Recommendations for Investor Carrot / SEO Consultants or Freelancers

[John D.]

After doing some research I have decided to sign up for Investor Carrot and get a leads website set up. I plan to commit the time to configure it properly initially, and to continue to work on it as a critical part of my business to have. I work in software and do I consider myself proficient enough to get it set up, however I also want to focus my time on other areas of my business and hire a solid professional to guide me on the website set up, SEO and paid ads, etc. 

Does anyone recommend any Carrot "consultants" or "freelancers"? I have signed up for an initial call with the guys at MotivatedLeads.com but I am curious if anyone else has recommendations in terms of consultants or freelancers I could reach out to.

Thanks!

[Tim Oppelt]

hey Tim with Carrot here!

Excited that you've joined the Carrot Fam!

Carrot has a solid marketplace that has recommended vendors you can check out. Motivated-Leads is on there, Silverstreet and Adwords Nerds are on there too. Keith Sant with SEO Meets REI is my friend and I know they can rank high in multiple markets, I see it. I'm also on there I run Wholesaling PPC, happy to chat too!

Regardless of who you choose, here are good questions to ask to determine the best fit for you. 

1. What % of clients are real estate investors?
You are looking for 100% here. This will determine if they understand REI or
are generic digital marketing agencies that dont understand our industry.

2. Do you have an active investing business?
IF they do, get their website (mine is webuyhomesde.com). This means
they understand the other functions of the business that affect PPC like the entire
website, online presence, lead management, lead quality, and sales process so they can
provide additional support in those areas which are crucial for success.

3. Do you have current clients I can speak with?
Look for clients that have been with them at least 6 months. If they can’t procure
that, it’s a red flag that they can’t provide long term results for investors.

4. Do you subcontract out any of your services?
This is especially important if they offer multiple services. Often agencies will
have an in house team for one service and just upcharge services of another
company that secretly does the work for them for the rest. Understand what you
are paying for.

5. What is the average monthly budget of your clients?
It will either be in the $2k--$4k range or $8k+. Make sure your budget is near what
they tell you. If your budget is $2k and they mainly work with $10k budgets, their
strategy (and fees) may not be suitable for your business.

6. What are the main reasons that clients leave?
Look for data-backed answers around expectations, investor’s ability to close, and
site conversion rate. Good answers would be “they quit after X months/spend
when we recommend Y”, “we generate X amount of leads and on average they
should convert to Y deals, but those investors didn’t convert.” “Conversion rate on
their site was X, and they didn’t put in the work in their competitive market to
bring it up to Y.”

7. Do you have case studies of clients with you at least
one year? (see example screenshot)
This is proof that they can provide consistent long
term results for their clients. If all of their reviews are only investors who closed a deal within 60 days or closed their first deal , that’s a red flag. Case studies > reviews as it’s easy to fudge reviews these days as well. Many people can get lucky and get a deal in 30 days with PPC then their campaign bombs...but the agency still got a review out of it. 

8. What kind of results should I expect?
The typical ROI for a well targeted PPC campaign for investors is 3-5X your spend.
If they don’t set these expectations or promise you they will 10X your money, it’s a red flag they don’t understand our business and/or are just lying to you.

9. How long will it take to get results?
If they promise a deal within 30 days, they are misleading you. PPC can produce
deals within 30 days or less, but it often takes 3-6 months for good results.
Anything less means the agency isn’t honest or they don’t understand PPC or our
business.

10. How can I understand what is happening in my
campaign?
Have them send you sample metric reports. Look to see if you can understand
them and how they explain the data. It should be easy to understand and not
filled with tons of tech jargon.

There are agencies that are jack-of-all-trades that do FB/PPC/SEO/everything...A lot of investors like them because its convenient. I only focus on Google Ads because i believe you should be an expert in 1 thing vs just decent at everything. So just take that into account when deciding who to go with. 

Best of luck!

[John D.]

Thanks @Tim Oppelt!

This is awesome info and super helpful! I really appreciate you sharing this. I am not looking to get into Google Ads just yet, but when I am there I will 100% be reaching out. Ill use this criteria when speaking with a few different marketers. I'll check out the marketplace on Carrot also.