This is a wonderful contest and a great idea to help newbie's in this business, but also let "old timers" get back to basics and start thinking outside the box.
My idea is to setup a PPC campaign for each one of your listings. Here's how it works:
- First, you will need to create an account on Google, so you can setup a PPC campaign. For more information on how to do this, visit https://adwords.google.com/select/Login
- Once you have your account setup, start concentrating on one listing at a time.
- For example, you have a listing on 123 Happy Street, Philadelphia, PA.
- Create a website or ad page for this listing, so you can start directing potential home buyers to. Either setup a new domain like, http://www.123happystreet.com/ or setup a sub-domain under your main domain, such as http://123happystreet.mywebsite.com/.
- Now, it's time to create your PPC ad. Think of different ways that potential home buyers might find this listing. Come up with different combination of keyphrases that your visitors might search for. If someone saw a sign in front of the house, what might he/she be searching for? Just try to imagine different phrases that your visitors might be searching for and setup your keyphrases accordingly. How about?:
- House for sale on 123 Happy Street
- Philadelphia real estate (might be pricey)
- House with a pool for sale in northern Philadelphia
- MLS number 12344556
Just try to think of different phrases that people you're targeting might be searching for. Keep in mind, your listing is a product that you're selling. That product needs to have top-notch presence on the Internet. Make sure you have high quality photos; appealing description and very important, stop advertising yourself in your listing... advertise your product. Very important!
- Targeted PPC ads should not cost much. If you're targeting a street name or the MLS number, you can setup your ads at a minimum and your ad should still show up at the top. Think about it. How many real estate agents are targeting "123 happy street" keyword. You might be the only ad in the right column.
- Point each PPC ad to a listing site/ad and guess what you have now? Person who's searching for very specific information, finds exactly what they're searching for.
- Who do you think they will contact if they have any questions?
Creating a PPC campaign for every listing is a successful technique that is used by many successful real estate agents across the country. A customized PPC campaign can bring extra traffic to your listing, it will make the seller happy and will increase your chances of selling the property yourself.
If you setup your campaign at $0.05 per click, at 100 clicks, you're only spending $5 on your campaign. If you play your cards right, it will cost you only $5 to bring 100 visitors to your listing. Isn't it worth it?
I think this is a great idea. The Pay Per Click like you said can be inexpensive but help bring traffic to it. I'm going to try this on my new listing i'll have an update for you early next week when I get it setup.