Real estate is an ultra-competitive field with new and experienced agents elbowing their way into your market every week, all vying for a successful spot in the real estate business.
There’s no way around it, it's all about real estate leads. Every realtor must invest in online real estate lead generation. You need a full pipeline of real estate leads to convert a percentage of those leads into clients.
Keep reading to learn how to focus on real estate lead generation strategies that can improve your current approach, automate and streamline your process and help you understand where you should spend your time and money to get real estate leads.
As with any marketing initiative, master the basics and then roll out your strategy in a way that will produce results.
During the summer, buyers are shopping and real estate inventory is through the roof and you might have tons of opportunities. The way to ensure this happens is by building and maintaining a pipeline of real estate leads and preparing for the inevitable market downturns and long winters when buyers hibernate. To effectively generate leads, real estate agents can employ many strategies, including predictive analytics, targeted social media and search engine ads, and automated lead nurturing to fill their databases with potential clients.
Real estate lead generation is your best tool against market volatility. As much as you want to spend each day closing sales, your focus must be on real estate lead generation. Generating leads is a continuous activity, utilizing online platforms and methods that capture buyer and seller leads from various sources. The trick is to maximize your reach and automate as much of the process as possible.
The best route is to leverage online search volume, engagement, intent and activity. Home buyers and sellers are online, researching and looking for agents and listings on Google and Facebook. Meet them where they are, rather than hope that they stumble onto you by chance.
You can buy real estate leads from Zillow or another third-party company. The hope is that these real estate leads are qualified and ready to convert but it’s expensive, not always sustainable and there is still room for failure. Remember, these companies might be selling multiple agents the s
ame real estate leads. Closing takes a lot of effort and is far from guaranteed.
Another option is to spend time answering real estate questions on Quora or branding yourself on LinkedIn. Data shows that Google Ads and Facebook Ads will do more for your real estate lead generation than these tactics. With these two marketing platforms, you can invest in targeted, scalable campaigns and drive leads looking to close.
Let’s look at two excellent online marketing tools, Google Ads and Facebook Ads for realtors, to find which is right for you.
Let's look at two excellent online marketing tools, Google Ads and Facebook Ads for realtors, to find which is right for you.
There's no real question, Google Ads are the best way to generate real estate leads. The world uses Google and their sponsored ad space lets you pay to appear at the top of searches based on relevancy.
If you're selling homes in a suburb of New Jersey, you can appear for people searching with relevant terms for that region. It's that simple.
Remember, you are buying ad space on Google, so it costs money. The price fluctuates and depends on the competitiveness of keywords. For instance, the search term “homes for sale in manhattan” might cost more than “homes for sale in lexington”.
Google Ads for real estate agents are text-based search ads. They are even more effective if you use specific niches:
Ads using niche keywords will help you appear in relevant searches and drive traffic to your website or landing page. These pages should be designed to capture a lead's info, allowing you to reach out and start turning them into a client.
The only downside to Google Ads is their cost. They are more expensive than Facebook ads but you are paying for niche targeting.
Check out this video where Eric breaks down the best Google Ads Budget Strategies for Real Estate Agents:
A high number of homebuyers between 23 and 56 years old utilize the internet in their search.
If you want to put in more time than money then optimizing your website through search engine optimization (SEO) can help you rank in the organic search results.
According to Semrush:
TIPS TO BECOME A TOP REAL ESTATE AGENT: SEO is a long-term strategy. Google Ads, on the other hand, lets you pay your way to the best advertising spot on the internet right away.
Adopt these best practices to increase your chances of appearing for relevant search terms:
TIPS TO BECOME A TOP REAL ESTATE AGENT: Google ranks pages using the title and description, known as metadata, that you include with a web page, landing page, article or video. Make sure you stick to the character limits, include keywords and write compelling copy.
Out of the 7 hours the average American spends on the internet, 2.5 are spent on social media platforms like Facebook.
The biggest difference between advertising on Facebook vs. Google is that Facebook feeds are busy places filled with captivating images, cute cat photos, friends' posts, news stories and videos. The job is to disrupt their feed with an ad. It's difficult but doable.
Watch Hayley compare Google Ads vs. Facebook Ads so you can find the best real estate leads.
If your leads for real estate are overwhelming you, you can pause your Google Ads or Facebook Ads campaigns whenever you want. This allows you to focus on closing some real estate leads or nurture some of your colder leads that may have potential.
Sure, this is a good problem, but if you perform your real estate lead generation effectively, you must be prepared to start converting. Ultimately, the goal is to effectively convert leads into actual clients, ensuring that the influx of potential leads turns into successful transactions for real estate agents.
Google Ads are a proven way to generate real estate leads. Campaigns allow you to target audiences in specific locations based on what they are searching. Incorporating Google Ads into your strategy can facilitate automated lead generation, enabling tailored, personalized conversations that nurture leads effectively. Google Ads should replace many traditional offline tactics.
Facebook Ads for real estate agents offer excellent reach and are targeted based on a user's location and interests. There is also a branding component with Facebook if you maintain an active profile or business page.
Some ways to maximize your Google budget are to optimize your campaigns, have a proper landing page, set realistic goals, use relevant keywords, consistently monitor your campaign's performance and adjust where needed.
A customer relationship management tool (CRM) is the most effective and efficient way to manage your pipeline of real estate leads. Lofty, Sierre Interactive and RealGeeks are three popular CRMs for real estate agents. These platforms help you capture and organize lead data, perform outreach and nurture leads.