Has anybody tried Google Adwords for individual listings?

I am concerned that if Google is used primiarily by buyers that are in discovery and research phase, that this may be a waste of money.

Do you think directories like Craigs List or Trulia is better for properties that need to be moved now?

What do you plan to target as your keyword for the PPC campaign for each property? The neighborhood?

With that said, unless the neighborhood has a high search rate (can use tools like wordtracker), I don't think it's worth it. I find that Craigslist is a great exposure tool for listings and spend more of my time marketing there than on google for my listing directly.

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Steve Castaneda, Realtor
Keller Williams Realty
The MyHomeHouston Team

Specializing in Houston Real Estate. Feel free to visit my Houston Real Estate Blog or read about Real Estate Technology for agents.

Bump. I'd also be interested in this.

Trying to promote a particular property on Google is going to be difficult unless it's in a very high searched area. On the other hand, if you are always listing properties in the same area, and if that area has any sort of traffic base, it may not be a bad idea to experiment with creating a landing page that talks about your services in that area and contains listings of your relevant properties. You could even go so far as to group similar properties onto a single page depending on the local inventory. This way you can easily swap in and out properties and get them individual exposure, without always having to update your google bids to address individual listings.

I have used PPC for one specific property successfully (the final buyer found it there!). It was a very special high end mountain golf resort property, and I felt that it needed special exposure. So the keywords were more general than just the specific community, like "colorado golf resort", "colorado mountain resort homes", etc. IMO, the property would need to really stand out with special features, location, etc. to make it worth while doing a PPC campaign for. The landing page for such a campaign also needs to be compelling, with lots of photos, great copy about the home's features, virtual tours, etc.

I like Ted's suggestion, but my neighborhood PPC campaigns are for all listings in that neighborhood, not just mine. Mine would be there anyway, but I would want buyers to see everything available, not just my listings. I do put a special link to my listing(s) at the top of the neighborhood results landing page, if I have any.

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Ron Goodman, GRI, REALTOR®
Prudential Colorado Real Estate
Denver Colorado Real Estate and Homes for Sale,
AdWords PPC Consulting and Support for REALTORS®
Hobby: Goodman Family History and Genealogy

Has any one thought of doing "co-operative" PPC?

What I mean is this. Suppose a group of realtors got together on a webpage and placed their listings there. Then each broker idid a certain amount of PPC to that site, sort of like MLS dues. There would be a certain amount of "re-cycling" of the click through the rest of the listings after the initial landing listing. That effect, of course would be reciprocal from the other listings. Just an idea, might be crackpot, but so was the MLS once :-)

Given the advantages of having the single property listing on my own site, where the user could decide to do a complete IDX search, and see my other featured listings, why would I want to dilute my brand that way?

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Ron Goodman, GRI, REALTOR®
Prudential Colorado Real Estate
Denver Colorado Real Estate and Homes for Sale,
AdWords PPC Consulting and Support for REALTORS®
Hobby: Goodman Family History and Genealogy

I remember when my dad, long retired now, was involved in the formation of the first MLS in our small Rhode Island city. I remember the same arguments were made then about not joining the MLS.

I think the fundamental difference between your system and pay per click is like the difference between push and pull. Both methods get you there.

I would liken PPC more like the "push" part. The prospect is already looking in other areas, not your website, and you "push" your ad over beside the one they are looking at and get them to your site.

The problem with the financials is that if your property ad (we were discussing advertising a single property with PPC) didn't meet their requiirement then they would flit off to another non-affiliated website. You are bearing the entire ad cost on that property Rather than send them off into cyber-space there is still some residual ad effect since you have them on your site. Sending them to an co-operating and reciprocating PPC advertising affiliate just gets a little more mileage from the advertising dollar, that's all.

I don't know if it could be done practically, because of the problem of verification of clicks but the PPC companies are impartial 3rd parties that produce reports. Maybe just share PPC reports with each other to verify the click expenditures were done

And you still have control of the customer. You send them over only when they have searched your listings.

That's where you missed my point. If I have every available listing in the local MLS on my site via a IDX or VOW or RETS, and I make that point very clearly to them in the single property ad they clicked to see, then they should decide that they have no reason to "flit off", and every reason to stay on my website, where they can see every available listing, not just my own, and not just the single property that caught their eye from the initial search.

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Ron Goodman, GRI, REALTOR®
Prudential Colorado Real Estate
Denver Colorado Real Estate and Homes for Sale,
AdWords PPC Consulting and Support for REALTORS®
Hobby: Goodman Family History and Genealogy

Yes, I have had a ton of replies from both Craigslist and Trulia. As for managing campaigns in Google or any search engine....I would be careful. People like to fly through any home listings and the idea of paying per click on a single listing sounds scary to me.

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Homes For Sale By Owner