How to Use Google Ads for Real Estate Lead Generation in 6 Steps
This article is part of a larger series on Real Estate Lead Generation and Marketing.
Google Ads are a powerful tool for real estate professionals to generate leads, build brand authority, and scale their business. To successfully use Google Ads for real estate agents, start with a solid understanding of how it works. To learn how to plan to publish your ad campaign, follow this step-by-step guide to find real estate clients online and grow your business using Google Ads.
For Google Ads to be effective and profitable, you need a plan and the right tools to strategize, optimize, and track your ad’s performance and your new leads. To save time and get your campaigns working quickly, employ the expertise of a full-service client relationship management (CRM) and advertising platform like HubSpot. HubSpot’s landing pages, analytics, and lead nurturing tools will help you reach more clients and increase your return on investment (ROI). Plus, you can try it out for free.
Here are the six steps to use Google Ads for real estate to enhance your lead generation potential:
1. Understand How Google Real Estate Advertising Works
If you’re evaluating Google Ads for real estate, start with a clear understanding of how Google Ads differ from other advertising methods. They are similar to real estate Facebook Ads in a few ways, like the detailed targeting options, variety of ad formats, and even the complexities.
However, the majority of Google Ad types that are most effective in real estate are search-based. They only apply to users who are actively searching for real estate-related content. This makes Google Ads ideal for real estate agents and brokers who want to target buyers and sellers ready to transact. It also means the success of Google Ads is dependent on your understanding of keywords because you don’t get the opportunity to add photos or videos to your ad.
It’s particularly important to understand that Google Ads can actually describe an extremely wide range of ad types. These include the following:
- Search ads
- Display ads
- Video ads
- Local services ads
- Discovery
- Performance max
- Shopping
However, in the real estate industry, the four primary types of Google Ads that are used are search, display, video, and local services. Here is a breakdown and example of each of these popularly used ad types:
2. Plan Your Google Ads Campaign
Because of the time and financial investment required to use Google Ads effectively, it’s absolutely vital to start with a thorough plan. Identify and understand the best way to target your target audience, and which keywords to use, and set some key performance indicators (KPIs) to track and measure your campaigns.
These are the three most important components of planning your real estate Google ad campaigns:
If you’ve been working as a real estate professional for even a short period of time, you know that not all leads are equal. Since advertising requires a financial investment, it’s vital to target specific types of clients to maximize your return on investment (ROI). You’ll need a thorough real estate lead generation strategy and an understanding of Google’s targeting capabilities.
The more specifically you target your campaign, the more likely that your leads will be high-quality. Although this means that Google will show your ad to a smaller number of people, the right targeting will be more profitable and produce a better ROI, which ultimately saves you money and increases your client base and income.
Here are the ways you can target your audience in Google real estate ads:
- Demographic: Decide whether to limit your audience by age, gender, household income, parental status, or a combination.
- Affinity audiences: Target audiences based on what they have demonstrated interest in through online searches, shopping habits, and what videos they watched on platforms like YouTube.
- In-market: Show your Google real estate ads to users who search for related products or topics.
- Custom segments: Enter relevant keywords, URLs, and apps to create a custom segment for your ads.
- Life events: Target users in the middle of key life events, like moving homes, moving long distance, getting married, or getting a divorce.
- Your data: Formerly known as “remarketing,” your data segments include people who have previously interacted with your ads or website. This section also includes similar audiences or people who are interested in related topics.
- Location targeting: Show your ads only to users within a specific geographic area, a particularly important targeting feature for real estate agents.
Your targeting choices will heavily impact how much money you pay for your ad campaigns, your click-through rates, and your conversions. As you make your Google real estate advertising strategy, keep in mind that your targeting options vary based on the type of ad campaign you run. For example, display ads are the only Google ad type to allow every targeting option. Search and video ads provide most of the options, but you need to be well aware of your limitations to plan the most effective campaign.
Here’s a breakdown from Google of the targeting capabilities of each ad type:
If you’re beginning to see how complex Google real estate advertising can become, there are solutions and tools to help. Running Google Ads for real estate can be extremely effective when you work with an ad management solution like Hibu. Hibu offers full pay-per-click (PPC) ad strategy and management for both display and search Google Ads, as well as Facebook and Instagram ads. If you want to ensure that your ads perform well and lead you to new clients, Hibu is an ideal starting point. Book a free consultation today.
Choosing the right keywords for your Google Ads is another layer of targeting. Just by thinking about your target client’s search intent, target clients based on how ready they are to buy or sell. For example, someone searching for “homes in New Orleans” could be looking to purchase a home, but they could also be searching for information about the types of houses in this area, home prices, home styles, and so on.
