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  • How to Conduct Keyword Research for Google Ads for Real Estate Investors

    How to Conduct Keyword Research for Google Ads for Real Estate Investors

    Keyword Research for google ads for real estate investors

    Keyword research is the foundation of successful Google Ads campaigns. It helps you discover the search terms your ideal clients are using, allowing you to align your ads with their needs and intent. For real estate investors, targeting the right keywords is crucial for reaching motivated buyer and seller leads—those actively searching to sell quickly or find investment deals.

    In a competitive market, effective keyword research ensures you attract high-intent traffic, not just clicks. This guide is designed for real estate investors, particularly those using platforms like Carrot and will help you find and use the best keywords to optimize your Google Ads and maximize your ad spend.

    Why Keyword Research is Crucial for Real Estate Investors: Boost Leads and Slash Costs

    Real estate is one of the most competitive industries in online advertising, with countless agents and investors fighting for attention. Without a solid keyword strategy, your Google Ads can easily get lost. Keyword research is the key to standing out by targeting the exact search terms your audience is using.

    For real estate investors, reaching motivated sellers and buyers is essential. These leads are ready to take action, whether it’s selling their house fast for cash or finding investment properties. Keywords like “sell my house fast” or “cash home buyers” attract high-intent leads who need quick solutions.

    Precise keyword targeting ensures you spend your budget wisely, bringing in qualified leads rather than unqualified clicks. By focusing on phrases like “off-market properties” or “investment homes for sale,” you’ll connect with serious buyers and sellers in need of fast results.

    In a competitive niche like real estate, you need a focused strategy—and that begins with smart keyword research.

    Setting the Foundation: Understanding Search Intent

    Before diving into keyword research, it’s essential to understand the concept of search intent. Search intent refers to the purpose behind a user’s query on Google. There are three main types of search intent: transactional, navigational, and informational.

    • Transactional Intent: This type of intent indicates that the user is ready to take action, such as making a purchase or completing a form. In the context of real estate investing, keywords with transactional intent are often associated with users who are motivated to sell their property quickly or find investment opportunities, such as “sell my house fast” or “buy investment properties in .”
    • Navigational Intent: The user is looking for a specific website or platform. For example, a real estate investor may use keywords like “Carrot real estate website” or “best real estate investor tools” to directly find a product or service they’ve heard about.
    • Informational Intent: These users are seeking knowledge or research on a topic. In real estate, this could include searches like “how to sell a house by owner” or “real estate market trends 2024.” While important for brand visibility, these keywords typically lead to people who are still in the research phase and not yet ready to convert.

    For real estate investors focused on generating leads, the most valuable search intents to target are transactional and navigational. These users are further along in their decision-making process and are more likely to convert into leads. Transactional keywords are key because they signal immediate action. Navigational keywords, while often brand-specific, are also valuable because they indicate the user knows what they want and are actively seeking your service.

    Search intent directly impacts the type of ads you create and the keywords you prioritize. For instance, a person searching “sell my house fast” has clear transactional intent—they are looking for a quick solution, and your ad should reflect urgency and a direct call to action, like “Get a Cash Offer Today.” In contrast, someone searching for “real estate market trends 2024” is still in the research phase, so while they may not convert right away, nurturing these leads with content and retargeting ads can eventually pay off.

    Let’s take two examples to illustrate how search intent affects keyword strategy:

    • A person searching for “sell my home fast in ” likely has transactional intent. They want a fast, direct solution, making this keyword ideal for investors targeting motivated sellers.
    • Someone searching for “how much is my home worth” may be researching the market and not yet ready to act. While they may be worth capturing for long-term nurturing, this type of keyword would fall under informational intent.

    Understanding search intent allows you to align your keywords with your goals, ensuring that your ads are displayed to users who are most likely to convert. Focusing on transactional and navigational keywords can result in higher-quality leads and a more effective ad strategy for real estate investors.

    Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting Keyword Research for Real Estate Google Ads

    Option 1: Use Google’s Keyword Planner

    Google’s Keyword Planner is a powerful tool that helps advertisers discover relevant keywords for their campaigns. It provides valuable insights into keyword search volume, competition, and cost-per-click (CPC), making it an essential resource for real estate investors looking to optimize their Google Ads.

    By using this tool, you can find keywords that target motivated sellers and buyers, ensuring that your ads reach the right audience.

    How to Access and Navigate the Tool

    1. Create a Google Ads Account: If you haven’t already, sign up for a Google Ads account at ads.google.com. You’ll need to provide some basic information about your business.
    2. Access Keyword Planner: Once your account is set up, click on the “Tools & Settings” icon (wrench) in the upper right corner of the Google Ads dashboard. Under the “Planning” section, select “Keyword Planner.”
    3. Choose Your Option: You will see two options:
      • Discover new keywords: This option helps you find keywords related to your business or website.
      • Get search volume and forecasts: This option allows you to enter keywords and see their historical performance metrics.
    4. For the purpose of this guide, select “Discover new keywords.”

    Step-by-Step Process to Find Relevant Real Estate Keywords

    1. Enter Your Ideas: In the “Discover new keywords” section, start by entering terms related to your business. Think about phrases that motivated sellers or buyers might use. For example, you could enter “sell my house fast,” “cash home buyers,” or “investment properties.”
    2. Select Location and Language: Adjust the targeting options to focus on your specific market. You can set the location to your city or region to find local keywords. Ensure the language is set to your target audience’s language (typically English).
    3. Click on “Get Results”: After entering your keywords and adjusting the settings, click the “Get Results” button to see the keyword suggestions.
    4. Analyze the Results: You’ll be presented with a list of keyword ideas along with important data, including:
      • Average monthly searches: Indicates how many searches are performed on average each month.
      • Competition: Shows how competitive a keyword is, rated as low, medium, or high.
      • Top of page bid: Provides an estimated cost-per-click for that keyword.
    5. Filter and Sort: Use the filter options to narrow down your results. For example, you can filter by competition level or search volume to find the most relevant keywords for your ads.
    6. Select Relevant Keywords: Identify keywords that align with your goals. For example, look for terms like “we buy houses,” “quick cash offers,” and “sell my property fast.” These keywords indicate strong transactional intent and can help you reach motivated sellers.
    7. Add Keywords to Your Plan: Once you’ve identified a list of potential keywords, you can add them to your plan by clicking the checkbox next to each keyword and then selecting “Add to plan.”

    Example Keywords for Real Estate Investors

    Here are some example search phrases you might find using Google’s Keyword Planner:

    • Motivated Sellers:
      • “Sell my house fast”
      • “Cash offer for my home”
      • “Quick home sale”
    • Cash Buyers:
      • “Cash home buyers ”
      • “Sell house for cash”
      • “Buy my house cash offer”
    • Property Listings:
      • “Investment properties for sale”
      • “Foreclosed homes for sale”
      • “Off-market properties in ”

    You can efficiently identify and select the best keywords for your real estate Google Ads campaigns using Google’s Keyword Planner. This targeted approach will enhance your ability to connect with motivated buyers and sellers, ultimately driving more qualified leads to your business.

    Option 2: Leverage Carrot’s Keyword Explorer Tool

    Carrot’s Keyword Explorer tool is an invaluable resource specifically designed to help real estate investors discover relevant keywords and optimize their online presence. This tool is integrated directly into the Carrot platform, making it easy for you to find and utilize keywords that attract motivated buyers and sellers without needing to switch between multiple applications.

    How Carrot’s Keyword Explorer Can Help Real Estate Investors

    How to Do Keyword Research for Local SEO
    1. Targeted Keyword Suggestions: Carrot’s Keyword Explorer provides keyword suggestions tailored to the real estate market. This feature helps you identify the most effective keywords to reach motivated leads who are searching for solutions like yours.
    2. SEO and PPC Integration: The tool not only helps with Google Ads keyword research but also assists in optimizing your website’s content for search engines. This dual functionality ensures that your advertising and organic efforts are aligned for maximum impact.
    3. User-Friendly Interface: Carrot’s interface is intuitive and user-friendly, making it easy to navigate even if you’re not a tech expert. This accessibility means you can spend more time focusing on strategy and less time figuring out how to use the tool.

    Learn more about using Carrot’s Keyword Explorer tool in the in-depth tutorial.

    Benefits of Using a Tool Integrated into a Website Platform

    • Streamlined Process: Having the keyword tool integrated within your website platform means you can quickly move from keyword discovery to content creation and ad setup without leaving the Carrot ecosystem. This streamlining saves time and improves efficiency.
    • Real-Time Data: Carrot’s Keyword Explorer provides real-time data and insights, enabling you to make informed decisions quickly. You can adjust your strategy on the fly based on the latest trends and performance metrics.
    • Tailored to Your Niche: Unlike generic keyword tools, Carrot’s Keyword Explorer is specifically designed for real estate investors, ensuring that the suggestions you receive are relevant and actionable.

    Example of Uncovering Long-Tail Keywords Using the Carrot Platform

    To illustrate how to use Carrot’s Keyword Explorer to uncover valuable long-tail keywords, follow these steps:

    1. Access the Keyword Explorer: Log in to your Carrot account and navigate to the Keyword Explorer tool within your dashboard.
    2. Enter Seed Keywords: Start by entering a few seed keywords related to your business. For example, you might enter “sell my house fast,” “cash home buyers,” or “real estate investment.”
    3. Review Suggested Keywords: After clicking “Search,” the tool will generate a list of related keywords. Look for long-tail keywords—phrases that are typically three or more words long, as these often indicate stronger intent. For example, you might see suggestions like “sell my house fast for cash in ” or “best cash home buyers near me.”
    4. Analyze Metrics: Examine the suggested keywords for their search volume, competition level, and relevance to your business goals. Long-tail keywords often have lower competition but can lead to highly qualified leads.
    5. Select and Save Keywords: Choose the keywords that resonate most with your target audience and align with your campaign objectives. You can save these keywords for use in your Google Ads campaigns and website content.

    By leveraging Carrot’s Keyword Explorer tool, real estate investors can uncover valuable long-tail keywords that attract motivated buyers and sellers. This integrated approach not only enhances your advertising strategy but also strengthens your overall online presence, driving more qualified leads to your business.

    How to Analyze Competitor Keywords

    Analyzing competitor keywords is a crucial step in refining your keyword strategy for Google Ads. By understanding what keywords your competitors are targeting, you can identify gaps in your own strategy and uncover valuable opportunities to attract motivated buyers and sellers.

    How to Identify Competitor Keywords Using Tools Like Carrot Keyword Explorer, SEMrush, or Ahrefs

    1. Choose a Competitor: Start by identifying one or more of your key competitors in the real estate market. Look for businesses that operate in the same geographic area and target similar buyer and seller demographics.
    2. Access Your Chosen Tool:
      • Carrot’s Keyword Explorer: Log in to your Carrot account. Use the same instructions as above.
      • Ahrefs: Log in to your Ahrefs account and go to the “Site Explorer” feature.
      • SEMrush: Log in to your SEMrush account (or sign up for a free trial if you don’t have one). Navigate to the “Domain Analytics” section.
    3. Enter the Competitor’s Domain: In the search bar, input the URL of your competitor’s website and click “Search.” This will provide you with an overview of their website’s performance and keyword targeting.
    4. Navigate to the Keywords Section:
      • Carrot Keyword Explorer: Pull a report on your top 2-3 competitors’ sites and see their most popular keywords bringing them traffic.
      • Ahrefs: Click on “Organic Keywords” to see the keywords driving traffic to their site.
      • SEMrush: Click on “Organic Research” to view the keywords your competitor ranks for organically.
    5. Filter Keywords by Metrics: Use filters to narrow down the results based on criteria like:
      • Search Volume: Focus on keywords with substantial search volume.
      • Keyword Difficulty: Look for keywords with lower competition scores to identify more attainable targets.
      • Traffic: Check for keywords that generate significant traffic for your competitor.

    How to Evaluate Which of Your Competitors’ Keywords Are Worth Targeting

    1. Relevance: Ensure that the keywords are relevant to your business. Target keywords that align with the services you offer and the needs of your target audience, such as “sell my house fast” or “cash buyers for investment properties.”
    2. Search Intent: Consider the search intent behind the keywords. Focus on transactional keywords that indicate potential leads are ready to act rather than purely informational terms.
    3. Competition Analysis: Analyze the competition for each keyword. Use the tools to see how many advertisers are bidding on the keyword and how much they are spending. This can give you an idea of the keyword’s value and potential ROI.
    4. Gaps and Opportunities: Look for keywords that your competitors rank for but you do not. These gaps can represent lucrative opportunities for you to target in your campaigns.

    Example of Dissecting a Competitor’s Google Ads Campaign for Valuable Keyword Ideas

    To find the keywords your competitors are using and leverage Carrot’s Keyword Explorer, follow these steps:

    1. Access Carrot’s Keyword Explorer Tool

    • Log in to your Carrot.com account.
    • Navigate to the Keyword Explorer tool from your dashboard.

    2. Research Competitor Domains

    • In the Keyword Explorer, input the URL of a competitor’s website or landing page. This will allow the tool to analyze their content and provide keyword insights.
    • Click Search to see what keywords your competitor is ranking for organically.

    3. Analyze Competitor Keywords

    • Review the keyword suggestions that appear based on your competitor’s domain.
    • Focus on high-intent keywords related to real estate investing or home selling, such as “sell my house fast,” “cash home buyers,” or “investment properties.”
    • Pay attention to the search volume, difficulty, and click-through-rate (CTR) estimates to prioritize valuable keywords.

    4. Look for Long-Tail Keyword Opportunities

    • Scroll through the results for long-tail keywords—these are often less competitive and can provide opportunities for local targeting. For example, “sell my house fast in ” or “cash buyers [Location].”

    5. Refine Your List

    • Filter the results by relevance, competition, or search volume to create a refined list of keywords.
    • Export this list to compare it with your own keyword strategy or to test it in your Google Ads campaign.

    6. Incorporate Competitor Keywords Into Your Campaign

    • Take the top-performing keywords and incorporate them into your Google Ads campaign. Based on these high-performing terms, create new ad groups or update existing ones.

    7. Monitor and Iterate

    • Once you’ve implemented competitor keywords in your campaign, regularly monitor their performance. Use Carrot’s platform to track how well these keywords drive traffic and conversions, making adjustments as needed.

    By using Carrot’s Keyword Explorer, you can easily dissect a competitor’s campaign, find valuable keyword opportunities, and use this data to outperform them in your own Google Ads efforts.

    Long-Tail Keywords for Local Targeting

    Long-tail keywords are search phrases that typically contain three or more words and are highly specific to the user’s intent. In niche markets like real estate, long-tail keywords hold significant value. They not only help you target a more specific audience but also reduce competition, making it easier to rank in search engines and attract qualified leads. For real estate investors, long-tail keywords can connect you directly with motivated sellers and buyers in your local market.

    The Value of Long-Tail Keywords in Niche Markets

    1. Higher Conversion Rates: Because long-tail keywords are more specific, they often attract users who are further along in the buying or selling process. For example, someone searching for “sell my house fast in ” is likely ready to take action, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
    2. Reduced Competition: Long-tail keywords typically have lower search volumes, but they also face less competition compared to broader terms. This makes it easier to rank higher in search engine results and have your ads displayed to the right audience.
    3. Targeted Traffic: By focusing on long-tail keywords, you can draw in highly targeted traffic that aligns closely with your business objectives. This means your ads are more likely to be seen by individuals who are genuinely interested in your services.

    How Real Estate Investors Can Use Geo-Specific Long-Tail Keywords to Target Local Leads

    1. Identify Your Target Market: Start by determining the geographic areas where you want to focus your marketing efforts. This could be specific neighborhoods, cities, or regions.
    2. Incorporate Location into Keyword Phrases: Use your identified locations to create geo-specific long-tail keywords. This involves adding the city or neighborhood name to your main keyword phrase. For instance, instead of simply using “cash home buyers,” you would use “cash home buyers in .”
    3. Utilize Keyword Research Tools: Use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or Carrot’s Keyword Explorer to identify local long-tail keywords relevant to your area. Search for phrases that potential sellers might use when looking for quick solutions.
    4. Test Variations: Consider different variations of long-tail keywords that may resonate with your target audience. For instance, you might try phrases like “we buy houses in ,” “sell my house quickly in [Neighborhood],” or “investors buying homes in [Location].”

    Examples of Long-Tail Keywords for Local Targeting

    Here are some examples of effective long-tail keywords for real estate investors targeting local leads:

    • “Sell my house fast in ”: This phrase directly targets homeowners who need to sell their property quickly and indicates a sense of urgency.
    • “Cash home buyers [Location]”: This keyword targets individuals searching for cash buyers in a specific area, showcasing your capability to provide quick and hassle-free transactions.
    • “Sell my property in [Neighborhood]”: This variation narrows the focus even further, appealing to homeowners in a specific neighborhood looking to sell.
    • “We buy houses in ”: This keyword signals that you are a buyer actively looking for properties, which can attract motivated sellers.
    • “Best real estate investors in [Location]”: This keyword helps position you as a reputable investor in your area, attracting potential sellers who are seeking trustworthy buyers.

    By leveraging geo-specific long-tail keywords, real estate investors can effectively target local leads, increase their visibility in search results, and ultimately drive higher-quality traffic to their ads and websites. This focused approach not only enhances your marketing efforts but also increases the likelihood of converting leads into sales.

    Negative Keyword Research

    Negative keyword research is a crucial aspect of optimizing your Google Ads campaigns. By identifying and utilizing negative keywords, you can prevent your ads from appearing for irrelevant search queries to your business. This helps to avoid unqualified clicks, which can waste your budget and skew your campaign performance metrics.

    Importance of Using Negative Keywords to Avoid Unqualified Clicks

    1. Cost Efficiency: Negative keywords help ensure that your ads are only shown to users who are genuinely interested in your services. By filtering out irrelevant traffic, you can maximize your advertising budget and improve your return on investment (ROI).
    2. Improved Click-Through Rate (CTR): When your ads appear for more relevant searches, you’re likely to receive a higher click-through rate. This not only boosts your ad performance but also enhances your Quality Score in Google Ads, which can lower your CPC over time.
    3. Better Lead Quality: By eliminating unqualified clicks, you increase the chances of attracting leads who are more likely to convert. This means you can focus on potential sellers and buyers who are genuinely interested in your services.

    How to Identify and Add Negative Keywords to Save Budget

    1. Review Search Terms Report: Start by reviewing your Google Ads account’s Search Terms report. This report shows the actual search queries that triggered your ads. Look for terms that are irrelevant to your business or that led to clicks without conversions.
    2. Identify Irrelevant Terms: Make a list of search queries that don’t align with your target audience or business goals. For example, if you notice terms like “real estate agent jobs” or “rental properties” leading to clicks, these should be added as negative keywords.
    3. Use Keyword Research Tools: You can also use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or other keyword research tools to identify common terms that may not be relevant to your campaigns. Look for keywords that fall outside of your services or target audience.
    4. Create a Negative Keyword List: Once you have identified the irrelevant terms, create a list of negative keywords. This list can be organized into categories, such as job-related terms, rental property terms, or unrelated services.
    5. Add Negative Keywords to Your Campaigns:
    • In Google Ads, go to the “Keywords” tab for your campaign.
    • Click on “Negative Keywords” and then select “Add Negative Keywords.”
    • Enter your identified negative keywords or upload them in bulk if you have a long list.
    • Save your changes to ensure that your ads are no longer triggered by these terms.

    Examples of Negative Keywords to Avoid

    Here are some common examples of negative keywords that real estate investors might consider adding to their campaigns:

    • “Real estate agent jobs”: This term attracts individuals looking for employment opportunities rather than those interested in buying or selling properties.
    • “Rental properties”: If your focus is on buying homes or properties, you may want to exclude this term to avoid attracting renters.
    • “Free home appraisal”: This term might attract users looking for free services rather than those interested in selling their homes.
    • “How to become a real estate investor”: This term indicates a search for information on entering the industry rather than someone ready to buy or sell.
    • “Real estate courses”: Users searching for educational materials may not be looking to engage in a transaction.

    By conducting thorough negative keyword research and regularly updating your negative keyword list, you can enhance the efficiency of your Google Ads campaigns. This will help you avoid unqualified clicks, save your budget, and ultimately drive more qualified leads to your real estate business.

    Refining Your Keyword List Based on Search Volume, Competition, and Cost

    Once you’ve gathered a list of potential keywords for your Google Ads campaigns, it’s essential to refine it based on key metrics: search volume, competition, and cost. This process will ensure that you focus your efforts on the most effective keywords that align with your budget and marketing goals.

    How to Evaluate Keyword Search Volume and Competition in the Real Estate Niche

    1. Understand Search Volume: Search volume indicates how often a particular keyword is searched for in a given period, typically monthly. Higher search volume generally means more potential traffic, but it can also indicate higher competition.
      • Use Tools: Access tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner to get insights into the average monthly searches for your keywords. This tool will clearly show which keywords are frequently searched in your niche.
    2. Assess Competition: Competition reflects how many advertisers bid on a particular keyword. Keywords with high competition can be challenging to rank for, especially if you have a limited budget.
      • Competitive Analysis: In Google Ads Keyword Planner, you can see a competition rating (low, medium, or high) for each keyword. A high-competition keyword might require a larger budget to achieve visibility, while low-competition keywords could be more cost-effective.
    3. Consider the Niche: In the real estate niche, some keywords may have inherently high search volume and competition (e.g., “buy a house”) while others may be more niche-specific (e.g., “sell my house fast in ”). Focus on keywords that balance between relevance to your business and the likelihood of conversion.

    Balancing High-Intent Keywords with Affordability

    1. Identify High-Intent Keywords: High-intent keywords indicate the user is ready to act. For example, keywords like “sell my house quickly” or “cash home buyers near me” show strong intent and should be prioritized.
    2. Evaluate Cost Per Click (CPC): Along with search volume and competition, consider the estimated cost per click (CPC) for each keyword. This will give you an idea of how much you’ll need to budget for each click.
      • Finding Affordability: Compare the CPC with the potential return on investment (ROI) from leads generated through those keywords. If a high-intent keyword is too expensive, it might not be worth the investment compared to a more affordable option that also drives qualified traffic.
    3. Create a Balanced List: Aim for a balanced keyword list that includes a mix of high-intent, medium-competition keywords that fit within your budget. Prioritize those that align with your business goals and have the potential for higher conversions.

    Using Tools Like Google Ads Planner, Carrot’s Keyword Explorer or Third-Party Platforms for Detailed Data

    1. Google Ads Keyword Planner or Carrot’s Keyword Explorer:
      • Enter your seed keywords and view suggestions for related keywords, along with their search volumes, competition levels, and CPC estimates.
      • Use this data to filter and sort keywords based on your criteria, allowing you to create a focused and effective keyword list.
    2. Third-Party Platforms:
      • Consider using tools like Carrot’s Keyword Explorer, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz for additional keyword insights. These platforms often provide more detailed data on keyword performance, including historical trends, organic traffic estimates, and competitor analysis.
      • These insights can help you identify emerging trends and keywords that may be gaining traction, allowing you to stay ahead of the competition.
    3. Regularly Update Your Keyword List: The real estate market can change rapidly, so it’s essential to regularly revisit and refine your keyword list based on performance data and changes in search behavior. Use your chosen tools to track which keywords drive the best results and adjust your strategy accordingly.

    By evaluating keyword search volume, competition, and cost, you can refine your keyword list to focus on the most effective terms for your Google Ads campaigns. This strategic approach will help you maximize your budget, attract high-intent leads, and improve your overall campaign performance in the competitive real estate niche.

    Testing and Iterating on Keywords

    Once you have refined your keyword list, the next step is to test and iterate on your keywords through small-budget campaigns. This process allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your selected keywords and make necessary adjustments to improve your overall ad performance.

    How to Test Your Initial Keyword List with Small-Budget Campaigns

    1. Set Up a New Campaign:
      • Create a new Google Ads campaign focused specifically on your refined keyword list. Set a modest budget that allows you to gather data without risking too much of your advertising budget.
      • Choose relevant ad formats, such as search ads, and create compelling ad copy that aligns with the intent of your chosen keywords.
    2. Implement Keyword Grouping:
      • Organize your keywords into tightly themed ad groups. For example, group keywords related to selling homes together and those related to cash buyers in another group.
      • This organization helps ensure that your ad copy is relevant to the keywords being targeted, which can improve your click-through rate (CTR).
    3. Launch the Campaign:
      • Once your campaign is set up, launch it and allow it to run for a sufficient period, usually a few weeks. This timeframe will give you enough data to analyze performance while avoiding premature conclusions.

