![Google Ads for Real Estate [Google AdWords for Realtors]](http://www.propertyleads.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/google-ads-for-real-estate-google-adwords-for-realtors.png)
If you're a realtor who's still not using Google Ads, you are missing a lot of leads! Google Ads is one of the most powerful tools you can utilize to build your online authority and generate highly motivated leads, be they potential buyers or sellers.
To start a Google Ads campaign, you should write an effective copy, input it in Google Ads along with other necessary data, establish a lead generation funnel, and make tweaks to your strategy, depending on the analysis results. You must also know a great deal about digital marketing before starting your Google Ads for real estate journey.
To help you kickstart your Google Ads for real estate campaign, read this blog until the end! This covers the steps you need to take to set up your very ad and some useful tips to increase your ROI!
Before we focus on Google real estate ads, we should first look into its backbone— Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.
PPC is a digital advertising model where the advertiser only pays when their ad is clicked. Essentially, this means targeted website visits or visits to your landing page or app will incur a certain amount.
As Wordstream puts it, if a PPC campaign is working correctly, the amount you'll pay per click would be trivial since you'll be getting a high return on investment.
For instance, if the click costs $60 but you made thousands out of it, you're using PPC successfully.
The most common form of PPC is search engine advertising. It is also known as search engine marketing and paid search. But PPC real estate ads can also appear on apps, websites, social media platforms, etc.
Google Ads is one of the top forms of PPC advertising today. As explained earlier, you only pay when someone clicks your PPC ad and that's how exactly Google Ads work.
In a nutshell, when using Google Ads for real estate, you bid on search terms or keywords related to real estate. Your ad copy will appear on the organic search results when someone searches for those specific keywords.
You can target people by their location, interests, demographics, and even the device they're using.
We must admit, making your first real estate ad campaign won't be a walk in the park.
If you do not seek the help of a PPC professional or expert real estate advertisers, you might lose your hard-earned money without getting any ROI. To help you avoid this in real estate advertising, here are the most crucial steps you have to take.
As is with many real estate marketing strategies, you have to fully understand how Google Ads for real estate works before taking the jump. This is more than knowing how to make an ad account. You also need to know how it differs from other methods of advertising, like Facebook Ads.
Even though many platforms allow a variety of ad formats, targeting options, etc., there are some that are not for real estate.
Google Ads is very ideal for real estate agents since many users are actively searching on the web to sell their house or buy one. They aren't really using apps or watching videos to do these things.
To better understand what these all means, here are the four common ad types available for Google Ads for real estate:
Search Ads or Google AdWords is the most common type of ad used by real estate agents or realtors. These ads typically appear on the top of a Google SERP by being triggered by your target keywords.
Display Ads are shown on millions of websites across the web. This ad is in image form and may vary when it comes to dimensions.
Display ads are commonly shown on social media platforms, blogs, and even news sites.
As the name suggests, video ads come in video form. This is primarily placed in YouTube videos and can be in-stream or in-feed.
You can watch a video ad before, after, or during a video and it may also appear on the search results in the YouTube platform.
If you have a Google Business profile, local service ads are an extension of it. Basically, this shows a photo of you, where you work for or what your company is, your reviews, and how long have you been in the real estate business.
When you submit your real estate license, you'll get a Google screened badge, which is a green checkmark that helps make your profile have priority placement.
Many people think that starting a Google campaign starts with writing an ad copy. They miss one of the most crucial steps, which is to come up with a thorough plan after creating and ad account. This is necessary since every campaign would require time and financial investment.
So, how do you plan a campaign that guarantees a high ROI? You should focus on three things: your target clients, target keywords, and your KPIs.
Not all Google leads for real estate are created equal. Thus, you have to identify specific clients, learn about the targeting capabilities of Google Ads for real estate, and come up with a solid lead generation and real estate marketing strategy.
The more specific your campaign is, the more high-quality your leads will be. However, this also means your ad will appear in fewer Google search results.
If done right, though, this may be more profitable since you'll save on your initial investment in clicks.
Here's how you can target a specific set of audiences in Google Ads for real estate:
Generally, your targeting choices will affect your click-through rates, cost per click, and conversions in real estate Ad Words. Thus, it is crucial that you also learn about the targeting capabilities of each type of Google ad.
For instance, custom segments and life events cannot be targeted on a search campaign type.
Another aspect of targeting is choosing the right keywords. You have to identify the search intent of your target client, so you can come up with an initial set of phrase match keywords or any match type.
This can make or break your campaign, so using Google's keyword planner and other platforms like Ahrefs and Semrush may be ideal.
To illustrate, these platforms can give you a list of keywords based on search volume, competition, and other factors.
