I am looking for feedback from agents who have used the "Pay per Click" services of Overture. Anyone bid into the Premium Sponsor sites that you see at the top of most search engine results? I have checked the bid prices in my market, and even though if it is at $1.25 to $5.00 per click depending on the search term, I guess if you actually closed some deals from it, it could be worthwhile.

Feedback?

Well I have never used overture or google to pay traffic for real estate terms but I have used it so here is just a little advice. Most of it I learned the hard way lol

Know when the demand for your services is the greatest look at your server logs and find out when you are getting the most visits. So you can adjust your bid prices accordingly. Looking at my server logs I can see my busiest times are 11-1pm and then it picks up again in the evening.

Now it's no surprise that many people like to surf around on their lunch breaks> 11-1pm. You can decide if that is the time you want to be seen towards the top or might it be time to slip down a couple spots and wait until that rush is over. It just depends on your budget. If my memory serves me correctly the avg real estate surfer looks at 4.25 web sites. So being number 1 isn't exactly optimal.

To get the greatest ROI you want to try and be #2 or #3 or you can go a little lower than that if you have a good domain name that will catch the eye of the surfer and you don't mind missing the extra traffic that you receive for those positions. Believe me I own 300 or so domains myself and I do testing.

Of course number one is good again it just depends on your budget. Money can't buy happiness but it can buy advertising.

For going for the top spots in real estate I would recommend finding a couple of agents that you work with to split the costs. When someone fills out a request form just let that form CC: to group and you take the leads on a rotating basis. If surfers look at multiple sites (and they do) why get into a bidding war with someone over the top spot? That just makes companies like overture more money.

Traffic Leaks -- No outside links period well unless they go to another site that you own. I check the competition all the time in my area and I crack up when I see someone is using one of those silly template sites with a billizon links ( I think they use the term "sticky" My term for it is "realtor bait") around and out of their website. I know they are paying 3 or more dollars per click to make that even funnier. at least to me..is that they hire a company that manages their pay per click champaign. outbound links on pay per click traffic That is such a rookie move.

Believe me non of my real estate sites are over 15 pages in length and I get plenty of leads. links out = traffic lost! Its ok when your not paying for traffic. So If you have a website with a lot of links out I would buy another domain they are cheap $8.00 or so. copy your website over minus the outbound links change the wording enough so you don't get a penalty for duplicate site content and go from there.

Take time in setting up your pay per click champaign it make take the whole day. If your on a budget stay away from generic terms like texas real estate be very specific like dallas texas real estate and or minus fbso or for sale by owner and so on. Your clicks will be less but your ROI will be alot higher. Many people make a big mistake by not planning their pay per click champaign and targeting their keywords specifically.

Pay per click VS search engine optimization.
Having your site listed good in the search engines is better than pay per click. Just for fun, one time I did a little testing for a month using adwords on google. I had the number position for " keyword" keyword" I then took that site and placed that very same site ( no changes at all ) on a different domain name and then ran an adword Champaign for a month and the results were not even close. So learn all you can about SEO.

I think if you follow this advice you will see some good ROI. One more thing not being the worldest greatest graphic designer myself .. this important factor took a while to admit. Your site need to look good and stand out People are looking to make one of the biggest investments in their life so, how your sites looks or does 't look my be the difference it getting good contact information and not. I have been doing this 9 years 10hrs a day 6-7 days a week so you have to learn something even if it is by accident ..Again been there done that.

Good Luck

JR a.k.a MR Outternet™