I know that there is alot of click fraud in the pay-per-click arena, however I imagine some keyword types and PPC categories are worse than others. I am thinking of suggesting pay-per-click advertising to a real estate agent client and was wondering if anyone has any input on the subject, i.e. what to expect, amount of fraud, effectiveness, and any other relevant input or suggestions. Thank You
Have you considered placing banner ads on sites that are locally-themed? I know a lot of realtors who get leads from their banner ads on sites that are geared more towards their local community.
What I usually tell my clients is this : Yes there IS a bit of fraud. BUT, Google is making a living out of Adwords, so you can rest assured they are doing everything in their power to eliminate as much fraud as they can, so you should not worry about that. We can try it for a month and you can see how it goes! Think about this : an ad in the local newspaper cost you xx thousands $, what do you have to loose to invest 500$ in Adwords to test it? It usually works
Well all I can say is that bid prices are pretty high... Which is good for running real estate sites with YPN and adsense
If you are thinking of suggesting PPC advertising to your client and if the campaign is done poorly you will lose a client. Just like the mortgage industry, it takes a lot of visitors to complete a transaction. With real estate advertising you now add the public's curiosity factor. You must realize that Real Estate Brokers are normally are confined to a local area, for example a city or county. Most do not operate Statewide. With that in mind, broad keywords such as "Real Estate for Sale Oregon", may draw a lot of clicks, but how many of these visitors will turn into clients for your advertiser. Before we go onto this any further, have you determined what the real estate agent's goals are? Is this person using advertising as a listing tool or is this person actually trying to generate sales from his advertising? When your real estate agent is approaching a potential home seller, does he want to show off his advertising, flip open his lap top, type into the search engine "anywhere USA" and up pops his site with homes he has for sale. In that case, your realtor only needs to bid on a few keywords and no campaign is necessary. So let's assume he or she is trying to attract home buyers, your next decision is Overture/Yahoo Marketing or Google's Adwords. Google does not allow for specific keywords, so unless this advertiser is Nationwide your only consideration should be Overture/Yahoo Marketing. Now let's get back to reality, to run an effective Yahoo campaign for a real estate agent confined to a city or county will take a lot of work and will require a monster list of keywords, misspelling and keystroke errors. Your goal should be for your client never to pay more than 12 cents a click and if you and your client are ready for some hard work, a successful campaign is totally possible. Keywords, don't even think about hundred's, think thousand's. Depending on the realtors selling area, this could involve 500,000 keywords. I am going to give you an example of the start of the campaign, using Los Angeles as an example. Also remember, you are going to run into some high bids, you will need to use misspelling and keystroke errors on these keywords to accomplish your 12 cent a click projection. Free software is available at www.goodkeywords.com. First I would list every city within Los Angeles and would also include cities within 50 miles, next using excel add these cities to keyword phrases; I am looking for a home in los angeles ca property for sale Burbank ca homes for sale la ca homes under in encino ca homes less than in la county ca listings for homes in beverly hills ca affordable housing los angeles ca view homes encino ca condominiums in the los angeles area ca need a home in the chino hills area ca real estate for sale in the la area ca As you will note, I have tagged the state abbreviation to the keyword phrase and have left out numbers that could be any variable. If the keywords are set as advanced in Yahoo, any combination of the keyword phrase will pull your advertisement. Have a great day, Jack
12 cent clicks are completely unrealistic, real estate is one of the most competitive PPC categories.
Narsticle, You don't really accept money for your services do you? The real estate market is no more competitive than the mortgage industry or any other money making venture. Do you really think there is not a hotter real estate market than Beverly Hills, California? You should have done a little research prior to making a non thinking statement. Your right, 12 Cents was off a little should have been closer to 10 - 11 cents. Here is the placement you get with the corresponding bid on the specific keywords below and in the list provided in my above post. I am looking for a home in los angeles ca - 11 Cents gets you #4 placement property for sale Burbank ca - 11 cents gets you #1 placement homes for sale la ca - 10 cents gets you #2 placement homes under in encino ca - 10 gets you # 1 placement homes less than in la county ca - 10 gets you # 1 placement listings for homes in beverly hills ca - 10 gets you # 1 placement affordable housing los angeles ca - 10 gets you # 1 placement view homes encino ca - 10 gets you # 1 placement condominiums in the los angeles area ca - 10 gets you # 1 placement need a home in the chino hills area ca - 10 gets you # 1 placement real estate for sale in the la area ca - 10 gets you # 1 placement Have a great day, Jack
Talknames, The bids references above are for Overture/Yahoo Marketing. Not sure what you are asking? Jack
The amount of clicks I get from Yahoo is usually much less than Google when it is outside USA... but it is way cheaper. Using longer phrase or typo like jcfinc's example, you will get click for 10-cents each. Google have bigger click volume (maybe I shouldnt include Content Network) at higher price. If you are good you can find maybe 1 cent keyword/phrase but I usually fee happy and content if it can bring profit. I saw a few post from jcfinc, realy nice tips! Great share!
What other programs are high for real estate? I have applied for YPN but haven't heard back and was unfortunately suspended from Adsense because they felt like it.