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Success in Lead Generation with PPC

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage BS.0144545

Referrals are by far my favorite type of lead, but in order to truly grow your business, you have to find a lead generation source that can help get you past your goal. That is truly the challenge for most of us. 

The last 2 years, I've spent a lot of time, effort and money trying to find the best lead generation source and pay per click has been one of the best lead sources thus far. I've tried various avenues that most REALTORS try like Zillow's Premier Agent advertising. Some do see success, but those of you who don't see success like me, you have to keep looking for other options. 

Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click is far from the easiest option, but you can find a market that works for you and create a system for generating good quality leads. Below is a chart of the steps to running a PPC campaign. I won't get too much into this, but the biggest point is it takes trial and error to find what works so you'll continue to go through these 9 steps. 

Below is a more simplified chart that illustrates a great point. Since it is very much trial and error in the beginning, you will lose some money on ideas that don't work. But, once you find an idea that does work, then you'll have a lower cost per acquisition than other sites like Zillow. Personally, I would say the first 4 months were fairly rough and I spent quite a bit of money without much in return. But, I kept with it and now I am working on coming up with additional campaigns to increase the lead count even more each month to help reach my 2017 goals. 

 

Partnership

I definitely don't want to take all of the credit for my success using PPC. I found a company called Clix Marketing who has been the foundation for my success. Together, we brainstorm different ideas of campaigns and they do the legwork in putting them together and testing them. If they don't work, they pause them and we move on to the next idea. They have been a great partner and I would highly recommend finding a company who can help you if you decide to try out PPC.

 

So who is PPC for?
If you are like me and have tried different lead generation options and just aren't finding a good source, it's a worth a try. You can do small ads on your own and with more success you can start to look at spending more and finding a partner company to help you out. I wouldn't look for a partner company until you plan to spend $500-$1,000 each month on ads because it wouldn't be worth it. They typically charge a small percentage (2-5% of your spend) as a fee for managing the campaigns for you. For what you're spending, it's a fairly nominal fee for the work that is put into it. You'll be assigned an account manager that watches your account.  It's worth the money in a situation where spending can get out of control and no one is there to shut the ad off. 

 

My Personal Success

Initially, I created broad campaigns and that was part of my problem. Once I started focusing on niche markets, I was able to see more success. To date, my most success campaign has been down payment assistance. In the state of Nevada, there is a program called Home is Possible, which is a grant of up to 4% to be used as a down payment. I've had quite a bit of luck in marketing to that niche audience. I have also started working on a new home campaign and we just finished brainstorming some ideas for ads that are more focused on finding a REALTOR vs looking for a house. Keep in mind, when someone searches for a house, they expect to see houses when they click on the link. Right now, I spend about $1,200 a month on my pay per click budget. I mainly focus on Google Adwords, Facebook and Instagram ads. With my new campaigns, I am expecting to double my budget. I don't spend money on other platforms, but I am working on diversifying my spend through pay per click. 

 

Why I'll keep using PPC

I plan to continue to have PPC be one of the largest components of my online marketing. Currently, I am spending about $10 per lead, which is pretty good. Keep in mind, these are typically leads with name, email, and phone number and 99% of the time the information is correct.  Some of the previous lead generation sources I was using produced leads, but a majority of the time the information was incorrect. I'm sure you're familiar with junk leads. 

 

I hope my personal experience and insight is helpful for others and will give you the confidence to give it a try. I'm very happy with how it has worked out for me. Just remember, everyone is different, especially in different markets. The same things won't work, but it's always worth trying to find out what does work!

 

If you didn't get a chance to check out my last post on PPC vs SEO, click here to read it! If you have any questions or comments, just let me know. I would love to hear from you!

Comments (2)

Jerry Murphy, CRS, SRES
Long Realty West Valley - Anthem, AZ
Anthem, Phoenix, and Scottsdale AZ Real Estate

This is great information Shawn.  It's something I've been considering doing as I just cancelled my Zillow Premier Agent program due to terrible leads, as you noted above.  Thanks for sharing this and best of luck to you.

Jan 26, 2017 03:34 PM
Micah Olson
Effective Agent - Orem, UT
THE Effective Agent

Hi Shawn, going to msg you for some specific questions if you have time.

May 05, 2017 09:52 AM
Shawn Cunningham, CRS

Go ahead Micah Olson!  

May 09, 2017 01:22 PM