    Monitoring Performance Metrics (CTR, CPC, Conversion Rate) to Refine Your Keyword Strategy

    1. Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
      • Monitor essential metrics such as:
        • Click-Through Rate (CTR): Indicates how often people click on your ad after seeing it. A low CTR may suggest your keywords or ad copy need adjustments.
        • Cost Per Click (CPC): Understand how much you are spending for each click. This metric helps you assess the cost-effectiveness of your keywords.
        • Conversion Rate: This measures the percentage of users who take the desired action (e.g., filling out a contact form). A high conversion rate indicates that your keywords are effectively attracting the right audience.
        • Cost Per Lead (CPL): Understand how much you are spending to acquire each lead. This metric helps you evaluate the cost-effectiveness of your campaigns in generating qualified prospects.
    2. Analyze Performance Data:
      • After your campaign has run for a few weeks, review the performance data. Look for patterns in CTR, CPC, CPL, and conversion rates to identify which keywords are performing well.
    3. Identify Trends and Insights:
      • Determine if specific keywords consistently yield high CTRs and conversion rates. Then, prioritize these keywords in future campaigns.
      • Conversely, look for keywords with low-performance metrics. These may need to be paused or adjusted.

    Examples of Optimizing Keywords Based on Performance Data

    1. Adjusting Bids on High-Performing Keywords:
      • If you find that a keyword like “sell my house fast in ” has a high conversion rate and CTR, consider increasing your bid for that keyword to gain more visibility and traffic.
    2. Pausing Underperforming Keywords:
      • If a keyword such as “cash home buyers” has a low CTR and conversion rate, it may indicate that the keyword is attracting the wrong audience. In this case, pause this keyword to focus your budget on more effective terms.
    3. Refining Ad Copy:
      • If certain keywords are attracting clicks but not converting, analyze your ad copy. For example, if “cash home buyers near me” has a high CTR but low conversions, it might be worth refining the ad copy to better highlight your unique selling points or call to action.
    4. Adding New Keywords:
      • Based on performance insights, consider adding new long-tail keywords that align with high-performing terms. If “we buy houses in ” is successful, look for variations like “quick cash home buyers in [Neighborhood].”
    5. Implementing Negative Keywords:
      • As you analyze performance, you may discover terms that attract clicks but do not convert. For instance, if “real estate courses” is receiving clicks but leading to no conversions, add it as a negative keyword to avoid future unqualified traffic.

    By testing your initial keyword list with small-budget campaigns and closely monitoring performance metrics, you can refine your keyword strategy effectively. This iterative process allows you to make data-driven decisions, optimizing your campaigns to attract motivated buyers and sellers more effectively in the competitive real estate market.

    Pro Tips for Real Estate Keyword Research

    Effective keyword research for real estate requires a nuanced approach that goes beyond basic search terms. By employing specific strategies, you can better target motivated sellers and buyers, ultimately leading to improved ad performance and higher conversion rates. Here are some pro tips to enhance your keyword research process.

    How to Target Motivated Sellers with Emotional Keywords

    1. Understand Seller Pain Points: Motivated sellers often face emotional challenges related to their selling situation, such as stress, uncertainty, or urgency. Identifying these pain points can guide you in selecting emotional keywords that resonate with their needs.
      • Keyword Examples: Consider using keywords that evoke emotions or reflect urgency, such as:
        • “Sell my house quickly due to divorce”
        • “Need to sell my home fast for cash”
        • “Help selling my inherited property”
        • “Urgent home sale due to job loss”
    2. Create Compelling Ad Copy: Use these emotional keywords in your ad copy to connect with sellers on a personal level. Phrases like “stress-free home selling” or “quick cash offers” can attract those in distress.
    3. Test Variations: Experiment with different emotional phrases to see which resonates best with your target audience. A/B testing can be an effective way to measure engagement and conversion rates for various emotional keywords.

    Using Seasonal or Situational Keywords

    1. Identify Relevant Seasons and Situations: Different times of the year or situational contexts can influence sellers’ motivations. For instance, tax season often prompts individuals to consider selling their homes to access cash.
      • Keyword Examples:
        • “Sell my house before tax season”
        • “Home selling tips during foreclosure”
        • “Best time to sell a house in spring”
        • “Sell house fast before the holidays”
    2. Adjust Your Campaigns Seasonally: Tailor your ad campaigns to reflect seasonal trends. For example, if you notice that more sellers are looking to sell during the spring months, create targeted campaigns focusing on that timeframe.
    3. Utilize Current Events: Keep an eye on local and national events that may impact the real estate market. Keywords related to foreclosures, economic changes, or housing market shifts can attract motivated sellers during those periods.

    Keeping an Eye on Trending Search Terms in Real Estate

    1. Monitor Industry Trends: Stay updated with the latest trends in the real estate industry. Tools like Google Trends can help you track what keywords are gaining traction over time, allowing you to adapt your keyword strategy accordingly.
    2. Leverage Social Media and Forums: Platforms like Reddit, Facebook groups, or real estate forums can provide insights into what potential sellers are discussing. Look for common questions or concerns that may reveal trending keywords.
    3. Incorporate Long-Tail Variations: As new trends emerge, create long-tail keyword variations based on popular discussions or search terms. For example, if “cash home buyers” is trending, consider phrases like “best cash home buyers for fast sales” or “cash offers for houses in .”
    4. Review Competitor Keywords: Regularly analyze your competitors’ ad campaigns to see what keywords they are focusing on. This can give you insights into current trends and help you identify gaps in your own keyword strategy.

    By employing these pro tips for keyword research, real estate investors can effectively target motivated sellers and buyers, enhance their ad performance, and ultimately drive more qualified leads to their business. Adapting your keyword strategy to incorporate emotional, seasonal, and trending keywords will ensure you remain competitive in the dynamic real estate market.

    Conclusion

    In the competitive landscape of real estate, conducting thorough keyword research is essential for the success of your Google Ads campaigns. By understanding your target audience, evaluating search intent, and leveraging the right tools, you can identify keywords that attract motivated buyers and sellers. Effective keyword research helps you reach the right audience, optimizes your advertising budget, enhances lead quality, and improves your overall campaign performance.

    As you embark on your keyword research journey, use the tools and strategies outlined in this guide. From Google’s Keyword Planner to Carrot’s integrated Keyword Explorer, these resources will provide you with valuable insights and data to refine your keyword list and drive better results.

    Now is the time to take action! Use Carrot’s platform and keyword tools to enhance your keyword research process and launch winning campaigns that resonate with your audience. By focusing on the right keywords, you can position yourself effectively in the market, attract high-quality leads, and achieve your real estate investment goals. Start optimizing your campaigns today!

  • Carter Steph – Success Story

    Carter Steph – Success Story

    How Carter Steph Grew His Investing Business To $2 Million In Revenue

    How Carter Steph’s closing rate skyrocketed from 7% to 20% within a few months after switching from a custom website to Carrot.

    Snapshot:

    • Industry: Investor and Agent, licensed broker for 20 years
    • Location: Oklahoma City
    • Clients Served: 1000+
    • Year founded: Co-owner since 2016

    What I didn’t expect after switching to Carrot, is my lead to close ratio increased 50% on my offline leads!”

    Carter Steph is a real estate investor since 1992 and is also a licensed real estate broker in Oklahoma City.

    He’s also a practicing attorney for almost 20 years and has been the General Counsel at 1-800-2SellHomes since 2014 and co-owner since 2016. He’s no newbie to real estate. He and his team consistently generate seven figures per year in net profits, while closing on about 20% of their leads.

    The growth is steady and predictable.

    “You ask anybody in town, and they know us,” he said.

    Read the tips below, taken straight from Carter Steph’s 7-figure growth strategy.

    The Tools

    For Carter, Carrot is the central hub that brings all of his marketing efforts together. He’s running PPC ads to drive traffic to his site while leveraging Carrot’s easy content marketing tools and strategy to build his SEO for long-term lead generation.

    Since he’s driving traffic from all of his marketing efforts to his Carrot site, he can track performance across all campaigns and channels, giving him the clarity needed with his marketing strategy.

    Here’s how Carter is using Carrot as the central hub to tie together the marketing efforts they were once doing on their own to become the authority in their area:

    Switching from a custom website to a high-converting website

    Before Carter Steph went on his journey to $2 million in revenue in 2018, he was doing some things very differently with his website.

    In fact, with the powers of technology, I was able to dig up his several-year-old website for all of us to look at.

    Carter Steph old custom website

    Believe it or not, that custom website cost Carter and his business $5,000 upfront and $700 per month for hosting fees.

    That’s quite expensive.

    And it’s even more expensive when you find out that it had a terrible conversion rate and almost never generated any leads for Carter’s business — the leads it did generate weren’t very good quality and Carter’s close rate was only 7%.

    For that reason, they were spending $1,500 on PPC every month but $30,000 to $40,000 on TV ads.

    Then they switched to Carrot.

    Carter Steph new Carrot website

    Carter said the difference was immediate. After just two days, their new Carrot site generated its first high-quality lead. Within a few months, their close rate skyrocketed from the previous 7% to 20% because lead quality increased.

    After Trevor and Carter ran some estimations on the CarrotCast interview, they determined that Carter is saving between $20,000 and $50,000 every single month in lost lead-gen closing potential after switching from their expensive custom-made site to one of our Carrot sites.

    Wow!

    Now they close 20% of leads, their PPC budget is $8,000 per month (because their website is converting as it should be), and they’re growing like crazy. Sometimes, the small changes make a big difference. And at Carrot, small, iterative, conversion-optimization changes is exactly what we’re focused on. ;-)

    Evergreen Marketing

    In marketing terms, Evergreen is marketing you do once, and it works for years… not hours, days or weeks. Content relevant for a long time, that serves your best prospects, and gets in front of them where they’re searching online.

    Carter has organic leads grow over time using this exact marketing strategy.

    Automated blogs

    Content marketing is huge for businesses trying to establish themselves as an authority in their market. In order to do this, you have to create a lot of content, and Carrot makes it easy by providing content tools that require very little time on your part!

    SEO Keyword Tracking

    By using our keyword tracking tool, Carter can readily track the search engine rankings of his web pages. We make it easy for you to quickly gain insight into which keywords are rising and falling in Google’s results pages so that you know where your web page stands relative to other sites on similar topics.

    The Results

    2000+ Leads

    20% Closing Rate

    8 Top 3 Keyword Ranking

    Carter added $20k/mo in new profits by shifting from a fancy custom website into an
    “Authority Hub”

    We couldn’t be happier with the site so far…What we have seen is a DRAMATIC increase in web leads. Since switching to Carrot, the leads we are getting are converting to purchases at a MUCH higher level.

    Things have been moving so fast that we haven’t had the opportunity to accurately determine the lead to purchase ratio, but I would estimate it is in the 25 to 35% range, which means the leads we are getting are significantly better than our historical average.

    Thanks for everything and we are now looking at expansion because of the success we have had in such a short time.”

    Ready to Transform Your Business Like Carter?

    Launch a website in minutes and start generating high-quality leads that convert.

  • SimplySold/Beau Hollis – Success Story

    SimplySold/Beau Hollis – Success Story

    $40k Profit per Deal: The Power of Inbound Marketing w/ Beau Hollis

    SimplySold is a local, Louisville-based business that uses Carrot’s inbound marketing guidance and resources to gain new clients online. Here’s how they achieved a $40,000 per deal business using Carrot.

    Snapshot:

    • Industry: Investor
    • Location: Louisville, Kentucky
    • Carrot Member Since: 2016

    I had no world tech experience, and I just didn’t have an online presence. I didn’t want to have to build a website. So Carrot made that really easy for me.”

    Beau Hollis is the founder of SimplySold in Louisville, Kentucky.

    He’s been investing in houses for the past 7 years.

    Currently, the majority of his business involves acquisitions that he does himself. He also has an acquisitions person and a full-time videographer.

    It’s a low-key, small operation, but it has a high intention, and they go aggressively after deals.

    “You know, I spend my time and effort and energy to do this business to provide for my family, not only money but years of my life, getting this up and going to have it, work is worth, the journey is not in vain.”

    From Beau’s Carrot leads, his average profit per deal is nearly $40,000.

    He’s done $400,000 in assignments in his Carrot site alone in the last six months.

    Before using Carrot, he had no online presence and no experience in building websites.

    “I had no world tech experience, and I just didn’t have an online presence. I didn’t want to have to build a website. So Carrot made that really easy for me.

    Obviously, people cannot find you, people have no clue who you are, they can’t find your business, they don’t know if you’re in business at all, and so if they can’t find you, they can’t do business with you.

    So you have no lead flow inbound from a website.”

    At first, his vision was to dominate the outbound marketing space, whether it was cold calling, texting, or other things.

    However, the lifespan of somebody doing outbound marketing all the time is limited.

    “I have come from a background of sales, and I understand that you’re gonna do this one thing all the time, whether it’s cold calling or texting or putting out bandit signs, and there’s a lifespan to that.”

    Outbound versus inbound leads are two things that are drastically different. Outbound leads are when you’re seeking out someone. A lot of work, effort, and energy is going into it before you even think about reaching out to the person.

    Inbound marketing, or evergreen marketing, is a completely different mindset. You optimize your website with content: videos, blog posts, and testimonials.

    Inbound offers a whole other world. People are seeking you out.

    $40k Profit Per Deal | The Power of Inbound Marketing w/ Beau Hollis | A Carrot Success Story

    The challenge: Creating the path to the world of inbound marketing

    This is a business to close deals. Serious real estate agents and investors want to make Evergreen inbound marketing a real avenue, not just a little street but a highway.

    Evergreen inbound marketing takes a plan and plenty of patience. It takes a lot of video work on YouTube and on-page SEO with keywords and good content for high rankings.

    My expectation was that I’m just going to turn it on, get it up and live and then it would just bring in the people just saying, please take my house, that’s why I thought it was at the beginning when I first got, I just got it up and I just had, I just had it out there, I didn’t do any kind of optimization. I did zero, absolutely zero customization to the website.

    His website had been just sitting there for a long time. Years.

    Then, Beau had a conversation with Trevor to get the ball rolling.

    He started implementing on his website and using the tools Carrot provides our members. Keyword tracking, campaign tracking, video postings… and over time and hard work, Beau’s inbound marketing started to click.

    Once he started optimizing his site, he could see a bit of movement in his rankings.

    That movement proceeded forward for a year or two then it was time to dive into the PPC world of inbound marketing. The one-two punch of paid and organic traffic really exploded his business.

    In 2021, Beau’s Carrot leads have had an average profit per deal of roughly $40,000.

    In comparison, Beau’s outbound leads have had an average profit per deal of roughly half that.

    The tools: Carrot features

    Although the real estate niche can sometimes be inconsistent, Carrot brings consistency to Beau’s business. He can count on deal flow.

    It’s good because when you can count consistent leads, it means that you’re not stressed all of the time.

    For Beau, Carrot has become a hub that brings all his inbound marketing efforts together. Since he’s driving traffic from all inbound marketing efforts to his Carrot site, he can track performance across all campaigns and channels, giving him the clarity needed with his marketing.

    Here are some of the tools Beau is using to tie together his marketing efforts:

    Evergreen Training

    Beau needed to get many unqualified outbound leads to close deals. More leads meant more time and expense to sift through the tire kickers.

    He learned inbound online marketing with Evergreen content to attract the most qualified prospects. He’s built trust and credibility with them 24/7, 365 through his Carrot “Authority Hub.”

    Automated blogs

    Carrot’s content tools have allowed him to stand out in his market as an authority. This saves time and money and puts SimplySold at the forefront of its industry with expert quality content that he can customize for his needs.

    Keyword Tracking

    How do you know if your SEO rankings are climbing? Tracking is easy with Carrot. Simply input the keyword, and we’ll track where that particular term ranks each week, making optimizing accordingly easier!

    Campaign Tracking Links

    Learn how many leads you generate with your ads by following the conversions from them. Easily see which campaigns produce results and create a link to track click-throughs and leads better.

    CarrotCamp

    CarrotCamp is a place where people come to get inspired by other entrepreneurs, hear first-hand stories about how they built their successful businesses and strategies for success. The knowledge Beau has gained from meeting these individuals has been essential in helping him grow his own real estate investing business.

    The results:

    Beau has been successful in implementing an Evergreen inbound marketing plan. He went all-in and began building his SEO content, which he followed up with PPC. Now he has a team and consistently closes inbound deals to grow his business.

    He also knows how to scale his business using Carrot and inbound leads.

    What about you? Are you ready for consistent and predictable growth in your business?

    Ready for Consistent Growth Like Beau?

    Start generating high-quality inbound leads and build your authority in your market.

  • $125,000/Month in Deals with Inbound Marketing and the Carrot System – Brian Rockwell Success Story

    $125,000/Month in Deals with Inbound Marketing and the Carrot System – Brian Rockwell Success Story

    Brian started his journey as a coach and a middle-school teacher. Today, he’s a top real estate investor in Dallas, Texas who’s been making well above $100,000 per month from inbound marketing (SEO and PPC) and the Carrot system.

    brian rockwell texas case study

    Brian Rockwell with Sell Your House DFW, a Carrot member for about 14 months as of the time he hopped on a call with us, has been crushing the Dallas/Fort Worth market online with his real estate investing/wholesaling business.

    Here is a recent text message he sent directly to Carrot’s CEO, Trevor Mauch…

    “6 wholesale deals this month if all goes through. $124k… 4 ppc, 1 organic, 1 Facebook retargeting. 1 has closed the other 5 are under contract with a buyer and the last one waiting on a buyer. Carrot system is still rockin’” – Brian Rockwell


    Listen in or read his story as an investor, where his leads come from, and what his inbound marketing strategy is that has led to $100k of consistent deals per month.

    [Case Study] From Teacher to $80k/Month Wholesaling Real Estate  w/ Brian Rockwell


    In high school, a friend of Brian’s introduced him to his dad. Brian’s father owned a roofing company and a few other businesses he had founded in a grass-roots sort of way. In a word, he was an entrepreneur.

    It was the first time Brian remembers being introduced to an entrepreneur of that caliber. Someone who really knew what they were doing understood how to manage money and grow a business.

    Needless to say, Brian was fascinated.

    And from that day forward, Brian wanted to be an entrepreneur.

    As time went on, he became increasingly interested in the real estate investor niché, dreaming of the day that he’d make it big.

    But, what he didn’t know at the time was that he’d have to wait 12 years until that happened.


    As Brian graduated from school and joined the sect we all refer to as family life, the importance of supporting his wife and kids rose to the top of his priorities.

    In an effort to do so, he became a track, football, and baseball coach and taught classes as well. In other words, he became a phenomenal generalist, something he wasn’t particularly passionate about.

    I mean, of course, that he wasn’t passionate about being a generalist. The coaching and teaching he loved. He was able to inspire students and co-workers daily and encourage them to be the best version of themselves that he could possibly imagine.

    Brian’s evenings, lunch breaks, and weekends, though, were filled with his dream of becoming a real estate investor and being financially free — something he wanted to do but was unsure of how to do. He would scour real estate investor resources.

    Particularly, he fell in love with biggerpockets.com.

    For 5 years, this was his life. He dreamt of being a real estate investor and studied what that could look like in his free time. But most of his time was taken up by teaching, coaching, and family.


    Eventually, Brian’s wife got a job that was capable of supporting the family, and he was free to pursue his passion.

    Through a Bigger Pockets forum discussion, he found out about Carrot and went to work creating his website.

    Listening to the 3LPD training that we offer here at Carrot, Brian learned about the importance of building credibility and personality with your website.

    So, he took extra time to add a picture of his family on the “about” page.

    Brian Rockwell Real Estate Investor

    He even added a core values section to his website after researching other businesses’ core values and determining what he felt should define his business.

    sellyourhousedfw.com core values

    Besides these small changes to his Carrot website, he did very little. He customized some of the copy to fit his voice and added compelling testimonials.

    Once his website was finished, he started marketing his new passion.

    His original intention was to market his wholesaling business with traditional methods — direct mailing and what he calls “driving for dollars.” Basically, driving the streets looking for run-down houses and sending mail to those places.

    He even got his first deal through traditional marketing methods, and he got a taste for success when he made $7,300.

    But, as Brian mentions, “driving for dollars” wouldn’t be a sustainable marketing strategy.


    As Brian grew tired of driving around every evening looking for possible clients, he knew something needed to change.

    He discovered Carrot’s 3LPD training and devoted 5 hours a day for 3 weeks to the content, ingesting every soluble potential value from the modules.

    Brian quickly learned that organic traffic strategies can take a long time to generate leads if you’re in a competitive market.

    “I’m in Dallas, Texas,” he thought to himself, which is highly competitive.

    Because of this, he turned his attention to Google Ads and learned what he knew nothing about.


    His starting budget was a mere $1,200.

    But after just one month of investing money into PPC, deals of value ranging between $10,000 and $20,000 started rolling in.

    In his excitement, he invested more and more money into his PPC marketing.

    Some might think he was too forward. But he wasn’t.

    When discussing the topic, he said,

    “Would you pay $3,000 to make $30,000? I don’t know about you, but I’d take that deal all day long.”

    Brian’s perspective was that the more money he dumped into PPC, the more money he would make and the higher his ROI.


    Brian started his journey as a coach and a middle-school teacher. Today, he’s a top real estate investor in Dallas, Texas, who’s making around $80,000 every month from his business.

    He only does online lead generation — no more direct mail or “driving for dollars.”

    Brian’s website is currently at the bottom of page one for his target keywords. And that’s starting to become a focus for him, but only now that he has the time and money to invest.

    As he discusses his success, no one is more surprised than him as he says,

    “It’s awesome because once you know the formula of how to do this, it’s just do it again and keep going and going and see how you can grow it.”

    But what’s the formula?

    How does someone go from a dreamer to a doer? How does a middle-school teacher become financially free through real estate investing?

    Lucky for you, the answer isn’t as complicated as some people make it.

    Brian boils his success down to one single solitary thing: trusting Carrot’s advice and implementing everything that they suggest.

    That might sound a little sales pitchy coming from a content marketer at Carrot, but for Brian, that was exactly why he was successful.

    He learned everything he could, took the recommended risks, and optimized his website with our suggestions.

    The results speak for themselves.


    So why not you?

    Why not your business? Why not your website? Why not your family?

    If Brian rose to real estate investing success from being a middle-school teacher, you can, too. Nothing makes Brian different than you except that he chose to implement everything he learned.

    And oftentimes, the implementation makes the difference between someone who dreams of being an entrepreneur and someone who builds a successful business.

    Brian is currently working to place his business in every city in Texas, and from there, who knows.

    When you experience the kind of unexpected success that Brian enjoys, the sky’s the limit.

    As a final piece of advice from the man who’s living your dream,

    “Trust the system. That’s what I did. I put full trust in everything Carrot had to offer. Do your research. Be good at what you do. If you don’t have the skills, go learn new skills. Always push yourself. Always learn. At the end of the day, if you find something that you want to do, go all in 100%. Just kill it.


  • 9 Real Estate Business Models To Consider With Rising Interest Rates or When Inventories Are Low

    9 Real Estate Business Models To Consider With Rising Interest Rates or When Inventories Are Low

    real estate business models for 2021

    It’s often said that more millionaires are made through real estate than any other type of business. But what real estate business models do they use?

    And while it’s difficult to measure the validity of that claim, one thing’s for sure: there’s a lot of money to be made in real estate.

    Questions are often raised about whether you should become a wholesaler, a flipper, an agent or broker, or even a hybrid agent/investor.

    These questions are common in market events, as we have experienced in recent years…

    • Housing prices are up
    • Housing sales are up
    • Mortgage rates are up
    • Housing inventory numbers are down
    • The number of days on the market is down
    • Affordability is down

    Even in low inventory / high-value markets, one thing is sure: people will always buy or sell houses.

    Our Carrot member data shows a Q4 quarterly increase of 6.24% in leads over Q3.

    Carrot Member Leads Q3 2021 vs Q4 2021

    And people who put their money into real estate — buying assets rather than liabilities — ensure a lucrative future for themselves and their families.

    So the question is, how should you get into real estate?

    Here are nine real estate business models to consider. Prepare yourself for low inventory and changing interest rates.

    The Diversity of Real Estate Business Models

    There used to be just a few different real estate business models.

    If you had access to a lot of capital, you could place big bets with the fix-and-flip system and hope the market didn’t dip at the wrong time. You could also buy-and-hold real estate, steadily expanding your portfolio and net worth.

    You could become a real estate agent or broker without big money, netting 3% to 6% per transaction.

    Those were the options.

    Now things are much more diverse.

    Here are the real estate business models we will cover in this article…

    • Real estate agents
    • Wholesaling
    • Wholetailing
    • Buy and hold investing
    • House flipping
    • Remote investing
    • Listing service for FSBO
    • BRRRR
    • Hybrid agent/investor

    The good news is… there’s a real estate business model that will work with any budget. So long as you have the discipline to get started and keep going, you can win at real estate.

