A Beginner’s Guide to Using Google Ads for Real Estate Lead Generation

By Tyler Zey

One of the biggest things REALTORS® struggle with is finding profitable ways to generate leads online, and this is actually a pretty hard thing to accomplish. However, there are two types of ads that work in almost every real estate market.  I’m going to show you two ways that you can effectively generate profitable leads using Google Ads.

Let’s get into it:

1) Setting Up Ads for Your Name is a Great Start with Google Ads

The first keyword you’re going to want to bid on is your own name. Why would you bid for your name? Simple - most REALTORS® don’t have a quality website showing up for Google searches of their own name. I challenge you to search for yourself right now and see what you find.  This is what people do before you show up for a listing appointment, and you don’t want them finding any type of competitor! The easiest way to fix this is to run ads on Google for individuals searching for your name.

Here’s how you do it:

Step 1) Navigate to Google.com/adwords and set up a profile.

Step 2) Get free set up and support from Google if this is your first account. You can call them at 1-855-607-0435 and their team of experts will help you get set up and create your first ads – for free.

Step 3) Have the helpline guide you through setting up ads for your own name.

The cool thing about this is that you’ll actually learn how to set up ads with an expert on the line for free.  And you can cheaply start capturing leads that want to do business with you immediately!

Now that you know how to setup Google Ads, let’s set up the second best campaign:

2) Setup Ads for your Biggest Competitor’s Name

So, you now have ads running for your name and are probably seeing some traffic come in from this source. Your next thought might be to start running ads for terms like “Homes for Sale in Kansas City” or “Sell my Kansas City home.” But these keywords are often not that profitable. They are incredibly expensive and you have a lot of competition.

So, here’s what you can do:

You can set up Google Ads for your biggest competitor's names!

Look at this:

The keyword "Kansas City homes for sale" has only 1,000 people searching it, on average, every month and a click will cost you $1.68. It can be hard to make that profitable.

But look at this, for example:

You can bid on creative keywords and literally pay a fraction of the price!

This is the second type of Google Ad REALTORS® should set up. Why? Because the people Googling this phrase have a much higher buyer's intent, are cheaper to get in front of, and your ad can have a stronger unique selling proposition. You can also include things like “Helping Kansas City Locals Since 1992” in your ad to make it more attractive to locals.

I’ve seen REALTORS® easily double their traffic to landing pages and websites with these two types of ads, and they’ve been able to cut their ad budgets in half simply because of how much cheaper the clicks are.

What do you think? Let me know if you have any questions or problems setting up these ads! They can be a great asset for your business.

Tyler Zey writes real estate marketing tips for Easy Agent Pro.