All Forum Posts by: Yogev Lifchin

If you read my previous post, I emphasized the importance of showing up for the right keywords. If you thought that was just a one-off issue, think again. Take a look at this ad, which is clearly targeting a keyword that a buyer would use.

I know what you’re thinking: “Yeah, I only pay when someone clicks on my ad,” which is true. However, the buyer might click just to see "what this ad is all about" or to check if you have properties for sale. In a split second, they might click your link, and just like that, $10-$30 of CPC goes out the window.

The main takeaway is this: always ensure your campaign shows up for the right KEYWORDS. You can achieve this by regularly checking the Search Terms report, routinely searching for your brand on Google, and pulling the actual keywords that are converted in your CRM. (It’s doable, and I can show you how it’s done.)

What else is wrong with this ad, you ask?

• 1 - There are no sitelink extensions, which could give your ad more "visibility real estate" and better reflect your business.

• 2 - There’s no phone extension, allowing visitors to tap and call you directly (which, of course, will be tracked in the Google dashboard).

• 3 - There’s no Call to Action. If you think writing a generic message will get great results, think again. Don’t leave anything to chance—guide the visitor to do what you want, which is to click YOUR ad and leave their details on YOUR SITE. That’s the only way you’ll quickly convert a seller into a contract.

• 4 - What else is wrong with this ad? It’s just too short compared to the more extensive ads from your competitors. Visibility drives clickability, and not using the full length of the ad to add keywords and business-related details is a missed opportunity when you’re fighting for every click in Google Ads.

Conclusion:

If you know you want to get off-market seller leads from Google, and already committed the budget for it, make sure your ads are optimal and that your keyword selection will not cause you to appear on ones that will waste you time and money.

The Google Ads landscape is fiercely competitive in today’s market, demanding an investment of several thousand dollars per month to gain meaningful traction. There’s simply no room for mistakes that can be easily avoided.

Did this article help you? I’m curious to know…

One of the biggest mistakes an investor can make when deciding to take the plunge and start spending money on Google Ads is targeting the WRONG keywords.

It’s true that one way to use keyword targeting is through “broad” keyword types, which are usually less expensive and can capture various keywords you might not have considered in advance. However, this must be paired with a dedicated and robust negative keyword strategy to prevent your ads from appearing for keywords that ARE NOT RELEVANT to your investing business.

For the sake of this example have a look at this attached picture below:

In this picture you can see that this ad shows up on the keyword “House for sale near me…” which is not something a seller would search for (not to mention a distressed seller). This search term will more likely attract potential home buyers.

As we all know, targeting buyers can be a waste of money when competing in this competitive market where each investor/wholesaler is fighting for the next best distressed seller.

Now, what else is this advertiser doing wrong with their ad?

• 1 - The ad is too short. These days, ads have expanded dramatically and can occupy a significant amount of “eye real estate.” Not using this space to its fullest potential may cause sellers to skip over your ad. You want to win any chance to convince a person to click your ad.
• 2- The ad is targeting the wrong keyword. It should include the keyword multiple times within the ad body and title so that it gets highlighted, which is another trigger for visitors to click on YOUR ad.
• 3 - THERE IS NO CALL TO ACTION.
  Every ad needs to create a sense of urgency with a call to action, such as “Start Today” or “Get An Offer Now.” As obvious it may seem, this can be a dramatic inclusion that increases relevant click-through-rates.
• 4 - There is No phone number extension.
  Google allows you to add a phone call extension to your ads, which can convert those who have a greater sense of urgency. It is actually another conversion factor which can be used in your ads and adds both a connection option and “eye real estate”

Conclusion:

The Google Ads game is already highly competitive in today’s market and requires an investment of several thousand dollars per month to see serious traction. There is no room for easily avoidable mistakes like these.

Although the concept of a remarketing campaign has been around for over a decade, it often only gets a small mention in various courses. And I really couldn’t tell you why…

For those who aren’t familiar with Google remarketing, it essentially means that when someone visits your website and leaves, a digital footprint—known as a tracking pixel—identifies this visitor and allows you to follow them across the internet (as long as they don’t clear their ‘cookies’ from their browser).

How does this relate to Google Ads?

Well, there’s another side to the Google Ads platform called “The Display Network.” This network consists of websites that allow Google to display image ads from advertisers. While it’s not solely designed for remarketing, you can set up a remarketing campaign alongside your search keyword campaigns. This allows you to show your ad again (at a fraction of the cost of search keyword clicks) and “remarket” to visitors who stopped by your site but didn’t convert.