On the other hand, choosing the keyword “homes for sale in New Orleans” puts your ads in front of people who are much closer to making a purchase. Finding the best real estate keywords will make or break your ad’s success. For this reason, keyword research is one of the most important steps in creating your Google Ads for real estate.
Use Google’s free keyword planner tool, or you can invest in more robust keyword and ad research platforms like Semrush or Ahrefs. These platforms have tools you can use to find out the best keywords for your ads based on average search volume, competition, and average cost-per-click (CPC).
Make sure you also consider the following information when choosing the right keywords for your campaign:
- Determine negative keywords to avoid: Negative keywords are terms you don’t want to rank for, like “Washington City” if you work in Washington State.
- Include long-tail keywords: Phrases with at least three to four words with a more specific search intent (e.g., “Three bedroom homes in Denver” instead of “Denver homes”). Include descriptive real estate words to target a specific audience.
Since finding the right keywords is crucial to having a successful ad campaign, eliminating the wrong keywords is equally important. Plus, long-tail keywords make up 91% of online searches—the most effective way to increase your visibility within a highly targeted audience.
If you aren’t sure where to start when it comes to keywords, we have already done some of the real estate keyword research you need for effective ads and marketing. Read our article that lists dozens of the most-searched keywords in Real Estate SEO: Best Real Estate Keywords to Increase Traffic.
KPIs will be especially important after you start running Google Ads and analyzing your campaign and data. To maximize your return on investment and find new clients online using Google Ads, set and understand your KPIs as they relate to your specific goals.
These are some of the most important KPIs for your Google real estate ads and campaigns:
- Impressions: Every time your ad is shown to someone in online search results, it counts as an impression. This helps you see how wide your ad’s reach is.
- Click-through rate (CTR): When someone sees your ad in search results and clicks on it, it counts toward your click-through rate. The goal of Google Ads for real estate is always to have a high CTR—indicating that your ad’s copy is a good match for the user’s search intent and is grabbing their attention.
- Conversion rate: After someone clicks on your ad, they should be taken to your website or real estate landing page, where you then ask them to take another action like signing up for a home valuation or new listing updates. When they do this, it’s considered a conversion. The higher your conversion rate, the more leads you will generate and the more money you will make.
- Cost-per-click (CPC): Your CPC is how much you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. This is not fully in your control, since the amount of competition for a keyword can drive up the cost of ad placement. However, the goal is to minimize your CPC and maximize conversions. Fortunately, you can set caps on how much you are willing to pay for a click and for your campaign overall.
- Cost-per-action (CPA): The CPA is a digital advertising payment model that charges you only for a specific action taken by a visitor. For example, downloading a document or signing up for a newsletter.
- Impression and impression share rates: These metrics show the percentage and rate of total impressions that are coming from the top of the search engine results pages (SERP) where your ad is displayed. While you definitely want high impression rates, you also want a high impression-to-click and impression-to-conversion rate. Otherwise, it means your ad is getting seen but not engaged.
- Quality score: Google ultimately wants to present its users with the best-quality content on all of its platforms. Even if you pay more for your ads than your competitors, Google won’t optimize your ads in searches if they have a low-quality score, so they’ll be displayed less, and at lower positions.
If you start using Google real estate advertising without understanding your performance metrics, you’ll inevitably waste time, money, and effort. Knowing how to analyze and improve KPIs helps you create effective ads that are fully optimized from the get-go, ultimately helping you become successful in real estate. It will also help you understand your data, adjust your ads, and improve your return on investment more quickly.
3. Write Relevant Copy for Your Google Real Estate Ad
While Google display and video ads are effective, the majority of Google Ads for real estate are search ads. These appear in search results and consist of just a few lines of text, including a headline and description. Therefore, it’s critical that each section is keyword-optimized and relevant to search users in order to get clicks and conversions.
Google Ads for real estate agents should highlight exactly what the users are searching for. For example, the ads shown below include phrases like “Free MLS listings,” “MLS updates every 15 minutes,” “mortgage calculator,” and “exceptional service.” Your copy shows users that you have what they are looking for and even more relevant resources they need.
While the ultimate goal of Google Ads for real estate agents and even Google Ads for real estate investors is to generate leads and clients, your ad copy should be highly strategic. You have an extremely limited amount of space, so it is not the appropriate time to focus on your business.
For example, someone searching “houses for sale in Maryland” is not going to click on an ad that says, “Award-winning Realtors.” However, they are likely to click on a heading with the exact keyword or a variation, like “Maryland homes for sale.” The same applies to your business name, your mission, or any of your achievements. This information should be included on the landing page to build trust and brand recognition, but the goal of your Google ad copy should be to provide only what the searcher is looking for.