Once your campaign in Google AdWords real estate is up and running, you should set and understand key performance indicators (KPIs) to maximize your ROI. Below are some of the core KPIs you should be aware of as a real estate professional.
The majority of ads used by real estate agents and real estate professionals are search ads. As explained earlier, these are ads that appear on top of a SERP.
Usually, it consists of a headline and a description that only covers a few lines. Since search ads are super short, they should be highly optimized. Relevant keywords should be used to get more clicks.
Since the goal of ads for real estate agents is to find leads, it is crucial not to cramp it with information about who you are. Focus only on catering to the user's intent in searching.
For example, if a user searches "steps on selling a house in New York" on search engines, they may not click on your ad if your headline says "Top Realtor."
Many real estate agents and real estate advertisers say that a search ad should be used to highlight their credentials. But these details, along with other information about their business, should be on the landing page and not on the ad.
If you include too much unnecessary information in your ad instead of optimizing it for high-quality keywords, your real estate ads will have a low Quality Score and won't really show up during searches.
After planning for your campaign and writing a killer copy, you can now set up your Google ads for real estate.
Creating a Google Ads account and your very first ad isn't that difficult because you'll be guided by Google. However, you should still pay attention to detail, especially in your ad settings.
Go to the dashboard of your Google Ads account and click New Campaign. You'll be asked to input your campaign objective on the first screen. Be very cautious in choosing your objective since this will be the basis of Google on the steps and settings they'll ask you to do next.
As a real estate agent, your objective should be to find leads. But if this isn't really your goal, you can choose among other options like sales, product and brand consideration, brand awareness and reach, and website traffic.
Google Ads also allows creating a campaign without goal guidance, but we don't recommend going this path.
Aside from the campaign objective, you should also set your conversion goal. The default choice for this is Page Views, but you can choose another option. Google will use this to track the users and how many of them actually made the action you asked them to.
After setting your campaign and conversion goals, you need to identify what type of ad you will be creating. As mentioned, search ads are pretty common for the real estate niche, including real estate agents.
If you choose search ads, you also need to select the ways in which you can achieve your goals. The most common is a lead form on the high converting landing page.
Bidding is one of the most crucial parts of setting up your campaign. You may choose to bid on clicks, conversions, conversion values, or impression share. Of course, this should depend on your goal for your campaign.
For real estate agents, bidding on conversion and conversion value is suggested since this can increase the number of potential clients who are taking direct actions on your website.
But if you just want people to be aware of who you are, bid on impressions or clicks to generate traffic.
Depending on your choice, you would be asked by Google Ads for real estate to set maximum cost-per-click, cost-per-action, and target ROI on ad spend.
You also need to define some key settings for your campaign before you can proceed to run it. Google will ask you to confirm if you only want search ads or if you also want to include display ads.
Other campaign settings you have to identify are your audience segments and your ad schedule.
Of course, your audience segment would be homeowners who plan to buy or sell their houses. Meanwhile, your ad schedule or how much time you'll spend running your real estate ad would depend on the season, market, budget, and campaign goals.
Before you input your ad copy, make sure you did your keyword research.
You should have identified if you are using broad match, phrase match, or exact match. Come up with a good list of search terms or phrases that will serve as triggers for your real estate ads.
When your keywords are ready, paste your ad copy and landing page URL. Google will show you how your ad will look on both desktop and mobile views so you can make necessary tweaks. Doing this will also generate an ad strength score and other recommendations.
Usually, Google Ads for real estate require 3 headlines and 2 descriptions. But you can actually add more if you want. The headlines should only be 30 characters max, while the description is limited to 90 characters.
All the headlines and descriptions you'll provide should be interchangeable because Google puts them in a different order depending on the search term and user intent.
It is, however, possible to pin a particular headline or description if you want it to always appear.
Setting your budget is the last step in creating your Google ad. You have to determine how much you are willing to spend on your real estate ads per day.
Note that the actual costs may vary because Google will still decide.
For the real estate niche, the average CPL or cost-per-lead is $44.70. Thus, if you want to find at least two leads a day, your daily budget should be $100.
A lead generation funnel is essential to convert clicks into clients. A funnel is a way to capture the contact information of the user so you can build a relationship with them.
Two of the most common ways to capture leads are a real estate website and landing pages.
Having a website as a real estate agent will establish your presence online. Ideally, your website should provide all the necessary information about you as a real estate agent.
This may include your qualifications, your brokerage, past clients you've helped, any downloadable materials, real estate listings you manage, and other details that can prove you're the best at what you do.
A landing page is basically a subset of your real estate website. Your landing page greatly impacts your Quality Score, so it is crucial that it is highly targeted to your Google ads.