    The Main Challenge of These Real Estate Business Models

    While the business models below present a ton of opportunity for entrepreneurs — indeed, at Carrot, we’ve seen many agents and investors build thriving businesses in just about every market — they’re not free of challenges.

    These challenges include hiring the right people, being mathematical in approaching every transaction, and building trust with buyers and sellers.

    But one challenge stands above all the rest: consistently generating leads.

    For agents and investors, having a consistent flow of leads makes your monthly income more predictable and allows you to grow your business more quickly.

    How do you do that?

    At Carrot, we specialize in helping investors and agents create simple, effective websites that rank in Google (and thus drive traffic) and systematically convert visitors into leads.

    We’ve generated over 2.5 million leads for thousands of investors and agents nationwide.

    You can learn more about us over here.

    1. Real Estate Agents

    When someone thinks about getting into real estate, this is usually the first business model they consider — that of a real estate agent or broker.

    Real estate agents make money by helping people buy and sell homes, usually pulling in between 3% and 6% of the sales price. A $250,000 home would net between $7,500 and $15,000.

    To become a licensed realtor, you’ll need to research the requirements and processes in your local market — typically, this will include taking some courses and passing a test.

    If you reside in New York, consider enrolling in NYREI, a leading real estate school in New York. Their highly reputed programs will equip you with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate the dynamic real estate market successfully. You might also need to get sponsored by a real estate brokerage.

    Pros

    • Low barrier to entry. Anyone with enough time, determination, and sales savvy can become a real estate agent.
    • Good profits on high-ticket homes.

    Cons

    • Requires expertise in sales.
    • It takes time to build a name for yourself.
    • The average transaction takes about 3 months to complete.

    2. Wholesaling

    Wholesaling is a real estate investing business model that’s cropped up over the last decade or so.

    As a wholesaler, rather than flipping real estate or buying and holding your properties, you work as a sort of “deal finder” for other cash buyers. Your job is to find good deals (motivated sellers) and get them under contract for a price you and your cash buyer can afford. When you pass the deal onto the cash buyer, you’ll typically make a $5,000 to $20,000 assignment fee.

    The most significant benefit to wholesaling real estate is that you don’t need a massive amount of money to get started — just a few thousand dollars to send out your first mailers and secure your first deal.

    Pros

    • No license is required (although that is steadily changing in some states)
    • Requires just a few thousand dollars in startup capital.
    • Tons of opportunities in most markets.
    • Can make up to $20,000 or more per deal.

    Cons

    • Wholesaling has become highly competitive in most markets.
    • New regulations are being introduced in many states to regulate wholesaling.

    “6 wholesale deals this month if all goes through. $124k… 4 ppc, 1 organic, 1 Facebook retargeting. 1 have closed the other 5 are under contract with a buyer and the last one waiting on a buyer. Carrot system is still rockin”

    – Brian Rockwell

    3. Wholetailing

    The word “wholetail” is a combination of “wholesale” and “retail”. In a wholetail deal, the investor buys a house for a low-ball price, makes just enough repairs so that it’s capable of selling on the MLS, and then sells it to a traditional buyer.

    It’s not unusual to make $50,000 to $100,000 on a wholetail deal, but without nearly as much work as flipping takes.

    We recommend wholetailing real estate when you’ve found a house that needs very few repairs, you can get it for a price that’s significantly under market value, and you have the cash to purchase the home (your own money or someone else’s).

    Pros

    • Wholetailing requires very little work but has a big payoff.

    Cons

    • Wholetail deals are hard to come by.
    • Wholetailing works better as a supplemental investing strategy than it does a primary business model.
    • Requires access to large amounts of cash.

    4. Buy-And-Hold Investing

    Buy-and-hold investing is probably the best business model for increasing long-term wealth and net worth. In the buy-and-hold strategy, the investor buys properties (ideally ones that are a good deal), fills them with tenants to create cash flow, and holds.

    Buy-and-hold investing aims to collect as many properties as possible and build as big of a portfolio as possible.

    The hardest part of this business model is securing the cash to purchase properties consistently — we recommend seeking out private money or hard money to fund your deals.

    Pros

    • Great way to increase net worth.
    • Creates a ton of passive cash flow.

    Cons

    • Need to manage properties and deal with tenants.
    • Need access to a lot of capital to maintain momentum.

    5. House Flipping

    House flipping is the HGTV method of real estate investing- perhaps the most popularized way to make it big.

    What these TV shows don’t talk about, though, is how house flipping is also one of the riskier real estate business models — because during the time between when you buy a house and when you sell it (often 6 months or so), you’re just crossing your fingers that the market doesn’t take a hit.

    Still, house flipping is a great real estate business model to add to your repertoire — it has higher risk but also a higher payoff, often upwards of $100,000 for a single deal.

    Pros

    • Bigger cash payoff than any other investing model.

    Cons

    • Requires a lot of fixer-upper work.
    • Has a higher risk.
    • Requires a lot of upfront cash.

    6. Remote Investing

    Remote real estate investing has only become possible for the everyday investor in the last decade.

    Technology has advanced so that investors can generate leads, find deals, inspect homes, purchase properties, and more… all without even being in the same state as the property they’re purchasing.

    Check out our guide here to learn more about virtual real estate investing.

    This is a great option for people who don’t want their businesses tied down to a single location.

    Pros

    • You can operate anywhere in the U.S., accessing the most profitable markets.
    • Gives you more time and freedom.

    Cons

    • It requires a lot of research before entering into a new market.
    • Requires you to buy properties site unseen.
    • You must build a business with clear-cut systems and hire trustworthy people you can depend on.

    7. Listing Service For FSBO

    What’s great about this business model is that once it’s set up, it can be almost entirely passive — you’ll need to hire a VA to manage some basic tasks and keep up with customer requests.

    Here’s how it works: you get your real estate license, set up a website attracting FSBO sellers who want to list their house on the MLS, and offer to do it for a flat fee.

    You can charge upwards of $250 per listing, for instance.

    And as mentioned above, you can train a VA to do a lot of the heavy lifting. So once you’ve built the website and found ways to drive traffic (paid ads and/or SEO), this will run almost entirely on autopilot.

    Pros

    • Easy to set up and easy to manage.
    • Decent money maker with very little work.

    Cons

    • Will need a real estate license.
    • Will be competing with other FSBO listers.
    • Will require a good chunk of upfront work to get everything set up.
    • Will need to find ways to drive traffic consistently.

    8. BRRRR

    The BRRRR method (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) is a modified version of the buy-and-hold business model.

    BRRRR is an ongoing process by which real estate investors can purchase multiple properties with very little capital relative to the growth of their portfolios. First, the investor finds a good deal and buys the property using cash, private money, or hard money. Then they rehab the property and fill it with tenants to start the cash flow.

    After a seasoning period of 12-24 months, the investor does a cash-out refinance on the home — this is where a financial institution provides a new loan on the property and returns the cash that they used to purchase the property in the first place.

    Then the investor repeats that process with their original funds. If the investor plays their card right, they can purchase many properties with the same funds.

    Pros

    • Allows for faster portfolio growth.

    Cons

    • Requires the investor to secure upfront funding.
    • Requires very accurate math.

    9. Hybrid Real Estate Model

    The hybrid real estate model is a strategy where an agent is also an investor. So, you are essentially serving sellers up with multiple different offers.

    It’s a cash offer. Hey, if you’re looking for speed and convenience and are willing to take a bit of a shave in equity, here’s this.

    Or, if they want top dollar, here’s what we can list for them in the market.

    That’s all that it is.

    Pros

    • Flexibility to work with different types of sellers.
    • Easier to adapt to market shifts.

    Cons

    • Requires agents to be open to learning more about investing.

    Carrot member, Anthony Beckham, is a hybrid agent/investor. He always says his average profit per deal as an investor is around $20,000 to $30,000. His average agent commission is around the $7000 to $12,000 range.

    Final Thoughts

    There you have it!

    Those are nine real estate business models- something for everyone.

    If you don’t have much starting budget, wholesaling or becoming a real estate agent are wonderful options. If you have more capital, then you might consider flipping or BRRRR.

    Whatever you decide, there’s plenty of opportunity in each business model.

    Good luck!

    Not a Carrot member yet? Take a free interactive tour now!

  • ChatGPT for Google Ads – 5 AI-powered Strategies for Real Estate Investors to Find Motivated Sellers

    ChatGPT for Google Ads – 5 AI-powered Strategies for Real Estate Investors to Find Motivated Sellers

    As a real estate investor, you know that finding motivated sellers is crucial to your success. With the emergence of powerful AI tools like ChatGPT and Bard, there are now even more ways to automate your lead generation efforts and optimize your Google Ads campaigns.

    In the past, automation tools were primarily focused on bid management and targeting.

    However, with the latest wave of generative AI technology, you can now leverage the power of text generation to create more effective ad copy that resonates with your target audience.

    Using ChatGPT for Google Ads lets you set up and optimize your accounts and save time and resources while improving your campaigns’ effectiveness. With ChatGPT, you can automate tasks such as ad creation, keyword research, and even ad testing and optimization.

    Using the right keywords in your ad copy is important to attract motivated sellers. Some examples of keywords to target might include “sell my house fast,” “cash home buyer,” or “we buy houses.” Incorporating these keywords into your ad copy and using ChatGPT to generate compelling headlines and descriptions can increase your chances of connecting with motivated sellers and closing more deals.

    Overall, the emergence of AI-powered tools represents a significant opportunity for real estate investors to streamline their lead generation efforts and improve the effectiveness of their Google Ads campaigns.

    ChatGPT for Google Ads for Real Estate Investors

    Discovering Motivated Seller Keywords with ChatGPT

    As a real investor, you know the importance of finding motivated seller leads. While Google’s Keyword Planner is a helpful tool, there’s an alternative that can help you discover new keywords. ChatGPT can provide suggestions when prompted with the landing page you want to target. It can be a valuable resource to help you find the right keywords for your motivated seller lead generation strategy.

    Here is an example:

    To make the keyword suggestions a bit more relevant, you can ask ChatGPT to include a particular term in each one:

    Using GPT for Motivated Seller Keyword Classification

    When using a keyword tool like ChatGPT for your Google Ads campaigns, you may end up with a long list of suggested keywords. However, having too many keywords can make creating targeted campaigns difficult, resulting in higher Quality Scores on Google.

    Splitting the list of keywords into smaller groups related to each other is important to solve this problem. This way, you can create more relevant campaigns that are more likely to convert.

    Fortunately, ChatGPT is great at grouping words by relevance. It’s so accurate that you may not even need to provide category names or examples in your prompts. I initially tried to help ChatGPT understand my desired categorization by adding a category name after the first few keywords, but this was unnecessary.

    Using ChatGPT to group your keywords by relevance, you can create more effective campaigns and improve your search engine rankings.

    The response to this prompt was of good quality despite not providing any examples for classification.

    How to Utilize GPT for Ad Creation

    To set up ad groups, I already have grouped keywords and a landing page on my site. The only thing I need now are headlines and descriptions for the responsive ads. I asked ChatGPT for assistance in writing these ads.

    Beware that sometimes, ChatGPT suggests ad headlines that are too long, exceeding the allowed character limits. This happens because ChatGPT doesn’t have strong mathematical abilities. Instead, it predicts the most probable text that should follow a given sequence. For instance, it recognizes that “1+1=” is typically followed by “2,” but it doesn’t perform the calculation. Instead, it looks for common patterns.

    If this happens, you must adjust the characters to fit or try again.

    GPT has a talent for completing the text, which means that when examples are provided in the prompt, the suggestions it generates are more accurate. This is because the suggestions follow the same pattern as the examples, which helps GPT predict what should come next in the sequence.

    Utilize GPT for Optimizing Search Terms

    After launching the ad groups, they will gather information about the search terms for which the ads were displayed.

    This data can then be utilized for optimization purposes. However, analyzing search terms can be daunting, as there may be a vast amount of them to sift through.

    To simplify this process, I requested ChatGPT to rank my ad group’s search terms according to their relevance. As ChatGPT already comprehends the concept of relevance, no further explanation was necessary. The outcome was as follows:

    Here are some search terms that ChatGPT deems more relevant to real estate investors advertising to motivated sellers:

    Here are some search terms that ChatGPT deems more less to real estate investors advertising to motivated sellers:

    As a real estate investor, you might find it helpful to use negative keyword ideas when conducting research. One effective strategy is to focus on the terms near the bottom of the relevance list, as they are usually less relevant to the landing page you’re promoting. This can save you time and help you prioritize your efforts when busy with other marketing tasks. While it’s not a perfect solution, it can be a helpful tool in your arsenal.

    How to Use ChatGPT to Optimize Your PPC Landing Pages

    If you’re someone who doesn’t create landing pages, you might feel unsure about them. To help you feel more confident, use these prompts to identify intelligent landing page recommendations.

    ChatGPT Prompt: “What can a person do from this page, and why would they want to do it? [Landing Page URL]”

    This is a fast and basic method to assess whether the content of the page and the call to action are suitable for your potential leads.

    ChatGPT Prompt: “I’m currently driving paid search traffic to this landing page [Landing Page URL]. How would you suggest improving it so that we get a better conversion rate?”

    This prompt may provide you with general advice for your landing page rather than reviewing your specific URL, but it’s still valuable advice to consider.

    ChatGPT Prompt: “Rewrite a headline for [Landing Page URL] that explains [unique value proposition] and includes the phrase [keyword phrase].”

    This prompt can help you address an issue with landing pages where the headlines focus on attention-grabbing rather than clearly conveying the page’s purpose. By using this prompt, you can improve your landing page’s message-match sequence and create stronger content above the fold to engage your audience better.

    If you don’t like what you see the first time, you can ask ChatGPT to “try again.”

    Conclusion

    As a real estate investor, staying informed about the latest automation opportunities in PPC advertising is important.

    Generative AI technologies like GPT and Bard can revolutionize how you approach PPC, and incorporating them into your campaigns can help you achieve better results.

    However, it’s crucial to remain vigilant and monitor the performance of your AI-powered strategies to ensure they align with your business goals. Consider implementing the techniques covered in this post in your PPC campaigns.

    With AI technology rapidly changing the PPC landscape, staying ahead of the curve is essential to remain competitive as a real estate investor.

    We’re here to help. You don’t have to get overwhelmed and fumble through paid ads. Here is a guide that can help you get started using Google Ads so you can be on your way to doing what you do best — closing deals.

    As always, if you feel Carrot may be a fit for your real estate websites and want better results online, we’d love to have you in the Carrot community, and be sure to learn more about paid ads

    Check out our plans and hit us up with questions anytime!

  • EP 434: Facebook Ads for Real Estate w/ SilverStreet Marketing

    EP 434: Facebook Ads for Real Estate w/ SilverStreet Marketing


    Do Facebook ads give good ROI for quality, motivated seller leads?

    Yes — when managed well. Kiley & JT with SilverStreet Marketing have spent millions on Facebook ads over the last decade, gaining a massive amount of insight into what makes an ad flip or flop.

    We talk about what to look for when outsourcing, lead costs & ROI, how to get quality targeting & lower ad costs despite recent changes to Meta’s platform, how they’re using ChatGPT to make ad creation more effortless, and a cool new tool they have in Beta that serves the investor who wants to go the DIY route.

    Let us know what you think of the episode – brady@carrot.com

    Get more content about paid ads at Carrot.com/ads

    Work with Kiley & JT: Marketplace.carrot.com or go.silverstreetmarketing.com/beta.


    Episode Transcript (This is an automated transcript by robot carrots – please mind the typos 😉)

    00:00:00:00 – 00:01:11:25

    Kiley

    I don’t want to pay an agency. I think I can figure this out. And like J.T. said, you can totally can. But I think some people underestimate the consistency of effort that it’s going to take because, you know, creating an ad on Facebook is not super hard. You have to learn a little bit inside of ads. Manager But but creating a really good ad and then getting those things to consistently perform over time is really where the magic comes.

    00:01:11:29 – 00:02:40:28

    Kiley

    Thank you. Super stoked to be here. We love paid ads.

    00:02:45:06 – 00:02:46:04

    Kiley

    JT Go ahead, man.

    00:02:47:00 – 00:03:18:20

    JT

    Yeah. So when you’re looking at the the ROI that’s coming from it, typically what we’re seeing on Facebook is we’re seeing a cost per acquisition in between about a 3000 to 3500 on average is overall cost per acquisition. Depending on areas, you can kind of lower that down to about around a $2,000 mark. It just kind of depends on a couple moving parts that could be things like are you paying for management, How aggressive are you in your area?

    00:03:19:06 – 00:03:45:17

    JT

    Are you employing different types of tactics, not just lead generation like branding and and trying to become more of a powerhouse in your area? So there’s a couple of things that will affect that. And can kind of change that cost per acquisition price. But most investors that are coming on for management are sitting around that, you know, you could probably say about 2000 to $3000 cost per acquisition marker per deal.

    00:03:46:03 – 00:04:09:18

    Kiley

    Yeah. And to to, to break that down maybe just a little bit more basically to get that cost of acquisition, you’re looking at your cost per lead, right? And then the number of leads it takes to close a deal. So on Facebook, we see probably right around an average of 20 leads per deal. Would is that wouldn’t you agree?

    00:04:09:19 – 00:04:11:20

    JT

    JT Yeah, yeah.

    00:04:12:29 – 00:04:41:05

    Kiley

    Yeah. About 2020 leads per deal. So depending on what your cost per lead is and then depending on your on your close ratio. So one of the things we find that’s, that’s most important when doing Facebook ads is having a really strong follow up system. So if you think about lead generation in terms of each channel you’re using, you’re going to be finding potentially different people.

    00:04:41:05 – 00:05:03:09

    Kiley

    A lot of the same people. We can talk about that a little bit more, but you’re you’ll find people at different levels of readiness in their decision making process. And with a PPC ad, for example, you have someone that is actively searching for I need to sell my house fast so that person is in this mode of problem solving.

    00:05:03:14 – 00:05:43:00

    Kiley

    On Facebook, we one of the one of the powers of Facebook is that you can find people who are potentially not quite that far in the in their decision making process. Yet the benefit of that is you’re getting in touch with them before they start shopping investors. The challenge with that is you have to be ready and able to nurture that lead so that that follow up system really matters in the frequency of the follow up and the quality of the follow up because your lead time from lead capture to lead close maybe a little bit longer.

    00:05:43:00 – 00:06:21:02

    Kiley

    Now that varies. We have people who start running ads in within 2 to 3 weeks close the deal. So it’s kind of, you know, there’s that full spectrum, but you. Yeah. So I’m yes, I mean, yes, on the Facebook stuff, but I’m talking more specifically about your non Facebook follow up. So text messages, emails, phone calls, you know, you’ve got to be you’ve got to be contacting those leads right away.

    00:06:21:02 – 00:07:05:10

    Kiley

    You need to be following up with them frequently and often and and putting them in an in a nurture sequence to get them towards the the close. Well, I mean, Facebook ads have been effective for many, many years. There’s like a kajillion people on Facebook still even though even though it’s now kind of an older social media which is wild to think about the demographic of users on Facebook skews older.

    00:07:05:10 – 00:07:35:11

    Kiley

    So that fits well with the the typical, like high equity homeowner or someone that would would own a home and be potentially interested in selling. But specifically I think the opportunity right now. Brady you touched on this a little bit earlier. There have been a lot of changes on Facebook. So the iOS 14 change was huge. That dramatically impacted audience sizes and the ability to track conversions and things like that.

    00:07:36:02 – 00:08:01:19

    Kiley

    But then not too long ago there was another update with a a settlement with the HUD where they they changed targeting options a lot. I mean, and we did it we did a video on this as well with you that talking about how talking about how you can’t use lookalike audiences or special ad audiences in real estate anymore.

    00:08:01:20 – 00:08:41:21

    Kiley

    Now that was like that was one of the I’ve been I’ve been marketing on Facebook since 2007 and that was one of the biggest changes I’ve ever seen Facebook make. And the result of that is a lot of people have said, I don’t know how to do this anymore or I’m going to give up on Facebook and I’m talking like individual investors, but also some of the other like agencies that we we know of have really stepped back because they didn’t want to try to figure out how to how to work through it.

    00:08:41:21 – 00:09:18:03

    Kiley

    So the benefit there is the eyeballs are still on Facebook. So if there’s less people competing for those eyeballs, you have an opportunity as well.

    00:09:18:03 – 00:09:32:01

    JT

    And that’s that’s a lot of what we’ve seen. It’s just that that feedback there is that people are using Facebook is exactly that. You want to stay away from those demographics because that’s going to limit that’s going to help you get your targeting more and more direct. So you’re 100% right on.

    00:09:32:24 – 00:09:59:03

    Kiley

    Yeah. And the other thing the other thing to remember is that Facebook now called Meta, you know, they changed their name to Meta. They they own Instagram as well. And then they have their their own ad network, which is similar to like the Google ad network. So when you’re running ads through the Facebook or the meta ads manager, you’re you have a ability to run ads across many other places, too.

    00:09:59:03 – 00:10:29:00

    Kiley

    So your ads will show up on Instagram. Your ads can show up in mobile apps as people are using, you know, if someone’s scrolling and playing a game or whatever, like your app, your ad could show up in that as well. All through that Facebook ads manager Yeah, And also I just think some people kind of think about, you know, I’m going to run Facebook ads.

    00:10:29:00 – 00:11:00:09

    Kiley

    They’re thinking of just the one like in feed ad, which you know, that is a big part of it. But just I think it’s helpful to remember that you’re actually putting your ad in a lot of different places.

    00:11:00:09 – 00:11:00:18

    Brady

    Yeah.

    00:11:02:16 – 00:11:24:24

    Kiley

    I’m totally fine with that. We I don’t ever call it meta because I feel like most people don’t know or like you. Brady Like we haven’t, like, collectively accepted that that’s what it is. So if we you know, if we if we hop on the phone with someone and we’re like we’re experts at meta ads, they’re not going to know what we’re talking about.

    00:11:24:24 – 00:11:38:00

    Kiley

    So, yeah, we’ll call up we’ll call up Mark Zuckerberg. We’ll see what we can do.

    00:11:38:00 – 00:12:13:11

    Brady

    Yeah, you bet.

    00:12:13:11 – 00:12:34:00

    JT

    Yeah. You know, when someone’s, you know, running ads on their own or debating about running ads on their own, there’s a couple of things that we kind of, you know, you have to think about and consider. One is, you know, time. I mean, this is a conversation I have a lot and most investors I talk with, you know, when we have this, we’re talking about ads and learning how to do it.

    00:12:34:00 – 00:13:11:22

    JT

    I really say, you know, anyone can learn, but do you have the time or do you really have the desire to do it? Because if where your desires lag, you are like out in the field, you know, talking to the leads, like getting the contract signed and closing the deals, then that’s a job in itself. And to add on the marketing side of it, there’s there’s a lot that goes into that, you know, in terms of, you know, being on there weekly, watching all the data, thinking from a different type of mindset of a data data mind set of, okay, how is this affecting the algorithm versus how is this affecting my business?

    00:13:11:22 – 00:13:30:01

    JT

    And you kind of have to walk through those different steps at different times while you’re making these changes. So the first thing that we always kind of talk about, if someone is interested in doing it themselves, you are totally capable. You can you’re smart enough, you can figure it out with the right direction, but do you really want to long term?

    00:13:30:01 – 00:13:51:22

    JT

    Is that really going to be what’s best for your business? And everyone’s at different places, so for some people it will be for others. An agency might be a better spot to lead. And when it comes to agencies, there’s a couple of things we have to we have to think about. One is going to be your strategy. What type of strategy they’re using?

    00:13:51:22 – 00:14:14:15

    JT

    Are they focusing purely on your top of funnel? And, you know, that’s pretty typical for most like average Facebook agencies, especially in the last couple of years, a lot of people have geared towards spending 90% of your budget on a broad, no targeting because you’re in real estate and it’s really hard to target people. And then 10% of your budget on your retargeting.

    00:14:14:15 – 00:14:37:17

    JT

    And that’s kind of what they do. I would say that’s not a really thought out process because there are still ways that we could target. There’s still ways that we can filter out our top of funnel, middle of an Obama funnel. It just takes a lot more time and effort and management. So when you have the right strategy in place, that’s going to obviously affect your your leads.

    00:14:37:26 – 00:14:56:00

    JT

    And then second, when it comes to an agency, the next thing you want to consider is how well do they integrate with your team? Because one of the biggest things I hear people talk about when they had a bad experience is, you know, I kept getting bad leads. I wasn’t able to like, communicate with anyone to tell them that, and it just wasn’t working in my business.

    00:14:56:00 – 00:15:22:00

    JT

    And I’m sure if you went over to the agency and talked to them, they’re like, Well, all the leads we were driving were like $10 per lead. It was like a crazy. They were our best account, you know? And so you really need a good team work when you’re working with an agency, a really good team connection and one of the one of the best ways to do it, I tell everybody, even if you manage your own ads or you’re managing with an agency, one of the ways that you can fix this is use UTM parameters on all your ads.

