PHOTO: Targeted ads were designed to follow you around

Rodolfo Delgado is the Co-Founder & CEO of Replay Listings, the first platform to find apartments for rent in NYC focused on unedited videos.

Have you ever been haunted by ads for something you searched online? For me, that invasion of privacy I accidentally consented to with a click of a button recently took the shape of properties for rent. You see, I recently searched for “apartments for rent in New York City.” Today, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms have positioned what feels like hundreds of ads for rental buildings on my newsfeed.

While online listing platforms present the information when you search for a property, social media is proactively showing them to you — even when you didn’t ask for them. Because of this, the relationship between property-hunters, real estate agents and the leading online listings platforms has dramatically evolved since the adoption of social media for real estate marketing.

From Reactive To Proactive

Targeted ads were designed to follow you around, sometimes even when you’re offline. They “make things happen” instead of waiting for you to reach out. Are they effective? You bet they are. Are they invasive? That’s for you to decide.

Online property-search companies used to be ready to show you availabilities whenever you were willing to move. Since the adoption of social media, they have been forced to adapt in order to compete for your attention. Because of that, dominant listing platforms, landlords and real estate agents alike have begun to allocate a significant portion of their marketing budget and their time to social media.

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