What Do Real Estate Agents Say About Using Google Adwords

Do you use Google Adwords in your business model, asked Michael Thacker of Louisville , KY to several fellow realtors in Active Rain. Here are some of the most interesting replies.

Sam Shueh of Cupertino, CA is not pleased with Adwords results. He says Adwords can get your name on first page if you spend about $1 per click and it will generate lots of clicks. Then he shares an experience had had several years ago. "A few years ago my broker tried to use it to generate leads as he had many area listings. As I recall he was spending easily $500-$1000 a week. He hired a guy to follow up. I got ~ 20 leads a month. The phone numbers were either blocked or Magic Jack and could not get through curious buyers. Most claimed they could pay cash. I had a 100% no show for several months straight, but did talk to a couple C buyers. All other top agents that wanted more business on high end had similar issues. They get clobbered with clicks, but not meaningful leads. Bottom line - Not a preferred method to generate leads-not in Silicon Valley. Non-Internet leads is preferred," comments Shueh.

"I use it and it is beneficial," replies Perrin Cornell of Wentachee, WA, Centure 21. "I am pretty tight on what I spend in the markets I am in I look at how much it takes to get various levels. I limit myself to around $200 (about $7 per day or less).It is a multi level thing. Yes it gets my name out there and someone might follow up. But it also enhances the access and hits to my website, plus helps with searches. A lot depends on keywords. But it is only one of a series of things I use consistently generating about 40 leads per week. Conversion rate of 3-8%, depending," Cornell adds.

At least 3 other real estate agents commented back and said they don't use Adwords for marketing their property listings online, but that they should start looking into this.

Adwords Tip from a Successful Realtor

David Barr from Venice, FL, who said he has successfully lowered the Adwords CPC, share this tip. "Success with Adwords will happen with keywords the big players are not using. I'm just not paying $1.50 per click and over to be on the first page of Adwords with the typical "real estate" keywords," Barr wrote.

What Barr suggests does make a really good sense. And the chances are you will get a lot better results because these are keywords that actual home buyers search, but the large Real Estate corporations who spend hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on Google Adwords don't focus on these keywords. This gives a local real estate agent with a small budget for online marketing an edge. This is a smart way to use your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign and lower your online targeted advertising cost.