New Construction Leads: The $9.28 Facebook Ad Test

Quick Summary

• Dustin Fox's recent Chantilly test used the same image and daily budget across four Facebook ad messages. The payment-focused version produced a reported $9.28 cost per lead, while the lifestyle version produced $19.33.
• The number is a first-party campaign result, not a promise. Cost per lead is not cost per appointment, contract, or closing, and results vary by market, offer, creative, audience, follow-up, and measurement quality.
• A Tom Ferry interview with Anthony Anselmo offers a useful historical case study: Facebook and new-construction campaigns helped his business, but his 75-transaction year also included Zillow Flex and other sources.
• Current market conditions help explain why incentive-led messages deserve a test. NAHB reported in July 2026 that 63 percent of surveyed home construction companies were using sales incentives, while Census and HUD reported 9.3 months of new-home supply for June.
• The free download below contains the exact weekly new-construction incentive-blog skill package plus its platform connection checklist. It requires current sources, human approval, Fair Housing compliance, and an end-to-end verification plan.

A $9.28 lead is not valuable because the number sounds impressive. It is valuable because it reveals which part of the message earned attention. In Dustin Fox's recent Chantilly campaign, four versions used the same image and the same budget. Only the angle changed. The payment-focused message produced leads at a reported $9.28 each. The lifestyle message came in at $19.33. That is a 52 percent lower cost in this specific test.

The lesson is not that every real estate campaign should advertise a payment. The lesson is that message angle should be tested as a controlled variable. When the imagery, spend, landing experience, geography, and campaign settings stay stable, the response can tell you which problem the market is trying to solve. In this case, the stronger signal was affordability.

That signal fits the current new-home market. Many construction companies are using price cuts, closing-cost credits, rate programs, or other incentives to move available inventory. Agents can help consumers understand those changing terms, but only if the information is sourced, current, clearly qualified, and connected to a follow-up system that respects consent.

Download the Weekly New Construction Skill Files

The exact source package is available here in three formats. Download the ZIP if you want the original reusable package. Download the two Markdown files if you want to inspect the operating instructions and connection checklist separately.

The skill begins with platform discovery, then creates a connection plan for the website, form, CRM, routing, tracking, publishing, and verification. It does not assume a specific CMS or CRM. It also does not authorize publishing, configuration changes, test leads, outbound messages, or automation activation without approval.

That boundary matters. A content workflow can prepare a source-backed draft without touching production. A later, separately approved step can connect the existing form, verify source and campaign attribution, and test routing. The package treats those as different permissions because they create different levels of risk.

What the $9.28 Facebook Ad Test Actually Proves

Dustin's Chantilly result proves that the payment angle outperformed the other tested messages within that campaign. It does not prove that $9.28 is a permanent market rate. It does not prove that payment copy will win in every location. It does not tell us, by itself, whether those leads scheduled appointments, toured homes, signed agreements, or closed.

This distinction is essential because a low top-of-funnel number can hide weak downstream performance. A $9 lead that never replies is more expensive than a $30 lead that completes a consultation and becomes a client. Good operators track the entire chain:

1. Cost per lead.
2. Valid contact rate.
3. Consent and response rate.
4. Appointment or consultation rate.
5. Tour rate when relevant.
6. Signed-client rate.
7. Contract and closing rate.
8. Total acquisition cost and time to result.

The first metric is useful because it arrives quickly. The later metrics matter because they determine business value. A campaign should remain a test until enough qualified outcomes exist to justify a broader conclusion.

The cleanest interpretation of the Chantilly test is this: when people saw the same visual, the affordability message created more form submissions per dollar than the other three messages. That is a real learning. The next learning must come from lead quality and follow-up.

The Historical Case Study Behind the Strategy

The supplied source material points to a Tom Ferry interview with Anthony Anselmo. In that interview, Anselmo describes a production climb from six transactions to 30 and then 75. He also describes using Facebook as a major lead avenue, running new-construction advertising, and building a follow-up process around those inquiries.

The case is useful, but it needs precise framing. His 75-transaction year was not presented as the product of one Facebook campaign. The interview also references Zillow Flex and other business sources. New-construction advertising was one meaningful channel inside a broader operating system.

Anselmo reported spending roughly $25 per day on average over a period of years. He described a historical conversion range of about 1 to 2 percent, with some variation in his strongest year. He also reported having 15 new-home contracts in escrow during his second full year. Those are his reported experiences from the interview, not independently audited universal benchmarks.

The interview also includes a historical 3.99 percent rate example from the 2022 and 2023 period. That detail should never be reused as if it were a current offer. Rates, credits, inventory, eligible homes, lender conditions, and expiration dates change quickly. Any current campaign must link its claims to a current source and state the relevant restrictions.

The durable takeaway from the interview is not a number. It is the combination of a clear offer, a consistent advertising cadence, fast follow-up, long-term nurture, and a business that can manage multiple active conversations. Media buying creates opportunities. Operations determine what happens next.

