I'm hard at work on www.PerfectHomeWizard.com and while working on PPC for Google, I saw costs of up to $50 per click in certain markets.

Once I did a little research, I found out why: Referral Fees.

Homegain charges not just a subscription fee, but also a 22% to 27% referral fee, per their pricing page.

Upside to this model: Prices can stay low and pay only for success - which is really what you want anyway.

Downside: 22%-27% is a big chunk of money. That said, the real question for agents, is "would you have realistically captured that client on your own anyway?" If the answer is no, then this is "found money" and therefore worth it.

Just this morning's thoughts I wanted to pass along. For any agents using PPC currently, it seems that over time, you'll pay more money for less results, as long as middlemen get a referral fee. We don't currently charge a referral fee, but I think that's where we'll need to go too. If you are spending money on PPC, were I you, i'd dump that asap and double down on SEO. It's better quality traffic by the way - my research shows the conversion on SEO traffic is better than PPC.

RogerV

http://Movoxo.com and later this week, http://SwiftCRM.com - real estate CRM, free while in beta with any movoxo subscription or marketing systems purchase, including send out cards postcard automation system

 (See https://www.sendoutcards.com/cgi-bin/trncustomer.pl?income_opportunities: 
or www.Movoxo.com/cards.php )