I saw an interesting pay per click ad this morning and I wanted to take a moment to talk about pay per click. Many Realtors use pay per click to drive traffic to their websites or a specific listing within their web site. The problem I find is that pay per click is not used to drive quality traffic to the website. When your paying for someone to enter your website, it should be someone that is qualified for what you are offering. Here is what I saw and I found it rather odd.
I saw this ad (domain has been removed) at the top of an expensive Google pay per click term:
I thought it was interesting, so I clicked it.
I was sent directly to the listing within the agents site. The 2 things that I noticed are what made me write this post.
1. The price of the condo was nowhere to be found on the listings page within the agents website
2. The condo is NOT in Vancouver but in New Westminster (30 Minutes Away)
I found the MLS number on their listing page so I took that and entered it into www.realtylink.org to find that the price just under 2 Million.
Here is some feedback on this pay per click as maybe it will help you with your campaign:
1. The ad should of had New Westminster not Vancouver (as there is a big difference)
~ I would not have clicked it if I knew it was New Westminster
2. The price should have been on the pay per click ad.
~ I would not have clicked it if I knew the price was almost $2 Million
3. Their website should of had the price on it. I ended up on www.realtylink.org to find the information I was looking for. For those that don’t know, realtylink.org is a website published by the Vancouver Real Estate Board that has all of the agents information and listings on it.
I assume that there was no price as it was thought to be a “lead generator” that will get people to call or email… who knows, maybe it was an oversight.
I just thought that it was interesting to see an agent pay to get me to their website…. for a listing that was not as advertised…. onto a page that was missing information… and finally over to a website that has all of the agents listings and information on it.
Maybe I’m missing something?
11/3/2006 at 8:17 am
It’s strange how people think they have to keep some information to generate lead. I think they just are either sending people away (like you) or answering a lot of irrelevant phone calls.
Also don’t you hate the vagueness of location in the Real Estate Business? I may be an exception, but I know the place I want to live almost at the block level, and I always have to dig through tons of vaguely located listing to find what I want.
11/3/2006 at 8:27 am
Jean-Francois, yes I agree. Hiding information to gain a “lead” I don’t think is the way to go. The internet is about getting the information out there. I think a better “lead” is when someone is contacting you to view the property.
As for location, I firmly agree. In downtown Vancouver (which is quite small) there are 4 neighbourhoods, West End, Coal Harbour, Yaletown and Gastown. Most people that want to live in downtown, have picked a specific area and the other 3 areas don’t interest them. Saying “downtown” in an ad is not enough, it should say “yaletown” or “coal Harbour” etc.
11/8/2006 at 7:31 pm
I use pay per click in a more general way, not for a specific listing. Since I specialize in helping people relocate to the Northwest and specifically the Bellingham-Mount Baker area,I use key words that they (my target clients) may use when searching for primary, second or third homes or investment property in this area-even in this region. I have been marginally satisfied with the results.
Luanne-Relocate Northwest