Josh Kerbel

I am in the midst of working on a new Internet-based real estate marketing tool and am in need of some Alpha and Beta Testers In return for your ongoing feedback about our product offering, its performance and your marketing efforts, we will give you a free year of our service, which based on the feed back we have gotten so far, is worth about $4000 annually. There is absolutely no financial cost to you for this service. I am particularly in talking with Realtors in the Minneapolis, Tampa Bay, Chicago and Phoenix.

We are extending this offer to a limited number of Realtors nationwide, so it’s an excellent opportunity to get a first mover advantage.

If you are interested in helping us out, please let me know and I will follow up with you.

Next up in the suck hole of real estate advertising – Zoocasa.com (Names people……….talk about trying to be too clever on the names!)

So Zoocasa’s agent offering has “exclusivity” as well – they only allow 4 agents per neighborhood, but truth be told their sale pitch to real estate agents is pretty crappy.  Just as crappy as Zillow and that Trulia site, maybe even crappier as they don’t give you any sort of sales demo and then require you to prove that you are a real estate agent even before buying their service.

We did two searches on Zoocasa to see what exactly they offer to real estate agents.  Take a look at the two screen captures for Deer Park and the Danforth – two Toronto neighborhoods. ( The “exclusive” ads are up at the top – I circled the ones I looked at in red.

and the second.

The ads are less than compelling.  No better than little billboards that show a total lack of understanding the online lead generation process (Here’s a hint – try to capture my attention……..and don’t do it by flashing me some skin, well OK, that might work with me).   And now their respective landing pages.

So what do we see, a few agents who have shelled out some cash to get some clicks and then they don’t do anything with the clicks.  And I bet they wonder why they aren’t pulling more business from the Internet…..

The question to ask is are these agents seeing a real return on their Internet marketing or are they fooled into thinking they are just investing in their brand?

What do you do with your clicks?

So let’s go for a deeper dive and see how agents use PPC advertising on Trulia.com

Beyond wondering what the fuck a “Trulia” is, let’s see how agents use its PPC or rather it’s Pay Per View function

How trulia’s PPV engine works…………….

It seems that agents can by “exclusivity” or “portions of exclusivity”  for certain neighborhoods across the US.  For example, I could by up all the clicks for NYC – an estimated 500,000 views a month for $23,000 or I could by 1% of the views- 4900 a month for $230.  Every market is priced differently based on historical sales and demographic trends.   As you can also see in the above image, sometimes a market get sold out, so you can’t advertise there.   So now, without further ado, let’s see what agents on Trulia are doing with this functionality.

We are going to do a search for a property in Atlanta.   Here is a screen capture of a PPV ad.

The ad shows up about halfway down the page and is pretty non-descript.  It is for a company by the name of Del Webb.  The ad lacks any real call to action and really doesn’t do much for me, but I am curious what they do with my click……

Talk about curiosity killing the cat………or at least the lead – YES, THAT IS THE WEBSITE THIS AD LEADS TO…………So what is the take away here…………LEAD CAPTURE LEAD CAPTURE LEAD CAPTURE

Over the last few years a number of dedicated real estate sites, Zillow.com, Trulia.com and Zoocasa.com (What fucking marketing brains thought of these names)  have promised to be the nirvana of local search for real estate agents.

All three of these sites offer real estate agents the ability to deliver targeted local ads to buyers and sellers.  You work the 90210 area code, you can get your pay per click ads seen only in that zip code?

So does anyone want to make a bet that agents are blowing their brains out on another form of advertising?  Anyone………well, lets take a look.

First up, Zillow and a search for homes in the 10003 zip code.  This brings up a local pay per click ad for the lovely Amy Wilder (and I do mean lovely, I think her picture suits her last name………she looks likes like she is……….wait, let’s get back on track.)   Lets find out where her ad takes me…

Ouch, that has to hurt……all that beauty and just a plain Jane website.  No info capture! No attempt to engage!   Ack!!  Amy, you are killing me here…………and not just with that crazed look in your eyes   And while she does have some information capture on the Zillow site, she isn’t really offering anything more than a sly smile and crystal blue eyes.  If this was a bar, I’d be handing my credit card over to her, but it’s not.

Oh Amy, what could have been    Just goes to prove the point, no matter how much of a hottie you are, ya can’t have a cold website

Up next……………..Trulia.com

(I hope Amy has a twitter account)

and an exercise in crappy landing page design for you

So I decided to move to Tampa  (Go Devil Rays!!!)……..OK I didn’t, but if I was, here is how I would go about it.

I head over to the wonderful Google machine and search for  – buy a newly built house in Tampa.  The screen shot below shows the results.  We are going to focus our attention on the sponsored ads.

