Advertising on the Search Engines

Search engines present two sets of search results, organic results and paid or sponsored results. You can learn more about how search engines work here on our site to learn more about the difference in those two result sets. Most search engine advertising uses a pay-per-click (PPC) model. This simply means that each time a user clicks on your ad and follows it to your website, you are charged for that ad. Successfully advertising on search engines is a detailed process that requires a commitment of time as well as money.

What does it take to start advertising?

While each search engine is different, the general steps are outlined below:

• Create an account (and usually pay an account creation fee)
• Select the keywords and phrases that describe your services/industry
• Create ad copy for each keyword and phrase
• Set maximum bid prices for each keyword or phrase
• Test combinations of keywords and ad copy to maximize results
• Test website changes to maximize conversion of visitors to contacts
• Test bid prices to maximize results
• Analyze the performance of all your ads and word combinations
• Adjust bids, ad copy and keywords
• Repeat testing, analyzing and adjusting

Can I advertise on my own?

Absolutely. You can do your own advertising on each search engine and many folks do just that. Before going that route, truly assess if your time is best spent managing the advertising process described above to keep you costs low and performance high.

Would using managed advertising cost more?

That depends on how much time you spend testing and analyzing your results. If you are diligent about tracking leads from click through to contact on your website or via phone, then you are probably saving money doing it yourself. But it you are not able to stay on top of your bids and performance analysis from advertising click to contact, it may cost less to use a professional management service that specializes in your industry as they are intimately familiar with the search phrases and keywords being used by consumers each day to find real estate related information.

Can anyone advertise?

Yes. This may seem like a silly question, but we feel there are certain capabilities that you should have before spending money on advertising. To effectively manage online advertising costs and optimize your campaigns, you should be able to:

• Track website visitors by source (Did I get that visitor from paid search results, natural search results or my offline marketing efforts?)
• Track contacts back to their original source (Did I get that lead from paid results, natural results or my offline direct mail campaign?)
• Track sales back to their original source (Did I make a sale because of my paid advertising, SEO efforts, referral management or offline marketing efforts?)
• Make changes on your website quickly (To test ideas on how to capture more QUALITY contacts from all those clicks)
• Compare website performance over time (Did my website changes help or hurt?)

Just remember -- clicks and contacts are nice, but sales are your ultimate goal and you need to be able to track those sales back to your marketing expenses.

At RElistive, we specialize in real estate marketing and websites.

Your advertising campaigns will be managed by a Google Qualified Individual who has managed successful campaigns for many agents and brokers. Our advertising packages are tailored to your budget and guarantee the number of visitors to your website. Best of all, when you also use a RElistive website, most of the tracking and reporting is built-in and available to you at all times.

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