Remarketing is a great way to boost conversions and create the impression that your brand is “everywhere” online.

And if a seller is processing various investors he is talking with, he may be swayed again to leave his details if he encounters your site again. The cost of conducting this type of campaign can be worth a lot more $$$ at the end of the month

Conclusion:
It’s highly recommended to use a remarketing display network campaign as an additional strategy to complement your search keyword campaigns.

For the innocent advertiser just starting out with Google Ads, leads might seem like the ultimate goal. Everyone wants leads, right? That’s the be-all and end-all, right?

WRONG.

Even if a keyword consistently brings in leads—whether they are distressed sellers or retail buyers—there’s still one crucial thing you need to check at the end of the day:

HOW MANY CONTRACTS DID YOU GET FROM THAT KEYWORD?

Now, I’m assuming you have an acquisition agent who knows their stuff and that your closing ratio is decent. The sad, strange truth is that the success rate for converting leads into contracts can vary greatly from keyword to keyword.

For example, in one of our recent campaigns, we were generating multiple leads every week from a keyword related to the term “Home buyers.” Everything seemed great, but there was one big catch…

The catch was that, despite bringing in dozens of leads from that keyword, IT SIMPLY DID NOT CONVERT TO CONTRACTS.

Why?

Honestly, I don’t know—and I don’t care. If the keyword intent is solid, the ad is well-crafted, the landing page is optimized, and the acquisition process is smooth, then the rest is just statistics.

The main takeaway here is that you need to measure contract closures per keyword. That’s exactly what I advised my client to do—we pulled that data from the CRM and labeled it by keyword.

Now, you might be wondering, what’s better than measuring contract closures per keyword? Well, that would be tracking the deal sold $ amount per keyword... But that’s a topic for a different post….

When it comes to Google Ads, every dollar spent is crucial. Google Ads can be your best friend, but if you’re not doing it right, the hungry competition can quickly take you out—and all for issues that could have easily been avoided.

So, how do you identify a good keyword from the start?

Well, you need to put yourself in the mindset of someone who has an urgent situation and wants to sell their house quickly. If you were facing, say, a foreclosure issue and needed to sell your house fast, what would you search for?

Perhaps something like “Sell my house fast” or “Sell my home for cash”?

This might seem obvious, but as I’ve shown in my previous examples, some people end up bidding on keywords that are completely off-target. For example, “House for sale near me.” Believe it or not, I’ve seen many investor ads targeting these keywords, which have NOTHING TO DO WITH SELLERS.

Targeting the wrong audience can hurt you in several ways:

1. You’ll get impressions that won’t result in clicks, which will lower your CTR (Click-Through Rate)—a key metric for Google.
2. You might actually get a click from a curious person who just wants to check it out. They’ll leave your landing page as quickly as they arrived, and just like that, $10-$30 (or more) goes down the drain.

Conclusion:

When building your keyword strategy, imagine you are the person who wants to sell fast. That’s the most basic thing to do. From there, you need to be competitive with your ad copy and landing page, but that’s a topic for a whole different post.

This approach is something anyone can implement, even without extensive experience in Google Ads.

The purpose of a landing page is to quickly and effectively convince a person who is genuinely considering selling their house at a discount to leave their contact details so your acquisition agent can reach out to them.

Anything that hinders this process will ultimately LOSE you money. That brings me to my next bad landing page (LP) breakdown—there’s a lot to unpack here.

What I’m showing you here is a simple “load speed time” analysis of a PPC advertiser landing page.

The basic industry rule of thumb is that A load time of 1-3 seconds is considered good, where the less is better. And vice versa - that the longer it takes, the less likely the visitor will stick around. I’d even argue that anything over 2 seconds is too long.

But…

just take a look at this landing page analysis…. If it fails to load within that 1-3 second window You don’t need a master’s degree or a Google certification to understand that this page is bleeding money for its owner.

We’ve discussed how 1-3 seconds is the ideal load time, but what happens when it exceeds 3 seconds? What if it’s over 4?? or 5 seconds!?!??

I think that you can answer this yourself by now.

To add "insult to injury," as mentioned in the previous landing page analysis, the actual lead form is placed below the “fold,” which further hurts the conversion rate.

I don’t know this advertiser personally, but I would be highly skeptical of their results. If they are satisfactory, implementing the changes I’ve suggested could take them from “good” to “excellent.”

