How to Optimize Your Paid Marketing For Maximum ROI Get more leads, without spending more If it feels like finding a client is extra tough these days, you’re not alone. With high-interest rates, low housing inventory, and the Sitzer-Burnett ruling, the real estate industry is facing monumental challenges like never before. Which means that your marketing should work harder and smarter than ever if you want to see a return on your investment. And that includes optimizing your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Yes, search advertising is cost-efficient because you only pay when someone clicks. But are the people clicking your ads qualified prospects? And more importantly, will they eventually complete a desired action (such as booking a call or filling out a lead form)? If not, this search ad optimization guide is just what you need. What does success look like? The great thing about pay-per-click advertising is that it’s very data-driven – that is, you can clearly track whether your campaign is performing well or not. Below are the key paid campaign metrics you should optimize:
Impressions and clicks – Though they don’t tell the whole story, impressions, and clicks tell you how visible and engaging your ads are. In general, though, more is better.
Clickthrough rate (CTR) – This is the percentage of people who saw your ad and clicked it. The higher the CTR, the more relevant people find your ad.
Cost per click (CPC) – How much you spend each time a prospect clicks your ad. The lower the CPC, the more cost-efficient your campaigns are.
Conversion rate – Of the people who saw and clicked your ads, how many completed a desired action (e.g. booking a consultation)? The higher the conversion rate, the more effective your campaign is.
Return on ad spend (ROAS) – How much revenue you generate for every dollar you spend on your paid marketing campaign. The higher the return on investment, the more successful your ads are. Now that you know which metrics matter most, it’s time to delve into how to optimize them. 11 proven tips for boosting your PPC campaign ROI Optimizing your pay-per-click ads means leaving no stone turn unturned. That’s because even the smallest tweaks can add up to big results – if you know what you’re doing, that is. No worries, though, as we have the tried and tested pay-per-click strategies you’ve been looking for.
Know your audience Before you run any paid ad campaign, be clear about who you want to click on your search ads. Are you targeting high-net-worth individuals? Newlyweds buying their first homes? Veterans looking to put down some roots? This is crucial because the keywords you use and how you segment your audience depend on this factor.
Set the right goal In a similar vein, you have to define exactly what your paid marketing needs to achieve. Put another way, you need to know what business goal your ad spend should be working toward. Doing so allows you to understand whether your campaign is a success or not. In general, there are three major goals advertisers target:
Research your keywords The more relevant your keywords, the more likely you are to entice click-throughs and the lower your cost-per-click will be. Luckily, Google has a Keyword Planner to help you find the best search terms for your campaign. It even shows you four key metrics to help you decide which keywords to use:
Keyword difficulty: This refers to how challenging it is to rank well for a particular keyword in paid search ads.
Search volume: The average number of times people search for a specific keyword each month.
Local competition: This is the number of advertisers bidding on a keyword in your specific geographic location.
Keyword cost: The estimated amount you’d pay each time someone clicks on your ad for a particular keyword. Keyword difficulty: This refers to how challenging it is to rank well for a particular keyword in paid search ads. Search volume: The average number of times people search for a specific keyword each month. Local competition: This is the number of advertisers bidding on a keyword in your specific geographic location. Keyword cost: The estimated amount you’d pay each time someone clicks on your ad for a particular keyword. Keyword difficulty: This refers to how challenging it is to rank well for a particular keyword in paid search ads.
Exclude certain keywords More isn’t always better when it comes to keyword selection for pay-per-click ads. In fact, you might get better results by intentionally excluding some search terms (also known as “negative keywords”). If you don’t cater to renters, for example, assign “rental property” or “Airbnb homes” as negative keywords; this way, you won’t pay for clicks that will never convert anyway.
Pay attention to your quality score Here’s another helpful tool that can help optimize your paid marketing results: Google’s ad quality score. In a nutshell, it’s an estimate of the relevance and expected performance of a keyword, individual ad, and your landing page (with 10 being a perfect score). Why does it matter? Google not only rewards high-scoring ads with better placement but lower costs, too. To get the highest possible score, keep these tips in mind:
Use relevant keywords
Match keywords to the right ad groups (i.e. proper targeting)
Highlight the benefits in your copy
Make a quality landing page Use relevant keywords Match keywords to the right ad groups (i.e. proper targeting) Highlight the benefits in your copy Make a quality landing page Use relevant keywords
Optimize your landing page To build on that last point, you need a landing page that’s relevant to the ad that prospects just clicked (no bait and switch, please!) Moreover, it needs to provide an optimal browsing experience, which means highlighting the benefits upfront, making the design visually appealing, ensuring good user experience (UX) and user interface (UI), and making the page mobile responsive.
Use ad extensions If you’re not taking advantage of ad extensions, you’re missing out! Not only are they free, but they also add additional snippets of information to your search ads, providing people with more details about your business and making them more likely to click. Some extensions even provide additional functionality to your ad, such as a click-to-call option. What’s more, ad extensions effectively expand your screen real estate, giving your ads more prominence compared to others being displayed.
Try responsive search ads It should go without saying that you should A/B test all your pay-per-click ads to see which ones perform best. Of course, you can simply let Google do the job for you with responsive search ads (RSAs). Simply create up to 15 headlines and four descriptions, and Google will test different combinations to see which permutations have the best pull.
Look into Google Performance Max This relatively new advertising solution displays your ads across all of Google’s platforms: search, display, discover feeds, maps, YouTube, and Gmail. What’s more, it uses machine learning to automate bids to optimize ad spending and return on investment. If you’re a new agent or an established one looking to expand into another market, this solution can give your brand the extra visibility it needs.
Leverage remarketing As an agent, you know it often takes several follow-ups to convert a prospect into an actual customer. Well, remarketing is the digital marketing world’s version of that. Simply put, if a prospect has interacted with your ad before, it will be displayed across various social media channels and websites as a way of re-engaging with warm leads. Indeed, one study found that remarketing can increase conversions by up to 161%.
Kill your darlings Is your current campaign turning into a money sink? There’s no reason to keep spending on it. Scrap the campaign altogether and start anew – and apply all the tips you learned here! Get professional PPC ad management As you can see, effective search advertising campaigns require both art and science. Admittedly though, setting up, optimizing, and monitoring your ads can be a time-consuming process – and there’s no guarantee that you’ll get the results you want. That’s why many real estate agents work with a trusted digital marketing agency like Agent Image to handle their pay-per-click ads for them. With our experienced team of marketers and decades-long experience in real estate marketing, we can keep your lead pipeline full year-round. For a FREE consultation, call 1.800.979.5799 or send a message here.