Real Estate Web Design and Marketing Blog

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Part of the DNA of the new breed of real estate agents is their voracious appetite for tech toys. We are all about the “shiny objects”. With the holiday gift giving season upon us, I’m sure you have started your own personal “wish list” of tech toys you want this Christmas. While this list is in no particular order of the “most wanted”, these bright and shiny objects are priced under $150 MSRP. Given our current stingy economy and the state of the housing market in many areas, I figured we all needed to be pretty smart with the budge this year. My compliments to the writers at “WIRED” Magazine and their December 2009 issue for serving as my inspiration for this post.

What Real Estate Pros Want Most This Christmas!

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Many of my clients have been approached by a company that is trying to sell them placement for specific keywords in Yahoo and Google. Their typical sales speak is that they have only a few spots left for this keyword. They’ll then go on to tell you that for only X dollars, you can be on page one in Yahoo or Google for this keyword without any click cost. They say it’s a great deal!

So is it worth it? Not hardly. Let’s breakdown one of these “deals.” Their proposal says for $50/month this Realtor can be on page one in Yahoo for the keyword Ottawa Ontario Real Estate. Yahoo’s keyword tool tells us that last month there were 172 searches for this keyword. Their bid tool says that the cost per click for top placement (#1 position) is $.16/click. On average, your pay per click listing gets 5% of those 172 searches.

So let’s do the math.

172 times 5% at $.16 click = $1.29. That’s right! These guys want you to pay $50.00 for something that won’t even cost them $2.00! Even if you were able to capture 100% of those searches (impossible since your not the only listing on a search results page) you would still only pay less than $28 bucks!

So what’s your best bet? Cut out the middle man. The great thing about PayPerClick is you only Pay-Per-Click. Don’t pay $50.00 for something only worth $1.29.

One final word of caution: don’t jump out there and sign up for Google and Yahoo PPC yourself. Blindly getting into PPC can cost you lots of money. It’s best to have a company manage your click campaign for you. The small fee involved can save you big dollars in the long run. And be sure to ask if they are “Certified” in both Yahoo and Google.

If you are ready to get started, or have a question about PayPerClick, give us a call and we will be happy to help!

Looking to read some more on the local real estate market? The Seattle Times has a Home and Real Estate section that provides lots of interesting information, including a section on just about every neighborhood in Seattle.