    00:15:22:14 – 00:15:40:04

    JT

    And then that way you can see exactly what AD drove, what lead, and then you get the feedback from in our case, from our client. And and we say, okay, tell us the leads that were the best leads. Okay, There are these people, these names. All right, awesome. So these these names have these UTM parameters attached to them.

    00:15:40:04 – 00:16:03:11

    JT

    So whether you know that the iOS 14 came in place and we tracked it or we didn’t track it, we could manually track that and say, okay, this is where it came from. So now we know that these are our best ads in terms of motivation, and this is how we’re going to scale your results, even if it means we’re spending a little bit more per lead or we’re spending a little bit less, it’s more trackable and it’s going to give more tangible results.

    00:16:03:11 – 00:16:12:00

    JT

    So those are a couple of things. You know, we have a discussion with clients. We’re talking about agencies doing it yourself or, you know, browsing the market.

    00:16:12:20 – 00:16:40:25

    Kiley

    Yeah, that that feedback loop is critical. Whether you are working with an agency or you’re doing it yourself. Obviously the feedback loop with yourself, not really a loop, but but tracking that information and knowing that is important. And like JT said, that’s something a lot of people miss, which is paying attention to patterns in your leads and which which campaigns, which ads are generating the best leads.

    00:16:41:24 – 00:17:10:13

    Kiley

    And if you’re working with an agency, you want to be feeding that information to them. I have two analogies I think of when it comes to doing it yourself versus working with an agency. And one of those is like hiring a personal chef. So if you hire a personal chef to make your meals for you, the reason you’re doing that is because you don’t want to you don’t want to take the time to shop and cook and think about what you’re going to eat.

    00:17:11:21 – 00:17:29:10

    Kiley

    Maybe you don’t think that you can cook very good. Doesn’t taste very good, right? So you hire a professional chef. You’re you’re still going to be very engaged with that chef. If you if you hire a personal chef, like if he makes a meal that you don’t like, then you’re going to tell him or her about that. Right?

    00:17:29:10 – 00:17:51:15

    Kiley

    Or if they make when you love, you going to say, well, I do that one more often, or you may even have requests, you know, like I, I’m craving this or whatever. So that, that even though you’ve outsourced that work, you’re still involved in, in guiding that, you know. And then let me let me give you one other analogy as well.

    00:17:52:00 – 00:18:16:11

    Kiley

    The like fitness analogy. So because I think we see this a lot with people in who think who want to do DIY. So you go to a personal trainer and you say, Hey, I want to get ripped off. And the personal trainer starts with starts listing out all the things you’re going to need to do to get ripped.

    00:18:16:26 – 00:18:38:20

    Kiley

    And it’s like, you know, you’ve got to like follow a you got to count your macros, you’ve got to do these certain kind of workouts, you’ve got to work out this many days a week, etc., etc.. And you’re going, I, I just kind of wanted to get ripped like, yeah, can I just get ripped? And I think that happens with the DIY side.

    00:18:39:15 – 00:19:02:15

    Kiley

    The idea of like, Hey, I don’t want to pay an agency, I think I can figure this out. And like JT said, you can, you totally can. But I think some people underestimate the effort that it’s going to take, the consistency of effort that it’s going to take because, you know, creating an ad on Facebook is not super hard.

    00:19:02:17 – 00:20:03:08

    Kiley

    You have to learn a little bit inside of ads. Manager But but creating a really good ad and then getting those things to consistently perform over time is is really where the magic comes in.

    00:20:03:08 – 00:20:31:11

    JT

    And so what is diving into your seller interests? Obviously, you know using seller interests can help be kind of a bridge between your broad just going to anybody and then going to a more interest based audience that could be interested in things that you’re offering based off of what they’re looking at and browsing online. So that’s still capable of being used and that as well, the custom targeting of using custom lists.

    00:20:32:00 – 00:20:56:10

    JT

    So we can still use lists that we’ve uploaded for like retargeting purposes. And so using those to our advantage. And basically I mean we talked about this in last video, but the combination of what type of media we’re using to help filter out what type of motivation that we’re getting on these and then also the targeting in place.

    00:20:56:10 – 00:21:25:15

    JT

    And then lastly, you know what we just kind of touched on using manual like feedback, like UTM parameters to be able to give us really good feedback on what’s actually working. Those are kind of been our go to options to be able to continue to get consistent results for investors, even though the landscape of the ads are changing, you know, and and that’s just kind of the nature of any platform is over time.

    00:21:25:24 – 00:21:50:05

    JT

    It’s always the landscape is going to change a little bit. But as long as our type of seller that we want is located there, we’re going to be able to find a way to get in front of them. We just have to change up the strategy a little bit to do it. So that’s that’s some of the things have consisted of of changing that strategy.

    00:21:50:05 – 00:22:24:20

    JT

    Yes. So there are like equity interests, so people who are doing like reverse mortgages, people are interested in their their own equity types. There’s like Facebook interest. So like for sale by owner interests, they’re going in through like Zillow and doing for sale by owner stuff. There’s a couple of different things when it comes to like, like debt consolidation or real repairs on your house as well as like overall lending purposes.

    00:22:25:15 – 00:22:53:12

    Brady

    So you’re pickleball anymore.

    00:22:53:12 – 00:23:20:18

    JT

    Yeah. And a lot of that is due to, you know, with all this changing that’s been going on in the real estate industry, specifically, there’s a lot more of like how we have to think that these people are showing motivation inside those interest categories and then combining that with the type of media and the type of copy that we’re using to really be like a hard trigger to filter people who are not going to be interested and filter those, that will be because Facebook is still an algorithm.

    00:23:20:18 – 00:23:39:20

    JT

    I think a lot of people forget that. That’s really what we’re working with, is not, you know, we’re not in an auction like PPC where we can say these are the type of words we bought. This is how much we’re willing to pay for it. We’re with an algorithm. And that algorithm primarily focuses on one, how many impressions they’re able to get out of the audience that we’re running.

    00:23:40:15 – 00:24:00:27

    JT

    So impressions being the ability to have your ad loaded to a cue, that’s when Facebook charges you. So it charges you per impression. It’s not per view, it’s not per click. And then second is it’s going to prioritize engagement. So we understand that we have a really good buy hard filter ad that when somebody is going to be interested, they’ll click it.

    00:24:00:27 – 00:24:17:08

    JT

    They’re not at all going to be interested. They’d make sure that they go past it. Facebook recognizes that, and they’re going to start to understand who’s actually clicking. But the other thing they’re going to see is the more engagement we’re getting, they’re going to start to raise us up in the ranks on the feeds. So it’s costing us less money overall.

    00:24:17:17 – 00:24:42:03

    JT

    That’s why a lot of people who only run ads for like 60 days, they don’t make any changes to it. They just publish an ad, they launch it, they don’t see any results versus somebody who runs it for, you know, 3 to 6 months and they’re in there making biweekly changes are going to see consistent deal flow. So that’s one of the reasons, just because the way that the platform has been made, you know, what we’re working with is very different than other ad platforms that you may be buying.

    00:24:42:04 – 00:24:45:05

    JT

    Media.

    00:24:45:05 – 00:25:40:15

    Kiley

    So one other quick thought there. So over the years, Facebook has made updates to what advertisers and marketers, what information we’re able to use to in our targeting. You know, there have been like you could use to target around lots of different things like income and and yeah well there’s lots of examples in there but as yeah some of that some of that you can still do but the the as Facebook has grown they’ve made updates to some of that and you know some of that is a win for consumer privacy and and those types of things because unfortunately there are bad actors out there that use information for discriminatory practices or whatever.

    00:25:41:15 – 00:26:17:21

    Kiley

    But so part of what’s been so important, I, I started marketing specifically for real estate investors in 2016 and I had previous to that spent a lot of time marketing in other industries, spending several million dollars a year in Facebook ads. And what what I found is any time Facebook makes a change, we we just have to be willing and ready to go in and make a couple of adjustments and continue to test and optimize, kind of like JT was saying.

    00:26:17:21 – 00:26:40:11

    Kiley

    So if one of our targeting, one of our interest based targeting got cut, then we’d go in and like JT said, we’d, we’d have to get creative and say, okay, what else could we think about that might connect to that person? But in a, in a different way. And yeah, and so that’s what we, that’s what we can continue to do.

    00:26:40:20 – 00:27:27:01

    Kiley

    And I think that’s what is difficult for people who aren’t investing the time or energy to know that or if they if they just have a really simplistic strategy, if something in that changes, it’s difficult for them to adapt right? Yeah, it’s.

    00:27:33:14 – 00:27:52:17

    JT

    Yeah, yeah. We definitely talk a little bit about that. So when it comes to copy, typically, you know, what we’re doing here is we’re doing a lot of testing over and over again just because we really want to see what is getting the most valuable clicks. So there’s a couple different things that we do when we look at creating copy.

    00:27:52:17 – 00:28:22:29

    JT

    So one is we’re looking at short form copy and we’re looking at long form copy. So we’re seeing what are going to be the differences between having just a short, you know, 1 to 2 sentence copy piece versus having something that’s, you know, 5 to 6 sentences. And then we’re also testing different things like adding in bit.ly links inside that copy, adding in emojis inside that copy, and then kind of switching out some of our our main triggers, which would be, you know, like get a cash offer or sell without paying for any fees or repairs.

    00:28:24:02 – 00:28:52:04

    JT

    Right now, typically what we’re seeing and this kind of change is per market. So, you know, obviously you have to test and figure out what’s working for your audience. But a lot of what we’re seeing is kind of that that. Sure. And we’ve gone back to that shorter copy has been working really well with direct triggers, right, like hooks right at the beginning of sell your house without pay for a yell, fees, repairs on your home and things like that have been working really well.

    00:28:52:04 – 00:29:07:29

    JT

    I think part of that is because of market shifts. So you do have to understand, you know, because that market people are starting to now realize the traditional real estate market right there, they’re usually about six months behind. They think they could get one thing for their home and that was six months ago, is what they could have sold it for.

    00:29:07:29 – 00:29:28:00

    JT

    So they’re kind of in that point where they’re starting to realize it’s hard to sell a house. And so those things are starting to stand out a lot more and then add in some personal customized like situations or different things. So we always suggest to two people who are running their own ads or to our clients to give us stories that we can also include in those types of copy.

    00:29:28:08 – 00:29:52:11

    JT

    That could be it’s like, you know, so and so, yeah, we help so-and-so move out of their house when they were, you know, facing foreclosure or, you know, whatever that situation might be to kind of give some more context to the person. So we’re testing all these different things inside these accounts to try to figure out what works for every single client, because really, that’s that’s what we’ve seen.

    00:29:52:11 – 00:30:12:07

    JT

    The best way to do it is we look at those metrics and then we make decisions based off of that because it it’s going to change per person per area because everything’s based off of engagement. And in an area they could get different engagement than another using the same message. So and that would then hurt those ads in the area that’s not getting the engagement.

    00:30:12:07 – 00:30:13:12

    JT

    So a lot of.

    00:30:51:20 – 00:31:21:16

    Kiley

    Yeah, engagement matters. It’s part of the quality score that Facebook uses to determine an ads relevance. So Facebook keeps a pretty tight lid on exactly what that recipe looks like of how important eat. At one point I had I got access to this internal spreadsheet from Facebook that had like a weighting system of, you know, abuse complaints, comments, etc., But it’s old enough now.

    00:31:21:16 – 00:31:54:00

    Kiley

    I don’t I think it’s probably no longer relevant, but so the quick answer is engagement matters because if Facebook feels like the ad is engaging, they’re going to show it to more people. I you know, I think it’s important to take a step back and think about what is Facebook’s overall goal, their overall goal is to keep us users on the platform as long as possible so that they can show more ads to us, so that they can they can charge advertisers for showing those ads.

    00:31:54:00 – 00:32:16:19

    Kiley

    Right. So if Facebook thinks an ad is going to help with that, then they’re going to they’re going to continue to show that that that is in combination with Facebook’s algorithm looking at who’s most likely to take the action that you want. So we strongly, strongly recommend that anyone running Facebook ads is paying attention to the engagement on their ad.

    00:32:17:05 – 00:32:38:19

    Kiley

    And that’s important for a couple of reasons. One is if if someone comments and then you engage with them, it continues to feed that also just from a from a like social psychology perspective, if the ad has engagement on it and they can see you engaging, that’s going to encourage more engagement and it’s going to create some social proof as well.

    00:32:39:15 – 00:33:00:00

    Kiley

    And then the last you know, the other one would be there’s a good chance you’ll get someone that comments something on there that is like you could see it skews negative. So it’s something like, Oh, yeah, yeah, right, I’ll sell you my house and you’ll give me pennies on the dollar. Or I bet this is a scam or something like that.

    00:33:00:13 – 00:33:21:23

    Kiley

    And the opportunity there is twofold. One is to feed that engagement out that that that side of the algorithm on engagement by responding to that person. But the second part of that is you get an opportunity to answer that person’s question and explain and other people are going to see that. So we will get comments like that is an opportunity.

    00:33:21:23 – 00:33:48:28

    Kiley

    It’s an opportunity for you to jump in there and say, hey, you know, totally understand what you’re saying. What we offer is isn’t best for everyone, but for some people it’s a great. So whatever you’re going to say, you know, whatever your your pitch is there. And and the only time I’d ever hide a comment is if it was just like, totally spam or like really belligerent or something, you know, other than that, take that opportunity to engage, have that conversation.

    00:33:49:04 – 00:34:00:27

    Kiley

    Facebook has become much different than it was originally, but it’s still a social platform, right? It’s it’s intended to connect people again because they want us to stay on there as long as possible.

    00:34:01:16 – 00:35:28:25

    Brady

    At Yeah.

    00:35:28:25 – 00:35:47:18

    JT

    Yeah. There’s a you know, I think Gary came out with this. I want to say like six months ago he released this where he was like his entire ad strategy was changing to you. First start organic and see what gets the best. Like proof that it would work and then take that style of ad and run it as a paid out.

    00:35:48:24 – 00:36:13:15

    JT

    And you know, something that we can sell our clients with is is similar in the sense that we’re trying to get very transparent and honest content. So things like face to face videos, talking about situations in which they’re helping sellers, you don’t have to have the seller with you. You can I think that’s great what you do. But instead of just getting like a review from the seller that says, Yeah, it was great, you know, they bought my house for cash, that’s good.

    00:36:13:15 – 00:36:43:08

    JT

    But you can go even better and you could talk about situation and give give those details. They’re a little bit more intimate, transparent and honest. And oftentimes that’s going to attract an even more motivated person because they connect with those things. Yeah. When you talk about someone struggling through foreclosure and that you able to stop it, you know, two weeks before they lost their house had all this damage done to their credit, all of these, you know, negatives and you’re like, but they put cash in their pocket.

    00:36:43:08 – 00:37:09:19

    JT

    They’re able we were able to to arrange it so that they could leave on their timeline. And, you know, now they’re off in a better place all of a sudden, like that’s going to appeal way more to somebody. So I you know, that’s a big thing where video is really starting to come back is content. You had a switched couple of years, like probably about a year or two back switch to images again because they changed that some of the rules around how much headlines you can have on images.

    00:37:09:19 – 00:37:22:29

    JT

    So everyone went back to advertising images, but now we’re back to videos. And those type of stories are just mixing really well with videos. So that would definitely be something that we would suggest to all of our clients and anyone who’s doing their.

    00:37:22:29 – 00:38:11:02

    Brady

    Own Facebook ads.

    00:38:11:02 – 00:38:30:03

    JT

    Yeah. And it changing your the way that you run your ads to you. I mean, one thing that we do is we use dynamic, creative, and that helps a lot in how we’re actually running and operating these ads and figure out what’s working best because we’re not having to do so much split test, which can test great because it gives you a definitive answer.

    00:38:30:03 – 00:38:54:04

    JT

    But oftentimes you could spend more money in trying to find the answer than it is worth it, because then you have to test again and again and again. Whereas when you’re running dynamic creative tests that automatically that basically the your budget is shifting towards what’s actually getting the engagement. And so we can keep adding to that test over and over and over again, proving the results and getting the best options that can be in that ad.

    00:38:54:14 – 00:39:13:00

    JT

    So that’s another thing I think a lot of people kind of forget about is is using dynamic, creative.

    00:39:13:00 – 00:39:41:27

    Kiley

    I guess this whole everything I’ve said on this podcast was written by chatty people. I I’m just typing it in as you guys see it. And I’m like, okay, you know, it’s interesting than like a chat. GPT it I mean, air is powerful and it’s going to, it’s going to change things for sure. I, I don’t know to what level or how good it will get.

    00:39:41:27 – 00:40:11:18

    Kiley

    I mean, as of right now, I think the best way that someone listening to this podcast could leverage chat would be to grab some ad copy that you that you’ve seen that that you thought was good and go in and you have to work with chat, you have to prompt it a little bit but basically have it write some variations of that and, and then I would and I’ve used this to do that, right?

    00:40:11:20 – 00:40:30:23

    Kiley

    I for me, one of the best values of Chatty Betty right now is like my first draft of a lot of things because then I can take it and I can kind of iterate it and make sure that my personality is still in there or the personality of the brand and the customer that we’re working with. But if you’re just like, Man, I need I need some help coming up.

    00:40:30:23 – 00:40:54:26

    Kiley

    Like, I don’t even know where to start. Just you could go to chat GPT and say, write an ad for a real estate investor on Facebook that wants to buy a house that is in foreclosure. Whatever. Yeah. And just let chat, chat, start, start going to work for you. I think that’s probably the best way that someone could use it right now.

    00:40:54:26 – 00:42:10:07

    Kiley

    I think in the future we’ll see tools that are built that allow us to and some of this already exists a little bit, but where we can feed it content that we’ve written in the past so that it will get better at writing things in in our style, which, you know, that that then makes the output even more powerful.

    00:42:10:07 – 00:42:11:10

    JT

    Actually, a couple of them.

    00:42:11:26 – 00:42:13:09

    Kiley

    I’m not sure which one.

    00:42:14:12 – 00:42:15:04

    Brady

    I.

    00:42:15:04 – 00:42:15:29

    Kiley

    I, I don’t think I.

    00:42:15:29 – 00:42:16:27

    JT

    Have that one.

    00:42:17:13 – 00:43:03:21

    Brady

    Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    00:43:03:21 – 00:43:51:09

    Kiley

    It’s interesting and it’s important to remember that this, these things are language models. So what they’re designed to do is to mirror language that they’ve been taught to provide a response or an answer. So what that, what they’re not necessarily designed to do is to follow a logical decision making process to reach the conclusions that they reach. So if you’re going to use it to discover information or to write information, there’s there’s definitely a chance that some of that information is not accurate because its goal and it’s going to it’s going to take what what you’ve it with into consideration as well.

    00:43:51:09 – 00:44:33:00

    Kiley

    So this is a whole nother like a whole nother interesting conversation. But there’s there are people now called prompt Engineers and their their role is to learn how to ask the AI the right questions in the right way to get the right kind of response. Pretty fascinating. I yeah, it is right now it’s yeah, for sure. I think I just want to say one of the things so why is that?

    00:44:33:00 – 00:45:04:26

    Kiley

    I don’t know what the future looks like. I think I will get I think we will see all over in the marketing world. So there will be aspects of, of mining jobs that that get taken over by AI. But I think what will always remain is the need for the human empathy of understanding who you’re talking to, what their problem is, and how you can connect with them and and present your solution to them.

    00:45:04:26 – 00:45:33:23

    Kiley

    And and that is, I mean, at the core, the the specifics of marketing change dramatically. You know, I mean, I can imagine the way we feel about AI right now is probably how people felt when TV was invented or the radio is going like, whoa, this changes everything. And but the principles of good marketing remain, which is you got to understand who you’re talking to.

    00:45:33:23 – 00:46:30:28

    Kiley

    You got to you got to understand their need and you got to speak to it. And if you provide value to them, then they’ll be interested in engaging with you or talking to you.

    00:46:30:28 – 00:47:14:19

    Brady

    Yeah, yeah. Hmm. Yeah.

    00:47:16:05 – 00:48:02:03

    Kiley

    Interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s yeah. I mean, that the reality is we crave connection as human beings where, you know, call us pack animals. We crave that connection. And, and so I certainly think as we get more and more digitized, I mean, there are studies now that show that even though we have tools that connect us better than ever before, like on average, we’re lonelier and feel more isolated than, you know, generations before us.

    00:48:02:03 – 00:48:20:27

    Kiley

    So I think I think there’s there’s got there’s some truth in there for sure that people crave that connection. And and and there’s there’s always that opportunity to be a real person that’s interested in really connecting with people and really solving problems.

    00:48:20:27 – 00:48:55:21

    Brady

    Yeah. Hmm.

    00:48:55:21 – 00:49:26:06

    Kiley

    Yeah. I mean, I got a couple and then I’m sure JT might too, but this might sound really, really basic, but it’s so critical and we see people miss it, which is just make sure that you are investing the time to set things up correctly. So if you don’t put your pixel on the website and set up your conversion event correctly, then your waste, your waste a lot of money on Facebook, you might still get some leads, but it won’t be feeding that.

    00:49:26:06 – 00:50:03:07

    Kiley

    It won’t be feeding your pixel data. You won’t necessarily know where they’re coming from. So you got to you got to make sure you have that that setup done well. And then the other thing I would say is, well, yes, but that’s only part of it. So when you set up a Facebook ad, you’re going to put your pixel on your website, but then you’re going to have something on your website.

    00:50:03:08 – 00:50:42:12

    Kiley

    Tell that Pixel that the conversion event that you’re looking for happened. So like on a carrot Web site, when someone clicks, submit on, you know, enter my property address or whatever, they click submit and then it takes them to that next page. Your pixel data should be telling Facebook that that person took action. And the reason that matters is the pixel is looking to see if your ad is getting the action that you want it to have one so they know whether it’s relevant to people and to so they know how to continually optimize that, to show that to the right people.

    00:50:42:12 – 00:51:17:09

    Kiley

    So if your pixel is not configured correctly, you’ll see like a little you’ll see little errors in Facebook. That’s like, Hey, the pixel is not getting any data for this conversion event and that that impacts that impacts the algorithms ability to like build and gain like flywheel momentum so that. Oh that’s right. That’s right. Yep, that’s right. And then and then like you said, yes, you can retarget that traffic which is, which is super awesome and you should be doing that.

    00:51:17:15 – 00:51:24:17

    Kiley

    But yeah, you’ve got to have that conversion piece set up correctly.

    00:51:24:17 – 00:51:48:26

    JT

    Well I was gonna say that to test I think, I think a lot of people, you know, we kind of mentioned you have to give it the time and part of that is just consistently testing. Don’t ever think that just because you know you find something that works that you can just stop because we’re talking about a platform that changes all the time and change it, you know, changes as your results are coming in.

    00:51:48:27 – 00:52:08:15

    JT

    So you start having something you never want to just like all a sudden enter into something slow because you haven’t been staying up all on your changes. So just consistently testing, keeping a beat, the alchemy, keeping a feel on the beat of the of the market as well, like not just in real estate but on the Facebook ads side of things.

    00:52:08:15 – 00:52:16:05

    JT

    Just understanding what you need to do to stay on top of it. What the algorithms feeding and now help you be more successful.

    00:52:17:08 – 00:52:26:13

    Brady

    Yeah, yeah.

    00:52:30:28 – 00:52:32:03

    JT

    Yeah. Just just I.

    00:52:32:03 – 00:53:14:16

    Kiley

    Mean, the answer is yes. Yeah. We test. I mean, from a visual, creative perspective, we test so many different variations. You know, we have text on the images. What color is the text, What size is it, where is it located? Does the text have a shadow on it? So you can. Yeah, the answer is yes. Test. And, and we kind of talked about this a little bit earlier, but I think the other piece I’d add, maybe just as a little bit of a repeat is really consider what you want to invest time and money wise and that will help you decide the best way to approach it.

    00:53:16:12 – 00:53:43:09

    Kiley

    If you are going to put the time in to learning how to do it yourself. That’s why JT said it’s totally doable. There’s lots of education out there. In fact, we we have a course that’s available in the current marketplace that basically teaches everything that we know and do on a Facebook account. It’s several hours long. So it takes it takes commitment to to want to do that.

    00:53:43:09 – 00:54:10:26

    Kiley

    And then part of what we’ve realized over time, you know, I’ve been doing I’ve been doing Facebook ads forever, but specifically for real estate investors since 2016 and what I realized is a lot of people who want to do DIY, they fit really well into the analogy I gave earlier, which is they want to be ripped, but they’re not quite ready to really do everything that they need to do to get ripped.

