PPC advertising is one of the most popular and effective ways in which you can get traffic to your website, and it is something that Real Estate Agents should definitely be utilising. Whether your goal as an agency is to drive more sales, attract more sellers or improve brand awareness, PPC can help and it does not cost as much as you may think!
By James Sheldon
As an estate agent, it is essential that you take advantage of all the marketing channels you have at your disposal. Whether you are looking to attract buyers or sellers, there is serious potential to scale your marketing with the use of paid advertising. Without the use of paid marketing, your business will be missing out!
The question commonly raised by agents focuses on cost, the results that we aim to achieve at Property Webmasters hones in on the return on investment. With a goal in mind and the correct product or service in place, paid marketing can attract the traffic, leads and valuations your agency can significantly benefit from.
In our guide, we will display just how much value, even a small paid marketing campaign can bring to your agency. We will cover how Google Ads can help your estate agency grow, going into detail about exactly how your business can use PPC to generate the hottest leads.
PPC advertising is one of the most popular ways in which you can get traffic to your website, and it is something that Real Estate Agents should definitely be encouraged to consider. Most people initially think of Google when it comes to searching the web, but there are alternatives, such as Bing, Yahoo, YouTube and even Social Media that can help increase visibility and attract potential business.
PPC is a highly engaging way to promote your Estate Agent Business and drive traffic to your website. PPC adverts show in search results and you only pay when someone clicks on the link to go to the website. You also have full control over how much you are willing to spend and can set budgets to ensure you do not overspend.
According to both Wordstream and Search Engine land, approximately 65% of all clicks made by users are to paid advertising. The Estate industry typically ranges from between £0.02p per click (own brand name) and £0.97per click (high competition keywords). However, if the account is looked after and monitored closely it is possible to get the Cost Per Click substantially lower.
Even if your ad does not get clicked on it can increase brand awareness free of charge.
By implementing the tips and techniques illustrated below you will find that you can drive people to your Real Estate Website instantly. Once your campaigns are set up, you can generate traffic from people clicking on the ads to make their way to your website. It is a quick way to get your company visible at the top of search results.
Google Ads results receive 65% of the clicks that started with buying keywords, while organic results (SEO) only receive 35%. (Craig McConnel)
We will also outline our extensive knowledge and experience of running PPC campaigns displaying just how valuable of a channel paid search can be.
The Google Search Network is probably what people are more familiar with. When a user types a query into the search box, the results are displayed based on several hundred calculations and algorithms by Google to ensure the most relevant results are shown at the top of the page. The first two or three search results are usually paid ads, followed by a series of organic search results, with often some further paid ads towards the bottom of the page.
This allows your agency to be right up there amongst the competition when it comes to ranking for key terms!
How do search results work?
Let’s assume the number one position for the keyword ‘Property in Marbella’ is £0.50p, and you have a bid of £0.40p you will not get the top spot, but your ad may show in second or third. You could increase the bid to £0.51 to achieve the top spot, however, this will drive costs up. It’s a better idea to look at the keyword and see if the ad can be changed to incorporate the search term or look to advertise this specific ad at times when the Cost Per Click is lower. This will increase Google’s (or other search engines) trust in the keyword and reward you with a lower Cost per Click.
There are several other factors to be taken into account when determining if you will show in the 1st position and that’s why it is important to have regular maintenance and optimisations.
As the Real Estate agency becomes more and more competitive it is important to ensure your brand is as prominent as possible. Real estate searchers learn about the brands in a multitude of ways but the most common method is a search for the company name on Google or another search engine (branded search).
Potential customers searching for your company are far more likely to be your hottest leads, so it is important that you are bidding on your own name (you can be assured that your competitors will be doing the same to you). Bidding on your own brand name is also significantly cheaper than generic keywords where competition may be much higher.
The main source of traffic we use for our development campaigns comes through Google Ads. Why? Well, it is the easiest to get relevant, targeted customers in front of your developments. Being able to target the exact phrase a user searches on Google to place your Ads really displays the value of the service.
