Top 5 Strategies for Writing an Effective Real Estate Pay-per-C

1. Don't Think that This is a "High Bid Wins" Marketing Method

Yes, the higher your bid in most engines, the higher your ad will be placed in the "sponsored links" areas of the page. But all that does is to generate an "impression", meaning a searcher has been exposed to your ad, whether they see it, read it or click on it or not.

And in most pay per click campaigns, an impression carries no cost, as it takes a click to your site to get you billed. However, it also doesn't generate a prospect or get anyone to your site. You need for this searcher to actually click on the ad and go to your site for you to have any chance at business some day.

2. Think Like a Real Estate Buyer or Seller - Not a Real Estate Agent

You may indeed be the most conscientious and efficient real estate professional in your market area. But if that's what you put in your PPC ad, forget a big "click-through ratio" (That's the percentage of searchers who actually click on the ad when it is presented.)

If I'm a buyer prospect searching for a condo in downtown Austin, TX, and I search on "austin condos for sale", I will be most likely to click on an ad that leads me to believe that I'll find a lot of Austin condo information on this site. "Austin Condo specialist" is OK, but "All Austin Condo Listings Here" is more likely to get my click.

3. Use the Search Term in The Ad Copy

Study after study has shown that using the actual keywords or phrase in the ad copy will increase clicks. As in the example above, it reinforces the idea that I'll find what I want to know about "Austin condos for sale" if the ad says just that. Example: Find Austin condos for sale, maps and more here.

4. Don't Take Your Visitor on a Journey

Too many real estate PPC campaign links all go to the home page of the site. If you've created a great set of keyword ads for a certain type of property, such as condos, take them directly to the search page or a page about condos with a prominent link to the search.

5. With Google® You Don't Even Need to be High Bid for Best Placement

Unlike most, Google has a formula that rewards an advertiser for a higher click-through ratio than that of competitors. You can actually have a lower bid for a certain keyword phrase than your competitor and still get higher placement because Google sees that your ad is garnering more clicks. It is assumed that this means more relevant content. This is also possibly influenced by the landing page and its relevance to your ad as we discussed above.