    00:54:10:26 – 00:54:50:20

    Kiley

    And so we see people jump into that and then they hit some hurdles, they hit some difficulties and they kind of bail and they go our Facebook ads don’t work. Or I you know, I’m going to I’m going to move on. And we’re actually really excited about about this. BRADY We because of that feedback, we we’ve been really thinking about how do we make something that people who are not ready for management either because their budget is a little bit smaller or maybe their personality is such that they’re like, I don’t want to hire someone, What?

    00:54:50:22 – 00:55:24:06

    Kiley

    How can we help them get into Facebook ads in a way that they can be more successful long term? So we’ve created a dashboard software tool where we’ve taken all of our best performing ads and prebuilt campaigns with all of our and everything that we would normally use. And basically people can run Facebook ads with three or four clicks and run everything through through this dashboard.

    00:55:24:18 – 00:55:54:11

    Kiley

    And it’s because part of what part of what’s hard about Facebook marketing is learning how to use ads manager. It’s Facebook ads, managers. I mean, you get in there, it’s a little bit overwhelming. It’s a little bit intimidating. Yeah. So we’ve we’ve we’ve got a tool now that that takes all of that and puts it into like a super simple dashboard where you’re just like, you’re, you’re cooking and you’re toggling things on and off and this is the way I think about it.

    00:55:54:11 – 00:56:26:11

    Kiley

    So to come back to my other analogy about about food hiring an agency is like hiring a personal chef. DIY is like doing it all yourself. So you’re coming up with the meal plan, you’re going to the grocery store, you’re buying all the groceries, you’re chopping it all up, you’re cooking it, you’re and this, this, this, this new tool is like hellofresh or Blue Apron, where someone who knows the the professionals are preparing everything for you there.

    00:56:26:11 – 00:56:51:22

    Kiley

    Do a minute to your doorstep and all you have to do is a couple of steps and then you’re eating. Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s it’s not a perfect analogy. I mean, because really it’s like. I mean, it would be like if all you had to do with the hellofresh was put it in the microwave, you know. Yeah.

    00:56:51:25 – 00:57:49:00

    Kiley

    That’s, that’s how easy it is. So as of, as of today when we’re recording this we are in beta and we have a handful of people in already and are accepting just a limited, a limited few more. If you’re interested in that, you can go to go dot Silver street marketing dot com slash beta. And by the time when this podcast airs, if we’ve come out of beta, we will redirect that link to get you where you need to go.

    00:57:49:00 – 00:57:49:18

    Kiley

    Thanks, Brady.

    00:57:50:03 – 00:58:16:19

    JT

    Thanks. Out of this.

  • EP 432: T.V. Ads for 5x ROI & Less Competition. Everything Real Estate Investors Need To Know

    EP 432: T.V. Ads for 5x ROI & Less Competition. Everything Real Estate Investors Need To Know


    Tony Javier $3k into $30k with his first month of TV Ads, and since then he’s been “off to the races!” After realizing there were no masterminds out there teaching the things he had learned from his experience with television advertising for real estate, he started taking on clients and typically gets his investor’s returns in as little as 3-6 months!

    Today we’re talking about real estate investors, television advertising, and lead generation methods, the top 10 benefits of running ads on TV, and how you can dial the channel into a turn-key traffic solution!

    Check out Carrot.com/video for 52 free ideas & a guide on how to get started in video marketing.


    Episode Transcript (This is an automated transcript by robot carrots – please mind the typos 😉)

    00:00:00:03 – 00:00:22:15

    Tony Javier

    And so first month I spent three grand and made 35 my first month and was off to the races from there. And over the years I’ve told people that I do TV, you know, high level masterminds I’ve been a part of. And every mastermind that joined there was either zero people doing TV or there might have been one out of like 100 plus high level real estate investors.

    00:00:23:03 – 00:00:35:22

    Tony Javier

    And I wish I had won back then that I had a gold mine for other real estate investors. I would have started, you know, helping people dinner.

    00:00:35:22 – 00:00:56:13

    Brady Winder

    Hey, friends, welcome back to the Kirkus Podcast. I’m your host breadwinner and this is the podcast where we help you dial in your marketing and help you build businesses of freedom and impact. I’ve got our guests with us today, Mr. Tony Javier, a.k.a. the TV guy who happens to be a very good, close longtime friend of Trevor Mark, our co-host and CEO.

    00:00:56:21 – 00:01:07:06

    Brady Winder

    And so I’m really excited for you guys to get to meet him and talk all about TV today. Why it’s an awesome marketing channel and get into the nitty gritty. And so, Tony, I hear the podcast, man, How are you?

    00:01:07:18 – 00:01:15:00

    Tony Javier

    Really good, man. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Driver And I’ve been talking a while about putting this together of being on the podcast, so I’m glad to be here.

    00:01:15:00 – 00:01:36:27

    Brady Winder

    Absolutely. Absolutely. And so we don’t do a lot with offline marketing, you know, most podcasts, online marketing and but I think out of the past 400 episodes, we’ve done maybe one or two on radio. I don’t think we’ve done a single one on TV. So this is going to be really valuable. I think it’s it’s one of those topics where the investors just don’t know enough about it.

    00:01:36:27 – 00:01:54:11

    Brady Winder

    And so our goal with this conversation is I want to learn, you know, is this right for me? Is TV something that I should try? And if so, then when? And how do I go about it with without losing a bunch of money? Because I’m sure that’s probably what people are thinking is like, Oh, is this going to be a massive investment?

    00:01:54:11 – 00:02:02:24

    Brady Winder

    Is it a big risk? And so that’s what we’re going to answer. But Tony, how did you how did you get started in TV? What that look like?

    00:02:03:08 – 00:02:21:15

    Tony Javier

    Yeah, before I tell that, that’s actually a good point. Most people, when they think about real estate investing, don’t think about TV, which makes it perfect, which, you know, so. So there’s a lot less competition. So people, when they think about TV, first of all, they don’t think about TV with real estate investing. If they do think about TV, they think it’s too expensive.

    00:02:21:15 – 00:02:40:10

    Tony Javier

    They think their business is not big enough and they don’t know where to start. There’s a lot of intricacies of TV that if you don’t do it right, you can waste a lot of money. So that makes the competition almost I don’t want to say nothing, but when I started ten years ago was pretty much nothing. So. So we’ll start there.

    00:02:40:10 – 00:02:56:19

    Tony Javier

    So ten years ago, I was actually at a poker game. It was a friend of a friend. I went down to his basement and I noticed this guy and he was on TV. He was a he had a TV commercial. And so I kind of got like a little star struck. It was kind of weird, you know? It’s like, Oh, this guy’s on TV.

    00:02:56:19 – 00:03:16:07

    Tony Javier

    Like, you know, he’s you know, you think they’re unapproachable or they’re kind of like this celebrity status kind of thing. But I just started talking to him and I say, Hey, you know, I’ve seen you on TV, just small talk. I’m like, How’s that commercial doing for you? He’s like, his eyes just lit up and he’s like, We do $2 million a year in business off of that TV commercial.

    00:03:16:07 – 00:03:34:03

    Tony Javier

    And that’s all the marketing we do. And I was fascinated. I’m like, Wow, that’s crazy. And so I started dream about it. I wasn’t even thinking about me being on TV, really. And he goes, You know what? I’m going to connect you with my media guy. Maybe drive your business. And I was like, Oh, okay. And so maybe me.

    00:03:34:03 – 00:03:51:28

    Tony Javier

    I called him first thing Monday morning and his name is Drew. And I said, Hey, I heard you got Channel on TV and you’re doing pretty well for him. He’s like, Yeah, Chad’s a great account. And so he learned about my business and he comes back to me and he’s like, I can get you hundreds of commercials for X amount of dollars.

    00:03:51:28 – 00:04:13:21

    Tony Javier

    Pretty low ad spend. It’s about 3000 bucks. And so ran my first month where I was on within 30 days. I did the scripts. I did all the back end buying the negotiations with the stations. He made it super easy for me. And so first month I spent three grand and made 35 my first month and was off to the races from there.

    00:04:14:03 – 00:04:33:28

    Tony Javier

    And over the years I’ve told people that I do TV, you know, high level masterminds. I’ve been a part of. And every mastermind that joined there was either zero people doing TV or there might have been one out of like 100 plus high level real estate investors. And I wish I did one back then that I had a gold mine for other real estate investors.

    00:04:33:28 – 00:04:56:01

    Tony Javier

    I would have started, you know, helping people sooner. So a couple of years ago, I about two and a half years ago, a good friend of mine who is in the real estate space was like, Why don’t you show people what you’re doing? And I’m like, you know, I don’t know if it’s going to work in every market, and I don’t know if people will get results as fast as I can.

    00:04:56:01 – 00:05:15:04

    Tony Javier

    And that’s the other thing about TV is people think it’s just branding and that it takes 6 to 12 months to get results. Right? Right. So for me, it was month one. And so when I watch this, I reached out to about ten people I knew that were in the real estate space. Eight ever raised their hand and said, Yes, I’ll do it.

    00:05:15:18 – 00:05:32:23

    Tony Javier

    So I told them, Hey, I’ll do the production, but I have eight scripts that I know that worked well for me. I’ll put together the scripts. My media guy will go to the stations, negotiate the rates for you within 30 days. We can get you on air. So out of the eight, I think six are still running with me or about two years later.

    00:05:33:04 – 00:05:57:25

    Tony Javier

    And results were quick, were almost every single one of them. And it was just it just blew my mind. So then that was a soft launch and I’m like, okay, I’ve got something here. So we launched it officially next month, I think will be officially two years that we have been helping real estate investors and we have over 100 real estate investors running with us right now and they’re just crushing it.

    00:05:57:25 – 00:06:14:10

    Tony Javier

    I mean, we when we get someone on air, there’s not much competition out there. It builds a ton of credibility for them. It helps other forms of marketing. I’ll get into the benefits here in a little bit, but it’s it’s one of those things that right off the bat, for almost every single one of our clients, is producing a really good return.

    00:06:14:10 – 00:06:24:00

    Tony Javier

    So I’m super stoked about TV and I’ve got plans for all kinds of other ideas with, with TV commercials. But that’s kind of what we’re doing now. And that’s how I got started with TV.

    00:06:24:18 – 00:06:39:11

    Brady Winder

    Well, thanks for Sherman. Yeah, that’s wild that it? Our work in the first month for you. So I got a few questions before we jump into the benefits here. I got a few questions that are really burning I’m just really curious about. And one of them I was going to ask you is like, what’s the biggest misconception about TV?

    00:06:39:27 – 00:06:55:03

    Brady Winder

    I’m guessing that might be the one is that people think it’s a long term thing is that in my head I’m thinking, okay, this is like billboards. This is your your airplane coverage. We call on marketing or it’s just brand awareness over months. Would you say that’s one of the bigger misconceptions or misunderstandings?

    00:06:55:13 – 00:07:21:03

    Tony Javier

    Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 100%. You know, when again, when I started TV commercials, I was hoping I would produce right away and I was like, you know what? I’ll give it a few months. And, you know, if I even break even that, you know, it’ll be okay. But I Tenix my money in the first month and it was like, holy crap, like, and, and then again when we launched it, I was like, man, I really hope if, if it takes 3 to 6 months for our clients, about some of them will wait out for that.

    00:07:21:18 – 00:07:41:21

    Tony Javier

    But I would say, I mean we don’t have an exact statistic on this, but I would say about 75% of our clients are doing at least three deals their first month that we get them on TV right now. And that’s and that’s just the first month. So imagine I’ve been on TV for ten years now. They’re my vitamins, someone that saw me ten years ago.

    00:07:42:07 – 00:08:02:23

    Tony Javier

    But and it was it’s been I’ve been in in their head like for ten years and finally the ready to sell today right so it’s it’s one of those things that again it’s it’s a blue ocean when I ask someone like how many people are in your market doing TV, usually they’re like, oh, there’s one guy doing it or Oh, I know a couple of guys doing it.

    00:08:03:04 – 00:08:29:20

    Tony Javier

    But if you say, you know, do you know who else is doing direct mail? That’s like, yeah, I’ve got, you know, ten other people that send to the same list that I do. Right? So that’s, I think that’s, you know, there’s so many different reasons. TV work but works. But I, I think just, you know, people thinking that it’s too expensive, it’s going to take a long time to get results and even if I even if you say, hey, TV works, it’s like, where do you start?

    00:08:29:20 – 00:08:45:18

    Tony Javier

    What stations do you call? Which shows are you on? What’s the scripting like? There’s so many different pieces to the puzzle that if you get, you know, you get one or two wrong, you might, you know, you might still do. Okay. But if you have no idea what you’re doing and you’re wrong, the wrong shows that right there is going to wipe out.

    00:08:45:18 – 00:08:59:03

    Tony Javier

    If your message isn’t clear, concise, that’s going to wipe you out. If your call to action isn’t clear enough and people don’t understand what you do, you’re going to waste your money, right? So there’s just a lot of different things that you have to put together in order in order to make it work.

    00:08:59:25 – 00:09:12:09

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, and that’s probably what makes people so skeptical or nervous to jump into it. It’s like, you know, if if I mess up, you know, one, two, three, these things, it’s, you know, you can easily lose a lot of money.

    00:09:12:26 – 00:09:31:19

    Tony Javier

    Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Because like with direct mail and, you know, PPC and Facebook, like, you can find so many people that can do that for you, right? I mean, you can go online right now with TV, there’s no one really that, that, that talks about TV for real estate investing and and where they go to to to make it happen.

    00:09:32:21 – 00:09:57:27

    Brady Winder

    Yeah absolutely I’m remembering a we had a carry camp a few months back and kid shows up he awesome kid a lot of drive a lot of ambition and he was pretty new to investing It was primarily wholesaling and he says, Yeah, I just did my first deal a few months ago and like every dollar he made, you know, passed his basic living expenses was just dump it right back into marketing.

    00:09:58:11 – 00:10:14:15

    Brady Winder

    And he’s like, Yeah, I’m doing this. This names like five marketing methods. He’s like, Yeah, I dumped about 20 grand into TV last month. We’ll see how it goes. So like I was working for, he’s like, I don’t know. Yeah, we’ll find out. Oh, man, it’s like, like unsupervised. I’m pretty sure he went direct to the station. That’s like, Hey, I want to buy some.

    00:10:14:15 – 00:10:19:20

    Brady Winder

    Is some air coverage. Like, just go. So, yeah, we want to avoid that So and that’s it.

    00:10:19:20 – 00:10:41:01

    Tony Javier

    And it’s interesting you say 20 grand because there’s very few markets that you need to spend even near 20 grand a month. Right. So if you even if you call the stations directly, they’re going to do probably what they did to him and say, yeah, we’ve got a package here. It’s 20 grand, we’re going to get you 100 commercials a month and here’s what you’re going to be on.

    00:10:41:02 – 00:11:00:00

    Tony Javier

    Right? And so we we’ve had clients come to us that have either done that or got their proposal, didn’t quite pull the trigger yet and said, what do you think about this? And we’re like, okay, so we can actually do it for ten grand a month or less. And instead of 100 commercials, we can get you 500 to 600 commercials.

    00:11:00:13 – 00:11:18:03

    Tony Javier

    And the shows that they’re putting you on are not your demographic, because we know what our demographic is, because we have dialed it in over the last ten years. Right? So ID say we save our clients just tons of money and tons of time trying to figure it out themselves just because we’ve done it so many times.

    00:11:19:03 – 00:11:35:10

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, you’re taking out the trial and error, the costly trial and error. So tell us, Tony, what are some of the what are some of the benefits of TV? A sort a boring way to phrase the question, what makes TV different than, you know, cold calling, direct mail, the other lead sources.

    00:11:35:11 – 00:11:37:02

    Tony Javier

    What makes TV sexy? Basically.

    00:11:37:23 – 00:11:39:10

    Brady Winder

    What makes TV’s sexy.

    00:11:40:03 – 00:11:59:19

    Tony Javier

    So he be a sexy because there’s many live events for TV, but I’ll just narrow it down to to a few. So first of all, the credibility factor, I mean, think about it. If I say Lucky Charms manager magically delicious, right? You know what that is? If you go to the aisles in the stores, you see Lucky Charms, you know what it is, right?

    00:12:00:01 – 00:12:14:29

    Tony Javier

    And it’s because of TV, because they brand TV. So and I don’t even know if that if that commercial runs anymore, but it’s still in my head and I still if I go to the grocery store, I’m still going to know that that brand to go to. If I want something with marshmallow and you know flavor, right? Yeah.

    00:12:15:01 – 00:12:44:03

    Tony Javier

    The credibility factor. Like, you know, people in Wichita, like so many people have reached out to me wanting, you know, wanting to do business with me or lend money to me or, you know, when I when I used to do acquisitions. I live in San Diego now. My business, I mean, the markets, Wichita run, run TV and I haven’t been there in seven years, but when I ran the leads and I go out to the house, they’d be like, Oh, wow, you’re actually in my house, you know?

    00:12:44:12 – 00:12:52:24

    Tony Javier

    And it’s like they have this perception of you like like you’re a star. Kind of like I did with that. You know, they got Chad back when I was at that poker game right?

    00:12:52:24 – 00:12:54:06

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, Celebrity factor.

    00:12:54:06 – 00:13:23:12

    Tony Javier

    Celebrity factor. So the credibility by itself is worth it. Even if you didn’t get a return of a dollar return on your direct money, just the credibility factor, one is probably worth it. Right? So that’s that’s prime number one. Actually, these are no particular order, to be honest. But yeah, this kind of kind of thrown him out there and I you know the second I’ve already mentioned little to no competition you know you you go and you do direct mail, you do PPC, you do you know these are the marketing method.

    00:13:23:12 – 00:13:43:09

    Tony Javier

    You’re competing with dozens and dozens of other real estate investors, whereas with TV there might be one or two other guys on TV maybe, and most of the markets you’re in there are you’re hitting hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. So if you have even if you had 5 to 10 people on TV, it probably still there’s still be enough deals to go around.

    00:13:43:25 – 00:14:05:22

    Tony Javier

    So the fact that there’s not as much competition. Right. And then the obvious is the r y, you know, most of our clients that we get on TV are getting a 5 to 10 x return, and that’s just do from there directly from their ad spend. That’s not including all the other benefits that TV has access trackable or ROI directly to them right from the TV ads.

    00:14:05:22 – 00:14:28:17

    Tony Javier

    So if they’re spending, you know, seven grand a month, they’re getting 35 to potentially 70 grand back in return. And then we have some clients that are in some smaller markets that are getting a ton of commercials where TV is just like crazy and they’re getting like a 20 times plus return. So the ROI is is is definitely there, the automation to it.

    00:14:28:24 – 00:14:54:00

    Tony Javier

    So you get a set of get it set up right, which hopefully we help you do. You don’t have to worry about it. It’s like a set it and forget it. You know, you know we’ve over the years, let’s see, we’ve been on for ten years now. I think we’ve done probably 12, maybe 15 commercial variations and the longest time we ran TV without changing it is 18 months.

    00:14:54:01 – 00:15:10:06

    Tony Javier

    So we literally had the same ad running for 18 months, producing the same. The only range that the reason I change it was because of the pandemic. And I tried a different script. They would actually work a little bit better and that’s the only reason I change it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have I would I would have just kept it running.

    00:15:10:06 – 00:15:37:08

    Tony Javier

    So I just wanted a fresh stand up and and in that kind of thing and ended up working well. So and then the fact that this is probably the biggest thing, if someone comes to me and they’re like, okay, I’m doing direct mail, I’m doing PPC, I’m doing what’s another one, Facebook, right? If they’re even doing one of those methods, I know that TV is going to help those efforts.

    00:15:37:08 – 00:16:02:03

    Tony Javier

    So if they’re like, I’m getting a5x return on my direct mail, I, I can guarantee it, but I, I pretty certain that that r y is going to go up. In fact, I stopped direct mail, let’s see, probably three or four years ago just because it got so saturated. But I kept telling my clients, okay, when you’re on TV, make sure you but as seen on TV, on your website and anything else you can think of.

    00:16:02:26 – 00:16:28:18

    Tony Javier

    So clients start coming back to me are like, Man, my direct mail has gotten way better response as I started putting that and people would be like, I called you from your direct mail piece because you’re on TV. So I went, Wow, okay. So I started back, but back up direct mail. Last year we put seen on TV with a with a screenshot of our commercial and our direct mail was just exponentially better than than it was five years ago.

    00:16:28:18 – 00:16:52:15

    Tony Javier

    And there’s probably even more competition now. So the fact that it helps other forms of marketing, if you’re doing other marketing, is is a huge benefit in itself. Like I said, you know, like I said, if, if you know you get direct to are better results from your other forms of marketing, even if you don’t make a dollar on your TV directly, it’s still going to be worth it.

    00:16:52:15 – 00:17:09:02

    Tony Javier

    But luckily the results are typically there on the ROIC. So and I could go on and on and on about benefits. You know, it’s helped me raise private money. I’ve had, you know, people reach out to me for certain things where we’ve created relationships. People treat you differently when you’re on TV. There’s just so many different benefits of TV.

    00:17:09:02 – 00:17:10:09

    Tony Javier

    I could I could keep you on.

    00:17:11:02 – 00:17:34:03

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, Well, and that’s, you know, it’s huge, that credibility factor. You’re talking about how, you know, your direct mail response rate is going up just by having that as seen on TV thing on there, because it just your credibility goes through the roof. And I think that’s the beauty of it. Plus, you know, care coupled with offline marketing methods, is that it just amplifies everything else that you’re already doing.

    00:17:34:06 – 00:17:52:15

    Brady Winder

    And so, you know, when people get your direct mail and people see your TV ad, they’re going to your website. When you have them all tied together, it works really well. It’s not it’s not just I mean, yeah, you’re you’re getting 5 to 10 ROI on the TV, but it’s more than that because it’s boosting everything else with it.

    00:17:52:15 – 00:18:04:04

    Brady Winder

    I got I got a few questions. I got a lot of questions for you. You mentioned 10 to 20 ROI in some of the smaller markets. Why? Why would TV be working better in the smaller markets?

    00:18:04:20 – 00:18:34:07

    Tony Javier

    Well, you have to look at the multiple, right? So we you know, let’s say you’re spending seven grand a month in a market and you make a hundred grand, Right. That’s about a 15 times return on investment if you spend the same amount of money or let’s see, let’s I’m trying to do some math here. So let’s say you you spend 15 grand in a bigger market and you make 100 grand.

    00:18:34:07 – 00:18:44:11

    Tony Javier

    That’s a six times return. You’re you’re not making that much more money, but your return is that much higher in that smaller market because of your lower ad spend, if that makes sense.

    00:18:44:25 – 00:18:47:07

    Brady Winder

    So it’s because less competition?

    00:18:47:29 – 00:19:07:16

    Tony Javier

    No, just because the way the numbers work, you know, if you spend an extra thousand dollars a month and you make an extra 20 from that, then that’s just the way the numbers work. Just because you earn more money doesn’t mean you’re going to multiply your your money as much. So you just have to make a lot more money When you start spending more money, that makes sense.

    00:19:07:16 – 00:19:44:21

    Tony Javier

    So we’ve got clients that are spending you know, I throw out that seven grand because that’s typically what smaller markets are, and we’re getting hundreds of hundreds of commercials for that. And we have clients doing 100 to 200 grand a month, pretty consistent. Those clients, some of those clients are doing that number consistently in the returns. Right. And so if they were doing 100 to 200 grand with a $20,000 a month ad spend, they’re still making a lot of money, but they’re multiple is only like a five to I know what that is 5 to 725 and ten times return.

    00:19:44:21 – 00:19:47:19

    Tony Javier

    Right. It’s still a lot of money, but it’s just the way the.

    00:19:47:19 – 00:20:11:16

    Brady Winder

    Multiplex that makes sense. So you’ve thrown out some figures? Zero. You know, seven grand. Ten grand. We have some ideas. Baselines for what it might take to get started, depending on the size of your market. My question would be, is there an ideal time to get started? So like, when would you want to get started with marketing? It doesn’t sound like it’d be for the guy who’s brand new to investing.

    00:20:12:22 – 00:20:31:06

    Brady Winder

    Are there any things you need to have dialed in? And then I’ll kind of piggyback that with like if there’s a good time to get started, Is there anything people are doing to is there anything you’re your best clients are doing to help it work? Really well, if that makes sense.

    00:20:31:14 – 00:20:50:25

    Tony Javier

    I think the biggest thing is having a sales process because we can get the phone to ring. So we’ve had people come to us after like, you know, 90 days and they’re like, Man, we got 90 leads. We went on so many appointments and willing converted one or two. And I’m like, Those numbers just don’t work like that.

