- Running PPC campaign entirely on auto-pilot is committing digital suicide.
- Using homepages as a landing page is the best way to waste marketing budget.
- Landing pages should be made to fulfill ad test promises.
According to the National Association of Realtors, 95 percent of homebuyers make use of the internet when buying homes. That makes the internet a huge reservoir of real estate leads waiting to be mined by any agent.
One great way of mining those online leads is to use search engine PPC ads.
PPC simply means pay-per-click, and it’s the best medium of online real estate advertising because, unlike other online ads where you pay per ad impression (the number of people who see the ad), with PPC you pay based on the number of clicks your ads received.
Using PPC on search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo is the fastest way of reaching the coveted top four spot on the first page of SERPs (search engine result pages) and reaching millions of searchers looking for a home to buy in your area.
As simple as it sounds, PPC could be a financial death trap of your marketing dollars if not done right.
How to turn your search engine PPC into a death trap
1. Automate your PPC campaign
I know real estate is one of the most demanding jobs, and it gives little time for real estate agents to constantly monitor their PPC performance.
But running your PPC campaign entirely on auto-pilot is committing digital suicide. Many marketing dollars have been wasted using this method.
Automating your PPC entirely will prevent you from keeping an eye on your PPC campaign.
PPC is not a set-it-and-forget-it procedure. It needs constant monitoring, tweaks and adjustments to make sure it’s running in the right direction.
2. Use the wrong landing page
I have seen a lot of agents using their homepage as their PPC landing page. Using homepages as your landing page is the best way to waste your marketing budget.
The reason? Homepages are not built for PPC engagement and conversion.
Let’s say your website covers Los Angeles, and you run a PPC campaign on a subdivision or neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Using your homepage as your landing page on that campaign with the hope that your PPC visitors will figure their way around your website will greatly reduce your conversion rate by more than 90 percent.
Each keyword you are targeting by nature of its intent requires its own landing page.
Remember, searchers don’t want to figure out how to move around your site once they get there through PPC; they want to see want they need immediately when they arrive.
The more you delay giving them what they need, the more they lose interest in interacting with your site and bounce off, which will greatly affect your quality score.
3. Target mobile users
When it comes to online shopping, targeting mobile users is great because this set of users are on the go and looking for the nearest place to do their shopping.
But when it comes to buying a home, which is one of the biggest financial decisions an individual will make in his or her lifetime, targeting mobile users is a big no.
Mobile has a very poor conversion rate, and it makes for a poor user experience when using it to view listings.
4. Make sure to fulfill what you promised in your ad test
If your ad text says “search condos for sale in downtown San Diego,” your landing page should be a page where the user could do exactly that.
Your landing page should be designed for searching condos in downtown San Diego and not all of San Diego.
PPC is the best real estate lead generation tool; it offers a lot of things that makes it stand out from other lead generation strategies.
But if not done properly, it could end up being a financial death trap.
That shouldn’t be if you if you avoid making these mistakes.
Obinna Ibemere is the owner of realtymarketingtool.com, the leading real estate advertising & marketing agency dedicated to helping realtors, teams, brokers and any real estate professional generate leads online through PPC and SEO.