What we mean by this is that your landing page should really satisfy the user's intent in searching.
Moreover, your landing page tells Google that your content is useful. This translates to more clicks and actions, which directly affects your lead generation.
Your landing page doesn't have to be stuffed with content in order to be useful. You should prioritize simplicity so the user won't be overwhelmed by your goals.
Your goal is for them to immediately give you their contact info and work with you and this cannot be achieved if your landing page is too complicated.
Another thing to note is that being clear with the purpose of the landing page also makes a lot of difference.
Don't be too verbose or ramble about unnecessary information. The user should immediately see what services you offer and what action they can take to avail of them.
Another great tip would be to remove menus and use stunning images instead. Many real estate agents claim that doing this has significantly impacted their lead generation.
Once your real estate ad is up and running, Google will provide you with data regarding how it's doing.
You have to carefully study your analytics and understand your KPIs so you can improve your ads, generate more leads, and maximize your return on investment.
If your data shows that you have a low CTR or click-through rate, there may be issues with your targeting or ad copy.
Meanwhile, if your impression shares are average, you may need to change your keywords or increase your bid. These are just examples of how you can make adjustments based on Google analytics.
To further maximize your ROI in Google ads for real estate, here are some of the top Google Ads strategies you should implement!
Geo-targeting is a Google Ads feature that helps with localization, so your ads do not show on irrelevant locations. Why is this important?
You have to identify which of the leads you're getting is actually from your target area; otherwise, your ad would be pointless.
To leverage geo-targeting, go to the location options of your Google ad and select people in or people who show interest in the specific location where you serve as a real estate agent.
Google Ads for real estate allow you to identify negative keywords, so your ads don't show up on irrelevant searches.
For instance, if you don't want to be a real estate agent of condominiums or rental properties, then type those as negative keywords.
Basically, the negative keywords feature of Google Ads helps filter the keywords with which your ad will appear. If you leverage this correctly, your ads will be more targeted.
When you bid, make sure you hit the sweet spot between cost-per-click and click-through rate. This will guarantee you the top ad position or, at the very least, the second spot.
It goes without saying that the top ad has more chances of getting clicked when it appears during a Google search.
Users usually click the first result they see when they do a Google search, so it would be best to study how AdRanks work.
There are three keyword match types that you can choose from when creating a Google ad: broad, phrase, or exact.
Broad match means your ad will appear whenever a Google search term contains your keyword or searches related to it. A broad match keyword yields maximum exposure since your ad will be shown on a lot of searches.
However, broad match keywords are not recommended for the real estate niche. You must prioritize using phrase match or exact match keywords, so your audience is more targeted.
You don't have to filter through hundreds of leads that are totally irrelevant to your goal generated by such keywords that are too broad.
In connection with analyzing your data in Google Ads real estate, do not delay conversion tracking.
Some real estate agents and real estate companies wait until they're earning money before they check how their ad is doing. This is not ideal since there are a lot of potential clients you can miss for your real estate business.
If you are looking for potential buyers and sellers of different types of real estate, you may want to create ad groups. This will categorize your keywords and help you connect to the right clients.
For instance, you may want to create an ad group for condominiums, tiny homes, commercial real estate, etc. Essentially, this means a specific ad will appear on the SERP depending on the keywords you included in that ad group.
To get more clicks on the search network, you may also want to utilize some ad extensions for real estate advertising in Google Ads. There are three most common extensions you can add to your ad— call, message, and location.
Call extensions allow you to show your contact number on your ad so potential clients can reach out to you without checking out your landing page or website.
When they click on your number, they'll be redirected to the call interface of their mobile devices.
Message extensions, on the other hand, redirect the users to the messaging app of their phone when they click your ad.
Lastly, the location extension allows the user to find your office on the map. You can set up a map generator for this extension to simplify the process of finding you.
Even if you are not from a well-known real estate agency, you should still include the brand name on your headline.
Although this does not guarantee immediate clicks or conversions, you'll get some exposure and once they're ready to sell or buy a home, they'll recall that you exist because they've seen your ad on their search network.
Without a doubt, Google AdWords for real estate is one of the most powerful tools realtors can use to find leads and grow their online presence.
However, it may also be the most difficult as it requires great marketing efforts before you can successfully run your Google ad campaigns.
If you find creating and running a Google Ad to be overwhelming, there's an easier solution. That is to purchase leads from pay-per-lead platforms!
Here at Property Leads, we generate highly motivated seller leads through SEO! We have a high closing rate for our leads since there's little to no competition.
If you're interested in buying high-quality leads from us, fill out our form below!
30 N Gould St Ste N
Sheridan, WY 82801
(207) 309-3949
sales@propertyleads.com