    00:20:50:25 – 00:21:09:27

    Tony Javier

    That’s definitely not a lead problem. That’s a conversion problem. So we’ve kind of we’ve kind of dug into people’s sales process and and now now we help them with tracking their calls and recording them and, and things of that nature. And we realize those that are dialed in on their sales process, they’re making it work and they’re making it work really well.

    00:21:10:18 – 00:21:37:06

    Tony Javier

    Those that less a few months later are like, we’re not getting the results we need. Most likely as their sales process. So you have I don’t know, we’ve probably helped 5 to 10 new investors with TV commercials and we’re pretty selective. So we did that for a reason. It’s either they already had successful business, they had already within a short amount of time done quite a few deals.

    00:21:37:06 – 00:22:01:03

    Tony Javier

    We had a Division one college quarterback come to us and like, Dude, let me do this. I will make it work. And he ended up making like 50,000 boxes first month, you know, on TV. So there’s there’s people that we will allow in that are kind of newer investors. But what it comes down to is I don’t want to waste your money if you don’t have your sales brass dial dialed in, which, yeah, you’re answering the phone, you’re calling people back if you can.

    00:22:01:12 – 00:22:12:09

    Tony Javier

    You’re getting out of the appointment as quick as possible. You’re getting a deal under contract as quickly as possible. Those that have that dialed in are doing really well, those that don’t and still do. Okay, but it’s not as likely.

    00:22:13:15 – 00:22:29:04

    Brady Winder

    Hmm. Okay. That makes sense. Is there a is there a speed to lead factor with TV? You know, I mean, obviously like Google Pay per click, you got to be on it because they might have just filled out the past three floor forms and they’re hopping from website to website. Do you find that with TV or no?

    00:22:29:11 – 00:22:59:18

    Tony Javier

    Well, I find that TV is a more forgiving lead now, mainly because when someone calls, it’s typically they’re on their couch, they’re maybe thinking about selling the next month or they have a piece of land they’re paying taxes on or whatever, and they see the commercial and they’re like, okay, I’m probably going to sell next month. Or, you know, whenever I’m thinking about selling or my mom is getting ready to go in a nursing home, whatever the case may be, they pick up the phone, what are they going to do?

    00:22:59:19 – 00:23:23:06

    Tony Javier

    They’re going to call you, you answer the phone. You’re as long as the numbers work and you guys can make something work, you’re more likely to get the right. If someone calls you from the TV commercial, you don’t answer time goes by, they’re going to go, you know, maybe I’ll just go look up someone online. Right? But if you’re on the phone with them, like, yeah, I can get out by PM.

    00:23:23:06 – 00:23:45:00

    Tony Javier

    I can get out tomorrow at 10 a.m.. Chance of them calling someone else is pretty slim, right? Because if they went online, who knows who they’re going to find. But if they called you from TV, they think you’re the they think you are the answer, right? You are the authority, You’re credible, you’re spending money on TV, you’re willing to put your face out there and you’re more likely to get that deal.

    00:23:45:13 – 00:24:07:15

    Tony Javier

    The caveat is treat it like a PPC. Lee Right. I still tell my clients like, treat it like a PPC lead, Act like 20 other people are going out to that appointment. But luckily a decent portion of the time when someone calls from TV, you’re the only one they call, which is another benefit that I didn’t mention, because if you’re the only one that goes on that appointment, two things happen.

    00:24:07:15 – 00:24:25:13

    Tony Javier

    One is more likely to get that deal too, is because you’re not competing with a bunch of different people. You’re more likely to get a better deal, right? Because if you’re good, if you have three people behind you or. Right, you right, they’re going to go everybody give me the you know, give me the highest and best offer.

    00:24:25:22 – 00:24:47:18

    Tony Javier

    If you can get in front of them, convince them to sell. At that point, you’re more likely to get the deal. So I’ve had I’ve asked this question to many clients and asked them to compare and those that track it, of course. What is your problem for debt per deal from other marketing method compared to TV? And almost every one of them that tracks it says they make more money from TV deals per deal.

    00:24:48:27 – 00:24:49:14

    Tony Javier

    Wow.

    00:24:49:16 – 00:25:00:22

    Brady Winder

    Interesting. Do you know about what the give us a baseline of like maybe for your average size market of like cost per lead proffer per deal? I know that’s a loaded question, but.

    00:25:01:24 – 00:25:25:01

    Tony Javier

    I hate talking about cost per lead because with TV you’re probably going to pay more per lead. But in another benefit we’re getting to, then I’m kind of leading to is you’re not getting as many tire kickers, right? So yeah, yeah. So like texting, cold calling, you’re going get a ton of tire kickers with Facebook. People just fill out the form because they have a house and they don’t they’re not necessarily serious about selling.

    00:25:25:01 – 00:25:46:24

    Tony Javier

    Right. And so at TV, they’re taking the time. They’re sitting on the couch, they’re watching TV, They take the time to pick up the phone and dial you. They’re probably not a tire kicker. Right. So cost per lead, we try and get our clients statistics. We really try and get them to get those to us. But not everybody is good at getting them.

    00:25:46:24 – 00:26:23:12

    Tony Javier

    But the ones that get it to us, we’ve seen it as low as 50 to $100 a lead where they’re spending a little bit in the market and they’re getting that big return. But there’s going to be some bigger markets where you’re spending more money, you’re getting less calls because maybe there’s more competition. But what’s interesting is the cost per lead doesn’t always correlate with the return on investment because we have some clients, their cost per liter really high, but the returns are really high because they’re not getting as many leads, but they’re higher quality and they’re converting them at the high level where they, you know, their average profit per deal may be 40

    00:26:23:12 – 00:26:48:12

    Tony Javier

    grand, whereas someone that’s getting more leads their their average is 15, right? It’s also. Yeah. Yeah. And the r y is also going to be based it’s, you know, based on sales, but it’s also based on your exit strategy, right. If you’re wholesaling only making 10 to 15 grand compared to someone who might wholesale the same deal to make 20 to 30 compared to someone who may rehab that to make 60, that could skew the numbers quite a bit.

    00:26:48:12 – 00:27:10:02

    Tony Javier

    So cost per lead could be anywhere from to answer your question, $50 to 1000 or maybe more. But it comes down to as I care about the ROI, I say if you can get it 2 to 3 times, ROI TV is still worth it because of all the other benefits you’re getting. But luckily most of our clients have seen a55 times return.

    00:27:10:02 – 00:27:33:17

    Brady Winder

    Absolutely. And I feel the pain when I ask that question, like, tell me about cost relief, because without the context, everybody was like, Oh, now why would I want to pay that much for a lead if you don’t know? But I mean, I hear you because we see the same thing with CEO and we’ve you know, we’ve ran surveys with our members and we know that currently ads are about over seven and a half times more profitable than the non care leads.

    00:27:33:27 – 00:27:47:25

    Brady Winder

    And it’s because it’s inbound like TV where they’re seeking you out or credibility or authority anyways, it’s just a whole different ballgame. And you’re you’re not sifting through all those tire kickers, like you said. So there’s definitely a lot of synergy there.

    00:27:47:26 – 00:27:51:00

    Tony Javier

    Yeah, exactly right.

    00:27:51:00 – 00:28:14:00

    Brady Winder

    So let’s talk about we’re about out of time here pretty soon, but I want to talk about some best practices real quick. So one of them you had mentioned was like when you’re doing direct mail, if you’re doing direct mail than on your website, but as seen on TV, you know, one other thing you do if you’re a carrier, remember, you use a campaign tracking links and you have people drive driven to your website.

    00:28:14:00 – 00:28:28:13

    Brady Winder

    And that way you can know, okay, they came here through the TV ad, you could use a specific URL so you can track that more accurately or having you have any other best practices, whether it’s from scripting to, you know, getting started. The people might want to do.

    00:28:30:11 – 00:28:57:27

    Tony Javier

    Best practices in general. I would say number one is the sales process as already mentioned. So I’m not going to go down that too much again, but just have your sales sales together, you know, answer the calls, tracking your leads properly, making sure you know, when you have a marketing channel. What what’s working. I think also having a just a bigger presence overall.

    00:28:57:27 – 00:29:34:06

    Tony Javier

    So TV, if you did TV and that’s it, you can you can crush it and you can do really well, but some people are going to Google you. So having a, you know, a good SEO with with carrot or and or Google reviews, I think that’s the biggest thing that people will really take advantage of is getting a listing with your name so that when someone Googles your name, hopefully you come up, even if your SEO is not great and then getting as many reviews as you possibly can and try to make your Google Google listing as active as possible.

    00:29:34:06 – 00:29:51:29

    Tony Javier

    So for us, when we have a listing and we, you know, we do pretty much all flips, we pause on everything we do. And so when we have something come up either for rent or for sale, we put it under our Google under Google profile, which helps with SEO. We get as many Google reviews as we possibly can.

    00:29:51:29 – 00:30:10:24

    Tony Javier

    I think we have 110 120 at this point. We’re not as good right now as we thought we were when we tried to ramp when we ramp that up originally. But we’ve gotten so many comments on that, that one, when you go to our site, you see a ton of testimonial videos and then people also will mention, hey, we saw your Google reviews, you have a lot of reviews.

    00:30:11:12 – 00:30:18:15

    Tony Javier

    So that’s another reason that we we decided to trust you when selling our house to you. So. Oh, wow.

    00:30:18:19 – 00:30:24:29

    Brady Winder

    I think this is for your investing business, right? Not the not the TV business. Bridgerton reviews.

    00:30:25:25 – 00:30:51:18

    Tony Javier

    Yeah, well, yeah, the the. So I had a digital marketing guy look at my home buying business, and he was managing my PPC, and he looked at my Google list and he’s like, You have these like 15 or 20 of your reviews at the time. He’s like, That’s okay. And you’re at a 3.8. So he’s like, There is a study that showed that every point one you have on your Google Review as far as stars are concerned.

    00:30:51:18 – 00:31:16:00

    Tony Javier

    So for your 3.8, if you can get it to from 3.8 to 3.9, there’s a percentage too. And it was substantial. I can’t remember the number, but he’s like, if you can get it up from a three and even 3.8 to a four, it was like I don’t know, it was like a 50 to 100% increase in trust factor based on just that point one or point two and stars.

    00:31:16:00 – 00:31:38:08

    Tony Javier

    And so and so I went in, I messaged everybody I could think of for about a week or two, and I said, Hey, we’ve done business together. You know, Did you want him to be credible? Right. They don’t necessarily have to be people. You bought their house, Hey, we’ve done business together. I’d love for you to give a character review about me and my business and and then we started going to sellers and sellers that were happy.

    00:31:38:23 – 00:31:59:21

    Tony Javier

    And yeah, we got it up to 120 reviews, 4.6 stars, I think. So. Imagine. Imagine comparing those two businesses, someone who has a 3.8 star with 20 reviews compared to 120 reviews. It’s 4.5 stars. Who are you going to trust right? I mean, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, and for me, I don’t like to do business with anybody that’s under four stars.

    00:32:00:25 – 00:32:17:09

    Brady Winder

    Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, that’s a good point, because it’d be, you know, like we were talking about earlier in the podcast, you know, it’d be easy to go into TV without the right guy guidance and miss some of those critical things to where you could easily blow through a lot of money. If you have no online presence, you’re not showing up on Google.

    00:32:17:09 – 00:32:42:18

    Brady Winder

    My business, just simple Google my business profile. I could see that being recipe for disaster. So we came across actually got our team. Brian If you guys saw the podcast back in January about SEO, kind of SEO one on one, I think we talked about the study we found with Google, My business where it was something like 30 is the magic number for Google.

    00:32:42:18 – 00:33:20:08

    Brady Winder

    My business reviews, or there’s a substantial uplift for businesses with 30 or more reviews. And then past that, it’s diminishing returns. You know, this obviously it’s market dependent and we’re talking averages here. But yeah, if you can get to that threshold, there’s the SEO juice. Those the SEO benefits. But to your point as well, especially if you’re in a larger market, why not just keep getting as many reviews as possible because of the trust factor and the credibility factor when you have just a massive amount of reviews compared to the next guy with, you know, five, ten, 50 or whatever, it’s huge.

    00:33:20:08 – 00:33:41:08

    Brady Winder

    You know, Do you guys ever put so like on a website, in fact, you have this on your website, we call it a credibility bar, you know, as seen on boom, boom, boom, these these pages, these news outlets, whatever featured and on a website we call it the credibility bar. You guys do that in commercials at all for TV.

    00:33:41:08 – 00:33:49:29

    Brady Winder

    Like would you ever in a commercial bank? We have like flash up five stars on Google now.

    00:33:50:00 – 00:34:12:24

    Tony Javier

    That’s a good point. I do have that on my on my home buying page as well as we have 90 plus five star reviews and we have a bunch of, you know, for four and a half or whatever. So 90 plus five star reviews is what we put on our page. We do have some of our clients who like to do Better Business Bureau on their you only have so much room to put information on the TV commercial.

    00:34:12:25 – 00:34:31:03

    Tony Javier

    And that’s that’s I think one of the reasons that people come to us as well is that we want it to be very clean, clear and concise. You don’t want it’s like some people are like, I’ve seen I’ve seen other people do TV commercials in real estate and outside of real estate where they have multiple domains, multiple phone numbers.

    00:34:31:03 – 00:34:53:21

    Tony Javier

    And it’s like you want like you want people like the lead lease path, the resistance. So if you’re like Omaha County is this number in Wichita counties, this number, it’s like people just are going to get confused. And so, I mean, stand your question. If someone came to us and said, put that in there, we might test it or we’d have to figure out, like, is there enough room to put that in there?

    00:34:54:18 – 00:35:03:06

    Tony Javier

    But I’m not sure. I’m not sure if that would matter too much, because you already have credibility from TV that I don’t know that you need to put it on there.

    00:35:03:26 – 00:35:21:29

    Brady Winder

    Right, Exactly. Yeah. Good point. You’re on TV. You’re famous at that point. Awesome, man. Well, know, we’re about out of time. I want to ask if there’s if there’s any anything else you want to touch on? Anything you feel like people really wish they would know if they were getting started in TV now.

    00:35:21:29 – 00:35:48:01

    Tony Javier

    I mean, just I think I think as long as you can afford TV, as you know, I think TV’s a no brainer. If you’re doing real estate, you have a budget for it and you’re willing to do it, you know, long term. And and I mentioned, you know, most people are getting results in the first month. We do have some clients that it’s taken 3 to 6 months for them to really start, you know, popping some good deals and getting traction.

    00:35:48:17 – 00:36:12:27

    Tony Javier

    But I don’t know, I just think it’s a no brainer. I mean, obviously I’m a little biased, but I’m doing TV myself. I’m doing it. I’ve seen clients results and I’m putting my money where my mouth is, too. And I’m actually JV partnering with people in other markets as well and doing TV with with other people. Because I, you know, when I started seeing our clients results and I’m like they’re getting 10 to 20 times return on their investment.

    00:36:13:09 – 00:36:35:10

    Tony Javier

    Whereas, you know, for me it’s been anywhere from 5 to 11, so it’s still been good. But I’m like, I bet there’s some other markets that we can tap into where we can we can get that 10 to 20 times return. And I’m like, How can I take advantage of that? So I started JV partnering with other people where we do the TV commercials, they do the deals, we may fund them for them and we partnered on it.

    00:36:36:05 – 00:36:45:18

    Tony Javier

    And so, yeah, I mean, I mean, I’m all in on TV. It’s, it’s, it’s been a game changer for me and now it’s been a game changer for a lot of people that we’ve implemented it for.

    00:36:46:22 – 00:37:07:24

    Brady Winder

    Well, absolutely. You know, I was planning on part of this conversation being about, you know, talking about like why is TV relevant or how is it still relevant? Has it gone downhill, you know, with the you know, the advent of Hulu and all the all the streaming services. But it’s not even it’s not even worth talking about because the results speak for themselves.

    00:37:07:24 – 00:37:24:13

    Brady Winder

    I mean, if you get in 5 to 10 or more return, but then it’s it’s obviously irrelevant and it’s still it seems like with more streaming services, it’s even lower hanging fruit and there’s even less competition. So anyways, I think that’s awesome. Yeah. And I do. I do.

    00:37:24:24 – 00:37:44:17

    Tony Javier

    Yeah. My last last thing I’ll say on that is think about our demographic. If you’re buying a house from somebody, they’re typically lower income, maybe medium income, and they’re older, who’s sitting around watching TV? It’s someone who is typically older, they’re typically lower and middle income. That’s our demographic.

    00:37:45:17 – 00:38:03:09

    Brady Winder

    Mm hmm. Okay, so I’ve got a heart stop at a few minutes, so I truly do have to wrap it up, even though I have a million questions. But one here’s here’s one for you that that might be popping into some of our listeners heads or our viewers heads. So you have got your process dialed in. You’ve done on TV.

    00:38:03:09 – 00:38:18:08

    Brady Winder

    It’s easy for you to speak to this because you’ve been doing it for years and you’ve got a little bit of swagger. You know, it seems like you you talk naturally. What if you you’re like, Oh, man, But I’m awkward on camera. I’m the goofy. We’re looking dude. Like, does it does it really have to be me on the commercial?

    00:38:18:08 – 00:38:21:00

    Brady Winder

    Like, what? What do you say to the people that might be thinking that?

    00:38:21:12 – 00:38:37:11

    Tony Javier

    That’s a great question. Like we’ve had some people that have said, Oh, I just know TV’s not for me. I got a Facebook radio, you know, kind of thing and we’ve done some magic. So, so a few things about that. One is you don’t have to be in the commercial we would like you to be because you’re building your personal brand.

    00:38:37:21 – 00:38:57:23

    Tony Javier

    People see you out and about. They start conversations. It’s it’s building you as as the authority and the brand. Right, too. Is we can do some magic. So even if someone goes in because we set people up in the market, that’s part of the service we do. We set people up in the market to shoot the commercial so they’ll figure out where to go and all that kind of stuff.

    00:38:58:13 – 00:39:25:28

    Tony Javier

    And we get the footage back and sometimes the footage isn’t great. There’s a lot of mess ups, but our video guys does magic with it. Like we can edit the back end. And the other thing is, is that I had say at least have the commercial. You’re not on the commercial anyway, so as long as you can read a script and, you know, just sound natural, we can edit it with the good stuff where you’re in there and you’re confident and actually I’ve had people come to.

    00:39:26:08 – 00:39:44:10

    Tony Javier

    So I have a lot of people that are virtual do virtual deals in other markets. I live in California, so if they’re close enough to me in San Diego, they’ll drive down and I’ve done a few shoots where I’m like, Oh man, this is rough. Like, I’ve had to really pull some good stuff out of them. Then we’ll send it to the editing and it comes out good, right?

    00:39:44:10 – 00:39:46:22

    Tony Javier

    So yeah, I wouldn’t worry about that too much.

    00:39:47:06 – 00:39:57:21

    Brady Winder

    Okay, so there you have it. If anyone’s wondering if you think you only have face for radio, which you don’t, you’re beautiful, but you can still do TV profitably. Where can people find you if they want to get started with you?

    00:39:58:01 – 00:40:18:28

    Tony Javier

    Yeah, go to R.E.M.. TVGuide.com, R.E.M. TV So used to be called Real Estate Master’s TV. That’s why it’s our MTV dot com. And I just if you if you’re on video here, you can see we rebranded to ten TV because we talk TV. Yeah, because we feel like we can get you in front of ten times more people, ten times easier with ten times more credibility.

    00:40:19:06 – 00:40:26:22

    Tony Javier

    And then hopefully if we get you guys to crush the sales process, get a ten x return on.

    00:40:26:22 – 00:40:43:10

    Brady Winder

    That’s awesome. That’s awesome, man. Well, thank you for sharing of the Yes was super tactical super helpful. Appreciate you sharing it with our audience. Everybody listen to this. If you have any questions, feel free to email me Brady at Care.com and I’ll try to get an answer for you or pass along to Tony. But thanks again, man, for hopping on the show.

    00:40:43:10 – 00:40:45:25

    Tony Javier

    MAN Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

    00:40:45:25 – 00:41:07:01

    Brady Winder

    Yep. We’ll see you next week, guys.

  • EP 422: Getting Better Testimonials: A Practical Guide to Increasing Trust & Conversion

    EP 422: Getting Better Testimonials: A Practical Guide to Increasing Trust & Conversion


    Testimonials can make or break your ability to generate leads and convert those leads into profitable deals. That’s why we’re talking with two of our all-time favorite guests, Beau the closer & Keith the SEO beast to break down:

    • The specific questions that’ll get a house seller to give you a raving review that bust objections
    • How Keith & Beau leverage these testimonials on your website and Google profile to generate more & higher-quality leads
    • How to capture the perfect video testimonial vs. a written review, the most common mistakes investors make, and more!

    Whether you’re brand new to real estate investing or you’ve done 100 deals, join in on this conversation with two six-figure wholesalers to hear how you can become a more credible (and profitable) real estate investor.

    Learn how to make the most of your website at Carrot.com/convert

    Mentioned in this Episode:

    Keith Sant’s Carrot site

    Beau Hollis’ Carrot site


    Episode Transcript (This is an automated transcript by robot carrots – please mind the typos 😉)

    00:00:00:04 – 00:00:16:00

    Beau Hollis

    And I have so many my friends. I’ve tried and tried and tried to talk to them. Go to closings. Go to closings. Go to closings, get allies, go for the reviews. And they still don’t have reviews. And they’re trying to run like PPC ads and all this kind of stuff. They’re running all these kind of ads, paid ads with no reviews.

    00:00:16:00 – 00:00:22:04

    Brady Winder

    Wasted money. Everybody listen to this. Like, don’t be run on PPC as with no reviews, no credibility, your waste money garbage.

    00:00:22:04 – 00:00:37:22

    Beau Hollis

    Stop that. Don’t do it. Go to go to the start going to closings for the next month or two. Bring your cell phone. Have great cameras, by the way. Go there. Take a selfie video with these people or go to their house. If you already bought their house and have a good relationship, say, hey, I know it’s crazy, but would you do a review with me?

    00:00:38:05 – 00:00:43:07

    Beau Hollis

    You know, like go, like, spend, spend a little time, do this, invest in it.

    00:00:48:16 – 00:01:06:11

    Brady Winder

    Hello, friends. Welcome back to the Care Cast podcast, where James Brady I’m your host and this is the podcast for real estate investors and agents, where we help you build businesses of freedom and impact by dialing in your online marketing. Today I have my friends with me, Mr. Keith Sands, Bo Hollis. Welcome back to the podcast, guys. How’s it going.

    00:01:07:15 – 00:01:11:04

    Beau Hollis

    Man? Glad to be on here with all of these guys.

    00:01:11:15 – 00:01:13:10

    Keith Sant

    Yeah. Bernie, appreciate you having me back.

    00:01:14:20 – 00:01:33:05

    Brady Winder

    Absolutely. It has been a minute. If you guys don’t know, Bo Hollis keeps saying, go to Google and type in carrot. Keith, Bo, whatever. You’re going to find a lot of good content, but these guys have been investing for years are some of the best wholesalers, best investors around and really know their stuff when it comes to it.

    00:01:33:05 – 00:01:49:23

    Brady Winder

    So Keith is stronger on the lead generation side and Bo is the closer, but they both do both of those really well. But if you guys want to know how to generate leads through and closed deals, we’ve got a lot of content on both of those. So what are we doing today? It’s website design and conversion month care.

    00:01:50:14 – 00:02:15:08

    Brady Winder

    In February. And so we’re talking about how to increase the conversion on your website to close more deals. What are the best ways you can increase the conversion on your website and make use of the leads that are coming in is to add testimonials and add credibility to your website. And so I feel like this is a concept to marketers and to some investors that is simple and easy.

    00:02:15:08 – 00:02:37:19

    Brady Winder

    And for some people there’s a lot of questions that come with it. So we’re going to talk about getting testimonials both for credibility and conversion on your website, but we’re also going to touch on how this helps as far as SEO, and we’re talking both video and written, but I also want to know, you know, before we get in this conversation that with recent Google updates, video and video testimonies are playing a bigger role in ranking in Google.

    00:02:37:19 – 00:02:53:00

    Brady Winder

    So whether that’s videos in your website or on your website or in YouTube. And so that being said, Keith Bo, as an investor and agent, where do you where do you need testing ideals and why do they even matter in the first place?

    00:02:54:03 – 00:03:16:11

    Keith Sant

    You need them everywhere. I mean, you definitely need them everywhere. It’s it’s for credibility. You know, there’s so many cash homebuyers, right, for people to choose from. And and they want to know that they’re doing business with real companies. And if you don’t have that, that that testimonials to everyone else like are you even real like, are you even a real company?

    00:03:16:11 – 00:03:43:03

    Keith Sant

    Have you been doing business? Like, yeah, it’s just the credibility is insane. And I’ve had so, so many sellers say they chose me because of my testimonials. Like they, they watch the videos, they read them. They did a lot of research before calling me and just decided they wanted to do business with me regardless of what price. And so the testimonials are extremely important.

