What do you expect as a return on your investment?

[Ryocheck]

The internet has been a great source of leads for me and I use a bit of PPC advertising. You just need to make sure you target the right keywords, convert well and don't overpay per click. Otherwise you will find yourself working for Google & Yahoo not yourself.

[Joelrunner]

I wouldn't recommend that any Realtor set their sights on any less than 200% ROI (and THAT'S if you're on a 100% split with your office!)

Think of it this way: A 200% ROI means that you had to spend $3500 to get a $7000 commission. If you're on a 50% split with your broker, you'd need to get a $14,000 commission!

Honestly, I think with a good CRM tool, 1000% to 1200% ROI is easily attainable. (That's assuming you keep 100% of the commission, and you don't count the referral business that will trickle in as a result of giving stellar "tell a friend about me" service. If that's the case, you're talking 2000% to 3600% ROI!)

10% ROI is selling yourself WAAAAY short.

[JohnWoodward]

10% click through, 10% of those sign up, 10% of the signups buy in the next year. My cost was about $1.12 per click so for a $3000 commission (being conservative), I would figure I spend $112.00. Works all day long.

[webmaster]

Those numbers can't be accurate - 10% click through? Not common on keywords, haven't seen it consistent, usually a lot lower on ads. 10% conversion of visitor to lead - this is quite good, but totally possible. 10% web leads to deals (PPC or otherwise) - I have never had a realtor in tends of thousands claim the convert like that from ppc or organic leads in a market like sarasota (PPC is what it is - so I can believe the 1.12) - If those truly are your numbers John congrats to being well on your way to being the most successful realtor in your area - all you need to do is increase the budget

[webmaster]

Note - please do not dredge up threads from 2008, its definitely a forum faux pas

[JohnWoodward]

Sorry, I didn't notice the date of the last post when I posted. I am fairly new to all of this compared to many that are here.

I know a lot of people are asking about PPC and I thought my experiences would be helpful. I went back to get the exact numbers. I whittled down my keywords in PPC to just a handful of well producing keywords by trial and error. The best keywords I had for all time received 12,078 impressions with 1,218 clicks according to AdWords. The point is to adapt from a long list of keywords and play with the ads to the point where you know what is working and what is not. I stopped the regular PPC campaign at the end of May because the organic searches were keeping me busy enough. According to analytics for the same period, it says I had 1,405 paid visits for the same phrase (not sure why they don't agree). Analytics reported and 8.83% signup rate.

I also failed to mention that my impression to lower the bid to be anything but on the first page is often counter productive. By the time someone gets to the 3rd page they are pretty much tired of going through sites (my opinion). The best approach is to pay the bid to be at or near the top and the click through rate and signups are higher. I don't have a chart or record to prove that but my decision to bid high was from noticing the clicks dropped off as placement went to secondary pages. I also quickly started to turn off keywords and ads that didn't produce over 2-3% click through and ones that did have many impressions. Run with the winners.

Maybe it was beginners luck on my part but a lot of folks shy away from PPC and really, they shouldn't. It can be a great way to get people to your site while you build and do all the things that take time.

Thanks for the reply and sorry for not paying attention to the date of the last post. You have a great site and forum here and I hope to be able to share and help out in the future.

[Nashville Real Estate]

I agree with Ronnie. You can have all the leads dumped in your lap than you could ever dream of, but if you're not doing the proper follow up with those leads, then they'll never generate ROI.