Paid search, also referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is without a doubt, one of the most powerful channels for estate agents to increase their website traffic, generate leads, and drive sales. This is according to Ben Sellers, Co-Founder of Starberry, part of nurtur.group, who adds that paid search advertising allows businesses to target users who are actively searching for products or services related to their business and in their specific locations. “This means that advertisers can reach a highly targeted audience and potentially see a higher return on investment (ROI) compared to other forms of advertising,” he adds.
According to Sellers, a huge advantage of using a platform such as Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) is that users can drill down into a specific target audience based on factors such as demographics, location, interests, and behaviour, making it ideal for estate agents.
“Another advantage of paid search advertising is that it is highly measurable. Advertisers can track metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and cost per conversion to evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns. This allows advertisers to optimise their campaigns over time to improve performance and achieve their business goals. However, paid search advertising can also be complex and time-consuming. Advertisers must continually monitor and adjust their campaigns to ensure they are achieving their desired results. This can require a significant investment of time and resources,” says Sellers.
He notes that this is where the services of an agency could really benefit an estate agent. “As a leading digital marketing agency, Starberry, is proud to offer its extensive expertise in running Google Paid Search campaigns to help estate agents get more opportunities to carry out valuations and ultimately win more instructions to sell or let homes. With nearly 20 years of experience in the industry, Starberry has helped numerous clients achieve exceptional results through its multichannel approach covering SEO, social media, email marketing, and ROI attribution reporting,” Sellers comments.
“I saw a massive untapped opportunity and qualified as an AdWords Professional when Google first launched its AdWords platform in 2001. Back then, Starberry was paying as little as 4p per click to appear for words like ‘Estate Agents in Fulham’. The success of our campaigns led to Starberry running some extremely powerful campaigns, spending circa £10,000 per month to promote Marsh & Parsons when Peter Rollings acquired the company with only four branches. In addition to developing an award-winning website for Marsh & Parsons, PPC was at the core of their digital strategy and fed beautifully into their SEO strategies, informing them on exactly what keyword phrases converted the best,” says Sellers.
He adds that over the years, Starberry has built a large team of digital marketing specialists who have spent many millions on property-specific phrases, allowing them to deliver exceptional results, while also helping estate agents from haemorrhaging money with Google with little return. “Starberry are delivering valuation leads through Paid Search between £50 and £200 depending on the value, location, and type of property. In almost all instances, £200 for a valuation lead delivers a great ROI for estate agents,” says Sellers.
“In recent years, Starberry has spread its focus to driving mortgage leads too. We had the pleasure of working with one of the leading online mortgage disrupters who gave us a spend of £220,000 per month from which we were able to drive many thousands of mortgage leads each month. This helped us to further build our deep knowledge of exactly what does and doesn’t work within this highly competitive space,” Sellers concludes.
For more information about increasing valuations and winning more instruction through paid search, contact Starberry at helpdesk@starberry.tv
