Today we are addressing something that we hear from a lot of property managers when we talk about marketing strategy. A lot of you tell us that Google Ads is a waste of money for your property management business. That can be true. The reality is this: 80 percent of all searches related to rental properties are done by tenants. Tenants are frequently online looking for a place to live in your town, and whether they are looking for a single family residence, a condo, or an apartment, the majority of those online searches are going to be done by tenants.
This means that if you want to pay for and get property management related searches, Google must understand your goal. Remember that Google is only as smart as you tell it to be. It cannot read your mind. To properly manage your Google Ads campaign, you need to give it a lot of attention. You need to know what the negative keywords (words you don’t want your ad to show up for) are and you need to be able to avoid and root out any tenant searches and unrelated searches that are not going to bring you new landlord and property investor contacts.
Here’s an exercise you can do right now. Log into your Google Ads account. Go to the main screen and click on Keywords. Then, click on Details and you’ll see a drop down menu. Click on “Search Terms” and highlight “All.” You’ll see what people typed when they clicked on your ad and you’ll see how much you paid for that click.
You can take the last 40 or 50 search terms and figure out how many tenant searches you received and how many landlord searches you received. Usually, when we take a look at this information on behalf of a property manager who was doing a self-managed campaign, we can see that 60 to 70 percent of all searches are tenant related or unrelated to landlords.
Think about what this means to your bottom line. If your budget is $300 per month on Google Ads, you are essentially throwing away 60 percent of that budget. You are taking $180 and you’re putting it in the garbage. That money won’t be used to attract new business. This is why professionally managed campaigns are more advantageous to you. Even with a small management fee, you’re keeping your money out of the trash and invested in new business acquisition.
At Fourandhalf, our job is to target landlord searches only. We remove those other searches that are burning up your money. There’s also a conversion advantage. Conversion tracking is critical. When someone clicks on your ad, where do they go? Do they go to your website or do they go to a specific sales landing page where they can instantly see all the benefits of working with your company? That landing page gives you 20 to 30 percent, in some cases even 50 percent, better conversion. Once you get the right click, you’re in business. When you don’t have a sales landing page, you’re putting another chunk of your budget into the garbage.
This explains why a lot of property managers are not happy with Google Ads. Of course it’s a waste of money when your campaign isn’t able to zero in on your ideal customers.
Let’s get your money out of the trash. At Fourandhalf, we can take a look at your AdWords and tell you exactly how much money you’re throwing away. If you have any questions, please contact us.
