Paid Search Marketing for Real Estate: Advice from SEM Experts

Real estate companies with the right paid search strategies can see a higher ROI, a growing client base, and more wins over the competition.

The real estate industry is a notoriously dynamic market.

So many factors go into these fluctuations, from the number of homebuyers and available homes on the market to mortgage rates, inflation, and more.

As rates drop and more homes enter the market, competition is poised to be fierce. What’s more, reports show nearly half of home buyers start their search online.

That’s why real estate companies should be taking advantage of all the resources at their disposal, particularly when it comes to marketing efforts.

While search engine optimization (SEO) is a big part of any digital marketing strategy, only a limited number of companies end up on the first page of Google or Bing.

That’s where paid search marketing (or pay-per-click/PPC advertising) comes in.

Making PPC marketing a part of your real estate marketing strategy can be hugely beneficial to you as a real estate agent and to your company, especially right now.

Let’s dig into the state of paid search marketing for real estate companies, with help from one of our experienced SEM managers, Gina Ryan.

Many real estate agencies avoid taking full advantage of branded keywords for the fear of not getting enough ROI. (Image: Unsplash)

8 tips for successful real estate paid search marketing campaigns

1. Capitalize on branded searchers

The bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) searchers are your highest-potential clients. These are the people who are serious about purchasing a property.

However, many real estate agencies avoid taking full advantage of branded keywords for fear of not getting enough ROI.

Branded search terms are for those people who have heard something about a real estate agency in your area and tend to add a brand name to the general key phrases.

If you aren’t using branded keywords, your competitors could be taking advantage of them and luring away your hot real estate leads.

If you’re just starting out and haven’t raised much brand awareness yet, you could pivot and use this strategy to redirect the competition’s audience to your doorstep.

To make sure that all your qualified prospects stay yours, you should be taking full advantage of the branded keywords. Don’t leave them out for the competition to grab.

2. Explore geo-targeting

A real estate business is generally local, though of course there are national brands with local branches. Either way, when it comes to real estate purchases, location is everything.

After all, people searching for real estate options almost always know exactly where they want to buy, sell, or rent a property. That’s why geo-targeting is one of the biggest benefits when it comes to paid search for realtors.

“Emphasize location in geotargeting, ad messaging, specific keywords — which can include ZIP codes, city names — ad creative, etc.,” recommends Ryan.

“Location can often be one of the first criteria users have when searching for properties to rent or buy.”

Google Ads lets you adjust your ads to appear to clients in certain locations or a set of locations. Not only does this feature help you to narrow down the search options, but it can make your PPC more cost-effective.

For renters, Ryan recommends highlighting any specials you offer.

For example, 50% off or waived security deposits or application fees, seasonal discounts (e.g. back to school), special pricing for military/veterans, or free months of rent when you sign a lease for a certain number of months.

Pro tip: Google Ads geo-targeting also lets you set up negative locations. This feature can be especially key for real estate marketing. It allows you to exclude locations you don’t need from your PPC campaign, like a same-named city in a different state.

3. Create optimized, dedicated landing pages

Your pay-per-click advertising campaign’s success relies heavily on your landing pages.

As users click the ad, they should arrive at a high-quality page that answers their questions, feels tailored to them, and has a clear call to action (CTA) to lead them to that next step.

“Be clear about where the property is located,” advises Ryan. “Include a map if possible.” She also recommends providing multiple ways (for example: web form, chat, phone number, email address) to get in touch with a sales agent.

Pointing the traffic to a generic web page (like your homepage) often increases bounce rates and raises the cost per click (CPC).

Besides being more targeted and actionable, landing pages should provide a seamless user experience and gently guide the visitor down the marketing funnel.

PPC landing pages for real estate businesses should contain:

• Eye-catching, well-written copy
• Strong contextual media
• A single, strong CTA
• Clear features and benefits of the offer from your ad
• Testimonials or other proof points to support your claims

Google Ads rewards campaigns with high-quality landing pages by boosting the Quality Score and lowering the CPC.

Pro tip: It may seem obvious, but don’t forget to use clear, high-resolution property photos on your landing pages.

Besides being more targeted and actionable, landing pages should provide a seamless user experience and gently guide the visitor down the marketing funnel. (Image: Unsplash)

4. Run consistent A/B tests

A single element in your paid search ad — the image, headline, or anything in between — can affect its success. That’s why A/B testing is crucial to figuring out how to best optimize your ads.

You may consider adjusting headlines, images, text, layout, and other factors to see how it affects the ad’s performance. Then you can monitor performance metrics via Google Analytics and channel your budget toward the higher-performing ads.

Avoid split testing completely different ads — the tweaks should be minor. Otherwise, you won’t be able to figure out what exactly makes one ad better than the other.

