In part one and two of this three-part series, we discussed some must-know Google Adwords concepts to help you get started with Google paid search. If you missed part one or part two, we highly suggest you catch up by clicking the below links.
Part One: A Google Adwords Glossary for Real Estate Advertising on Google
Part Two: A Google Adwords Glossary for Real Estate Advertising on Google
Google Adwords Terms 101: Advanced Terms to Know for Your Real Estate Ads
You likely already know how Google search results work for real estate, and if you’ve been following this series, you’ve heard us mention how real estate advertising using Google Adwords can yield substantial leads in a matter of hours. A highly beneficial online marketing method, Google Adwords is often overwhelming to many real estate agents at first. As with any platform, however, once you learn the basics, it gets easier.
In our two previous posts, we covered some basic terms and concepts; now we’re going to cover some more advanced terms to know for your real estate ads using Adwords. Read through these definitions for an even greater understanding of Google Adwords concepts.
Attribution Reports
Attribution reports give you insights into the path website viewers take on your website. While it’s important to get clicks, understanding how visitors interact on your website is vitally important as well. This report will show you what actions people took, what pages they viewed after landing on your site, if they filled out a contact form, etc.
Call Extension/Click-to-Call
The click-to-call is a feature that allows you to add a call extension to your ad, so visitors can click directly on it and contact you via the phone. This feature is for those who aren’t necessarily as concerned about driving traffic to their website, but prefer potential clients contact them directly over the phone. Google research indicates that 70% of mobile users have clicked on a click-to-call before.
Campaign Experiments
Campaign experiments allow you to test your campaign to figure out what is most effective. You can make single-variable adjustments to your ad such as: using the same ad but changing the headline, using the same ad and ad copy, but adjusting a keyword, etc. With this feature, you can measure each ads performance in your campaign.
Dynamic Keyword Insertion
This feature may sound a bit complicated, but it essentially allows you to add some code to your advertisement so you can switch out keywords to get more traction from your ads. For example, let’s say your long-tail keyword is “Spotswood homes for sale,” using dynamic keyword insertion, you can add a special code into the backend of your ad to include similar search terms, such as “homes for sale Spotswood.” This way, when a search is performed, your ad will switch out the keyword using dynamic keyword insertion. This is great if you can’t pour a ton of money into multiple ads with various keywords, but want to take advantage of other highly searched terms.
Geographic/Location Targeting
You can target specific geographic locations, so that your ads only show up for those in your market. While it’s not highly sophisticated, it can increase your brand awareness.
Location Extension
When you use the geographic targeting option, you can also include a location extension which provides information about your business, including: your office address, a map of your physical location, your name, and phone number. While the goal of using Google Adwords is to generate traffic to your website, so you can capture leads, this creates another touch point with potential clients.
Quality Score
Google scores the keywords you use in your ads via a term they call a “quality score.” This essentially grades the quality of your ad. They’re looking to see that keywords and ads are paired well together. So, if they are paired appropriately you’ll receive a good score. An example of this would be if your advertisement copy says “Spotswood homes for sale,” but the keyword you select is “Spotswood apartments for rent.” In this instance, Google will give your ad a low score.
Shared Budget
While you can set a daily budget per ad, you can also spread your budget across multiple campaigns with a shared budget. This is a good strategy if you’re not prioritising one campaign over the other. A benefit of using a shared budget is that you don’t have to allocate your budget manually across your campaigns, but Google will automatically do it for you. When you do use a shared budget, make sure you track and monitor to see how each campaign is doing. Adjust as necessary.
Tracking Code
Tracking codes allow you to track a client’s customer journey from the time he clicks on your ad to the time he fills out a contact form or exits your website. In simple terms, you add a tracking code to your real estate website in your Adwords account and then Adwords will tell you which ads, campaigns, or keywords lead to the most clicks on your ads and action on your site. This can help you understand the effectiveness of your ads and make changes as necessary for the most conversion.
We hope this has helped lay a solid foundation for using the Adwords platform. Now that you know these beginner and advanced Adwords concepts, are you ready to jump into real estate advertising on Google?
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