4. Input Your Real Estate Ad Data & Copy
Once your ad is planned, and your copy is written, it’s time to set up your Google real estate ads. Creating an account is simple, and Google will lead you through the steps of creating your ad. However, make sure you pay attention to every detail within your ad settings, so you don’t miss an important feature.
In your Google Ads account dashboard, click “New Campaign.” The first screen will ask you to choose your campaign objective. Carefully consider your options here, because this choice will determine the rest of the steps and settings provided by Google.
For most real estate salespeople, the objective of your Google Ads is to generate leads. However, you will have several options to choose from:
A new box will appear on the screen, asking you to define your conversion goals. This will help Google analytics track users’ activity and determine how many users are taking the action you present to them.
The next screen will prompt you to select which type of real estate Google ad you want to create. This choice will impact the following steps since your ad settings will vary considerably depending on the ad type. Since search ads, or pay-per-click (PPC) ads, are generally the most common for real estate agents, those are the settings we’ll continue to walk through.
Once you make this choice, a new box will appear, asking you to select the ways you’d like to reach your goal. You can check as many boxes as you need, although the most common strategy is using a lead form submission on a landing page or website.
The next screen will begin setting up your bidding options. Choose to bid by conversions, conversion value, clicks, or impression share. Your bidding strategy should be based on your primary goal for customers, following this general guideline:
- Conversions/conversion value: If your goal is for customers to take direct action on your site (best for most agents wanting to generate leads)
- Clicks: If you want to generate traffic to your website
- Impressions: If your primary goal is to increase brand awareness
Depending on which option you choose, you will also be presented with the option to set a target cost-per-action, maximum cost-per-click, or target return on ad spend.
Next, you’ll be prompted to choose your campaign settings. This is where you decide if you want to focus on PPC ads that appear in search results, or if you also want to tackle display ads that appear across the internet.
This step also includes defining your audience segments as well as additional settings like your ad schedule, start and end dates, and ad rotation. Defining your audience segment will depend on your business and niche, as well as each individual ad campaign you create. For example, your audience for listings might be “residential properties (for sale),” while ads targeting new listing clients may be “homeowners.” The amount of time you run each ad will also depend on your goals, budget, real estate market, and the season.
Finally, Google will prompt you to input your ad copy. If you haven’t determined your ideal keywords, there is an option to scan an existing URL and search for potential keywords. However, we recommend doing this research beforehand on a tool with more comprehensive data like the aforementioned Semrush.
With your keywords ready, input your ad copy and URL into the Google Ads platform. It will give you a mobile and desktop preview of the way your copy will appear to users and automatically generate recommendations and an “ad strength” score. You are required to input a minimum of three headlines and two descriptions, although you can add more of each. Headlines are limited to 30 characters, and descriptions are limited to 90.
Keep in mind that Google will automatically place your headlines and descriptions in a different order, depending on the individual user and search term. As you input your copy, make sure that all of your headlines and descriptions can be used interchangeably. However, if you strongly prefer one of your headlines and descriptions, you can “pin” it to include it in all of your ads or specific positions.
The last step of creating your real estate Google ad is to set your budget. Determine the average amount that you are willing to spend per day, but remember that the actual costs can vary. The average cost-per-lead (CPL) across the real estate industry is $44.70, so in order to generate one to two leads per day, you may want to set your daily budget at about $100. However, your average CPL will depend on your ads, audience, and local market, so this can vary drastically.
5. Establish a Real Estate Lead Generation Funnel
To take a user from clicking on your ad to becoming your newest real estate client, you need a lead generation funnel. This means providing a way to capture users’ contact information and nurture a relationship with them.
Two of the best ways to generate leads with Google Ads are the following:
- Internet data exchange IDX website
- Real estate landing pages
The offers you extend on these pages (e.g., request a home evaluation, view exclusive listings, or download a checklist) encourage site visitors to share their contact information, and become a new lead.
Having your own real estate website establishes an authoritative presence for all of your marketing but is especially important for users who find you through Google Ads. Your website should showcase information about your success as a real estate agent. It should also contain your qualifications, clients you’ve helped, your brokerage, downloadable materials, and other details to entice prospects to submit their contact information and work with you.
Not all real estate websites have IDX capabilities, but they are strongly recommended for generating leads. An IDX real estate website feeds listings directly into your website from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and automatically updates many times each day. This allows viewers to browse the latest listings on your website instead of other real estate platforms, and you can provide a contact form for them to get more information from you.
An IDX website is an ideal part of your real estate funnel because it can include multiple landing pages for different types of audiences, like buyers, sellers, or niche audiences. If you don’t already have a website, plenty of affordable and comprehensive tools can help you build one.
