All Forum Posts by: Dan Barrett

Err...That's a bit of a tough question to answer, and depends largely on how this company does what they do.

First off, I should say that $500 for adwords and management and a website...just doesn't seem like enough. I would be worried about quality.

That said, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they're awesome! What should you expect?

Well, that depends on your market and your approach. Your strategy in AdWords, and the amount of competition in your market, will determine your cost per click. That, in many ways, will determine your results.

Let's say your average cost per click is 5$ (quite low for some markets, but a nice number to start with).

That means that over the course of a month, your $300 in ad spend will get you 60 clicks.

Now, let's estimate that 10% of those clicks contact you (that's a high number to start with, but I've seen it happen....more typical might be 5%).

10% of 60 is 6, so you'll get 6 leads over the course of a month. 

Now, using the old rule of thumb that it takes 30 leads to close a deal, you should expect to close roughly 1 deal every 5 months, on average (often, lead quality is higher online, so you might find this number to be closer to 1/20 or 1/15 - hard to say).

You can run these numbers using your real data - this company should certainly allow you to log in to your own account and to see, for example, your actual cost per click, cost per conversion, etc.

Hope that helps!

AdWords is, indeed, a bit crowded in this niche. If you're not careful, you could run into extremely high costs per lead, which is not fun.

My advice: I'd definitely still give AdWords a shot, but make sure you...

• Stay as local/geographically-focused as possible. Smaller target areas often lead to cheaper clicks.
• Focus intensely on a small number of profitable keywords. Think about what search terms imply motivation - just like in REI, where "sell my house fast" implies more motivation than "should I sell my house?"
• When working with bids, start with what you can afford, not what Google tells you you "should" do. Even if it's slow, if you're acquiring new clients at a profit, you are winning the internet.

Hope that helps!

Bill S. is correct - domain names used to be important for SEO purposes, but their utility has declined over time to the point of being negligible at best.

If you're choosing a domain name, you should really focus on only a few things:

- easy to remember, or "catchy"

- easy to spell

- preferably a ".com" domain, rather than one of the new TLDs (like ".guru")

- aligns with your "brand," if you care about such things.

Hope that helps! :-)

@Dev Horn I'm really curious about this - I've definitely heard the same regarding FB paid in this space.

Since FB clicks can be orders of magnitude cheaper than AdWords, especially in the real estate world, It seems to me the primary problem is where the potential seller is in the selling cycle - very early on.

Because of this, the traditional click the ad -> hit a lead gen page seems like a bad fit. But perhaps a more content-oriented approach would work? Something that's set up to empty the traffic into a multi-step educational sales funnel.

I've been brainstorming about this kind of thing for a while, but haven't tested it in any way - just some random thoughts.

I definitely second Dev's comments. AdWords is great and fast, especially if you are a bit tech savvy/willing to learn.

Just set your budget low enough to be comfortable and you'll do fine. :-) 

Hey Stuart,

Have you tried using Google Keyword Planner? That'll help you generate a list fairly quickly.

You'll need to sign up for an AdWords account to use it, but it's free.

Here's a quick tutorial:

1. Generate a list, off the top of your head, of 15-25 keywords you think your ideal prospects would use. They might type in "how do I sell my house?", for example, or "sell my house fast."

2. Go here ---> https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner

...and click where it says "Search for new keywords using a phrase"

3. Paste your keyword list into where it says "Your Product or service."

4. Down below that box, click where it says "All Locations" and add in your state (rather than specific zip codes. The really local data in KP tends to be sparse).

5. To the right of that, click on "Keyword Filters" - where it says "Average monthly searches", type in a number that feels right to you - for a smaller area, I'll typically use less than or equal to 10. For an urban/populous area, it might be 50 or 100. (You can play with this later).

6. Hit "Save", then click the blue "Get Ideas" button.

This will return you a long list of keywords to play around with. From there, you can download them, delete ones you don't like, or send them directly to your AdWords account.

:-)

Oh good lord - also didn't post the link to book the consult! (*___*)

http://calendly.com/2fn

Aw, the testimonials are a bit small. :-( I'll post the text below.

Howdy! My name's Dan, and I run AdWordsNerds.com.

We're the only Certified Google Partner agency that works only with Real Estate Investors. Helping investors generate more leads and deals with Google AdWords is literally my full time job. :-)

If you're wondering whether AdWords is a good fit for your investment business, I can help.

I'm currently doing free 30 or 60 minute consultations with Bigger Pockets members to help them figure out if AdWords can work for them. I'll help you put together an AdWords strategy that will work whether or not you work with me.

Even better? If you do decide to work with us, I'll actually buy you your first 30 days of service - which means you get to test drive our management services, totally free (a $997 value!)

So, if you'd like to learn more about AdWords and how it might help you generate more deals and leads, click this link and sign up for a free consultation with me.

Thanks! And talk to you soon.

P.S. Got a random question? Feel free to post it below and I'll reply.

Dan Barrett | AdWords Nerds

http://adwordsnerds.com

[email protected]

(860) 532-0251

Just my two cents - but almost every lead generation method is constantly evolving, especially when we start talking about online methods, where the feedback loop between experiment, success/failure, and competitor adaptation is extremely short.

The market is always evolving - AdWords, for example, is vastly different this year than it was last year. Google pushes over 1700 changes to the AdWords interface alone each year.

I wouldn't despair - just realize that there's never going to be "one thing" - just a constant struggle to stay educated, stay on top of your game, etc.

And believe me - I know. I do this nonsense full-time and I spend the first hour of every single day reading up, staying current, etc. It's a pain!

Best of luck.