How Paid Search Helps Real Estate Agents Generate Leads Fast

The real estate market moves quickly. Agents need to know who is actively searching for real estate to buy or preparing to list their property for sale. That means getting your business’s name in front of home buyers and sellers who are motivated right now.

Using paid search, any real estate agency, brokerage, or property manager can target high-converting search queries to turn the internet into their own personal lead-generating machine. 

We’ll cover some of the key ways SEO Design Chicago combines effective SEO and PPC strategies to help our real estate clients use search engine marketing most efficiently. 

PPC Management Services for Real Estate Companies

Pay-per-click is just what it sounds like — you pay each time a person clicks on your ad. This is distinct from the PPM model, in which you pay a set amount for each 1,000 times your ad is displayed, whether that ad generates any leads or not.

Real estate agents use PPC to generate qualified leads for their businesses, as it attracts leads who are more likely to convert. It’s also an effective way to market properties that you want to feature immediately. 

For example, if you’re a property manager with 20 units coming available next month, you don’t want to just program your IDX feed to list them passively on your website — though of course, you should do that too!

To get immediate exposure to those properties, you can bid on relevant keywords related to those properties, i.e., “studio apartment near me” or “townhouse to rent with underground parking.” A PPC management agency, like SEO Design Chicago, will then determine a reasonable bid amount matched to trending search terms. If Google’s algorithm ranks your property listings as a good match for the search intent and your bid is competitive, your ad will appear at the top of search results — ultimately leading to more inquiries about your properties and leading to fewer costly vacancies. 

If this all sounds complicated, don’t worry, our team at SEO Design Chicago has been designing PPC campaigns that convert and fit your budget for ten years. Give us a call to find out how we can help your real estate business generate more leads and conversions. 

Google Ads Paid Search for Real Estate Agents

Platforms like Google Ads help real estate agents get instant exposure when potential clients search online for an agent near them. These are highly competitive searches, and customers are increasingly going online to find the homes they want to see. 

Google Ads embraces PPC, targeted remarketing efforts, shopping ads, and local search ads. Investing your digital marketing strategy in the Google Ads suite means that our team will set up a customizable reporting dashboard for you, so you can measure the results of your marketing efforts and track the leads and conversions coming to your business. 

Targeted Display Advertising for Real Estate Brokers

You know when you browse a new pair of sneakers online, and then that same pair of sneakers seems to follow you around the internet for weeks before you finally click and buy? That’s targeted display advertising.

This is an effective part of a marketing plan for real estate brokers, since you are focusing your efforts on the people actively searching for real estate. Your ads are only as good as your information, though, and that’s where SEO Design Chicago can help.

You won’t see leads from generic or mismatched ads — someone looking for their dream home out in the countryside won’t be tempted to click on ads for luxury condos downtown. Our team leverages careful research and demographic segmentation, along with your brand distinctives, to develop an ad strategy that matches your key properties to your target audience. 

Bing Advertising — Bing Ads for the Real Estate Industry

Paid search delivers immediate leads, but it can get competitive on Google. Designating ads to appear on Microsoft properties — Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Outlook — can increase the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

Why should you bother with Bing when the results on Google are so highly coveted? Bing has less competition, meaning you will likely pay a lower cost per click. Furthermore, recent research indicates that most users are searching on both Google and Bing regularly.

Adding Bing Ads to your strategy can drive additional traffic to your real estate website for a marginal additional cost.

What is paid search, and how can it help real estate agents generate more leads?

Paid search is a type of pay-per-click advertising where text-based ads linking to your website are listed at the top of search results pages for certain pre-determined search terms. Search ads tend to show results quickly, since they rocket your brand right to the top of the search engine results pages. 

If your PPC ads are designed around high-converting keywords for your target market, paid search is an extremely effective lead generation tool. It ensures that you will be the first realtor that leads see when they start their search. Since you only pay per click, not per number of times the ad is displayed, paid search has a higher ROI compared to other strategies. 

Is PPC or SEO better for real estate marketing?

Search engine optimization (SEO) focuses on improving your ranking in organic search results. This is an extremely affordable strategy, because it focuses on making updates to digital properties you already own, like your website, social media accounts, and landing pages. The downside is that it tends to take a while to show results — usually several months.

Pay-per-click is a digital marketing strategy where you bid on target keywords. Search engines factor in your organic SEO score and your bid amount when calculating which brand’s ad copy gets featured at the top of search engine results. If you win the spot, you can see an immediate boost in traffic.

We see the best results from a combined paid and organic search strategy, since they complement each other. Paid search is a great way to get immediate leads, and the increased traffic boosts your organic ranking. An optimized website, in turn, means that your paid search campaigns will be more effective since Google takes into account how well your real estate website matches a user’s search intent when deciding whether or not you win that top ad spot. 

How do Google Ads help real estate agents attract buyers and sellers?

Google Ads for real estate are a helpful way to generate new leads for your business. You can choose between shopping ads, real estate PPC ads, or display advertising. It’s particularly effective when used in retargeting campaigns, where you can fine-tune your ads to display to customers who have previously viewed your listings. 

Since the cost per ad varies widely depending upon the targeted keywords and level of competition, Google Ads need to be firmly based in data and continuously monitored to ensure they’re effectively driving leads to your agency. SEO Design Chicago can design and manage a customized ad strategy that targets your key audience and delivers maximum ROI. 

Do Bing Ads and targeted display campaigns work for real estate marketing?

Since real estate businesses are firmly linked to specific geographic areas, it’s crucial to maximize your exposure in your target niche. Ads for real estate agents need to display on channels that your ideal clients are frequenting.

Adding targeted display campaigns and Bing Ads to your overall marketing for real estate can help you maximize your exposure among your target demographic. For example, would you rather display only Google Ads to leads outside of your region, or display Google, Bing, and display ads to more customers inside your target region? 

A multi-platform ad strategy that focuses on your targeted niche will ultimately deliver more qualified leads and conversions, and is a better use of your paid search marketing budget. 

How much should a real estate business budget for paid search advertising?

This will depend upon the competitiveness of your niche. Our team uses industry-standard keyword research tools to determine the most cost-effective keywords for your niche. Keep in mind that ads that don’t display at all are a waste of money, but you don’t necessarily need to pay $1 more per lead than your nearest competitor — sometimes, a ten-cent lead is sufficient to win the placement.

The bottom line: competitive markets like Tampa or Boston tend to have a higher cost-per-lead, but because paid search generally delivers high-converting leads, a well-designed paid search strategy can be a highly effective part of your marketing strategy. 

Ready to get more real estate leads for your business? Request a free consultation today!