Getting users in front of your development is very important, these users can then be remarketed to later down the line! You can see that the Ad is set up to reflect the landing page content. We identify the unique selling points and make them clear within the copy, we find that the Ad Copy is almost as important as the keywords, stacked up against the competitors’ Ads, what is going to make them click upon your agencies?
Once a visitor has clicked your ad and has ended up on your website, the next step is to gain their trust and confidence.
It typically takes 7 interactions with a brand before an enquiry or purchase is made
At Property Webmasters we have seen a huge increase in businesses promoting exciting new projects via PPC. These types of campaigns work best for agents as we are able to target so many different factors throughout the keyword strategy, ad copy and location targeting to really push our ads in front of the right people.
It is important that your Website Design is structured correctly in a way that all text adverts are directed to relevant landing pages where the content reflects what the customer is expecting. Otherwise, we would suggest landing pages, due to the fact they’re easy to set up and do not require a fully functioning, top of the range website.
With the above stat in mind, we need to discuss remarketing. Google display remarketing is a great way to re-engage old customers through the power of banner adverts that can be as visually demanding as you wish. Your agency can have full disclosure over how the adverts will appear on Google partner sites however you do have to adhere to Google’s sizing restraints.
After building up an audience, you can create a campaign within Google Ads that serves display ads to the select audience to help draw them back onto your website. After all, Google Display Ads are seen by 90% of internet users, so make sure to design yours so they stand out and get recognised.
Remarketing is also a very useful method that can be used for brand exposure and instilling a sense of trust in a company. The more the customer sees an ad, the more it becomes trusted. Websites use cookies that store your browsing history and show ads based on your interests, location and search history. By creating quality graphical content Real Estate Agents can be one step ahead in the customer journey.
The first thing to take a look at is the keywords you are targeting. If you are looking to promote a project in Portugal for example, ‘New development for sale in Lisbon’ is a great keyword to select, allowing your ads to target users who are searching for that term!
The next thing to consider is location targeting. With Pay Per Click you can target your ads to specific geographical locations. This is extremely useful because one of the most common search terms includes the phrase “near me”. By having a Google My Business account also linked it is possible that the search results will show a map of your location.
Location targeting allows your ads to appear in the geographic locations that you choose: countries, cities, towns, or places of interest (beach, local amenities etc).
Focus and bid more on specific locations in your targeted area, and incrementally bid lower the further from the specified target location, as the quality of the lead will be decreasing. This is perfect for users who want to target a local area or agents in the Costa del Sol for example, who would like to target the Scandinavian region based on their love of Spanish property!
Finally, you can also target set demographics! A great example of this is to exclude 18-24-year-olds from viewing your ads, typically, this age demographic does feature in an estate agents target market. If your business’ USP is dealing with student housing, however, it would be essential to keep this age range within your targeting!
So, with the ability to build brand awareness, attract leads for your new projects, target your exact market via location and search terms, your business can really drive traffic that features huge intent!
We make it clear to the client what our expectations were before we set anything up. At Property Webmasters, we pride ourselves on being able to build long-term relationships with our clients, we receive a lot of referral enquiries thanks to our network of great clients.
One thing that makes PPC so attractive is the quick turnaround and relatively quick results. We can get set up and leads generated within three to four weeks. Patience is a virtue and a lot of people want to see what they are getting for their money, PPC allows you to do that.
For more information into exactly how we can set up and generate almost instant results, check out our case study guide here.
Speed – Once the campaigns are created and approved, you are eligible to show up instantly within the Google results page.
Budget Control – You control how much you spend on each campaign, ad group, and keyword.
Targeting – You have the ability to target specific locations, times of the day, days of the week, and even adjust bids for different devices, giving you full control of your ad visibility.
Blocking Competitors – By showing ads in the top positions, you are effectively blocking a competitor’s ad from showing.
Generate Quality Leads from your Target Market – Put your ads in front of your ideal customer, users who are searching for the property you have listed on the website or landing page.
If you would like to find out more about our PPC services, feel free to get in touch with one of our growth specialists.
By Ben Spowart
By Ben Spowart
By James Sheldon