by omuoto
Recently I talked about online real estate search marketing trends. One of the question that comes up when talking about search marketing is the actual Cost per Click (CPC) – the price the advertiser pays when a user clicks on their keyword ad! A couple of weeks ago I played around with the Google Traffic Estimator to get a sense of what good real estate keywords cost and to get a sense of what people were searching for and what advertisers were bidding on. We regularly testing search-based PPC (pay-per-click) advertising both internally and on behalf of large clients and routinely run these types of tests. After entering a set of obvious (and generic) real estate search terms, the Google Traffic Estimator was able to tell me the following:
The most expensive estimated average CPC was in the $2.60 to $3.25 per click range for the keywords “real estate agentâ€. Pricey – perhaps, but the choice of keywords makes sense given 18% of consumers find their real estate agent online!
REDUCING THE COST OF SEARCH MARKETING
Obviously the trick is to figure out how to get the most clicks for the lowest CPC. So justing the estimator I decided to try a couple of different strategies to see if I could reduce cost and maximize traffic.
Location Based Targeting
Google Adwords allows you to target location by country, state, zip code and even address! You can specify an address and select the number of miles around your point of interest you would like to target your ads! If you are a Realtor you probably focus on a specific region so this makes a lot of sense. I narrowed down my search to try and reduce the price by targeting just a 60 mile radius from the center of Huntsville, AL (where my wife is from). The cost, however, remained pretty much the same and estimated traffic was extremely low. It estimated 0 – 1 hits (very low) at $2.26 – $3.06.
Refining your Keywords
Next I tried another strategy. I decided to refine my list of keywords, so instead of “Real Estate Agentâ€, I tried “Real Estate Agent Huntsvilleâ€. The logic is simple. Most people are looking for a Realtor SOMEWHERE – that SOMEWHERE is usually the city or zipcode they are located in or want to move to! This technique proved a little more successful. It estimated 13 – 16 hits (good) at
$1.89 – $2.58 (much cheaper).
More Keyword Combinations
I went on to try more keyword combinations to come up with the following estimates:
Based on these numbers, it looks like it is possible with some experimentation to limit your Cost Per Click to less than $1.50, which seems like a pretty reasonable target.
CONCLUSIONS
My exploration of search marketing has gotten a great response so far. We have had dozens and dozens of comments from folks using and not using Google Adwords and other keyword marketing solutions! Based on finds so far, I think its safe to come to the following conclusions:
- A majority of respondents are investing in organic vs. paid sources of traffic generation
- Search Marketing in real estate seems to work. In addition to generally available statistics on the number of Realtors using search marketing as well as empirical (non-scientific) evidence based on my conversations with real estate professionals
- There is a learning curve associated with search marketing. More needs to be done to educate Realtors about the process, the tools (landing pages), the techniques (monitoring, tracking) and the return on investment (ROI) analysis
- There are a number of great tools that can help estimate cost (Google Traffic Estimator), suggest keywords, creating landing pages (vFlyer), monitor results and more
The next couple of search marketing posts will examine the following topics so be on the lookout (you can receive these by email if you subscribe to the feed):
- The great debate surrounding organic vs. paid
- A how-to primer on getting started with search marketing
- Great tools you can use to maximize Google Adwords
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