In Part One of this series, we explored the different ways you can generate leads for your real estate business. In the second part, we focus on the benefits of online lead generation and paid online leads.
Why We Think Paid Online Leads Are Awesome (And You Should Too)
Online leads are any leads you collect through online marketing efforts, i.e., social media, ads, or SEO. Paid online leads refer to those online leads collected specifically through ad activities.
There is one primary reason why we believe paid online leads are a great way for new and veteran agents alike to build and grow their real estate businesses. They work.
One thing real estate agents really appreciate about paid online leads is that they are like a water tap.
Once you activate your ad campaigns, i.e. open your water tap, you’ll start receiving leads almost immediately. If your ad campaign is well-adjusted and your budget optimized, PPC ads will create a steady flow of leads for as long as they are running. Setting these ads up doesn’t take too long, freeing up time so you can focus on the more critical, face-to-face interactions.
On the other side, you can pause your ad campaigns, i.e. close your water tap at any time, and you’ll stop receiving leads. If you are enjoying your vacation or, for whatever reason, do not have time to work on new leads, it takes only a few clicks, and your ads will stop running.
This flexibility to control and adjust your ad budget makes paid online leads an ideal go-to solution for new agents who need to build their database.
Besides having a steady flow of leads, real estate agents also like that online ads give them additional exposure. They helped them reach audiences they wouldn’t be able to reach in any other way, thus allowing them to expand their businesses quite quickly.
When Nick Moretti, a real estate agent from the Durham region, decided to leave his current brokerage and start his own, he was only a couple of years in the real estate business. He is now one of the top Realtors in his area, closing deals every week. Read his success story to find out how he did it.
But it’s not only new agents that turn to paid online leads. Veteran agents also have dry periods at a certain point in their careers. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, many real estate agents turned to online lead generation to help them keep their businesses afloat.
Michael DiRoma is such an agent. He loved doing open houses as a lead generation activity. However, when the pandemic hit, such events came to a halt. You can read his success story here.
Another example of how paid online leads can help you through dry periods comes from Brian Jeronimo. He works for RE/MAX Premier, serving Etobicoke, North York, Woodbridge, Vaughan, and Toronto West. After over a decade in the real estate business, he was used to having slow periods. However, in 2021, business slowed down as early as March. That’s when Brian turned to paid online leads to keep a steady income stream.
You don’t have to be a new agent to have an empty database stare right back at you from your desktop. Jason Coward has been in the real estate industry since 2007. His wife has been an agent since 1997. However, in 2020, they decided to move from Winnipeg to the Kelowna area. When they arrived, they had no contacts whatsoever, no sphere of influence, and an empty database. They had to start from scratch. That’s when they decided to invest in paid online leads to get things rolling.
As you can see, paid online leads are a reliable way for agents to build their sales pipelines quickly, no matter if you’re just having a dry period or you’re stuck with an empty database.
However, as much as we love paid online leads, they come with a few snags. Before you start investing in them, we’d like you to know what you’re getting yourself into. Discover the truth about online leads in the third part of our series.