The first step in the analysis – do any of these ads pull me in?  Not really.  No one is really hitting the whole problem-solution-benefits very well.  Assuming that buying a house is a substantial investment, there are usually questions that need answering, lots of unknown variables and plenty of concerns bouncing around in a prospect’s head.  These questions could be:

Where in Tampa do I want to live?  A guidebook to Tampa’s neighborhoods may help.

What do I look for in a newly built house?  A handy checklist would really aid in my search

Do you see anything remotely approaching these in any of these PPC ads?  No?  Me neither.

There is a simple formula here.  Your prospect has a problem.  You need to offer them a solution.

On to the next part of the journey to Tampa….Landing Pages

I’m going to throw up five of the seven pages here, most of which come from experienced companies.  You know how many are well designed?  Take a look at the five and tell me.

So which one works?  Well, not withstanding Lennar’s crappy PPC writing, whoever is running their campaign seems to know what they are doing.  The PPC ad is positioned low down on the first page, so it doesn’t get random clicks and the landing page seems to understand that people buying a newly built house could be first time home buyers and MIGHT HAVE SOME QUESTIONS about the process.

So Lennar makes a swap…………..give me your contact information and I’ll help you buy a house…………hopefully one of our houses

I should be clear about one thing here……………this isn’t a disaster for the house hunters.  There are plenty of ways for them to find a house.  It’s a disaster for the real estate agents in Toronto who aren’t taking advantage of all the qualified prospects the Internet can deliver to them.

If you are just join us, you might want to read Part I and II of this series to get up to speed on our little analysis of the PPC ads use or rather mis-use by the Toronto residential real estate industry

Supposed that as a real estate agent running a small PPC campaign across a selection of 10 targeted keyword with well designed landing pages, you could have yourself a nice robust marketing machine that collects prospects for you.  How long would you have to spend cold calling to get one qualified prospect?  How large a personal referral network would you need to get one new qualified prospect a day.

Now, on to some of the landing pages.  Let’s keep in mind that the point of these landing pages is not to show case your expertise or your listings, but to get prospects into your sales funnel and determine if they are worth investing time in.  Looking at it from a mechanical point of view, a prospect who actually sends you their contact information via your web page has already gone through 3 stages of qualification.  They searched for a specific keyword term, they clicked on your ad and they registered in your database………maybe you would like them gift wrapped?

Landing page 1: http://ontario-realestate.ca/toronto/ – FAIL

Landing page 2: http://www.toronto-real-estate-online.com/ – FAIL

Landing page 3: http://www.livingintoronto.ca/ – almost good…………the bait that they are using in exchange for your contact info could be of little better value, but a pretty good shot.  The form field capture being above the fold is a huge plus.

Landing page 4: http://www.torontohomesnow.com/Toronto -FAIL

Landing page 5: http://www.connect2agent.com/multicity/Toronto – DOUBLE FAIL

Landing page 6 : http://www.hometrader.ca/CategoryResale.aspx – Fail

Landing page 7 : http://www.housebymouse.info/hbm/ml/canada/multi_toronto_0.html - WINNER - uses the same bait as landing page #3, but does it much much better.  Layout is exactly what you want.  Very little to distract the user from registering

Landing page 8 http://www.kaceeyteam.ca/featured-homes – Good God No………..but at least you can follow them on Facebook

Well, it looks like 1 or 2 agents got some good advice on their campaigns, the other………..not so much.  Pity…….I hope for their sakes that these campaign mishaps are the result of them doing it themselves.  I would hate to think someone took money for some of these fiascoes.

Let’s take a closer look at these  numbers for keyword terms that may be worth bidding on:

So if you wanted to your ad to show up for the exact term “Toronto Real Estate Listings” – you would have to bid about $1.16 in order for your ad to show in the top 3 positions – this is just an estimate, but at least it is a starting point.  On average, over the last 12 months, there have been 3600 per month, search for this term that were from computers in the Toronto area.  This means there were 3600 potential prospects each month.  Now say you had a fantastic PPC ad that converted 5% of all users and you were willing to pay upto $2 per click, what you would end up with is 180 sales leads per month at a cost of around $360.  If you were generating a 1% click rate, you would have 36 new prospects a day……..over 1 per day………off of one keyword.

So lets see how well written the PPC ads are for this term

Here is the page that gets pulled up – More poorly written PPC ads – more confusion over brand vs direct advertising

Do any of these ads look like they want to pull you in?  Remember, the goal here is not to sell a house, but to start building a relationship with a prospect.  The triggering keyword is the first step to filtering out prospects, the ad copy is the second step.  The problem with poorly written ads is that they don’t attracted qualified prospects

Next up………………the landing pages for some of these ads

A house is one of the largest of the largest purchases that you will ever make.  Even experienced buyers are going to have questions and concerns…..