    00:03:43:03 – 00:04:02:05

    Keith Sant

    Like they feel like they got to know you by watching, you know, seeing your website. If you have video, which is extremely important, like you just said, like like they feel like they got to know you through all of that. And I’ve had people show like I show up to the appointment and they’re like, You’re the guy in the video and I’m like, Yeah, and my own website.

    00:04:02:05 – 00:04:17:09

    Keith Sant

    Now they’re looking at me like I’m a frickin rock star. But yeah, so video is video testimonials and those are the only videos I have on my website or just video testimonials and, and they work. So definitely get them and put them everywhere you can.

    00:04:18:23 – 00:04:38:09

    Beau Hollis

    Yeah. I mean, you know, talking about what Keith is talking about, I have I, when I first started I didn’t, didn’t do it. I took pictures with sellers like all the time. I would just take pictures because I didn’t really know what to say or I was just like, Hey, did you know? I just took a selfie with my sellers, which was is, you know, if I can give you advice, it’s better than none, right?

    00:04:38:09 – 00:04:56:12

    Beau Hollis

    Like, absolutely. Just take a quick selfie, a smile. Obviously, if it’s a good situation and they’re quite happy with your job, at least do a do a do a selfie list. But I’ve had sellers just kind of like what he was talking about. I had I met a guy one day and he was like, Man, you’re actually quite famous.

    00:04:56:12 – 00:05:18:04

    Beau Hollis

    And I had no idea. And I said, What are you talking about? He’s like, Man, I googled who you are. I Googled your name and you’re everywhere, all over the Internet. And it’s things like this, you know, like different things like this. Plus, like all of our testimonials that we have on our Web site now are video. Testimonials are everywhere.

    00:05:18:04 – 00:05:33:01

    Beau Hollis

    And it’s a really simple process. It’s not that hard, but it makes you stand out from every other person in your market. If you have a lot of just content with you and sellers, I mean, it doesn’t it’s not hard. It’s a it’s a very, very simple process, but it really matters.

    00:05:33:20 – 00:05:52:22

    Brady Winder

    And so one of the reasons I want to talk to you guys specifically about this is because what you just mentioned, it’s it’s simple. It needs to be in order to do well, you need to not overcomplicate it. And, you know, like you said, you start out with selfies and then it’s just recording on your phone. You guys have been doing this a while and I know Bo on your website.

    00:05:52:22 – 00:05:57:18

    Brady Winder

    You have a ton of video testimonials. Yep. Do you ever take your foot off the gas.

    00:05:58:00 – 00:05:58:15

    Beau Hollis

    Because you.

    00:05:59:03 – 00:05:59:11

    Brady Winder

    Know.

    00:05:59:16 – 00:06:25:20

    Beau Hollis

    You know, so, you know, let me just say this is that in the wholesale space, there’s a reason why a lot more people do not have more testimonials. And here’s the reason. It is because there’s been a lot of teaching in the wholesale space is to do this virtually or do this where you’re you’re absentee from the the day to day operations from your business.

    00:06:25:20 – 00:06:46:22

    Beau Hollis

    So the people who teach this, you know, this model of of wholesaling or investing, it’s it’s very hands off approach. It’s get a contract, have everybody else do your work in your business. You have this entire team of people and you don’t go to closings because they assign things and stuff like that. So let me say let me say this is I am the opposite of that.

    00:06:47:00 – 00:07:07:01

    Beau Hollis

    I and the reason we have so many video testimonials is because I believe you should go to closings. I believe that you should be there shaking your seller’s hands, looking them in the eyes and grab your phone. And it’s so simple to say, Hey, would it be okay after we get done here? Could we do a quick video testimonial?

    00:07:07:01 – 00:07:20:23

    Beau Hollis

    And that’s how I’ve gotten all my stuff is people say yes every time and then just give it to Title A title agent or we have a friend with you. Just hold it up and start talking. Hey, you know, we will get into that. I’m sure you know how to do it.

    00:07:21:14 – 00:07:28:04

    Brady Winder

    Kids, what do you what do you ask at the door? You ask him about the closing table, or is it as simple as, Hey, can I get a quick video? Says one for me?

    00:07:28:15 – 00:07:33:02

    Keith Sant

    Yes. I’ve actually never been to a close. I don’t really go to close.

    00:07:33:15 – 00:07:37:11

    Brady Winder

    I didn’t realize I didn’t intend for this to be polar opposites. I don’t really.

    00:07:37:11 – 00:08:00:03

    Keith Sant

    Know. No, I mean, because we do a lot of like virtual closing or like what we do, like mobile notaries and stuff. So, like, a lot of the signing will happen at the seller’s house and, you know, you know, the buyer, you know, signed a different maybe the day before, just in a different location. Right. But if I you know, 90% of all my deals are assignments and I still got to get the keys from the seller to the buyer.

    00:08:00:03 – 00:08:19:02

    Keith Sant

    So I usually meet up on closing day like, hey, can I meet up with you and grab the keys from you? And it’s almost always at the house. And so then I grab the keys, you know, shake their hand. Thank you so much. Now they’re happy. They just got paid, right? Like, are there wires initiated? And then I say, Oh, I kind of just thought about this.

    00:08:19:02 – 00:08:34:14

    Keith Sant

    Like, would you mind stepping over here real quick and just doing a quick video with me and just kind of telling people about our experience would help me kind of reach more people and, you know, situations similar to yours. And nine times out of ten, they’re like, yes, the only time I’ve ever had anyone say no is a woman.

    00:08:34:14 – 00:08:40:14

    Keith Sant

    Like, I didn’t do my hair, but I’ll write you a really good review and I’m like, okay, I appreciate that. Well.

    00:08:41:14 – 00:08:43:06

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, I think if I make a today.

    00:08:43:08 – 00:08:43:16

    Keith Sant

    Yeah.

    00:08:43:20 – 00:09:02:01

    Brady Winder

    Oh, I like that. I mean, I mean, it’s simple, but the timing is key. Like, that’s the happiest they’re going to be in the entire process. Get them then. Do you guys prefer to do you and the seller or is it just us like you holding the phone and you’re, you know, prompting the seller? What do you like?

    00:09:02:22 – 00:09:24:15

    Keith Sant

    I try to get in there with the seller for sure. In the beginning, like the first few that I did, I was just holding the phone like selfie kind of back it out and like, you know, we’re huddle in real close and and then, you know, like, but I have some other ones where I brought like a partner or even brought the buyer with me and he’s holding the camera for me.

    00:09:25:19 – 00:09:29:04

    Keith Sant

    And yeah, it works.

    00:09:29:04 – 00:09:52:04

    Beau Hollis

    Yeah. I personally I like to be in the videos just because, number one, you’re in the videos, you’re in the videos and your it’s your website, right? You’re your faces every single place on your website. So you’re with John and Judy and Ben and Tom and Sally and Sarah and all these young people, right, that you’ve bought their houses from and you’re in different outfits and you’re just there’s so much of you, you’re like, Wow, this guy’s busy, he’s active.

    00:09:52:12 – 00:10:11:11

    Beau Hollis

    You know, he’s actually there. So even if it’s a picture, like, it really matters. I don’t have like the big sold signs like realtors do. But I mean, sometimes I wish I did just because it’s a it’s a visual effect, But I just like what I do is I give my phone, my cell phone to the to the attorney there, unless I have a friend with me.

    00:10:13:05 – 00:10:31:05

    Beau Hollis

    And then I’ll just have them hold it and I’ll just say, hey, I’m with John. I just bought his house and I coached him prior to this. Right. I tell them exactly, Hey, I’m going to ask you how the process went. Was it simple? Was it easy? And would you recommend it? Would you recommend it to a friend?

    00:10:32:03 – 00:10:48:22

    Beau Hollis

    Right. So I just do that and say, Hey, I’m with John and we just bought his house. John, How was it? Working with us was amazing. I loved it. Would you recommend this to a friend? Oh, my God, It was so cool, right? It was. It was great experience. You should definitely you simply. So thanks a lot, John.

    00:10:48:22 – 00:10:54:13

    Beau Hollis

    Thank you. And what may give a hug or something like that, you know, simple boom, done like 15 seconds, 20 seconds. We’re done.

    00:10:55:12 – 00:11:09:17

    Brady Winder

    Do you do you ever ask them, do you ever have times where like, oh, I’m going to make a case of this? You’re going to ask him a bunch of questions because it went so well. Like, were you ever asking, like, why did you choose us over some of the other investors that gave you offers?

    00:11:09:17 – 00:11:36:14

    Beau Hollis

    I personally don’t too much. I I’m the only kind of questions I might go into would be this is just me personally. I would go into questions like, do we pay you a fair price for the property? You know, Do you feel like we paid you a fair price for the property? And do you feel like we were fair with you or a question like that, just because that’s a big objection that other sellers are going to have, that is the biggest objection.

    00:11:36:18 – 00:11:57:13

    Beau Hollis

    Are they is this company going to be fair with me on pricing? And so I want to overcome that objection by a review. That’s so when I say, hey, was this fair with you? Was I fair with you on the pricing? Say, oh my gosh, and I have other testimonials. You can go on my site, you can say, Oh my goodness, yes, it was so fair.

    00:11:57:13 – 00:11:58:19

    Beau Hollis

    I, I can’t believe it.

    00:11:59:04 – 00:11:59:13

    Brady Winder

    Mhm.

    00:12:00:05 – 00:12:21:18

    Beau Hollis

    You know those kind of things I like. That’s one of the only questions I would ask just because most people are not like me where they totally random off the cuff talk about any subject ever in the world and intelligently like they just, they stutter and they just get really frightened in front of a camera. So I try to keep it really simple so they know what to say.

    00:12:22:10 – 00:12:35:12

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, that’s a good point. I like how you’re kind of coaching them or briefing them at a time because they need to know what to expect. I mean, it’s normal for most people to just kind of stutter or mumble, mumble their way through something. So yeah.

    00:12:35:14 – 00:13:10:23

    Beau Hollis

    I’m not going to ask them, like if I don’t think that they’re going to say yes, I’m not going to. I never have said, hey, say yes, you know, but I’m always I tell them if I feel like it’s going to be a positive or a mutually good conversation, I will ask them for a video review, because I will say this is that if people are going through a really hard time personally, like they’re going through a divorce or they’re going to death in the family or something like that, getting a really happy review is a challenge because, you know, selling this home may be a very sad situation for them.

    00:13:10:23 – 00:13:30:21

    Beau Hollis

    Right. You’re you’re dealing with somebody who’s in a lot of maybe emotional distress. So he was this great experience for, you know, it sucked. I sold my childhood home and I am really sad today that I had to let that part of my life go. So being very careful and conscientious of their feelings and what you ask and say, you know, is really important.

    00:13:30:21 – 00:13:47:17

    Beau Hollis

    And that’s the reason I ask the questions, like, was I fair with you? Was it good with you? Because all of that is not really deep diving into their emotional state. It’s just keeping it really simple and they can answer yes to it because I’m treating them fair. I’m kind to them. Was it a simple process? I already know the answer, right?

    00:13:47:17 – 00:13:57:09

    Beau Hollis

    That stuff’s all yes answers. So it’s framing, framing your questions into, you know, what the answers are going to be, not in a negative way.

    00:13:57:23 – 00:14:01:00

    Brady Winder

    Right? Absolutely. Any thoughts on that, Keith?

    00:14:01:18 – 00:14:25:06

    Keith Sant

    Yeah, just like I was saying, like if you frame your answers, I love what you said about using the testimonials of the reviews to squash sellers objections. I do that with like my Facebook ads and stuff and, you know, kind of frame the question, you know, I want to squash the you know, like can close fast, right? Like, I had one guy I specifically asked him as a cat and we close in like 30 days.

    00:14:25:06 – 00:14:30:12

    Keith Sant

    Right? And he’s like, you close in two weeks. Yeah, that’s right. I knew it because in two weeks I want.

    00:14:30:12 – 00:14:31:10

    Brady Winder

    That one yesterday.

    00:14:31:10 – 00:14:48:01

    Keith Sant

    I want to say that. Yeah, right. And then like another one, this lady, like I specifically asked, I was like, All right, if I remember right, you got other offers, right? Yeah, I got two other offers and you were the highest boom. Like, that’s one of the objection. Like is yeah, they could pay. Maybe they’ll pay fair prices.

    00:14:48:01 – 00:15:09:01

    Keith Sant

    But is, is Keith is kind house buyer’s going to pay me more than the other guys? Yeah we are you know, and you know just other ones as well that try to squash those objections like, you know, can you really close Can you close on time? Are you going to pay me a fair price. Those are, those are the main ones I get and try to squash those and, and yeah.

    00:15:09:08 – 00:15:19:02

    Beau Hollis

    They’re work. Yeah. Yeah. I have a closing tomorrow. I met the seller on Sunday. Okay. And I am closing their house tomorrow.

    00:15:19:20 – 00:15:21:14

    Brady Winder

    So like this Sunday of this week.

    00:15:22:04 – 00:15:56:11

    Beau Hollis

    Yes. And I didn’t get the contract until I believe it was Monday so kill the time of this recording. It is Thursday. So we had Monday. I really sent I had did the title order Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, three days. We’re closing Friday. So it’s a really and so yeah, five days and so you know I already know my review is going to be awesome because I performed so well and that’s another whole thing to this business as well as how to get good reviews.

    00:15:57:20 – 00:15:59:18

    Beau Hollis

    You do really good at your job.

    00:16:00:01 – 00:16:01:09

    Brady Winder

    Exceed the expectations.

    00:16:01:11 – 00:16:22:09

    Beau Hollis

    Really exceed the expectations communi Kate communicate, communicate with your seller. I know where to speak in the basics which but the guys and girls who are the very best in this business, they are brilliant at the basics, right? It’s overcommunicate. Let people know what’s happening and just really do a good job at what you’re supposed to be doing.

    00:16:22:09 – 00:16:40:01

    Beau Hollis

    Like I’m buying a house in five stinkin days and the review is going to be amazing. I paid more than everybody else. I closed faster than there ever anticipated. And it’s it’s a dream scenario for them. So I anticipate getting hugs.

    00:16:40:22 – 00:16:48:23

    Brady Winder

    That’s while you’re close in on the house faster than I can do my laundry at times because it takes me a week just to get back to the clothes dryer.

    00:16:49:22 – 00:16:57:14

    Beau Hollis

    I have a good relationship with my dad that really does help me expedite things. Do what things other people can’t do.

    00:16:57:21 – 00:17:17:07

    Brady Winder

    That’s fast. So you’ll had your boss hit the nail on the head with, you know, the objections like, that’s why the website exists is to combat those specific objections, because when somebody clicks on a Google ad or their search and, you know, sell my house fast. Seattle, Washington, like those, those questions are already popping up in their heads.

    00:17:17:07 – 00:17:37:10

    Brady Winder

    So your copy, the words on your website and those videos need to tackle those. And this isn’t specific to motivated sellers. This is any website, any business. Are there any, I guess, kind of two questions, any other objections you’re making sure to tackle? And then are you doing anything special with these videos on your website? Like are you organizing them, lend them out in a way?

    00:17:37:11 – 00:17:43:06

    Brady Winder

    Are they kind of just a random smattering to make sure that they, you know, you have a variety on their.

    00:17:43:06 – 00:18:03:04

    Keith Sant

    Those are the main objections that I’m really kind of getting after. And I know you asked earlier, like, have you ever put your foot on the air? You take your foot off the gas. I have. Yeah. But I need to actually get it back on there. But and as far as like how many you put on or where you definitely want to put them on your reviews page.

    00:18:03:14 – 00:18:30:19

    Keith Sant

    Right. Like you have a reviews or testimonials page. I do put one or two on my landing pages. I find that like your city and your location pages, I never really saw a ton of sellers actually clicking on the videos that were on the city landing pages, but the people that were actually research ing you and wanted to go to your reviews page the How it works page the our company is page like they, you know, like I said, they’re getting to know you through this stuff.

    00:18:31:02 – 00:19:01:14

    Keith Sant

    And so having it on your reviews page is super powerful. Having a YouTube video on your city, landing pages is super powerful. We’ve done, you know, testing and actually saw it will increase your rankings if you do it correctly. So having it on there is as powerful. Do I see a ton of people actually watching it now, But once it’s over on the reviews page and on YouTube and other places, they are getting watch and and it is helping you a lot.

    00:19:01:14 – 00:19:01:23

    Keith Sant

    Yeah.

    00:19:02:20 – 00:19:19:05

    Brady Winder

    And anything else, anything else you’re doing as far as SEO, like I noticed when I went into Google yesterday and search kind house buyers reviews because that’s what I would, you know, if I was doing business with you, that’s what I would search. Like one of the first results, if not the first one. I think it was after Yelp and something else.

    00:19:19:05 – 00:19:31:10

    Brady Winder

    And then you’re Google my business pages you know kind of house buyers, dot com slash reviews and testimonials, something like that. It seemed like you were specific with the URL and the copy on the page. What do you do in there?

    00:19:32:06 – 00:19:43:15

    Keith Sant

    Yeah, yeah. I actually put like my one right, because that is what people are googling, right? And they’re like kind house buyer reviews, you know, simply sold reviews. Like if they’re already.

    00:19:44:03 – 00:19:47:18

    Beau Hollis

    Those who don’t know that each one is, you know, explain what that means.

    00:19:48:00 – 00:19:49:19

    Brady Winder

    Thank you both. We assume and we forgot.

    00:19:50:02 – 00:20:13:10

    Keith Sant

    Yeah. So your H1 is like your main title or your your main heading on a page, like every web page should have one, each one. And instead of just saying reviews or what our happy customers are saying, I want to like really spell it out and, and get that main keyword, which is company reviews and house buyers go.

    00:20:13:10 – 00:20:38:07

    Beau Hollis

    On on our sites. So for people like myself with like, like things simple like child’s asking for big, bold letters, right on our on our biggest, boldest letters on our websites. Right. Yep. So if they Google your house buyers or my site simply sold, it is the biggest darkest text letters. Color is not necessary, but that is the biggest boldest text on our sites.

    00:20:38:18 – 00:20:40:22

    Beau Hollis

    Correct. What is the H1 H1?

    00:20:41:04 – 00:20:41:08

    Keith Sant

    Yeah.

    00:20:41:11 – 00:20:55:14

    Brady Winder

    And every highlighting that text and you’re saying instead of normal text, which should be your copy or your body text, you’re telling Google this is H1 your biggest header or for the for the smaller ones, each two is three. But you’re telling Google, pay attention to this, This is what this page is.

    00:20:55:14 – 00:20:59:11

    Beau Hollis

    It’s not the most important. You’re pointing that out. Basically. This is the most important. Right?

    00:20:59:11 – 00:21:07:00

    Keith Sant

    Exactly. And all your H twos and threes are like secondary topics under that parent topic of the H1.

    00:21:07:00 – 00:21:13:07

    Brady Winder

    Maybe I’m getting too nerdy and specific for a podcast about testimonials, but what are your age twos and threes look like on that page?

    00:21:13:14 – 00:21:34:03

    Keith Sant

    On that page I’d have to look. But I mean, if I was just going to, you know, shoot, I’d say yeah. And the main one would be the main one would definitely be my company reviews right now. As far as reviews. And then and then underneath that H2 could be something like House Fire video reviews kind of Aspire Google Review.

    00:21:34:03 – 00:22:14:18

    Keith Sant

    I think that’s actually what they are. House fire. I actually break them up after I got enough, I was like, okay, cool. I can actually make sections and House Fire Better Business Bureau. And then I would, you know, see what our happy Seattle or Washington homeowners have to say or reviews from happy Washington homeowners. So I kind of yeah I’m very specific and try to get kind of aspire to review kind of multiple times and then after that I can kind of, you know, get other things in there that are very okay, if that makes sense, and try to kind of fluff it up with location and and some other stuff.

    00:22:16:02 – 00:22:24:17

    Brady Winder

    No, that totally makes sense. That’s helpful insight there on the skills side as well, because people are Googling like this or they are Googling this before they decide to work with you.

    00:22:25:22 – 00:22:44:15

    Beau Hollis

    It’s like you’re researching a product that you would like to buy, right? You’re going to buy something. You’re going to research everything you can about it. I mean, most people do that, right? They research things and stuff about companies and they research. So the best way to do it is just do we’re talking about YouTubing and Googling one.

    00:22:44:15 – 00:23:01:01

    Brady Winder

    And Trevor brought this up before, but the worst thing you can have is, is no reviews. You’d rather have a couple. I mean, you don’t want all bad reviews, but seen with somebody, no reviews. If I’m on Amazon and you see no stars immediately, I’m like scrolling past. Like, I don’t know if I can trust that there’s zero credibility right now.

    00:23:01:23 – 00:23:19:02

    Beau Hollis

    And I have so many my friends. I’ve tried and tried and tried to talk to them. Go to closings, go to closings, go to closings, get a list, go for the reviews. And they still don’t have reviews and they’re trying to run like PPC ads and all this kind of stuff. They’re running all these kind of ads, paid ads with no reviews, wasted money.

    00:23:19:02 – 00:23:24:04

    Brady Winder

    Everybody listen is like, don’t be run on PPC with no reviews, no credibility, your waste of money, garbage.

    00:23:24:04 – 00:23:24:21

    Beau Hollis

    Stop that and.

    00:23:25:05 – 00:23:25:12

    Keith Sant

    Yeah.

    00:23:26:03 – 00:23:40:23

    Beau Hollis

    Go tos go to the start going to closings for the next month or two. Bring your cell phone or you don’t have a fancy camera. Go there, take a selfie video with these people or go to their house. If you already bought their house and have a good relationship, say, Hey, I know it’s crazy, but would you do a review with me?

    00:23:41:05 – 00:23:44:12

    Beau Hollis

    You know, like go, like, spend, spend a little time, do this, invest in it.

    00:23:45:01 – 00:24:03:00

    Brady Winder

    Okay. So I got I got a couple quick technical questions on video reviews and then we’ll move on. We’ll talk about Google reviews and Keith’s got some tips on how he uses Google reviews that we were talking about before the podcast. One. So Bo, your buddy with no reviews. A lot of people are like, Oh, I just don’t want to be on camera.

    00:24:03:00 – 00:24:06:13

    Brady Winder

    I could be on camera. What’s the simplest, fastest advice for that?

    00:24:07:02 – 00:24:07:21

    Beau Hollis

    Stop being lazy.

    00:24:08:06 – 00:24:08:14

    Brady Winder

    Yep.

    00:24:09:04 – 00:24:26:15

    Beau Hollis

    There it is. I mean, for I mean, like, I mean, I’m going to be a coach for a second and say, you know, know that you don’t really care about your business. Stop being lazy and go to the stinking closing like, end of story. Like, get it done. Like figure out a way to do it. I mean, if you really or show your website down, which we don’t want that we’re pro carrot but at the same.

    00:24:26:16 – 00:24:28:12

    Brady Winder

    Well that out of the podcast you can.

    00:24:29:21 – 00:24:46:14

    Beau Hollis

    Either do what you say you’re really there to do or stop, just stop it. Stop being lazy, you’re being lazy. Bam. It takes you 5 minutes and just get yourself an hour. I mean, the iPhone 14 pro max has the most insane camera. Stop being lazy to say hi even. Hi, this is John. I just bought our house.

    00:24:47:00 – 00:25:04:22

    Beau Hollis

    Was it great? You could stutter like it is in a great process. Oh yeah, it was great. Awesome. It Who cares what it’s like? You don’t have to be like a fancy production value here. We’re just talking cell phone in front of a seller. End of story.

    00:25:05:01 – 00:25:11:19

    Brady Winder

    And the next question that pops up, someone’s going to get. Will both of you edit them? Do I’m going to send this to someone. Fiver. Do I have my logo and intro music and all that?

    00:25:12:04 – 00:25:29:13

    Beau Hollis

    Nope. What you do is when you hold the phone in front of them, say, All right, here we go. Three, two, one, click the little red button, and then take a deep breath. Yep. At the end, you hit the red button again and it’s over. And then you can do all the little editing you want. If there’s 3 seconds in front 3 seconds, then you can edit it.

    00:25:29:13 – 00:25:49:16

    Beau Hollis

    Running film. It’s so simple. It is not hard at all. I just find a lot of people, I just think is the culture of what we do. It’s they don’t go to closings and I think most of the time they just don’t do it because they’re not there. I think they get assignments and maybe, you know, I think it’s so is so worth it.

    00:25:49:22 – 00:26:09:20

    Beau Hollis

    I mean, like we’ve talked about this so much today, Like, it’s so worth it to go there because you win deals, you actually make more money because you have them. And it’s fax. It is it is straight fax. If you like money and you like eating food and paying your bills and you want more of it, you get testimonials.

