Posted in The time for tired-and-old printed advertising is over. Here are 5 simple pointers to consider when starting an effective Google AdWords campaign.
What is AdWords, in a nutshell? Go to Google and search for something. On the top and right hand side of the page you’ll see some highlighted links to sites relevant to the term you’ve just searched for. These are AdWords advertisements that you can click on. Your click is called a “click-through” – every time you “click-through” a Google AdWord, the owner of that site pays Google anywhere from a few pennies to sometimes tens or hundreds of dollars.
Google AdWords is a great way to drive traffic to your website, and can be extremely cost-effective.
‘Nuff said – on to the meat of the matter:
1. Your Current Online Presence
Before you’re ready to start spending money on Google AdWords advertising, you must be able to answer all the following questions with a resounding “YES.”
- Do you have a website?
- Does your website have a complete, and up-to-date MLS listings catalog for your area?
- Does your website have compelling interactive features (like real-time trending, instant home evaluations)?
- Does your website have lead capture forms for visitors that want more information?
- Does your website have good, regularly updated, and compelling content?
- Do you have a good customer relationship management pipeline?
- Do you have a good website statistical tracker (like Google Analytics)?
If you lack one or more of these, your campaign effectiveness will suffer.
2. Choosing the RIGHT Keywords
Go to Google’s Keyword Tool and type in some keywords and phrases (one word/phrase per line) that are relevant to your target market. Let’s say I’m a Chicago-based agent specializing in downtown condos, I might consider the following:
- Chicago downtown condo
- Chicago downtown real estate
- Chicago Millennium Park real estate
- Chicago river condos
- etc.
Google will give you a list of similar keywords, how many times they’re searched for per month, and a small graphic that indicates how competitive (expensive) that set of keywords is going to be.
Generally, you should choose keywords that you feel will drive the most relevant traffic to your website. The more specific your keywords are, with the highest amount of monthly searches, the more traffic you’ll receive.
3. Avoiding the WRONG Keywords
Be careful when selecting the right keywords: you can burn a lot of cash attracting irrelevant traffic to your website.
Take into account your target market and the words/phrases they may use for search. For example, you might discover a keyword/phrase that gets a lot of traffic, and is relatively cheap – “Great!” you’ll think, but hold on a minute…
Many people may search for “Chicago Millennium Park,” but how many of those people are interested in real estate in that area? Probably only a small portion. The ones that click-through to your website will quickly leave when they discover that your site doesn’t have the information they are looking for.
You’re far better off choosing keywords/phrases with less traffic, but with a higher percentage traffic that is likely to be interested in your services. Remember that paying $5 for 1 high-quality click-through per month is far better than $0.05 for 100 extremely low-quality click-throughs per month.
4. Sign-up and Create an AdWords Campaign
Once you’ve decided on some good keywords click “add” on the right column, sign up for an AdWords account (on the right-hand side of the screen), and follow the prompts.
Google will ask you to enter a daily maximum budget for each of your keywords so that you can control exactly how much you want to spend. Just follow the prompts, set a budget limit and a competitive bid for each keyword, and start the campaign. It’s very simple.
When you are writing the AdWord text, be sure to be specific about the details of your website. If, for example, you specialize in a particular area of type of real estate, include that in the AdWord to maximize the relevance of the click-through traffic.
Make sure you sign up for MORE THAN ONE keyword. This will allow you to compare effectiveness of different keywords.
5. Weekly Studying and Refinement
Once your AdWords campaign is up and running, you’ll start to see click-throughs very quickly. The best way to see them is using your Google Analytics account (which is integrated with AdWords), or through your other statistical traffic tracker (if you have one). From here, you’ll be able to track the relevance of the traffic and the relative performance of each of the keywords you’re working with.
Don’t be afraid to change things up if they aren’t performing, and to increase budgets if they are.
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