of, expanding their family and therefore looking for a new home.
Executive Upgraders
Middle-aged and older, high-earning executives looking to upgrade or find a second home.
Key Decisions
A Gradual Transition
Although there were three clear stages to the campaign, we ensured there was a gradual transition into each phase. This was done by slowly reducing the budget spent on one campaign goal, whilst increasing it for the next one. To ensure we were constantly filling the top of the funnel, even during the Conversion stage, we kept the Awareness activity running at a low level.
Keeping CPM Low
Because the main goal was to show the ads to as many people as possible, we knew we needed to keep CPM (Cost per 1,000 Views) low. Doing this would mean the budget went further, maximising the reach of the campaign and increasing the size of the remarketing pool. To do this, we refreshed the design assets at each stage of the campaign, ensuring there was a good variety of images and videos for Meta to optimise. Therefore, there were no ‘Learning Limited’ warnings, and the average CPM was way below the UK benchmark of £6.65 – £8.20 for a blended Meta campaign.
A snapshot of the consistently low CPM achieved by the campaign.
Ongoing Ad Optimisations
As well as the audience testing, we also closely monitored performance at ad level to optimise based on key metrics such as CPM, CTR (Click Through Rate) and Cost per Click. This allowed the budget to always go to the best-performing ads and meant high performance was maintained throughout the campaign.
The Role Of Remarketing
Because we knew that we wanted to push people through each stage of the funnel during the campaign, we knew re-marketing would play a big role in its success. After reaching over 1.8 million people in the initial Awareness stage, we carried this audience through to the Consideration and Conversion phases.
This approach allowed them to build a deeper understanding of the property development over time, increasing their interest in the homes. At the same time, repeated exposure to the brand strengthened recognition and helped create a stronger affinity with the project.
The Results
With over 2 million people seeing the ads in a short 3-month period, we were able to create interest and awareness across the south-east. This led to one of the properties being sold during the campaign and another being placed under offer, subject to contract. We also generated a large re-marketing list that can be used during the next stage of the project, once the building work has been completed.
217
Brochure downloads during the campaign
1.83 m
people reached during the Meta Ads campaign
Why it worked
- Full-funnel structure with clear intent at each stage – Segmenting the campaign into Awareness, Consideration and Conversion ensured messaging aligned with user intent, guiding prospects smoothly from discovery through to action.
- Front-loaded budget to build momentum early – Investing heavily at the start maximised reach, created a large remarketing pool, and set the campaign up for stronger performance in later stages.
- Effective remarketing that nurtured interest over time – Re-engaging a high-volume audience with progressively detailed messaging increased familiarity, built trust, and drove higher conversion intent.
- Continuous testing and optimisation – Ongoing audience, creative, and performance testing ensured budget was consistently allocated to the best-performing segments and ads.
- Compelling creative despite no finished product – Leveraging CGI, lifestyle-driven messaging, and customisation benefits successfully sold the vision of the homes and their location, overcoming the lack of physical show properties.
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