Before you launch a real estate PPC campaign, before you even press “Start,” you want to give that campaign the best chance of success.
When it does launch, you want to collect clicks from motivated sellers or interested buyers, and you want your cost-per-click to stay within budget.
Easier said than done, of course. You might think that a campaign will convert like a million bucks, but then you launch it… and it doesn’t.
(You’ve been there, right?)
How can you possibly know what’s going to convert well and what isn’t before you even launch the campaign? Well, ultimately, you can’t. But you can use a few simple copywriting tricks to increase the chance that your ad is a winner.
Because when it comes to platforms such as Google Ads, it’s just words on a page, no images or video allowed. So let me walk you through 8 ad copy for real estate PPC campaigns tips that will have you lowering your cost-per-click and increasing your conversion rate in no time.
But before we dive in, you need to beware of the character limits the different ad platforms have. Character limits can make crafting ad copy a little difficult, so you’ll need to have an idea before writing.
Google Ads:
15 headlines with 30 characters for each headline.
4 descriptions lines with 90 characters for each description.
Option to pin your headlines and descriptions in specific positions of your ads.
Set your display URL path.
Set your final URL like a normal expanded text ad.
Microsoft (Bing) Ads:
Titles 30 characters each, up to three ad titles
Ad text 90 characters each, up to two ad descriptions
Final URL 2048 characters, including prefix (e.g., “www.”), suffix (e.g., “.com”), and tracking templates
Facebook Ads:
Facebook ad specs for single image ads are:
Text: 90 characters
Headline: 25 characters
Link Description: 30 characters
Limits change a bit for carousel ads:
Text: 90 characters
Headline: 40 characters
Description: 20 characters
8 Tips To Write High-Converting Ad Copy For Real Estate PPC Campaigns
Tip #1: Write 3 Ads And Choose The Best One
Writing three ads from the get-go rather than one can help get your creative juices flowing and give you more ideas for connecting with your audience and getting them to convert. I do this for lots of different ad copy, and I find that the last one I write is usually the best, because you start getting in your flow, and the ideas become more solid as you write them down.
Give this a try: write down three complete ads, headlines and descriptions, and see which one you like the most. More than likely, one will stand out among the rest. This is a quick way to make sure you’re not running an ad just because it was the first thing that came to mind. Your brain needs to simmer a bit before it comes up with high-converting ad copy.
Let me give it a swing to show you what I mean…
Need to sell your home fast for cash??
Foreclosure? Probate? Divorce? We can help you through your difficult life situation, putting a fair cash amount right in your pocket faster than anyone else (within just a week).
Need to sell your house for cash in one week?
Foreclosure? Probate? Divorce? Whatever you’re going through, we’re real estate investors who buy properties fast for cash to the benefit of sellers like you.
Sell Your House For Cash in Just One Week [1,257 Properties Purchased]
Foreclosure? Probate? Divorce? Whatever you’re going through, we’re real estate investors who buy properties fast for cash to the benefit of sellers like you. We’ll make your difficult situation easier.
Tip #2: Run Consistent A/B Tests
If you’re in the real estate business for the long run, which you are, then you’re going to be doing a lot of marketing. And the more you learn about what makes motivated sellers and buyers tick, the better ads you’ll be able to write.
And perhaps the best way to learn more about your target market — what makes them click and convert — is to A/B test pieces of your sales copy.
Do not, though, A/B test two totally different ads. While that can be interesting anecdotally, you can’t possibly pull any quantitative information from those tests since there are too many differing factors.
Instead, choose which part of an ad you want to test, and then create two ads that are identical, save for the one element that you want to test (headline, for instance).
Here’s an example of an A/B test where the marketer tested the description (pretty significant difference in results for such a small change).
Tip #3: Spend 3 Times as Long On Your Title
If you’ve spent any time as a copywriter, then you’ve heard it a million times: the headline is the most important part of your ad. It’s what people see first, and, in the case of Google ads, it’s often the only thing they look at before they click.
If that doesn’t illustrate the importance of your headline, I don’t know what does.
Make sure you dedicate a little extra time to brainstorm a title that resonates with your target market. I always do this for the articles I write, so let me show you what this might look like.
First, you want to start with a basic ad headline.
Sell Your House Fast For Cash!
Then you want to look for places to add specificity to the title (specificity is enticing, vagueness isn’t). Here’s an idea.
Get a Fair Cash Offer On Your House in Just 24 Hours!
That’s a little better. If we’re willing to do more targeted advertising, we can make it even more specific.
Going Through a Divorce? Sell Your House Fast For Cash
Or…
Dealing With Foreclosure? Sell Your House For Cash Now!
