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If you haven’t noticed, organic SEO listings have taken a back seat on the first page of Google.
While Google continuously tests the SERP layout and personalizes results, if your real estate business isn’t showing up, it can affect your lead volume.
This holds true for other search engines as well.
The real estate industry must constantly evolve its SEO strategy to remain competitive.
If your real estate business is seeing less impact, it might be time to invest in PPC strategies.
Here are some PPC strategies, tips, and ad formats aimed at increasing visibility in the real estate sector, considering its specific challenges and nuances.
First, Let’s Talk Challenges
What makes paid search for real estate different?
Real Estate Is An Extremely Local Product
Most users must physically live or plan to live in the location they’re searching for, with investors being an exception but still targeting specific locations.
A Google Ads campaign for real estate should target specific locations—the property location.
Google Ads’ location settings have shifted, changing from “People in” only to “People in, or regularly in.”
This prevents excluding those planning to relocate or regularly visiting a location.
The pandemic has led to a massive shift of individuals and companies relocating.
Targeting users in different regions can be beneficial but challenging with budget constraints.
Homeowners Will Not Rent
This challenge applies to investors running rental properties. Homeowners are unlikely to rent.
How to prevent them from seeing your advertising?
Renters Are Locked Into Long-Term Leases
While ideal candidates for homebuilders or sellers, renters are often bound to long leases, impacting their availability.
Building a long-term relationship with them ensures they think of you when ready.
Not Everyone Is A Candidate For Either A Home Or Apartment
Customers must afford and qualify for properties.
Credit checks disqualify many from both apartments and dream homes.
Google Ads can specifically target qualified real estate shoppers, given campaigns are set up correctly.
Here’s a plan to optimize a PPC campaign for your real estate business.
Bidding On Your Brand Terms Is Super Important
Bidding on brand terms is often debated. However, for real estate, investing in branded terms is crucial due to the unique discovery process.
Real estate searchers learn about locations and communities in various ways like physical signs, Craigslist, or word of mouth.
Branded search on Google often follows for more information, typically indicating hot leads.
Capitalize on these lower funnel searchers.
If you don’t bid on your brand keywords, competitors or real estate aggregators might outbid you, potentially diverting your leads.
Invest in brand terms to secure the top spot and protect your warm leads.
Geotargeting For The Win
Under Location Options, I recommend using “Presence or interest: People in, regularly in, or who’ve shown interest in your targeted locations” and “Presence or interest: People in, regularly in, or who’ve shown interest in your excluded locations.”
Adjust based on campaign performance, as it helps target those interested in properties even if not physically present in the area.
For city targeting, start with the largest metro in the targeted location as most people move within the same city or suburb.
Avoid missing someone moving within areas, like Florida suburbs.
Pro Tip: Use city targeting with nested bid adjustments for better results!
Incrementally bid down further from the target location as lead quality decreases.
This provides control in advanced geotargeting strategies.
Local Service Ads Are A Game-Changer
Since 2019, Google’s Local Service Ads have been available and should be tested, especially for terms like “real estate agents near me.”
Searches for real estate agents, like in Cape Coral, show Local Service ads prominently on mobile screens.
Getting started requires a setup process and a background and license check for Google Screening.
Negative Keywords Will Be Your Best Friend
Negative keywords prevent your ad from showing for unwanted searches.
For instance, if you’re not interested in certain properties, listing them as negative keywords prevents your ad from appearing.
Prevent Other City Keyword Matches
City names and community brand names are often not unique.
To remove unwanted clicks, set a negative keyword list for state names and abbreviations, filtering untargeted searches.
Important: Remove the state and state abbreviation of your target location before applying the list.
Removing Low-Intent Searchers
Google’s broad matching makes preventing diverse keyword matching challenging.
I’ve developed a default list of negatives for campaigns, which can be applied along with state negatives.
This list includes terms like “craigslist,” “home depot,” “tiny homes,” etc.
Be sure to review the list to ensure useful terms aren’t removed.
Don’t Forget The Demographics
Detailed demographic targeting is powerful, especially for real estate.
Google offers categories, like detailed demographics (homeowners or renters), in-market (residential properties), or life events (purchasing or recently purchased a home).
These can be target, observed, or excluded to refine audience targeting.
Combine audience criteria, such as targeting renters interested in buying.
These options provide insights into the nuances of targeting, some available on different campaign types.
For search, display, and YouTube: owners/renters and in-market for properties or moving.
For display and YouTube, this includes life events like purchasing or moving soon.
Use these invaluable options for a targeted real estate strategy, especially on a budget.
ALL The Ad Extensions
Google’s Ad Rank now includes ad extensions, requiring at least three per ad.
Location Extensions
Essential for local businesses, showing the distance, address, call buttons, and more.
Sitelink Extensions
These direct users to specific pages—ideal for real estate with varied consumer needs like floor plans.
Price Extensions
Available on mobile and desktop, showing up to eight expandable price cards, directing users to specific models.
Call Extensions
Crucial for mobile and direct leads; sync extensions with business hours to maintain contact.
The Bottom Line
The real estate market is unpredictable. Every qualified lead is valuable, whether for single agents or large brokers.
Narrow your Google Ads real estate campaigns to focus on qualified traffic, generating more leads, using the above tips and strategies.
If new to PPC, find the right mix by testing various campaigns, audiences, and extensions.
More Resources:
Featured Image: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock
In-post Image: Paulo Bobita
