Are you considering using Google Adwords???

Are you considering Google Adwords as a marketing method? 
Adwords can work very well or it can be really dangerous. If you do it right, it can be a windfall. If you do it wrong, you will go down the road cursing as so many other realtors have done.

If done incorrectly, you invite thousands of wanders to your site, you don't give them what they want, they leave, and it cost you for the error.

If you do it right, you invite thousands of wanders to your site and you are contacted because you provide them information about a property or properites they want.

Using adwords will always cost you, and there will always be people that will leave without a conversion (contacting you). However, if you write your ad correctly, the visitor knows what you have available and you get a person that is really looking for what you have to sell.

Here are a few observations:

• Write your ad very carefully to make certain you only drag in the right type of person ... a person interested in what you have available.
• Don't write an ad that says "I have anything you need." That ad invites everyone, but, you are so untargeted in the webpage you send them to, you will probably disappoint them frequently and you will probably spend a fortune on misses.

Here are some suggestions:

• Don't direct people to the main page of your site, direct them to a page that has what they are looking for (usually called a landing page). If your ad says you have waterfront properties available, take them to a page with waterfront properties listed. (They probably don't want to bounce around your site trying to find a list of waterfront properties. Similarly, if you have and ad for a loft under $125,000, send them to the page about the loft (or about lofts you have available), not the main page of the site.)
• Make certain you know about negative keywords. Knowing about negative keywords will decrease the arrival of people from really strange location. They usually do not want your properties and they cost you a fortune. I know one realtor that used the word waterfront by itself and had a bad ad. She spent a fortune on people clicking through to find waterfront hotels.
• Learn to use adwords to block negative keywords.
• Don't using Adwords to get yourself branding (recognition) it will probably cost you a fortune and you probably will not raise your branding the way you are hoping. Use Adwords to sell.

If you use Adwords, pick up a book on how to use Adwords, or have someone help you. It may cost you $40 for the book, but, it will save you a fortune and you may not end up cursing Google and the world.

Again, you can do really well or spend a fortune for no results with adwords. It depends on how you use it.