Are you looking to further your company’s reach and get your name in front of more property owners? In today’s digital world, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd and attract potential clients. One of the best ways to do this is with a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign, otherwise known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM). This allows you to run ads on search engines like Google or Bing.
PPC campaigns can be a great way to reach prospective property owners online quickly and cost-effectively. But did you know that the type of PPC campaign you choose should vary depending on your particular goals or needs?
When it comes to search engine advertising, there are generally two objectives: brand awareness or lead generation. Each approach has its distinct advantages, and understanding which works best for your goals can be complex. In this blog post, we’ll go into detail about the pros and cons of each strategy so that you can decide which makes the most sense for achieving success in growing your property management business!
But first, let’s do a quick refresher on what pay-per-click is, and how it can help you show up on search engine results pages.
Pay-Per-Click Marketing 101 for Property Managers
Pay-Per-Click, or PPC for short, is a type of online marketing where you pay each time someone clicks on an advertisement you’ve placed on the search engine. You bid on keywords that potential customers might use to find your business, and your ads will appear when these keywords are searched. This is how Google ads and Bing ads work in a nutshell.
It’s a quick way to show up on a search engine results page, but you only show up as long as you’re willing to pay what it takes to win the ad auction.
An important thing to note is that although search ads can help you get online traffic, they do not have any bearing on your website’s organic search engine rankings. That is done through SEO (Search Engine Optimization). To understand the difference between the two, read our blog about SEO vs. SEM.
Now that we have the basics out of the way, let’s look at the two most common types of PPC campaigns for property managers: brand awareness and lead generation.
What Is a Brand Awareness PPC Campaign?
Brand awareness ad campaigns prioritize getting your property management business known by potential customers. The goal is to build up favorable associations with the brand, create top-of-mind awareness among prospective property owners, and drive customer loyalty. This marketing strategy typically focuses on creating positive sentiment about the brand by highlighting its unique features and advantages.
Brand Awareness search ads can help property management companies in the following ways:
- Increase visibility and recognition within your target audience.
- Foster trust and create legitimacy.
- Drive online traffic to your property management website or other landing pages where property owners can learn more about your business.
How Property Managers Succeed with Brand Awareness PPC Advertising
In the context of property management marketing, successful PPC campaigns aimed at brand awareness should present the property management company as a thought leader. Ad groups should also be optimized with relevant keywords that resonate with the specific types of owners you want to attract.
For example, investors might resonate more with a property manager who also personally invests in real estate, whereas an accidental landlord may not care as much.
All ad copy should be written with clear messages that demonstrate value and evoke emotion, while also utilizing creative visuals and engaging calls-to-action.
Maximizing Reach for Paid Ads
To maximize reach, a good brand awareness PPC campaign should be designed to capture the attention of potential customers across multiple platforms. This could include utilizing various social media channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as leveraging search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to ensure that your content is visible in relevant searches.
Additionally, optimizing for mobile devices can help increase visibility on smartphones and tablets. By designing an effective brand awareness PPC campaign with these elements in mind, you will be able to effectively build recognition for your property management business online.
How to Know Your Search Ads are Working
Measuring the success of a brand awareness PPC campaign can be done by looking at impressions, reach, and frequency. Impressions are an important metric to track as they provide insight into how many people have seen your ad. Reach gives insight into how many unique people have been exposed to your online ads, while frequency tells you how many times each person saw your paid ads.
Note that the definition of success is different for each market and for each keyword because PPC marketing is driven by supply and demand.
Now that you understand what brand awareness is, let’s dive into lead generation.
What Is a Lead Generation PPC Campaign?
Lead generation PPC campaigns are designed to drive customer action and generate leads. These campaigns often aim to convert potential customers into actual customers by showcasing the benefits of the company’s products and services. This type is a lot more competitive than brand awareness because it targets prospects who are much lower down the marketing funnel — i.e. they are almost ready to make a purchase decision.
The main goal here is to reach people who are actively using search engines to look for solutions to their problems. This requires a comprehensive understanding of keyword research, competitor analysis, and user intent.
How Lead Generation PPC Ads Help Your Property Management Business
Lead generation PPC campaigns typically focus on high-intent keywords — phrases that indicate the user is ready to take action. For example, someone searching for “property management in Colorado” could be looking for a local business rather than doing general research about property management companies. By targeting these high-intent keywords, your lead generation ads can appear on search engines whenever someone is actively looking for property management services.
Writing Ad Copy to Attract Property Owners
When creating marketing copy to attract owner leads, it’s important to remember that the ad copy should be focused on features and benefits rather than general information. This type of message will be more likely to reach potential customers who are ready to take action. Ultimately, the goal is to use these campaigns to convert leads into paying customers.
Provide some incentives for property owners or real estate investors to take action and make sure to capture their contact information. Showcase the value of working with your property management business and demonstrate how you can help them manage their properties more effectively, efficiently, and profitably. To raise the stakes, you can even showcase the risks of not working with a professional property manager like you.
Defining a Successful Lead Gen Campaign
To measure if your lead generation PPC campaign is successful, look at your conversion rate (how many customers you get from the ad) and cost per acquisition (CPA – what it costs to get one customer). You should also measure your customer lifetime value (CLV) – this is the amount of money you earn from a single owner client over the entire span of your relationship. Knowing your CLV allows you to calculate what a reasonable CPA for your campaign might be.
To understand the importance of CLV to a property management business, read our blog about the relationship between Customer Lifetime and property management marketing.
Which PPC Advertising Strategy is Right for You?
To bring it all together, brand awareness campaigns are great for spreading the word about your company, while lead generation campaigns are designed to draw in new leads and convert them into paying customers. When deciding which type of PPC advertising strategy is right for you, it’s important to consider your goals and budget.
Meet Your Prospects Where They Are In the Marketing Funnel
Different types of PPC campaigns work best at different times in the decision-making process. For example, a brand awareness campaign may be helpful for a person who is early in the buying cycle. You’re simply letting them know that your company exists in the hope that they will remember you when they’re ready to make a decision. Lead generation campaigns work best on those who are later in the buying cycle. They know what they’re looking for and you are showing that you’re the best option.
- Brand awareness campaigns help to warm up leads for lead generation campaigns.
- Lead generation campaigns leverage the brand trust you built for higher conversion rates.
When it comes to digital marketing, it is essential to understand the differences between brand awareness campaigns and lead generation campaigns so that you can ensure that you are running the right kind of campaign to achieve your specific goals.
Take a look at your current marketing efforts and consider whether your strategies are aligned with your goals. If you need some help figuring out the best marketing plan for your property management company, contact us, at Fourandhalf Marketing Agency.
Since 2012, Fourandhalf has helped hundreds of property management companies get more owner leads. Fill out the form below to start a conversation about how we can best help your business grow.
