For those that have read our posts before, maybe this comes as a surprise, after all we are major supporters of paid online advertising. My revelation that ads don't work comes after speaking with agents all across the country. One of the most common items I hear is that they want traffic to their websites, but it can't be with Google Adwords because it "doesn't work".
I have to admit that I was shocked that this was one of the most consistent answers. After all 95% of Google's 21 billion in revenue in 2008 was made from Adwords, but apparently it doesn't work for every industry (real estate must be the exception). Just as I was crafting my notes to write a letter to Larry Page and Sergey Brin I thought it best that I dig a little deeper into the conversations I was having.
The reason that Google Adwords isn't working for most real estate professionals isn't Google's fault, it's how it is being used by those in real estate. The flexibility of the system is what has allowed many online marketers to make millions and also allows many to waste the same amount of money.
Here are three of the most common mistakes that real estate agents (and many others for that matter) are making when they are doing their paid advertising on Google. Avoiding just the following 3 items will save some serious frustration and money.
- Pointing Ads to your Home Page - The home page of your website is not nearly focused enough to be able to convert that great traffic into leads. Take time to point your ads to detailed pages within your website that make it easy for the visitor to volunteer their information. When you stop pointing your ads to your home page you can easily see an increase in your overall ad performance by 50% or more.
- Bid strategy - Although being number one in real estate is great, being in the number 1 advertiser position seldom pays off. At the top position you generally pay the most and often get the impulse clicker who want take any action on your website. Place your bids that place in your ads in positions 3-5 and watch how your clicks turn into leads.
- Keywords - Keywords are at the foundation of how you write ads and bid on them. The problem for most advertisers is that too many keywords are grouped with each ad. Taking time to group ads with just 8 keywords will increase your click through rates and lower your costs...yeah!
Google Adwords is certainly one of the best ways to get targeted traffic to your real estate website, enabling you to have leads every day. We certainly don't want you to be part of the group that says "Adwords Don't Work" because when done correctly you can get highly motivated clients for less than a cup of coffee.
For those who have had success with their Adwords advertising, we can't wait to hear some of the other lessons you have learned that have saved you money and keeps the leads flowing.
To your success.
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