5. Study the competition

As long as you don’t plan to copy your competitors exactly (which isn’t ethical or a good look for your business), it’s wise to keep an eye on the tactics and tools they’re using in their real estate paid search.

Check out what works for your competition, and see how you can potentially leverage their strategies for your own gain.

Conduct keyword research by typing your target keyphrase into Google search and see which ads come up.

From there, you can use tools like SpyFu, Serpstat, and Keyword Gap to see which relevant keywords your competitors are aiming for. You can also check out their landing pages and see how they stack up against your own.

Pro tip: You can also check out their social media profiles to see the kind of content that resonates with their audience on platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn.

6. Focus on ad assets

Ad assets (formerly ad extensions) don’t just give your ad more real estate on the SERPs. They also provide valuable and catchy information to the potential buyer or client.

Adding a new asset can improve your CTR by 10%-15%, and they don’t cost extra to include.

Extensions to pay attention to are:

• Call extension – shows your phone number next to the ad
• Message extension – allows the searcher to send you a message directly from the SERP
• Location extension – lets searchers know your specific location

Another important extension is the price asset since price is often the first thing real estate clients want to know. You can use this asset to promote specific listings.

7. Create a video ad campaign

Images and videos can play an important role in the success of your real estate PPC campaign. Since real estate products are highly visual, this can be a great opportunity to demonstrate all that a property has to offer via short video ads.

Reports show more than 70% of homeowners are more likely to hire a real estate agency that uses videos. The agencies that invest in video marketing know it can bring in a significant return on ad spend (ROAS).

“If videos are available, particularly videos showcasing floor plans or internal and external property walkthroughs, leverage these by running video ads on YouTube,” Ryan says.

Google Ads also has a user-friendly video builder tool where you can easily create videos using templates and uploaded images and text.

Plus, by creating a paid video campaign, you’re targeting potential clients while sharing extensive details about your listings in a way that’s eye-catching and unique.

Pro tip: Ryan says the Display network is another great avenue for remarketing to visitors who have previously viewed the property listings with high-quality image ads of the property. Performance Max (or PMax) is also useful for combining all of these networks into one campaign type.

8. Consider promoting your pricing

One of the most surefire ways to stand out in the real estate market: promote your price from the get-go.

Ryan agrees: “Talk with stakeholders about [a] strategy for promoting property pricing. Including pricing in ad copy and pricing assets can establish user expectations about pricing up front.”

While this strategy could potentially drive fewer clicks and clickthrough rates, your ultimate customer lifetime value could be higher – and from a more qualified audience.

It’s worth noting that not including pricing in advertising but including it on landing pages could mean that you receive more clicks from unqualified users but see a lower conversion rate for your specific goals.

Pro tip: “While there are advertising restrictions for advertising related to housing,” Ryan explains, “there are audience targeting options in Google that are not restricted that can be useful for real estate advertising.” This includes In Market Segments: Real Estate, In Market: Moving & Relocation, and Detailed Demographics: Homeownership Status (Renters or Homeowners).

The benefits of real estate paid search marketing

When it comes to digital marketing, many companies start with SEO. That entails things like a speedy, well-designed real estate website, quality content marketing, and an updated Google Business Profile (GBP).

Optimizing your marketing efforts to get high spots on the search engine results page (SERP) is great.

However, when you work with an extremely specific, localized product like real estate services, adding in paid search strategies can be the secret sauce to help you truly stand out from competitors.

Real estate paid search marketing allows you to focus on your local target audience. It also aids in differentiating between renters and buyers, potential and current homeowners, and much more.

This approach allows you to place your ad in front of potential customers, even if they submit search queries using key phrases similar to unqualified searchers.

Other benefits for real estate companies who leverage paid search include:

• Quick, quality lead generation results
• The ability to do clear budget planning
• Access to detailed analytics
• Enhanced brand awareness

Pro tip: Housing ads come with certain targeting restrictions in an attempt to avoid discrimination by companies online — here’s what marketers should know about housing ad restrictions.

The takeaway

There’s no reason for real estate companies to not take full advantage of paid search marketing. It generates fast results, allows for clear budget planning, offers a variety of ways to target a specific audience, and more.

But don’t mistake these paid search campaigns as operating in a silo: user reviews for rental companies, rental communities, and real estate agents that show up organically can affect the performance of paid campaigns.

Lastly, when building out a budget plan for the year, keep in mind the busy times of the year for real estate (typically during the summer and warm-weather months).

For the real estate business, PPC ads aren’t just a nice addition. They can become the driving force behind your digital marketing program and bring you serious ROI.

This article has been updated and was originally published in July 2020.