Real Estate PPC – The Definitive Guide [2024 Edition]

Real Estate PPC Guide

Congratulations! If you are reading this you are most likely thinking about starting a PPC campaign for your real estate website. We hope this real estate PPC guide will be of value to you. Below is a list of common questions & answers regarding real estate PPC campaigns. PPC advertising remains one of the best ways to reach your target audience and maximize your return on investment.

What is PPC?

In short, PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click.

PPC advertising refers to a popular online advertising model where advertisers do just that, pay only when a lead clicks on their ad. This is one of the most cost-effective lead generators, especially for realtors as it has the potential to capture actively searching clients.

A PPC ad appears at the top, bottom or banner section of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and is included when a consumer search online. These online searches can include anything from gifts to food to real estate!

Though most popular on Google, PPC ads appear on all forms of search engines including Bing, Amazon, Yahoo and Yelp. PPC advertising remains one of the ultimate ways to reach your target audience effectively.

Why should a realtor run PPC ads?

How can a PPC campaign help your business? Well, this question can be answered by asking another question. What is the best type of client? An actively searching one! A real estate PPC campaign is the best way to capture just that! When a prospective lead types in “Mumbai Homes for Sale” it is safe to assume that they are in the market for a home in Mumbai. Instead of advertising to the masses, many of whom may not be interested, looking or even in your area, a real estate PPC campaign will use your advertising budget and concentrate it directly at relevant potential leads. Another benefit of running a PPC campaign is that it levels the playing field for online advertising. While SEO can be extremely effective by targeting niche keywords, very popular search terms have been monopolized by large companies like Zillow, Realtor, Trulia, etc. With PPC, a number of factors are in play ensuring that the budget isn’t the sole dictator for appearing on top.

How does Google Ads work?

GoogleAds is the platform in which Google’s PPC campaigns are run. Up until 2018, it was known as Google AdWords. So, how does it work? When someone performs an online search that is relevant to your service, your PPC campaign ad will enter into what is known as an auction system. The first step Google will take is to weed out the irrelevant ads, meaning ones that don’t meet its specific criteria. Once passed the first step, Google will continue with a process known as AdRanks. AdRanks will consider two elements of prospective bid winners which are:

• Max Bid
• Quality Score

Max bid is exactly what it sounds like. It will take into account the maximum amount you are willing to pay per lead. Quality score is more detailed and will consider factors such as expected click-through rate, the users search and what your site’s land page experience has been. The quality score is determined on a per ad basis, adjusting with each auction process.

Why is this important? A quality score plays an important role in the success of your PPC campaign. A high-quality score can win against a high budget, meaning even if you are a single agent or have an entry-level budget, you can still land leads through PPC. The goal being taking a prospective client direct to your intended landing pages. From there, we can determine many things such as click through rate (the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times it is shown).

Should I advertise on Bing as well as Google?

So now that you’ve made the decision to run PPC campaigns, you may feel as if Google is the obvious, and only, choice in regards to platform. Yes, Google is by far the Goliath in terms of search engines, however, Bing still has a stone or two in its sling that makes it a worthy opponent.

A few quick facts about Bing that most people don’t realize:

• There are roughly 5 billion (yes, billion) searches on Bing every month*
• Nearly 35% of the India desktop searches are performed on Bing*
• The average age of Bing users is 34+
• Bing PPC ads also show up on AOL and Yahoo Search Engine Results Page
• 85% of those who use Bing are in the India*

When looking at these stats it is suddenly apparent that PPC campaigns on Bing can turn out to be a highly profitable investing strategy. Not only will most realtors likely overlook the search engine, you will be able to tap a large number of prospective leads (in the ideal age group) which are left out when solely advertising on Google.

How much does PPC for real estate agents cost per lead?

The cost of lead can vary based on location, competition, season, etc. however, you can expect the cost per lead to be in the range of INR 300 – INR 500. In some cases, it can be slightly higher or lower. Lead generation is crucial to maximizing your advertising budget.

How much importance should I put on cost per lead?

The cost per lead is certainly a factor, however, there are other metrics to look at as well. For example, the average price point of home a lead is looking at. At the end of the day, the main focus for you and your business should be on ROI, not on the cost per lead. What is going to generate the highest ROI for you?

What is considered a lead?

For most real estate PPC campaigns, a lead is someone that creates an account on your website. When a visitor clicks on a property they are interested in, they will see a pop up (i.e lead capture) similar to the below example. Real Estate Digital Marketing uses very effective methods of lead generation.

Once they fill this out, their information is inputted into your CRM and you can now call, text & email them. It is important to note that not all leads will put in their correct information or have a phone number. This is completely normal when using a forced lead capture. The main goal is to get your prospective client to your correct landing pages. In turn, make sure you have a good website set up prior to running your ads.

What is the quality of the PPC leads for real estate like?

The answer will range/depend as the quality of the lead to one person may not be “quality” to another person. With PPC campaigns, you will get a range of people who are looking to buy or sell now, looking to purchase a year from now, looking for a friend, working with an agent (they could be using this just so you won’t follow up with them), fake contact information, etc. Over 1-2 years of running a PPC campaign, most real estate agents can convert between 1-5%.

“Quality” can also change based on your follow up. For example, a skilled closer can turn a “just-looking” into a buy now type lead. Many people will use objections because they aren’t ready to speak with a real estate agent, however, if you can provide your value, you will quickly find they are more serious about buying.

Like almost every marketing tactic, the longer you invest & refine your process, the better the results will be. We highly recommend checking out this video by Greg Harrelson that discusses the truth about lead quality.

How long does it take to close a sale from a real estate PPC campaign?

This can range based on your monthly investment, your follow-up process, etc, however, real estate agents typically close a deal between 3 – 6 months of starting a Google ads campaign. This often pays for the entire year of running a PPC program. On average, however, the length of time for a lead to close is between 12 – 18 months. The reason being is that many of the leads will be at the beginning of their home search. This is why it is important to think of PPC as a long-term investment. For example, during the first year of a PPC campaign, you may have a 1% closing rate (or less). With a proper workflow & follow up, it isn’t unusual to increase your closing rate to 2-3% the following year.

What goes into setting up a real estate PPC campaign?

For each campaign Asterisk Marketing set’s up, we do extensive research into your market to discover all of the neighborhoods, types of homes, zip codes & more. We use these findings to help build a campaign that focuses on the areas you want to serve and the price points you want to attract. We also create 100s of different keywords, ad copy, set up conversion tracking, Google Analytics & more.

What do real estate PPC ads look like?

With pay-per-click, you are running text-based search ads that can be seen on both Google & Bing when someone types in a keyword you are bidding on. Below is an example of a text-based search ad through Google ads.

How much should a realtor invest in PPC?

This isn’t a straight answer as it depends on if you pay for other lead sources, your goals, etc., but we recommend investing a minimum of INR 50,000/month with an optimal budget of INR 1,00,000 – INR 3,00,000 for most single agents.