Marketing Plan in 30 Days: Day 20
I will be honest with you. Pay-per-click is for the tech-savy among you. It’s a complex balance of cost versus return that needs to be consistently monitored, adjusted and tested. This is not a set-and-forget marketing strategy. With that said, here is some advice on pay per click for commercial real estate websites.
Why Bother with Pay Per Click? If your website is new, it will experience a “purgatory” period of about 1-year before it begins ranking on search engines. This is to keep “fly-by-night” businesses from stealing market share from good-standing, long-timers. If you need leads NOW, pay-per-click is an easy way to bipass purgatory.
Growing your client base. Connect with potential clients searching from your services that won’t likely travel to page #3 on Google Search.
Generate leads fast. Reach leads when they’re researching commercial real estate agents near them. It’s a highly effective way to bring interested visitors to your site.
Deciding on Keywords. Your entire PPC campaign is built around keywords, and the most successful Google advertisers continuously grow and refine their PPC keyword. Use Keyword Planner and type in things your target audience would be searching, I.E. “Office Space in Seattle.” Focus on the “high” and “medium” traffic keywords to maximize your ad’s exposure.
Writing your Ad. I like to use only 1-3 ads at a time. It’s easier to compare gold versus duds. Do weekly or monthly reviews, delete duds, re-write some new ones and run the campaign again. You’ll be shocked at how well an ad does after you change a word or two.
Quality Scores. The concept of getting a high-quality score is simple: Everything should match. The webpage should contain the same basic info from the ad along with info on the keywords your hitting. The more the page + ad + keywords match, the higher your quality score. Google gives a discount to ads that are more relevant to the user’s search.
Managing Campaigns. Review your keywords and ads, make changes weekly or monthly as needed.
Adding to your Campaign. When you get a bit more comfortable working with Pay per click tools, you can turn on some additional features.
Google remarketing. Have you ever visited a website, clicked away, and saw an ad for that website? That’s called “remarketing,” and it’s highly effective. Remarketing enables sites to show targeted ads to users who have already visited their site. Past visitors will see these ads while they are browsing the web, watching YouTube videos or reading news sites, for example—keeping your brand top-of-mind and enticing visitors to come back for more.
LinkedIn ads. Personally, I believe in Facebook and Instagram for consumer products, but us commercial real estate folks may be better off in LinkedIn. Often, even the most anti-social media person will have a LinkedIn account for their career prospects. LinkedIn is versatile! Allowing you to blast messages directly to targeted members, use text ads, and content driven ads. More on Advertising with LinkedIn.
On to Day 21: Commercial Real Estate Listings on your Website