There is always an information void to be filled.  The person who successfully fills this void has a good shot at building a trusting relationship with a prospect.

So lets see how real estate agents in Toronto take advantage of this potential opportunity.

We will also take this one step further and look under the hood and see how much players in Toronto’s real estate market are paying for clicks.

First, let’s think of some robust search terms that should indicate I am a motivated buyer.  In fact, let’s take this one step further and have Google show us what terms people are searching for in regards to residential real estate in Toronto

Here is what Google’s Keyword tool is showing me for the phrase – Toronto residential real estate listings.  We are also only going to focus on phrase and exact type matches and the estimated cost of getting a Top3 position.  A word to the wise, you do not always want a TOP3 position, but we are just trying to demonstrate the opportunity that Toronto real estate agents are missing here:

If you have never seen the Keyword tool, essentially it tells how how many searches were done for each phrase or keyword and how much you would have to bid (and be willing to pay if someone clicks on your ad) in order for your ad to display on the first page of google results.  If you aren’t a Google keyword geek, then that is all you really need to knowNext up………….what these numbers actually mean.

I’m not the only person out there who thinks the Internet is the greatest direct marketing channel ever developed.  I suspect every Google shareholder and employee may think so as well.   Its how they generate all their revenue.

But the question is, does Google make profits because people understand the concept of direct marketing and how to execute direct marketing campaigns properly or do they take advantage of most people’s willingness to blow piles of money in their ignorance of the basics of direct marketing.  I think the jury is still out.

Let me explain.  The whole point of direct marketing is to customize a message specifically for your target market (yes, defining your target market takes some research, but that is not the point here) and then deliver it to them.

You obviously have to create your own message and define your target market, but Google, Bing, Yahoo and other numerous ad networks lets you zero in on your target market through the use of keywords.  They deliver readers, your  job is to skim off the prospects and turn them in to customers.

See this is the difference between Brand vs Direct marketing……….brand advertising emphasizes  a company’s name, its logo, its philosophy, it  really doesn’t get in to specifics (I love when small businesses talk about silly things like branding themselves……………NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR BRAND).  Direct marketing is directed at someone specific with the purpose of eliciting a specific response.  And chances are that someone specific is looking to satisfy a specific want or need.   And the probably don’t care about all the  awards your product has won, your years in business, if you are the top producer in your office.  I could go on, but I think you get the point.

To steal from Freud, you need to talk to your prospect’s Id.  Direct marketing is all about the id.

Yet, you still see:

• Silly PPC ads that try to develop or reinforce a brand image (whether or not its a real brand image or just something that you think exists.)
• PPC ads that really don’t address what the user was searching for.  Who ever set up the ad program was sloppy, lazy or well, just useless.  If your PPC ad does attempt to answer a question in a users head, it is just a waste of money.

If you don’t believe me, let’s do a search, a fairly specific search term that should give a marketer a fair shot at understanding what is going through my mind when I punch in my keywords

- first time home buyer chicago -

Thats pretty specific.  Now let’s see what we bring up on all three search engines

On Google, there are 9 first page ads – only 2 of them – the one from Lowes and Century 21 put forth any real effort to attempt to connect with the mind of a first time home buyer.

Here is the page:

7 of these ads are just a complete waste of time and money.  Either the ad manager is lazy or stupid.

Think about what is going on.  You have a first time home buyer and someone thought it was a good idea to pitch these people on financing when they may not even know the basics of home ownership.

Direct marketing is about providing solutions to problems.

Now, I’m not going to tell you that the Lowes or Century21 landing pages are well designed, because they aren’t but that’s not the point of this discussion.  The point is to look at direct vs brand advertising.

Let’s take a close look at the two good ads

Both the Lowes and Century21 ad offer something to the user right off the bat………..information that may solve their problems.  They aren’t trying to sell you on cheap money or anything else for that matter.  They are attempting to fill an information void as a way of getting you to click through to their landing pages.

That is direct marketing.  It speaks to a certain segment of the market.  In this case, the segment of the market that wants to buy a house for the first time.

Now let’s see what’s doing at Yahoo

Again we see the Lowes ad, but nothing really targeting the first time home buyer in Chicago………..you think maybe a real estate agent would throw an ad up here with a free guide on buying a home.

You would think……..

Bada Boom Bada Bing…………..Nothing………take a look

Except for one or two………..the Rocket Lawyer add promotes a free home purchase worksheet……….maybe something a new home buyer could use.

Thedumbquestion.com ad isn’t too bad either

So how many PPC ads did we see across three major engines?  How many were worth the electrons used to produce them?

Very few people attempted to even craft a message to this target market.  Hell, even misguided attempts at branding were dismal.

A sad show all around, but I think you get the message about Brand vs Direct marketing………..its all about ID!