For many mortgage companies I speak with, PPC, or Pay per Click, has become a staple of their marketing efforts. In fact, many mortgage companies put their primary focus on this form of marketing. The reasons are obvious ...
►It’s 100 percent measurable
►Can give you immediate results
►Gives you control over how much you wish to spend
►Allows for precise targeting
So, the obvious question is…why don’t you see the returns? PPC has become one of many “get rich quick” schemes that doesn’t live up to the getting rich part or the quick part by a long shot. Why? Because too many mortgage companies place an undue amount of focus on this tactic to the detriment of everything else they could be doing to create “noise” for their companies in the markets they serve. Don’t get me wrong, PPC is not dead ... it just needs to be reinforced by other tactics that come together in the form of an overall pull marketing strategy.
PPC can deliver results in a short-term, highly targeted fashion…but in the long term it becomes costly. Web users have learned over the years to filter out online advertising in favor of organic listings. Accordingly, it delivers lower returns than search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing.
Why does PPC fail? Here are two reasons:
►It’s a short-term fix. It focuses on the attraction stage, but not the conversion stage. There is no nurturing of the prospect.
►There is no brand awareness developed. PPC captures window shoppers focused on cost, not quality.
So then how do you make PPC work for your mortgage company? Here are some useful tips ...
►Think long-term, be strategic. Integrate your PPC campaign with an overall inbound strategy. Align ads with matching content on your site so you can nurture visitors into real clients.
►Leverage inbound marketing technology to shape a long-term campaign that uses relevant keywords and up-to-date search terms people are using to find companies like yours to work with. This technology will allow you to identify the positive, higher ROI keywords while eliminating negative keywords. As you move through the campaign, you can also optimize the right keywords better for better results.
►Conduct regular A/B testing to optimize your ads, keywords and landing pages to better nurture and convert prospects.
►Use Ad Extensions to include sub links in your text adverts and increase click-throughs and boost traffic to your site.
►Link your AdWords account to use Google Analytics and find out which positions your adverts perform best in and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Globally speaking, be sure to think strategically. Think about all aspects of your marketing endeavors and how you can create consistency and how they all integrate. I know it’s tempting to go for a “quick hit” by leveraging PPC, but in the long term it will just land up costing you money and leave you wondering why it’s not working.
Patrick H. Seroka is president and chief executive officer of Seroka, the only Certified Brand Strategists in North America specializing in the mortgage industry. With Seroka, you'll experience unique, second-to-none client service and benefit from compelling marketing communications. Plus, we guarantee your growth. For more information, call (262) 523-3740 or e-mail
[email protected].
