How to make the most of your Real
Estate Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-Per-Click advertising is an excellent way to generate hot leads and attract property-hunters to your real estate website by getting it prominently listed in the search engines.
When you run a Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign for your real estate business, you choose keywords that property-hunters are likely to use as they search the Internet for property in your area. Then, you write one or more short text ads that will be displayed next to the search results for your chosen property-related keywords. Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing are two of the most popular Pay-Per-Click advertising services. Read on to find out more about PPC advertising and how to get the most out of your real estate PPC campaign.
What is Pay-Per-Click advertising?
The term ‘Pay-Per-Click advertising’ implies exactly that. No matter how many times your real estate ads are displayed, you are only charged when someone clicks through the link to your estate agent website. Sounds like excellent return on investment? It is if you do it right! However, it takes a Pay-Per-Click advertising strategy tailored to your particular real estate business – and to your property market – to get the most out of your Pay-Per-Click budget.
Proper keyword selection is crucial
The property keywords you bid on as an estate agent can make or break your Pay-Per-Click campaign, so they must be selected carefully according to the following criteria:
Relevance of keywords to your real estate business
Your PPC keywords determine who gets to see – and click on – your ads. For this reason, you must target only real estate keywords that are highly relevant to your business as an estate agent and to your prospective clients who are searching for property.
As a simple example, let us say you sell real estate in the province of Alicante, Spain. If you simply choose ‘real estate’ as a keyword, your PPC ad will be displayed to people looking for property anywhere in the world and you will end up paying for lots of irrelevant clicks from outside your potential market. In other words, that keyword is too general and ‘real estate Alicante’ is a much better choice in this case. If you only operate in particular areas of Alicante or only sell specific types of property, you should choose keywords that are even more specific to avoid paying for worthless clicks.
Cost per click for your keywords
The more popular a Pay-Per-Click keyword is with real estate advertisers, the higher you will have to bid to get your PPC ad in a top position for that keyword. Prices range from a few cents to a few Dollars/Euros per click. While it may sometimes make sense to outbid a direct competitor for a top spot in the property listings, it is usually best to go for lower-cost keywords that are more specific to your own real estate business, or that have been overlooked by other estate agents.
How often your keywords are searched for
The more often property-hunters search for a keyword, the more exposure you will get if you bid on it. However, highly-demanded real estate keywords can cost significantly more per click. Depending on your particular case, you could be able to attract a similar number of visitors to your estate agent website more cost-effectively by bidding on a lot of cheaper, less-popular property keywords rather than on a few PPC keywords with a high cost per click.
Choosing the Pay-Per-Click search engines best suited to your needs
There are several Pay-Per-Click search engines to choose from and they each offer distinct advantages. Choosing one or more PPC providers for your campaign requires careful analysis of a number of factors, including the nature of your real estate business, your target audience, the cost of relevant keywords, and your PPC advertising budget.
How to maximise click-to-leads conversions
It is vital that the ads you display as part of your real estate Pay-Per-Click campaign adequately filter out people who are not likely to become your clients. Your property ads must be written to clearly state what property you are have on offer and its location, so that you only attract clicks from highly interested property-hunters and avoid paying for visits that have a low potential for conversion into leads.
Also, the web pages that your PPC ads link to must deliver exactly what the ads promise to avoid disappointed property-hunters surfing away (for example a searchable property database or property for sale in a specific region). These so-called landing pages have to be effectively designed and written, so that they maximise conversions and you get the most leads possible out of the visitors you receive.
Continuously fine-tune your real estate campaign for best performance
Any marketer worth their salt analyses the results of previous advertising campaigns and uses that knowledge to achieve better success in the future. The great thing about PPC advertising is that by continuously monitoring your estate agency’s campaign, we can make the necessary strategic adjustments during the PPC campaign itself. And what’s more, these changes will have an instant effect on your campaign’s performance. This kind of fine-tuning will, of course, have a huge impact on the efficiency of your PPC advertising and consequently on your return on investment.
For example, regular monitoring can identify poorly-performing keywords that can be instantly removed and their budget allocated to keywords that are producing better results. Or, in a more severe – yet not uncommon – case, a ‘rogue’ keyword that generates lots of low-potential, or zero-potential clicks to your real estate website can be quickly spotted and eliminated before it depletes your monthly budget.
Just like other forms of advertising and marketing, successful real estate Pay-Per-Click advertising depends on a proper understanding of the many complex factors at play. Entrusting your estate agency’s PPC campaign to our professional internet marketers at Touchdown Pay-Per-Click Management will not only make sure you avoid the pitfalls that can threaten success, but will also have a drastic impact on your potential return on investment.
Save time and worries, and begin to reap the benefits of expertly-managed real estate Pay-Per-Click advertising right away! Just fill in the Quick Enquiry Form on this page and leave the rest to us.
Testimonials
“ Thanks to the professional staff at Touchdown Pay-Per-Click Management, our search engine marketing is paying off with lots of productive leads. We had neither the time, nor the means to do this ourselves, so we’re glad we put our campaign in expert hands. ”
- Rachel Courtney
International Department Manager
Gestion Inmobiliaria Montaña Roja