A few of the best real estate website builders include:
Site Builders | |||
---|---|---|---|
Best For | Real estate agents who want a simple, easy-to-use, and affordable website builder for lead generation. | Real estate-specific website builder with IDX capabilities and a range of lead capture forms. | Easy-to-use website builder with intensive customer support and affordable prices. |
Key Features |
|
|
|
Starting Price | $9.99 per month | $119 per month | Free |
Learn More |
Landing pages are a subset of real estate websites and are particularly important because it’s one of the main factors in Google’s quality score. Google only wants to direct its readers to pages that are closely aligned with the user’s search intent, so landing pages should be highly targeted to your ads.
The design and copy of your landing page will impact the way users interact with your content, which also impacts Google’s quality score and the overall success of your ad. When users consistently click on your ad and take the next action (e.g., fill out a form or view other pages of your website), they become a conversion. This not only provides you with a new lead but also tells Google that your content is useful for users.
Note that your website and landing pages don’t need to be complex or stuffed full of content in order to be effective. In fact, many of the best landing pages are simple. By optimizing your landing page and simply directing users toward one action, you’ll increase the chances that they convert into a new lead.
These are some of the key ways to optimize your real estate landing page:
- Prioritize simplicity: A landing page is not meant to provide the visitor with a lot of choices or information. It is meant to immediately direct them to your offer, such as getting a home valuation for sellers or viewing available listings for buyers. The more complicated your landing page is, the lower your conversion rates will be.
- Be clear: This is not the place for advanced language or verbose ramblings. Your page visitor should immediately be able to see and understand exactly what is being offered, and what action they should take to redeem the offer (e.g., click to call, fill out a form, download something, or browse listings).
- Use stunning images: Images are a huge part of digital marketing. When used effectively, they can make the difference between landing page visitors who bounce (leave without taking another action) and those who feel compelled to give you their contact information and, in so doing, become new leads.
- Remove menus: If you give viewers an opportunity to leave your landing page, they will. Avoid links to other sites, or even consider omitting your site’s navigation menu. With that said, be careful to still make sure the landing page feels like a cohesive part of your overall website, so that site visitors don’t think they’ve been taken to a site they didn’t intend to visit.
If you prefer not to spend your valuable time building a landing page and website, take advantage of the real estate and marketing expertise from iNCOM. iNCOM offers six built-in landing page templates specifically for real estate lead generation, including home valuation tools, daily email alerts, and price drop alerts. If you want a high-quality website that brings leads to you without spending hours trying to set it up, check out the tools from iNCOM today.
For more ideas and inspiration, check out our collection of 15 Real Estate Landing Page Examples & How They Convert Leads.
6. Analyze Data & Make Tweaks
Data and analytics are essential pieces of all successful real estate ads. Studying your analytics and understanding your key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you identify opportunities to improve your ads, maximize your ROI, and ultimately generate more leads and scale your business. You can begin learning how to analyze data by using the Google Ads dashboard.
Here are a few changes you can make based on your KPIs:
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) | Industry Average Rates | Changes You Can Make |
---|---|---|
CTR (Click-through Rate) | Low click-through rates point to problems in your ad copy or targeting. | |
Conversion Rate | If your click-through rate is around average, but conversions are low, it means users aren’t confident enough to hand over their personal information. Use this information to tweak the content on your landing page or re-examine your keyword and user intent. | |
CPC (Cost-per-Click) | You can’t change this number directly, but you can decrease it by making changes based on other data, like improving your quality score or adjusting your keywords. | |
CPA (Cost-per-Action), aka Cost-per-Lead | A CPA is typically higher than your CPC. Try decreasing your CPA by making changes to your offer or lead form. | |
Average Impression Share | N/A | To get more impressions, try increasing your bid, changing your keywords, or making other changes to improve your quality score. |
Quality Score | N/A | To get more impressions, try increasing your bid, changing your keywords, or making other changes to improve your quality score |
Even if your first real estate Google Ad gets only mediocre results, use this data to make strategic changes. These changes can significantly improve the effectiveness of your ads, so make it a point to review this data frequently while running your real estate ad campaigns to optimize your results.
If you don’t feel confident in your ability to optimize and manage your own ads, consider working with HubSpot to supplement many areas of your marketing strategy. HubSpot provides an easy-to-use Google ad creator that automatically makes optimization recommendations and shows visual reports about your ad’s performance. It also connects to the comprehensive and user-friendly HubSpot CRM to make lead nurturing more automatic, easier, and more effective. Start using HubSpot for free today.
Bottom Line
Using Google Ads for real estate is an incredibly powerful tool for growing your real estate business, whether you’re looking to generate leads, build brand authority, or scale your business. By strategically targeting and optimizing your real estate Google Ads, you’ll be able to save time and energy in your marketing efforts and increase your ROI.