Facebook ads for realtors in Ontario: real costs, housing-ad rules and where to send the clicks

Facebook and Instagram ads are the easiest paid channel to start: a budget, a photo and a few minutes in Ads Manager. They're also the channel where Ontario agents most often get the rules wrong, because housing ads in Canada can't be targeted the way most Facebook advice assumes.

This guide covers what Meta ads cost real estate advertisers, the targeting rules that apply to housing ads in Canada, what RECO allows you to advertise, and where to send the people who click. Prices and rules were checked on November 7, 2026, and each one names its source.

The rules come first: housing ads in Canada

Since December 3, 2020, advertisers running ads related to housing that reach Canada must declare them as a special ad category (Meta Marketing API documentation). Ads for listings and other homes for sale or rent fall into it. Once an ad is in the housing category, Meta enforces these limits:

• Age: fixed at 18 to 65+. You can't narrow it.
• Gender: every gender is included.
• Location: any area you target must cover a radius of at least 25 km for Canada. Postal codes and neighbourhood-level areas aren't available, and you can't exclude locations.
• Audiences: lookalike audiences are unavailable, and demographic and behaviour targeting isn't permitted. Interests must come from an approved list.

A 25 km circle covers about 1,960 square kilometres. Drawn around a GTA neighbourhood, it takes in several cities. So Meta can't be aimed at one farm, which shapes everything else about how to use it.

Google's rules for the same category are looser on location. Housing ads in Canada can't target age, gender, parental status, marital status or full postal codes, but they can target the first three characters of a postal code and a radius of at least 1 km (Google Ads policy). If reaching one neighbourhood matters, search ads can do it and Meta ads can't.

What Meta ads cost

Meta doesn't publish prices, and auction costs vary by market and season. The most-cited benchmark is LocaliQ and WordStream's, updated September 23, 2026. For real estate lead campaigns it reports an average click-through rate of 4.17%, a cost per click of $1.27, a conversion rate of 9.95% and a cost per lead of $13.74, against an all-industry average of $27.39 (LocaliQ). Traffic campaigns for real estate averaged $0.55 a click. The figures are US averages in US dollars; Canadian costs will differ.

• Facebook lead ads, real estate, US average (USD)US$13.74
• Bought leads, Canadian vendor (CAD)$13 to $45
• Owned portal at 20 to 40 registrations a month (sample, CAD)$20 to $40
• Google search ads at 1 in 10 to 1 in 20 (sample, USD)US$79 to $159
• $0$160

Facebook: LocaliQ and WordStream benchmarks, lead campaigns, updated September 23, 2026 (US averages). Bought leads: realestateleads.ca packages, checked November 6, 2026. Portal: Pixelizio Neighbourhood plan, $790 a month. Google: a $7.94 cost per click (DataForSEO, November 2026). Currencies are not converted.

On paper, Facebook leads are among the cheapest a team can get. As a sample at the benchmark average, a $1,000 month buys about 73 leads.

The catch is intent. Someone who searched "sold prices on Maple Avenue" was looking for that answer. Someone who tapped an ad while scrolling was interrupted. Leads from an interruption can be earlier in their thinking and slower to answer the phone. A cheap lead that never picks up costs more than it looks.

What you can advertise

RECO's rules apply to every ad, Facebook and Instagram included:

• The brokerage name must appear clearly, as registered with RECO (Bulletin 5.1).
• Sold prices need consent. RECO's notice on the 2018 sold-data ruling says registrants must not include details of an agreement of purchase and sale in any advertisement, such as the parties, the location or the price, without the written consent of the parties (RECO). A "just sold for $1.2M on Maple Avenue" ad needs that consent in writing.

Within those rules, the ads that tend to work for teams are:

• New listings and open houses, with the listing brokerage's permission where it isn't your listing.
• Market updates built from published figures, such as TRREB's monthly Market Watch, with the source named.
• Home-evaluation offers that lead to a page on your own site.
• Useful local content, like a neighbourhood guide or a street's sales history, that sends people somewhere they can register.

Where to send the clicks

Meta's lead forms keep people inside Facebook: they tap, the form fills in their details, and they never see your site. That's why the cost per lead is low, and it's also why those leads can be thin. You get a name and a phone number, without knowing what they wanted.

Sending clicks to your own page costs more per lead and tells you more. A visitor who lands on a neighbourhood page and registers to see sold prices has chosen to give you their details, and the registration shows which street or listing they cared about. The page also keeps working after the ad stops, which an ad on its own never does.

A sensible split for most teams is to use Meta for reach, sending people to a useful page on a site you own, and let the page do the converting. Our guide to buying leads vs owning them covers why that matters over a year.

Measuring it

Track Meta ads on the same numbers as every other channel:

• Cost per lead, counted from the leads that reached your CRM.
• Contact rate: the share of leads you actually spoke to.
• Conversations and listings, traced back to the ad that started them.

If the cost per lead is low but the contact rate is too, the ad is reaching the wrong people or the form is too easy. Send the next campaign to a page instead and compare.

Follow-up rules

However a lead arrives, follow-up email falls under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). An inquiry gives you implied consent for six months; for longer, you need express consent, which a form can ask for. This is general information, not legal advice; check with your brokerage.

The short version

1. Declare housing ads as a special ad category, and plan around a 25 km minimum radius.
2. Expect cheap leads with lower intent, and measure contact rate as well as cost.
3. Get written consent before advertising any sale's price or details, and show the brokerage name.
4. Send clicks to a page you own where visitors can register, rather than a form inside Facebook.

For how Meta fits next to mail, search ads and an owned site, see what each real estate marketing channel costs. If you want campaigns run for you, our ads management is 15% of ad spend with a $400 monthly minimum, pointed at your own portal. Every plan is on our pricing page.