Why Incentive-Led Advertising Is Timely in 2026

The July 2026 NAHB report provides a strong market reason to test incentive messages. It reported that 63 percent of surveyed home construction companies were using sales incentives. That was the sixteenth consecutive month at or above 60 percent. The same report said 37 percent cut prices in July, with an average reduction of 6 percent, while its confidence index remained at 34.

Those figures do not mean every community has a promotion. They show that incentives are widespread enough to deserve systematic monitoring. The only reliable way to know what is available is to check the official community page, current inventory page, rate sheet, promotion terms, and any preferred-lender conditions for the specific offer.

The federal new-home sales release adds context. Census and HUD reported a June 2026 seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 628,000, an estimated 485,000 homes available for sale, 9.3 months of supply, and a median new-home sales price of $398,300. More available supply can create pressure to help qualified prospects compare options, especially when financing terms and credits differ across communities.

The agent's role is not to repeat promotional language. It is to translate a changing offer into a clear comparison. A lower advertised rate may require a preferred lender, a specific loan program, a particular property, a closing deadline, or a larger purchase price. A closing-cost credit may be more useful in one scenario and less useful in another. Consumers should confirm financing and tax implications with their licensed advisers.

How to Run a Clean Four-Angle Message Test

A useful test isolates one variable. If the image, audience, budget, geography, form, and schedule all change at once, the winner cannot tell you which change mattered. The Chantilly test is compelling because the creative and budget stayed the same while the angle changed.

Four practical angles are:

Offer Angle

Lead with the available incentive. This can work when the terms are material and easy to explain. The claim must be current, attributed, and qualified. Never shorten a complicated offer into a misleading promise.

Payment Angle

Lead with the affordability problem the offer may help address. Payment examples require exceptional care because taxes, insurance, down payment, credit profile, loan type, fees, and eligibility all affect the result. If a current figure cannot be supported and properly qualified, describe the decision rather than publishing a payment claim.

Timing Angle

Lead with a real deadline or inventory window. The word real matters. Manufactured urgency damages trust. Use an expiration date only when the source provides it, and recheck the source before the campaign launches.

Lifestyle Angle

Lead with property and area features such as floor plan, finishes, transportation access, trails, parks, retail, or commute options. Describe what the home and location have. Do not describe the type of person who should live there, and do not target or exclude protected classes.

Each version should use the same conversion event and the same attribution window. Name the variants clearly. Check delivery and spend before interpreting cost. A low-spend outlier is not a reliable winner. Let the test collect enough volume to compare response quality, then inspect downstream results before shifting the full budget.

The Weekly Workflow Inside the Download

New-home incentives are volatile. A page that was correct last Friday may be wrong today. The downloadable skill handles that problem by requiring a source log before the draft is written.

For every offer, the workflow records the company and community, location, eligible inventory, exact incentive, eligibility restrictions, financing conditions, expiration or verification date, official source URL, and verification time. When public terms are incomplete, the draft must say so. An unsourced or ambiguous offer does not get published as fact.

The skill then organizes the article around geography or the consumer's decision, not protected classes. Each section explains the terms, restrictions, expiration, why the offer may matter, and the source. The draft includes a comparison section so readers can evaluate base price, upgrades, credits, closing costs, and financing rather than choosing based on one promotional number.

The publishing mode is explicit. The user can request a draft, a staged preview, or a live article. Live publication requires authorization. The site design system stays intact. If a platform strips scripts or embeds, the workflow uses supported native blocks or forms instead of trying to bypass platform security.

The CRM plan follows the same rule. It maps the existing form, source, campaign, stage, tags, consent fields, assignment, and approved follow-up behavior. A connection is not considered verified until an authorized test reaches the correct record with the expected attribution and no unapproved message fires.

Connect the Article to the Existing Lead System

The smartest implementation uses the website and CRM that already exist. Creating a duplicate lead database adds another place for consent, routing, and reporting to break. The download prioritizes native site-to-CRM connections, official CRM forms, supported automation connectors, scoped webhooks or APIs, and a documented manual import only as a last resort.

The form should ask for the minimum information needed to respond. Name, email or phone, preferred contact method, area or community interest, timeframe, and required consent are usually enough. Marketing consent should never be prechecked.

Routing should be visible and testable. The record needs a clear source, campaign, stage, interest tag, assignee, and consent state. The test identity should be obvious, and the team should confirm that no unapproved email, text, or automation was triggered.

This is where many lead campaigns fail. The ad works, but the form does not preserve the campaign. Or the record enters the wrong pipeline. Or the assigned person cannot see the context. Or a generic automated message contradicts the offer. A lower cost per lead cannot compensate for a broken handoff.

The download's connection checklist makes that handoff concrete. It records the CMS, blog template, form restrictions, SEO controls, official connector, authentication method, CRM endpoint, required fields, duplicate behavior, tags, assignment, consent, and cleanup policy. That documentation makes the workflow portable without pretending every platform works the same way.

