Where Google Ads fit
Every lead goes through the 4 stages of lead generation. For stage 1, there are three main ways to get in front of them:
- Organic Strategies: They look for you and find you.
- Paid Ads: You position yourself forcibly in front of them.
- Referrals: Others refer you, to them.
Google Ads are paid, so you are buying your way in front of people. But look at who you get in front of. A search ad only shows when someone types a search. And what do motivated sellers type? Their pain:
Notice that you just performed a pain point-fueled intention-based keyword search on Google. Your search was motivated by your pain point!
That is the big difference between Google Ads and a mailer. The mailer goes to a list of people who may or may not ever want to sell. The search ad shows up for a person who, right now, is asking Google how to sell their house. You’re not forcing your message onto random people; you’re answering the question they just asked. That is message resonance.
So where do Google Ads fit? They buy you that position while your SEO builds. SEO is slow. Ads are instant. Same searches, same sellers, same website.
Before a single click: your website
An ad gets you stages 1 to 3. Your website has to do stage 4: they need to pick you. If your website hides you behind a template, every click you pay for leaks out the bottom.
Motivated sellers do not turn to Google to find a company to sell their house to. Motivated sellers turn to Google to find a company they can trust, to sell their house to.
So send every click to a real website, one with you on it, a How It Works page and an About Us page, not a one-page form. Before filling in a form, sellers want to know how it works, and they want to know more about you. Give them the chance. How to build it: a real estate investor website that converts.
Pick keywords the way sellers talk
Start with what motivated sellers actually type. A few of my favorite keywords are:
- Cash For Houses (and all variations like “cash for my house”)
- We Buy Houses In [City] [State]
- [City] Home Buyers
- Sell My House In [City] [State]
And don’t trust volume tools blindly. There are a ton of investors that type in “We Buy Houses In Connecticut” into Google to see where they rank. With ads, you pay for those clicks. The best source of keywords is your own sellers: when they call, ask them what they typed into Google to find you.
Tell Google what to leave out
Your search terms report shows the actual searches that triggered your ads. Read it every week at first, and add negative keywords for anything that isn’t a homeowner trying to sell: people looking for homes to buy or rent, jobs, agents, or other investors. Every irrelevant click is money that bought you nothing.
Write ads they notice, and that resonate
Stage 2 is “They Need To Notice You.” Seeing and noticing are not the same. You are one result among many ads and listings. Or as I put it: “Not seeing the tree through the forest.” Your ad has to be the tree.
Front-load your power words. Compare:
| Weak | Strong |
|---|---|
| If You Want To Sell Your House Fast For Cash, We Are The Right Company | Cash For Your House In 5 Days, Just Fill In The Form Below |
The second one resonates with the exact reason they searched. But only promise what you actually do: if you usually close in three weeks, say three weeks. Never promise “top dollar”. It attracts the wrong people and costs you credibility with the right ones. And the words “help” or “we are the best/premier/#1” say nothing.
The housing ad rules
In the United States and Canada, Google treats ads about homes for sale, including real estate services, as housing ads. For those, Google doesn’t let you target by gender, age, parental status, marital status or ZIP code. You can still target by city or by a radius around a location (at least 1 km). Set your campaign up that way from the start, and check Google’s housing policy for the current rules in your country.
This doesn’t hurt search ads much: the search itself tells Google who’s selling. That’s the point.
Budget it by cost per deal, not by clicks
Don’t judge a campaign by clicks, and not even by leads. Judge it by what a deal costs. Work out your expected cost per deal, give the campaign a test budget of at least that times your factor of safety, and don’t stop halfway because the first weeks were slow (why).
Most investors tackle lead generation through a completely random, and chaotic approach. They will simply “try something”, and then stop and try something else when the results are not as hoped. This is a sure way to fail.
And keep every lead’s search term. The keywords that bring you deals on ads are the ones to build SEO pages for. Your ads pay for your SEO research.
Google Ads for real estate investors, step by step
- A credible website with How It Works and About Us pages
- A test budget from your marketing budget
- Conversion tracking on your form and phone number
- Someone who answers leads fast
- Set up a search campaign, set as a housing ad.Target your cities or a radius, not ZIP codes.
- Start with a handful of seller keywords.“sell my house in [city]”, “we buy houses [city]”, “cash for houses [city]”.
- Write ads with power words front-loaded.Say plainly what you do and how, and only promise what’s true.
- Send clicks to your website.The home page or a matching city page, not a bare form.
- Track form fills and calls.So you know which keywords bring leads, and later, deals.
- Read the search terms every week.Add negative keywords for anything that isn’t a homeowner selling.
- Judge on cost per deal at the end of the test.Then move money toward the keywords that produce deals, and build SEO pages for them.
| If this happens | Do this |
|---|---|
| Lots of clicks, few leads | A website problem, not an ad problem. Does it show who you are, how it works, and why they can trust you? |
| Leads, but they all want full retail | Your ad or site attracts the wrong people. Drop any “top dollar” language and explain how your offers work. |
| Clicks from buyers, renters or job seekers | Add negative keywords from your search terms report. |
| The first weeks were slow | Finish the test budget before you judge. Deals don’t arrive on a schedule. |
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Questions
Do Google Ads work for real estate investors?
They can, because search ads appear when a homeowner searches for help selling. They work when the clicks go to a credible website and the campaign is judged on cost per deal, not clicks.
What keywords should I bid on?
Seller keywords with your city, such as “sell my house in [city]”, “we buy houses [city]” and “cash for houses [city]”, then refine with the search terms your real leads used.
Can I target ZIP codes with Google Ads for housing?
Not in the United States or Canada. Google’s housing ad rules don’t allow ZIP code, age, gender, parental or marital status targeting. You can target cities or a radius.
Should Google Ads go to a landing page or my website?
To your website, with a real person on it and a How It Works and About Us page. Sellers want to know how it works and who you are before they fill in a form.
Google Ads or SEO?
Both. Ads bring instant traffic from the same searches while SEO builds, and the keywords that bring you deals on ads show you which SEO pages to build.
