By Adam Jennings
As you are probably aware, PPC stands for Pay Per Click and is a method of digital marketing on Search Engines such as Google and Bing. As the name suggests, you literally pay per click. PPC can be a great marketing tool if used correctly, but regular maintenance and monitoring are required to remain competitive.
At first glance, looking at the dashboard of your Google/Bing ads account can be quite daunting and confusing. However provided you follow the rules below you are prepared to put some time and effort in, then PPC can be a hugely profitable channel for your Real Estate Agency.
PPC differs from SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in that one of the huge benefits are results can be almost instantaneous, and you have full control of the account spending.
Below are some important factors to take into consideration when setting up a PPC account.
We suggest that if you are just getting started or are new to PPC, then it is wise to start small and test a small campaign first. This can serve as a great test to see what works and what can be improved upon for future campaigns. This will also help you gain confidence in the structure of your account.
Determining what you want from the PPC campaign will definitely help identify successes and areas for improvement. If you are after brand awareness then you should focus on impressions, lead generation should focus on Conversions, and engagement would be focussed on the Click Through Rate. By knowing the Industry Standards for Real Estate you can identify the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Understanding and researching keywords will play a big part in determining the success of your campaigns. There is no doubt that researching and selecting the correct and best keywords can be time-consuming, but it is the foundation to your success with PPC advertising, so it’s well worth taking that little extra time on it. There are plenty of online tools that will help you find the relevant keywords, but the easiest place to start with is to use Google’s very own Keyword Planner.
Make sure that you are capturing as many variations of the keywords as possible. Our rule of thumb is to Have 3 Adgroups of every campaign. Exact Match, Phrase Match, and a Broad Match Modifier (to capture new keywords).
The success of your Real Estate PPC Campaigns depends on the relevancy of the audience you are targeting. For example, it is pointless targeting an audience who are only interested in renting properties if your sole focus is to sell the property. Similarly, you should have an understanding of the times and locations in which your target audience is more likely to browse. By showing your ads to the relevant people at the relevant time will ensure you have little wasted spend and that your ads stand the highest chance of achieving your goals.
If you’re doing local PPC advertising, by definition you need to have some kind of geotargeting or geofencing set up. Your advertising has to focus on a specific area. Which area you focus on and how you define that area requires an understanding of your audience.
By having multiple variations of your ad, you are effectively split testing to determine the optimal version. Have at least 3 ads running for every keyword (2 expanded, and 1 responsive text ad). Ensure that every variation of the ad has a clear Call To Action and differs enough from the other ads.
Experiment with your ads until you know which ones perform best. It has been observed that many successful PPC ads find solutions to a problem, or ask a question in the ad text.
Search Engines give a discount and higher ad positioning to Real Estate Agencies with higher Click Through Rates because they believe the ad is more relevant or valuable than the other ads surrounding. The key to getting this boost is to write engaging copies of your ad which clearly shows the benefits, delivers an urge to click, and a clear call to action.
Sometimes it’s good to be negative! These are often overlooked but are an essential part of any successful PPC campaign.
By adding these you are effectively telling the Search Engine not to show your ads if a search query includes them. For example, if you added ‘to rent’ as a negative keyword, your ads would not show if someone searched for ‘Property for rent in Spain’.
This can substantially bring costs down and when implemented correctly can also be used for advanced targeting strategies, to specifically direct a more appropriate ad to show. When used correctly negative keywords can save you as much as 20 to 50% of your advertising budget… If they are used correctly.
We are only touching the tip of the Iceberg here, but if you want more in-depth information, Google has written a very good article.
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453972?hl=en
Ad Extensions are a great way for your ads to stand out from your competitors. They can add that little extra confidence and help separate the best from the rest. These extensions only show if your ad shows up in the first 3 positions of the search results, but give extra leverage and push competitor ads further down the page.
It’s important that you perform regular maintenance on the account as it can quite easily become confusing and difficult to understand if there is no optimisation. Google gives every keyword a quality score of between 1 and 10, based on historical performance data, ad relevance to the keywords, landing page experience and several other factors which Google do not disclose.
The higher the quality score the more google reward you by reducing the Cost Per Click and improving the positioning of the ad. We suggest running regular checks on the keywords as the quality score can change daily, and to either optimise or pause any that have been underperforming (a quality score of under 5) for a specific length of time.
Keywords that have a high-quality score should also be considered for an increase in bids as they are more valued by Google.
All of the tips above can help you reduce wasted spend and help increase the chances of a successful PPC account. Once you become more familiar with how PPC works, you can start to invest heavily in the campaigns that perform well and reduce bids or even pause underachieving campaigns.
If all of this sounds a little daunting, then don’t worry. Here at Property Webmasters, we have a team of Specialists, who have all passed qualifications and exams set by both Google and Bing. Our Specialists also only deal with Real Estate Agencies so they are not distracted by other industries and can focus their skills on helping Real Estate Agencies succeed.
If you are currently running a PPC account and would like us to provide a FREE NO OBLIGATION AUDIT then simply click this link and fill the details in. It’s that simple!
If you are new to PPC, or are thinking of investing in PPC but simply don’t have the time to run your PPC account, we can help. We are so confident that we can bring success to your Real Estate Agency that we do not hold you to any long term contracts.
Fill out your details via the form on the right-hand side of this page and we will be in touch.
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