Follow-Up Determines the Real Economics

Anselmo's interview underscores a point that campaign dashboards cannot show: long-term nurture can matter more than the first reply. New-home research can begin months before a decision. A person may compare resale inventory, communities, commute patterns, financing scenarios, and timing before asking for a tour.

Good follow-up begins with permission. It confirms what the person asked for, provides the requested information, and offers a useful next step. It does not flood a new inquiry with generic messages. It also does not contact people through channels they did not authorize.

A practical nurture system can include current incentive updates, inventory changes, plain-language comparisons, questions to ask the on-site sales representative, financing topics to review with a licensed lender, and reminders to confirm deadlines. Each message should help the person make a decision even if the answer is not to move forward.

The measurement should connect campaign and operations. If one angle creates cheaper leads but fewer replies, the team needs to know. If another produces fewer leads but more qualified appointments, that difference matters. The right winner depends on the business goal and the full acquisition cost.

Fair Housing and Advertising Compliance

Housing ads require careful language and current platform-policy review. Campaigns should describe homes, locations, prices, incentives, inventory, amenities, and transportation. They should not target, exclude, or characterize people by race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, source of funds, or any other protected category.

Meta's current housing-ad rules and Special Ad Category requirements can change. Check the official policy before launch, document the settings used, and follow applicable federal, state, local, brokerage, and platform requirements. Do not infer that an older tutorial reflects the current interface or targeting options.

Financial claims need equal discipline. An advertised rate, payment, credit, price cut, or savings amount is rarely universal. State the source, date, eligible inventory, lender condition, loan assumptions, and expiration where applicable. Tell readers that terms and availability can change and that they should confirm details directly with the relevant company and licensed advisers.

A Practical 30-Day Rollout

Week One: Establish the Baseline

Choose one market and one approved lead destination. Confirm the website form, CRM routing, consent fields, campaign naming, and measurement events. Pull current official incentive sources and create the first source log. Do not advertise a claim that cannot be verified.

Week Two: Launch the Controlled Test

Create four message angles using the same image, audience framework, budget, landing experience, and schedule. Review every version for Fair Housing, financial-claim accuracy, and current platform policy. Launch only after the terms and route have been rechecked.

Week Three: Inspect Quality

Compare delivery, spend, cost per lead, valid contact rate, response rate, and appointment rate. Read the actual inquiries. Confirm that campaign attribution survives into the CRM. Pause any version that attracts the wrong expectation or relies on a term that changed.

Week Four: Improve the System

Move budget only when the evidence supports it. Update the weekly article with newly verified terms. Refine the form or follow-up if the handoff is weak. Record what changed so the next test starts with a better baseline instead of repeating the same assumptions.

The goal is not to chase the lowest number on the screen. The goal is to build a repeatable system that turns current, verified market information into useful content, permission-based conversations, and measurable business outcomes.

Sources and Method

• Watch the Tom Ferry interview with Anthony Anselmo.
• Review the July 2026 incentives and confidence report in the NAHB news and economics section.
• Review the June 2026 new-home sales release from Census and HUD.
• Review current housing-campaign requirements in the Meta Business Help Center.

Dustin Fox's $9.28 and $19.33 figures come from the first-party Chantilly test supplied with this story. They are reported campaign results, not a promise of future performance. The market figures above were checked against official July and June 2026 releases. Incentives, rates, prices, inventory, eligibility, and platform rules can change without notice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is $9.28 a normal cost per real estate lead?

No universal normal exists. Cost depends on the market, message, creative, audience, form, season, competition, optimization, and attribution. The $9.28 figure is Dustin Fox's reported result from one controlled Chantilly test. Use it as evidence that message angle matters, not as a guaranteed benchmark.

What did the test change?

The test kept the image and budget consistent while changing the message angle. The four approaches emphasized the offer, payment, timing, and lifestyle. The payment-focused version produced the lowest reported cost per lead in that campaign.

Does a lower cost per lead mean a better campaign?

Not necessarily. A campaign is better only if it improves the outcome the business values. Track valid contacts, replies, appointments, signed clients, contracts, closings, total acquisition cost, and time to result before declaring a winner.

What is included in the free download?

The package includes the exact weekly new-construction incentive-blog SKILL.md and a platform connection checklist. It covers onboarding, source verification, article structure, site and CRM planning, publishing permissions, consent, Fair Housing, bounded QA, and end-to-end routing proof.

Can the skill publish or activate follow-up automatically?

Not without authorization. It can prepare a draft and connection plan, but live publishing, configuration changes, test submissions, outbound messages, and automation activation require explicit approval. The workflow is designed to make those permission boundaries visible.

How often should incentive claims be checked?

Check every material claim during each weekly run and again before an ad or article goes live. Do not copy the prior week's terms without rechecking the official source. Record the verification date, eligibility, restrictions, and expiration where available.

If you want more tested AI workflows for real estate operators, subscribe to AgentAIBrief for practical systems, source-backed examples, and downloadable files.