You can see how each title gets better as I spend a little more time thinking about it. The same will be true when drafting headlines for your Google ads.
Google Ads Tips: Including your keyword within your title can help increase your Quality Score.
Tip #4: Try Using These Power Words
Different words trigger different thoughts and different emotions. Fortunately, most people are very similar, and certain words trigger similar emotions. Using words that evoke the right emotion can be extremely effective at making your copy more enticing.
What words should you use? Here’s a list of power words for any sales copy you write.
- You/Your
- Because
- Introducing
- Welcome
- Unique
- Announcing
- Secret
- Hidden
- Truth
- Temptation
- Now
- Discover
- New
- Win
- Cheap
- Free
- Lazy
- Humiliation
- Alone
- Reject
- Stress
Here are a couple of examples of these and other similar power words in Google Ad campaigns:
And here are a couple of examples of these and other similar power words in Facebook Ads:
If you’re a Carrot member, don’t miss the opportunity to learn from the industry’s top Facebook marketers. Check out the Facebook Leads Masterclass today!
Tip #5: Touch On The Prospect’s Emotional Pain Or Desire
When you’re writing sales copy, your goal is to connect with your prospect’s emotional pain or desire (depending on if you’re trying to attract sellers or buyers). No one buys anything or commits to anything without first seeing a vision in their head — a vision for how that product or service might solve their problem or give them something they desire.
No one buys a car without first imagining owning it. No one buys a house without first walking around and imagining living in it. And no one will work with you unless they can see the tangible benefits of doing so.
Your copy should wise-up to that and try to get the prospect to imagine what it’ll be like to work with your business.
For example…
Get Your Life Back — Sell Your House Fast For Cash
Sick and tired of dealing with the demands of foreclosure, probate, or divorce? Well, we can’t solve everything, but we can make you a fair cash offer on your home and close in just one week… Can you imagine no more worry?
Reduce Stress — Sell Your House For a Fair Cash Offer in One Week
Stressed from difficult life situations? We’ve helped hundreds of people sell their house fast for cash and get their life back. Ready to start enjoying life again?
Tip #6: Try Statistics or a Case Study
One of the best ways to make your Google Ads copy more enticing is to use statistics or a case study. This builds credibility for your business and makes your promise more believable.
Here are some examples of what I mean… notice how the data makes them far more enticing than some previous examples.
Need to Sell Your House Fast? I Just Handed This Person $50,000… Cash [Case Study]
Let me tell you a quick story about someone who just sold their house to me in one week for $50,000. You can do the same thing… but first I need you to understand this simple process…
Need Quick Cash For Your House? We Can Help [1,500+ Offers Sent]
When you’re needing to sell your house fast for cash, we’re the people you come to. We’ve made more than 1,500 cash offers and helped hundreds of people out of difficult situations. You ready?
Tip #7: Respond To Common Objections
If you know what objections people will have when they read your ad, why not deal with them right from the beginning? Maybe not in your headline… but definitely in your description.
Here are some of the most common objections people have about working with real estate pros…
- Can I trust you? — First and foremost, people want to know that they can trust you and your business. Real estate is a big transaction, the biggest transaction that most people will ever deal with, and it’s for that reason that people so carefully try to vet who they’re going to work with to ensure that they’re the real deal.
- Can I buy or sell fast? — Speed is important if you’re dealing with motivated buyers or sellers. No one wants to wait around forever to get their pain salved or their desire fulfilled.
- Will it be difficult? — People want to know that you will do all the legwork. They don’t want to have to do anything difficult themselves.
- How much will it cost me? — No one wants to be nickel and dime’d. Tell people how much it’ll cost them and move on with it.
- What’s the catch? — Most people think that everyone is trying to manipulate them, especially marketers, so indicating that there are “no strings attached” can be a helpful sales strategy.
Tip #8: Study Your Competition
A great way to get ideas for your own Google Ads campaign is to spy on the competition and see what top agent and investors in your market are doing. Then you can either copy them, try to do better than them, or do something completely different. Either way, you can make more informed decisions when you know what the competition is doing.
You can use a tool like SpyFu to do competitive keyword research. Or you can keep it simple and type your target keyword phrase into Google and see what ads come up.
Conclusion
You can’t know whether an un-launched ad will perform as you want it to. Only once you hit the big red button can you measure your cost-per-click and the ROI of your ad campaign (we do have a nifty calculator over here for calculating your PPC ad budget).
But these eight PPC Ads copywriting tips will give your ads a far better chance of winning the click and the day. Give them a try, and let us know how it turns out!