Google Adwords

[Dan Demers]

This may be a marketing topic, but here goes... Is anyone familiar with using Google adwords to get publicity to a website? I'm considering whether it would be worth having a website to attract customers for entry only agreements (charging a flat fee to list properties on MLS).

[Angel-Ty L.]

@Dan Demers @Peter Kolat 

The whole goal of Google Adwords is to drive quality traffic to your website. So to answer your question, yes it would be worth having a website set up to attract customers for entry only agreements.

Here's how...

You going to want to start out with figuring out how you are going to structure the account. I believe in having a well-organized account structure with campaigns outlining the goals and ad groups outlining a theme between all the keywords. So assume you're not starting out with a huge budget Then I would structure this with 1 campaigning with the goal of getting leads. 

With a small budget, you should not be trying to create a bunch of campaigns and ad groups cause it doesn't result in any monetary benefit. I prefer having things as simple and organized as possible. Remeber you are going to have to continuously manage this campaign so you need to keep things as simple as possible for you to make management tasks easier. 

So without 1 campaign (can label it whatever, just make it relevant), we can then dive into the ad groups. For ad groups, you first want to get an idea of what keywords you are going to bidding for. To keep things beginner friendly and easy I would recommend using the old version of the Google Keyword Planner. It comes completely free for Adwords account user. With this tool, you can easily find keywords to bid on an ad group ideas that Google makes for you

Toggle between tabs to find keywords and keyword ideas. In the picture, you can see that I took competitors landing page and google found keywords based off of the website. I recommend this for maybe possibly missed keywords.

To choose keywords do not take the google suggested bids seriously. It's just a range for what you can expect to pay. Choose keywords that are preferably Low in competition and high in volume. 

All the keywords you choose need to be bottom of the funnel keywords. What I mean by this is the keywords should label someone as having a high lieklyhood of converting. For example, the keyword "for sale by owner MLS listing" has a more likelihood of converting than "by owner flat fee MLS reviews" for the fact of the other searcher is still in the navigational phase of their journey. So choose only keywords where the searcher will show intent.

It is to be noted that you should be taking into account the match types of these keywords. I personally prefer using Modified Broad Match and Phrase Match the most often. I only use exact when I know that particular keyword shows up a lot and is within our CPA and just is performing really well by itself. Broad Match is to be used in a certain situation where we might need more volume and or are looking for more keyword ideas. Using broad match can actually be done, but you need to make sure you are following a strategy with the keyword and not just throwing up a 2-word keyword and bidding normally. That would be a big NONO 

Now once you have the structure, Ad groups set, and keywords picked out with their appropriate match types, you can then move on to creating actual ads. When creating the actual ads you want to keep the searcher in mind. Create ads that are going to convey benefits and wanted features. Do not talk about your brand unless you are doing a retargeting campaign which I also advice you set up. But you can put something like 

Get Your Home Sold Fast Today | Flat Fee MLS Listing Service

Connecting a "for sale by owner" with a "flat fee MLS" real estate broker

After you have 2 different ads set up per ad group for split testing purposes, set up your ad extensions. Ad extensions are mostly used for more screen real estate. Makes your ad stand up and google likes extensions so your quality is also positively affected as well as the CTR. You choose between all the options, just choose 4 I prefer sitelinks, call extensions, callout extensions, and structured snippets. 

Once you have everything set up make sure you take a second look through the account, Are you using the correct locations, are your bids set up, etc... Run through everything especially your settings. 

Side note make sure you set up retargeting and proper conversion tracking

Let me know if you have any questions by just posting here or PM me

- Angel-Ty L.