Conclusion: If you’re advertising on Google, make sure your landing page is always up, running, and fast. We don’t have the luxury of letting visitors wait for a page to load because they will simply hit the back button after you’ve already paid Google $10-$30 for that click (and maybe even more!).

And I’d like to ask you:

Have you ever checked your LP’s speed loading time?

This is a landing page I came across in the Boston, MA market. I’m not sharing it to criticize the site owner, but rather to highlight how small mistakes can cost you money when advertising on Google. (I actually hope the owner of this page sees this and considers making the changes I’m about to suggest.)

This page violates a cardinal sin known as “The form beneath the fold.” This was a problem 10 years ago, and it’s even more critical today in our hyper-fast-paced world with ADHD-inspired scrolling. When a visitor lands on a page, they decide whether to stay or leave within seconds. Even if they give the landing page a few moments, if WE MAKE IT HARD for them to engage with the page, they will EASILY give up and leave.

So, how can we make their experience seamless? The most basic step is to ensure that our form is in a highly visible, easy-to-access location where visitors can simply fill in their name, email, phone number, and property address.

It’s honestly ridiculous that the BBB accreditation is ABOVE the form where the lead should input their details for your acquisition agent to contact them! This alone can dramatically reduce the page’s conversion rate.

To make matters worse, the same issue persists on mobile devices.

Conclusion: Don’t make it difficult for your visitors to leave their contact information. They’re likely filling out multiple forms like this, and if yours is cumbersome, they’ll move on. Make it easy for them to provide their details.

Anything less will waste the hard-earned money you’ve spent—even if you’ve selected the best keywords, written the perfect ad copy, and utilized every cost-efficient Google feature.

In the world of Google traffic, a first impression can often be the last impression.

And I’d like to ask you:

Have you seen pages like this from your competitors before?

@Oladimeji Sonibare

yes, you can say that you BUY PRE-FORECLOSURE

but you cannot say you are gonna assist them in that issue per se, if that makes sense.

If you read my previous post, I emphasized the importance of showing up for the right keywords. If you thought that was just a one-off issue, think again. Take a look at this ad, which is clearly targeting a keyword that a buyer would use.

I know what you’re thinking: “Yeah, I only pay when someone clicks on my ad,” which is true. However, the buyer might click just to see "what this ad is all about" or to check if you have properties for sale. In a split second, they might click your link, and just like that,

$10-$30 of CPC goes out the window.

The main takeaway is this: always ensure your campaign shows up for the right KEYWORDS. You can achieve this by regularly checking the Search Terms report, routinely searching for your brand on Google, and pulling the actual keywords that are converted in your CRM. (It’s doable, and I can show you how it’s done.)

What else is wrong with this ad, you ask?

• 1 - There are no sitelink extensions, which could give your ad more "visibility real estate" and better reflect your business.

• 2 - There’s no phone extension, allowing visitors to tap and call you directly (which, of course, will be tracked in the Google dashboard).

• 3 - There’s no Call to Action. If you think writing a generic message will get great results, think again. Don’t leave anything to chance—guide the visitor to do what you want, which is to click YOUR ad and leave their details on YOUR SITE. That’s the only way you’ll quickly convert a seller into a contract.

• 4 - What else is wrong with this ad? It’s just too short compared to the more extensive ads from your competitors. Visibility drives clickability, and not using the full length of the ad to add keywords and business-related details is a missed opportunity when you’re fighting for every click in Google Ads.

Conclusion:

If you know you want to get off-market seller leads from Google, and already committed the budget for it, make sure your ads are optimal and that your keyword selection will not cause you to appear on ones that will waste you time and money.

The Google Ads landscape is fiercely competitive in today’s market, demanding an investment of several thousand dollars per month to gain meaningful traction. There’s simply no room for mistakes that can be easily avoided.

Did this article help you? I’m curious to know…

@Oladimeji Sonibare

The issue in simplification is this - >

Specifically, when it comes to "foreclosure," I’m not as experienced in that area (honestly, I’m more of a Google Ads guy than a Facebook guy).

However, the key is to position yourself as the buyer who can purchase quickly, with cash, and without any hassle—essentially the classic approach of a wholesaler or investor.

and in that way your in the white when it comes to the 'legal' aspect of it.

I wouldn’t claim to solve these deeper issues directly through the ad creative.

However, you can address these concerns during a phone conversation if the issue comes up in your screening process with the seller.