The Inside Edge
Online Marketing for Estate Agents: Pay per Click
Estate Agency is changing. The world is changing. No matter what your stance or perspective you can’t disagree with this basic premise.
However for those at the forefront of the online migration the pace may seem faster than to those Estate Agents whose business model has remained more or less the same for the last 10 years. For those bringing up the rear the greatest changes will be the use of an online property portal to reach buyers – probably Rightmove and no other – and the use of email instead of fax and post.
I sat in an Estate Agent’s office a few months ago and asked what a secretary was doing – she was entering property details in triplicate – to three seperate systems. It doesn’t take A level maths to work out that a 66% time saving could be made by the introduction of a smarter system.
One of the simplest online advertising tools for an Estate Agent that doesn’t want to rely solely on Rightmove for it’s online marketing is Pay Per Click.
Essentially Pay Per Click (PPC) is a form of online advertising where you set a budget of say £20/day and your advert is displayed all over the internet – normally alongside search results (for example in Google) and on other websites that relate to your subject. When a user clicks on your advert and is redirected to your website, you pay for that click. Hence the name Pay Per Click.
Google Pay Per click advertising is displayed above and beside 'natural' search results in a Google search
The most favoured system is Google Adwords – a very clever system which a new user could set up and use in just a few hours, but that has the tools and features that an advanced user requires.
In our next article in this series we’ll show you how to set up a basic Google Adwords Pay Per Click online advertising campaign in a few simple steps.
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At INEA (The Independent Network of Estate Agents we have built a very advanced MLS for agents to allow either sole, or group property sharing. We upload listings to several sites.
Additionally we are bridging new ways for agents to communicate directly with communities to gain valuations and push their brand via digital signage. Our system for screen broadcast is called http://www.RemoteAgent.co.uk and we have several sites now running.
INEA and RemoteAgent software is free to agents. We do not allow private sellers. Our goal is to not only to keep INEA free to list, but to create a pay the agent to list portal model. We currently stand at 250 member agents and will be taking in the RM v3 feed in the next month when we aim to build membership to 1,000 member agents in the following 12-18 months
Our 6-7 year plan is to make MLS the key way agents trade and market residential property in the UK. Interested parties can contact us at; admin@inea.co.uk Trevor Mealham
property market will loose more value in next year.
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Hi James,
I thought it might be worth posting a link to a blog post we ran earlier this week:
http://www.modernestateagent.co.uk/2011/01/example-estate-agents-google-adwords.html
A lot of agents are finding it hard to get to grips with how to plan their PPC marketing, so we’ve put together a mind-map of what a typical letting agent campaign might focus on.
Hopefully breaking it down like that will encourage more agents to give it a go.
Cheers,
Martin
Hi Martin – Thanks for the link – I read your article last week and was only thinking about it yesterday. Its hard for estate agents to compete with portals for ppc adverts and the best advice I can think of is to use hyperlocal terms – making sure specific areas are covered – even if it means creating seperate adverts for each neighbourhood.
I’ve seen estate agents competing with portals on very generic terms (i.e. ‘houses for sale’) and it’s no wonder they burn money at a rate of £200 per 35 visitors.
Is there any proof that ppc adverts actually generate business. I’m very wary for the reasons stated above that it is a license to burn money with not much return. I’d like to be proved wrong though!
If you’re an estate agent looking to promote yourself online, head over to our estate agents directory and upgrade your listing to add photo, description, email and a link to your website:
http://www.thebigpropertylist.co.uk/directory/