    00:26:10:13 – 00:26:11:05

    Beau Hollis

    It’s not hard.

    00:26:11:23 – 00:26:14:04

    Brady Winder

    Oh, I love that. I love that. That’s a.

    00:26:14:04 – 00:26:19:22

    Beau Hollis

    No. I’m hardcore. I’m hardcore sometimes. But hey, that you want to make more money. That’s why I listen to podcast.

    00:26:21:08 – 00:26:45:21

    Keith Sant

    I do understand like not being not wanting to be on camera and just being like introvert, right? Like, I don’t know, but I was way more extrovert than I ever am. And I remember like the very first video testimonial I did, I didn’t want to get on camera. I no joke. My hands were like, shaking. And but I’ve made so much money from that video and it just got easier.

    00:26:46:02 – 00:26:50:22

    Keith Sant

    It got easier. I remember Brady when you first asked me, you call me. Yeah.

    00:26:51:11 – 00:26:53:00

    Beau Hollis

    We give money in your bank.

    00:26:53:07 – 00:27:08:23

    Keith Sant

    Brady called me like in back in 2019 and said, Hey, Keith, like, would you like to be on like a cast episode? And I’m like, Who the heck would want to hear what I have to say? Like, This doesn’t make any sense. And then I was super nervous, but I’m like, okay, like if it’ll actually add value and help people.

    00:27:08:23 – 00:27:27:02

    Keith Sant

    And so I did it and I was like, I was super nervous during that first first one, like straight up. And I had so much good, positive feedback. I thought I looked like an idiot. I sounded like an idiot, but like I had people reach out to me and say, I listened to that twice. It was amazing. She didn’t like but for me, right?

    00:27:27:02 – 00:27:46:15

    Keith Sant

    Like I thought it was just, you know, I already knew the information and whatnot. But I’m telling you, you know, anyone that’s hesitant to get out there, like, I swear, like you are your own worst critic. Like, I’ve been there, I’ve done that, I stumble all the time. You probably think you stumble way more than you do people are going to notice it way more.

    00:27:46:15 – 00:27:59:05

    Keith Sant

    You can always edit like don’t trip, just get out there because it’s so valuable and no one thinks you look like an idiot or sound like an idiot. You’re just literally critiquing yourself for no reason whatsoever.

    00:28:00:07 – 00:28:22:18

    Beau Hollis

    Let me say this about that. You know, like you are, you’re more introverted than I am. I’m like, they don’t get more extroverted than me. Most people. But let me say, this is what’s beautiful about our business, is that I can be me and you can be you and you can hold the camera in front and you can maybe be a little bit more reserved than me and I can be.

    00:28:22:18 – 00:28:40:08

    Beau Hollis

    Hey, guys. Oh, my gosh. Give me a high five. You know, I can do whatever I do in my reviews. And you could be you. And guess what? You are going to reach certain people that I’m not able to reach that may like your personality style better than me. And I’m going to reach people that made that you may not be able to reach because of my personality.

    00:28:40:08 – 00:29:07:17

    Beau Hollis

    So people may resonate with your style and say, Oh man, this guy, he’s just kind, he’s he’s reserved and he’s different than this other guy. I think I like that guy better. And that’s the point of capitalistic ventures that we’re doing, is that we can put ourself out there right next to each other and give people options. You know, Keith is working with some people in my market, ranking them up above me who I’m friends with, by the way.

    00:29:08:03 – 00:29:26:06

    Beau Hollis

    And we talk all the time on the phone. I was with Brian this morning and doing deals together and he’s like, Hey, how about what about this ranking? This ranking? And guess what? He’s starting to get his testimonials up and we help each other out. And people may choose him or they may choose me. And you know, that’s what that’s what this is all about, is just doing your best.

    00:29:26:06 – 00:29:49:16

    Beau Hollis

    You don’t have to be like someone else. You just got to do your best. It’s just you can stutter. But here’s one thing I learned in sales is that I know I’m talking a lot, but maybe this help somebody. Is that the people that you’re doing the testimonial with? If this is your very first testimonial, guess what? They don’t know.

    00:29:49:16 – 00:29:50:05

    Beau Hollis

    They don’t know.

    00:29:50:16 – 00:29:51:01

    Brady Winder

    Oh, yeah.

    00:29:51:13 – 00:30:05:03

    Beau Hollis

    They don’t have a clue. They don’t know. You’re nervous. They don’t know you’re shy. They don’t know that you’ve never done this before. They have no clue. They think that this is your hundredth. They don’t really know unless you tell them. So they’re just like, oh, this is this is the plan.

    00:30:06:05 – 00:30:26:06

    Brady Winder

    Yes. Well, that’s the thing. When you first start doing videos that when you’re doing it, it feels like, Oh, I’m terrible right now. But on my second video, it’ll get better. And on my fifth video it’s going to be amazing. But it’s not a matter of better or worse. It’s just the confidence going up. It’s their confidence catching up to the quality you probably already have.

    00:30:26:21 – 00:30:28:21

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, I love the way you put that. You don’t know.

    00:30:29:06 – 00:30:45:14

    Beau Hollis

    Yeah, it’s so simple. They don’t have a clue. And you just be yourself, be you be loving and caring and kind to the sellers. And that’s all that really matters is just you. Hey, was this a simple process? And write it down? Like, write yourself a little script. If this will help you write a very simple script. You can watch some of our testimonials.

    00:30:45:14 – 00:30:59:13

    Beau Hollis

    Keith has amazing ones. We have some pretty good ones as well. And just write and say the same thing. Hey, this is Bo. You know, write it down and then write two or three things you want to say and then say it. Practice, record the videos in the mirror like or do one with your mom or your sister or your friend.

    00:30:59:17 – 00:31:04:16

    Beau Hollis

    You know, just practice if you feel that nervous, right? That’s an idea.

    00:31:05:04 – 00:31:20:21

    Brady Winder

    That’s great. No, that’s great advice, man. The only other thing I would add as far as so just wrapping up kind of video section, we’ll talk about Google reviews and in text reviews, when you’re doing the videos, like Bo said, just have a good fun, just a quality iPhone will work if you have a video or there with a camera.

    00:31:20:22 – 00:31:37:01

    Brady Winder

    Cool. But keep the keep the phone close to you If somebody else is holding it, you know, don’t have them be a mile away. You’re going to get garbage audio, so stay a few feet away. It really sucks. We’re like, oh, the review is amazing. You go listen to it after the fact and you’re like, Oh, this audio is suffering because that that matter.

    00:31:37:01 – 00:31:56:15

    Brady Winder

    So stay relatively close. But the other thing is, you know we’re talking about keep a simple pull at your cell phone and do it. You know, we’ve tested on our own Web sites, you know, care member sites and Care.com, our website, the the more real it looks, the better it will convert. So.

    00:31:56:16 – 00:31:58:08

    Beau Hollis

    Oh, that’s so true, man.

    00:31:58:23 – 00:32:18:19

    Brady Winder

    Absolutely far and away by not I mean so with care website you can plug in testimonials and have them auto populate in certain areas of the website. That’s good and that works. And it’s a quick and easy way to get them up there. You should do that. We do that. We also couple it with, like Keith has mentioned on his testimonials, his reviews page screenshots of real reviews.

    00:32:18:19 – 00:32:39:12

    Brady Winder

    So you got your simple raw cell phone videos because that’s what people are used to see in their social media feeds. And when they get a text from a friend, it’s normal. When you when it’s overly polished, it has a tendency to put up this put up walls between people and say, Oh, I don’t know, this feels a little bit too corporate, corporate he is willing to work with.

    00:32:39:16 – 00:33:01:03

    Brady Winder

    Some of that depends on your brand. But anyways, the more real looks, the better. So if we’re talking about Google reviews, Facebook reviews, screenshots of the review itself, screenshot the review and post it onto the page, we found that converts better than oh, do I need to make the text look perfect? Should I put it in Canva? Should I design a you know, it’s not going to convert and it’s going to waste your time.

    00:33:01:07 – 00:33:04:15

    Brady Winder

    What? Keith What have you guys or what have you guys found on that?

    00:33:05:13 – 00:33:30:16

    Beau Hollis

    Oh man, we have done some real serious marketing stuff just over the last years, and I have tried, you know, really high production value stuff now where you have high production value things on our website. But like what you’re saying, the worse it looks, the crappier it is, the better it converts. I don’t know what I mean. Give me an iPhone six in.

    00:33:30:16 – 00:33:52:22

    Beau Hollis

    I promise you would probably be better than 14 like you to go get something janky and like, have my son feel like as a seven year old and he’d be like, in any, you know, go, It would probably be better, you know, people because it’s real. It’s authentic. Right. And that’s what really it says that you are a real person, you know, that’s just my $0.02.

    00:33:54:03 – 00:34:00:19

    Brady Winder

    Yeah. Yeah. Keith, what about as far as like, Google, Facebook reviews, stuff like that, like the esthetic of.

    00:34:00:19 – 00:34:25:20

    Keith Sant

    Yeah, I’m a huge fan of screenshots for a lot of reasons that, you know, the main is, like you said, it’s real. It’s like, okay, it’s authentic. You could actually see where it came from. The other reason is from like an SEO perspective, especially if you get like a really big long review or something really good. But let’s just say it’s 200 words and you just paste that onto your like city landing pages, for instance.

    00:34:25:20 – 00:34:48:13

    Keith Sant

    It’s going to mess with your SEO because it’s going to mess with like the keyword density and other things because you just added 200 words, if that makes sense. And if they start interesting, if they start saying like, Oh, he even took it in with the chicken coops in the backyard and this and that. Now it’s like, is this site about chicken coops or is it about selling houses or buying houses?

    00:34:48:13 – 00:34:57:15

    Keith Sant

    Right. And so I don’t I’d rather have screenshots so that way I could be very I could control the words on my page for SEO. The max.

    00:34:58:13 – 00:35:04:11

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, absolutely. And then name the images appropriately kind of house by review or something like that.

    00:35:04:13 – 00:35:06:07

    Keith Sant

    Exactly. Exactly.

    00:35:07:14 – 00:35:34:22

    Brady Winder

    So the screenshots work for credibility conversion. They work better for SEO. Let’s talk about Google reviews. So getting them. So there was a study done. We talked about this on one of the prior SEO podcasts, but on Google reviews on like how many do I need in the gallery? And the study found that it was either 30 or 35 somewhere on that 35 mark it was that is what you needed to stand out and get yourself to the number one spot.

    00:35:34:22 – 00:35:56:09

    Brady Winder

    As far as your Google page, your Google business page, and then past 3035, it was diminishing returns. But that was where you showed the most significant gain is getting around that many reviews. So, I mean, that’s pretty simple. We know that the more Google reviews you have, the better chance that you have of ranking in Google. You should get as many as possible.

    00:35:56:17 – 00:36:05:01

    Brady Winder

    So my question is, Keith, how are you getting these reviews and when are you asking for them?

    00:36:05:01 – 00:36:31:07

    Keith Sant

    So I like to try to get those video reviews. Right. Well, let me go back to really fast. I found that same thing, right, Like you said, about like 35 after. Well, I found that after like 20 reviews you get. Yeah. Diminishing returns on Asians, they’ll get them. But like, as far as like actually SEO value and you showing up like it definitely goes down and you get a big you get a boost around ten and then you get another boost around 20.

    00:36:31:07 – 00:37:05:16

    Keith Sant

    So if you can if you’re under ten, like, you know, get to that ten and then look at your impressions on your Google my business listing and see what happens. And then once you get to 20 again, you get that like another boost. I haven’t actually found any significant boost after morning. I know a lot of people that are, you know, impression that Google my business and other stuff with with under 20 but yeah definitely get those the way I’m getting for sure is like I like to send emails after the close I try to get them a lot of times if I’m able to get those videos right, it’s hard.

    00:37:05:23 – 00:37:25:09

    Keith Sant

    Then like I’ll also write it. You know, if I get a video review, they’re kind of less likely to do a Google overview, if that makes sense. But if I’m not able to get that, I’ll still send them an email. But I send him an email and and I’ll even offer I say, Hey, you know, hey, you know, so-and-so.

    00:37:25:09 – 00:37:51:16

    Keith Sant

    And then like a little personal line that was so great, you know, thank you so much for facilitating the sale of your mom’s house. Like if I’m dealing with, you know, a daughter or something like that, you know, blah, blah, it would mean the world to me and my business. If you actually write a review. And by the way, I’m actually able to send you a 50 $50 gift card if you write a review here and here.

    00:37:51:16 – 00:38:09:22

    Keith Sant

    Here are the links. All you got to do is basically send me send me an email reply telling me where you want me to send the gift card and I’ll send you 50 bucks and and like 80% of the time they write the review and just say, Thanks, Keith, and don’t send me a return, you know, like an address.

    00:38:09:22 – 00:38:33:15

    Keith Sant

    I’m like, cool. Like just offering the $50 gets me way more reviews than if I didn’t offer because I’ve done that, too. I did it without offering. Yeah, I’m not afraid to pay. I think I’ve only sent out like ten gift cards and got 50 as reviews. And that’s and that’s just on, on Google as well. And so what I like to do is I say if I’ll give you $50, if you write it here and here.

    00:38:33:20 – 00:38:46:11

    Keith Sant

    And so one of them’s like always Google because Google are like really valuable. Then I will alternate between like Facebook for the second link or BBW for the second line or Yelp to try to kick up those other numbers as well.

    00:38:47:07 – 00:39:04:21

    Brady Winder

    Okay. So a couple of things to just to highlight or clarify use of that are actually important. It’s a dedicated email because some people might just throw it in as an afterthought or appear as an email or oh, by the way, if you like to do so now dedicated email specifically saying, Hey, this would mean the world to me, I would really value this.

    00:39:05:02 – 00:39:21:17

    Brady Winder

    There’s that human empathy part to it instead of just, oh, if you’re if you enjoyed this experience. So you’re doing that. You’re incentivizing them for multiple reviews because I think a lot of people are like, Oh, I can ask review, I don’t want to bug them or whatever, so they just won’t. Or the way I go, I have to pay them.

    00:39:22:02 – 00:39:41:21

    Brady Winder

    Well, you don’t, but I like that idea of saying, Hey, I’ll give you a gift card if you leave me multiple places, because it’s valuable to have them in multiple spots. If you had to choose, what’s the best place to get a review? Like if someone only going to give you one or to Google my business Yelp Facebook video hands down.

    00:39:42:09 – 00:39:50:03

    Keith Sant

    Well, the video is I love video, but definitely Google and tell you get that 20 and then after that it’s video and and everywhere else.

    00:39:50:03 – 00:39:58:10

    Brady Winder

    But okay Google I notice I was just googling Bo real quick to see what is at 16. You’re 16, Bo. You need a handful more.

    00:39:58:11 – 00:40:03:20

    Keith Sant

    Everyone go right simply so you get four more. I’m telling you, you get a you get a boost.

    00:40:04:19 – 00:40:09:08

    Beau Hollis

    I know I need two. So if you guys are feeling generous out there, go ahead and hug your boy out.

    00:40:10:02 – 00:40:13:13

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, go review. Simply sold and then go review the Carrot Gas podcast.

    00:40:13:18 – 00:40:32:13

    Beau Hollis

    Talk about how awesome I am. That is so kind of you. Oh, no. Yeah, I need to work on that. On the Google side of things, you know, I think some of the times it’s you’re sitting there and you’re thinking of a video testimonial and you’re trying to get the closing down, you know, a me I’m signing documents, right?

    00:40:32:13 – 00:40:48:03

    Beau Hollis

    I’m actually there to sign documents and papers. So sometimes, you know, you’re trying to think of a video review and, hey, would you do this, this, this and this? Sometimes you just lose it. And I understand why people might not get them. Sometimes you’re busy trying to manage the transaction and you just may forget.

    00:40:48:11 – 00:41:08:05

    Brady Winder

    You know, as long as you do remember. I think one of the most important things to remember is is to make it easy for them. Like either emailing them, you’re saying, here’s the link. This I found the same thing. When you’re with anything, asking someone to do something like, Hey, you know, here’s our podcast that we did together, would you mind sharing this on social media if you just ask that?

    00:41:08:05 – 00:41:27:05

    Brady Winder

    But don’t give them the way to do it. They’re probably not going to do it. And so can you leave us a review? You can text them the Google my business link where it’s one tab, it should be no more than one tap boom. And then they can type it hit enter. That’s it. If it’s more complicated than that, the more resistance in between that I mean, same thing with generating a lead in your website.

    00:41:27:05 – 00:41:41:06

    Brady Winder

    The more resistance you have more forms after fill out are more questions I have to answer the forms the less likely you are to get the lead. So make it easy. Anything else you’re doing to make it easier? I mean, besides, just send them the link or text in the link.

    00:41:42:13 – 00:41:43:03

    Keith Sant

    That’s all I’m.

    00:41:43:03 – 00:41:45:03

    Brady Winder

    Doing that that’s good.

    00:41:46:00 – 00:42:04:11

    Beau Hollis

    You know, I do a lot of hours in person just because, you know, I’ve always liked that. Because tell me not to my face kind of thing. It’s a you know, it’s really hard. Not only do that, I’ve only had two people tell me no ever that they didn’t want to take a picture with me or talk about it at all.

    00:42:05:23 – 00:42:06:22

    Brady Winder

    Out of hundreds.

    00:42:07:11 – 00:42:24:11

    Beau Hollis

    Oh, out of multiple, like multiple, multiple hundreds. Only two people ever. One person said they were already famous enough and they were. Both were, but both were quite elderly and they just felt like, Nah, I don’t want to do it because I’m just I’m too old kind of thing.

    00:42:25:02 – 00:42:26:19

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, that’s awesome.

    00:42:27:11 – 00:42:30:00

    Beau Hollis

    Yeah. And so that was the reason why they didn’t want to. And I said, No problem.

    00:42:30:19 – 00:42:52:07

    Brady Winder

    Yeah, well, that’s encouraging to hear. I know we’re about out of time. This has been super value packed. I’ve enjoyed the conversation. I feel like there’s a lot of really good just tactical takeaways here. My last question, four years and we’ll wrap it up. We’ll call it a closes. Feel free to answer. What was your worst or your best testimonial experience?

    00:42:52:11 – 00:42:59:00

    Brady Winder

    Is there anybody any you didn’t use or someone blew up in your face or you’re like that? That video went poorly.

    00:43:01:19 – 00:43:18:06

    Keith Sant

    I had one like you mentioned that it was so good, but I was too far away. I was like 12 feet away plus and there was kind of a busy road and you could just not hear. But it was really good. That was kind of like my words. I felt like, Oh my God, waste of an hour drive.

    00:43:18:06 – 00:43:50:04

    Keith Sant

    By now I’ve had some really got like, like Beau is saying earlier, like if you do a good job and like, it could be emotional. I met two people on the verge it like had to kind of like stop in the video testimonial because they they’re going to start crying but like they were genuinely so thankful for me like, you know, one of them was a divorce, you know, lost his wife but like, yeah, like they were both like, so thankful and, and both around, they’re like, you know, two of my favorite reviews.

    00:43:50:04 – 00:44:06:07

    Keith Sant

    I use them as Facebook ads and I get a lot of a lot of leads from them. Now, if you do the right thing, you’re going to get some super happy people and let them be your advocates.

    00:44:06:07 – 00:44:26:11

    Beau Hollis

    Yeah, you know, I’ve had some I can’t say I really have had a bad review necessarily as far as no one’s ever said, like it wasn’t a good process or anything like that. No one’s ever said that to me. But I have had some really I have one time I bought this house when I first started from this guy who actually reached out to me.

    00:44:26:11 – 00:44:47:17

    Beau Hollis

    By the way, let me just clarify this. He did reach out to me, but he was just an angry soul. He was just an angry guy. He wouldn’t do a review for me, but he he took a picture with me. And it is the funniest picture because he’s just literally sitting there with like, the most bitter, angry face ever.

    00:44:47:17 – 00:45:10:21

    Beau Hollis

    It’s just like he looks angry at the world and I’m smiling and he’s just so upset. But I mean, I gave him what he wanted for the house, but he was still just angry at the situation. But I’ve had some pretty great reviews of people who actually were just like, you know, this is a godsend. You know, Bowe treated me so amazing.

    00:45:11:06 – 00:45:30:05

    Beau Hollis

    It was the easiest process of ever. They elaborated on their own, right? I didn’t tell them to do anything or say anything. They were just elaborating of is the easiest, simplest thing I’ve ever done my whole life. I’ve sold a lot of houses and I wish everything could be like this easy, but made it amazing. The attorney like this, they really raved and they were just like, so happy I won.

    00:45:30:05 – 00:45:55:06

    Beau Hollis

    They like, give me a hug. It was just I mean, one time this I mean, I had multiple hugs, but this one old lady, she was just so just thrilled. I mean, just we really make a difference there. The what we do actually matters. It’s not just to some hucksters out there. We actually make a difference in people’s lives who need to get a quick sale for their home with a fair.

    00:45:55:06 – 00:46:04:21

    Beau Hollis

    So what we do matters, and that is the reason why reviews matter is the reason that reviews matter is because what we do matters.

    00:46:04:21 – 00:46:08:03

    Brady Winder

    Absolutely. And your elevate in the industry as a whole, you know?

    00:46:08:09 – 00:46:28:06

    Beau Hollis

    Oh, absolutely. It’s so important because every person out there who’s saving somebody from foreclosure or buying an inherited property that maybe they live out of town and they don’t know what to do and they’re reaching out last minute, like my fastest closing is actually three days from the time I met them. I met somebody on a Tuesday and we Tuesday night at like 6:00, met them.

    00:46:28:06 – 00:46:52:18

    Beau Hollis

    So basically Wednesday, met them Tuesday night at six, got the house on a contract and closed Friday morning. So we had Wednesday tidal pool, Thursday tidal review closed Friday morning. So really like a 48 hour basically time frame. And the review was outstanding from the time I closed it, from the time I met the person to when they that was apparently, by the way, that’s come.

    00:46:52:18 – 00:47:12:08

    Beau Hollis

    But yeah, that was but what we do matters. I mean all the people in the scenarios, I think we talk about reviews, but the reason it’s important is so it’s so much more important than just the review itself. It’s the why it’s important is because we’re letting other people know who might need our services, that we are good at our jobs and that we can help them.

    00:47:13:14 – 00:47:23:05

    Brady Winder

    Absolutely. I love that. Thanks for sharing that. Man Two really quick tips in our time. I said we’re going to close and we never do. That’s just how it goes.

    00:47:23:07 – 00:47:24:11

    Beau Hollis

    You’re a preacher close, right?

    00:47:24:16 – 00:47:44:02

    Brady Winder

    Yes, exactly. Well, we’ll be done another hour and then you guys can go to lunch. Um, Keith mentioned retargeting ads I forgot to bring up so. Or you mentioned Facebook ads. Make sure to use them in your retargeting ads. Are you using them in any other ads? Keith’s top of funnel middle Funnel are just retargeting people that have been to your website already.

    00:47:44:13 – 00:48:06:01

    Keith Sant

    Yeah, I use them for like everything. They’re literally like my attitudes for, for top of funnel and retargeting, but definitely for the retargeting because they got to your site for whatever reason, they didn’t fill out the form either. They thought they, you know, you couldn’t actually perform, you weren’t going to pay the highest price, you know, you weren’t going to, you know, just you weren’t the guy, right?

    00:48:06:01 – 00:48:15:04

    Keith Sant

    And there’s a reason why they didn’t perform. Maybe they were just busy by actually squashing those objections and the retargeting and the super power.

    00:48:15:04 – 00:48:41:10

    Brady Winder

    Absolutely. Last quick tip on the video testimonials. If you get a, you know, a great testimonial like these guys are talking about, you can, you know, and you have enough reviews on your care website and let’s say you don’t have enough screenshots from Google, My Business or Facebook. You can take the, you know, transcribe the texts or transcribe what they’re saying in that video or just type out, simplify it, you know, make it a sentence, or to put that in your care website as a testimonial so it pops up on the page.

    00:48:41:19 – 00:48:59:18

    Brady Winder

    You can do it with the video or just itself. So just a way to add more reviews to the page for help with your SEO and just help with the page overall. So yeah, that’s all we got for you. Bo Keith, thank you so much for joining us. Anybody listening? Thank you for tuning in. Have you got value out of this chair with a friend?

    00:49:00:05 – 00:49:03:02

    Brady Winder

    And don’t forget to go live. Bo simply saw the Google review.

    00:49:03:07 – 00:49:05:08

    Beau Hollis

    Listing for Come on people for review just.

    00:49:05:08 – 00:49:34:16

    Brady Winder

    Before kidding. Not kidding. But go to care.com last convert to get the rest of our conversion content for the month and thanks for tuning in everyone. We will see you next time.