Page 21 - GSABA Builder Brief - February 2020 issue

5Mistakes Builders Make With Google Ads
By Andrew Peek, Do You Convert
Google Ads allows us to display an ad directly in front of poten- tial buyers searching for a home at the exact moment they are searching. This sounds near per- fect, right? Unfortunately, many builders get this wrong.
Google Ads is Complex & Nuanced
Unlike its counterpart Facebook, Google Ads provides a near infinite number of ways to set up your campaigns, ad groups and ads. In many ways, Google Ads is like an assortment of building materials with no blueprints. You may know the end result you want, but you are not handed a way to get there.
Common Symptoms
After working with a variety
of builders in many different markets with total Google Ad spend of over $10M, I have found common symptoms of a poorly performing Google Ad Account.
High Cost Per Click - Compared to Facebook, Google Ads does have a higher cost per click. Generally, if your average cost per click is more than $1.80 for your entire account, there could be a problem. The caveat to this is that the market and exact keyword will affect this great-
ly. For example, “New Homes Raleigh, NC” is typically twice as expensive as “New Homes Winter Haven, FL.”
Low Click Through Rate - The click through rate is the num- ber of times your ad is clicked per 100 times it is shown. You want to see a CTR of at least 7 percent. This is an indicator of how relevant your ad is against the keyword it was displayed for. If the CTR is too low, then your ad is being shown to irrelevant searchers.
Poor Quality Metrics - Qual-
ity metrics are Time on Site, Average Page View, and Bounce Rate. These need to be within 20% of your Organic Search Traffic metrics. Quality metrics give a strong indication of the quality of visitors from a traffic source. Organic Search Traffic is the highest quality traffic source and can be used as a benchmark to measure other traffic sources.
Low Conversions - Conversion tracking can be a very complex subject. Generally, you can test the quality of your Google Ads build with a “Coming Soon” com- munity where the goal is to sign up to be on a “VIP List” for that community. Conversion rate is heavily influenced by where you are building, price range, and the product you are building. You can safely benchmark your performance against your site- wide conversion rate.
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FEBRUARY 2020 | GREATER SAN ANTONIO BUILDERS ASSOCIATION
FEATURE ARTICLE