A Money Saving Message For Hiring a Google Ads Professional For Multifamily Marketing
What happens when you spend $2,000,000+ annually on Google Ads for apartment communities? You quickly learn what works and what doesn’t.
You also get exposed to countless multifamily companies who have made poor choices when choosing a company to manage their Google Ads campaigns.
Their stories are all the same:
- Overspent on people clicking on the ads
- Overspent on management fees
- Got locked into long term agreements
- Didn’t get the results
We hear this one all the time:
“I hired someone local who I thought would do a good job, only to find out they’ve never done Google Ads for anyone in multifamily. Help!”
Now let’s talk about you. You may find yourself in one of the following scenarios:
- You’re not running Google Ads.
- You have a 1-2 person marketing dept that handles the Google Ads for your portfolio.
- You’re using a third party company to manage your Google Ads.
- You’re managing the ads yourself.
There will come a time, when you start to question your results or how much you’re spending or both. It always happens.
When it does, you may search for other alternative companies/professionals to pick up where the last person left off.
When this happens – you need my list below. The 25 questions you need to ask your next Google Ads professional before hiring them. These questions help you weed down your list to a few quality candidates/companies. Not to mention save you time, money and headaches.
1) Are you exclusive to multifamily or do you specialize in other verticals as well?
As you can imagine, there are a ton of benefits of hiring a provider that specializes only in multifamily. The biggest one is they will know what apartment ads work best – saving you time, money and delivering better results than a professional that services other verticals.
2) Do you offer weekly, monthly or quarterly campaign service calls?
Investing money on Google Ads will drive results, but in some cases it may be hard to read the weekly/monthly analytics report that tells you how your campaigns are doing. By having the opportunity to understand what the report is telling you is key. The best way to do this is through either weekly, monthly or quarterly calls with the Google Ads professional.
3) What tools do you use to choose keywords?
Choosing the right keywords is one of the most important parts of a Google Ads marketing campaign, and there is a wide range of keyword discovery tools available. Your new provider should be familiar with these tools and should make use of several of them.
4) What is your plan to ensure quality traffic?
A Google Ads professional should have a maintenance plan in place to ensure that your campaign is sending quality traffic to your website. On a monthly basis, Search Terms, Locations, Placements, and more should be reviewed to ensure the most qualified traffic is coming through.
5) How does Google auction work?
Google auction is the process that Google uses to decide which ads are shown and the order that they are shown in when a user searches a keyword that multiple ads are targeting. Understanding this process is an important part of keeping your ad costs as low as possible while at the same time ensuring that they are shown high in the search results.
6) How will you manage my Google Quality Score?
Even when displaying ads, Google makes it a top priority to provide their users with relevant content, and the Google Quality Score is how they go about making sure each ad and the page it links to are relevant to a user’s search. Your Google Ads professional should have a plan for keeping your Google Quality Score high.
7) How are ad rank and cost-per-click (CPC) related?
Ad rank is a measure of how high up in the search results your ad is displayed, while CPC is a measure of how much you are willing to pay per unique click. These two metrics are directly related, and your Google Ads professional should strive to keep your ad rank as high as possible while still maintaining a low CPC.
8) Will you make use of Google Ads API?
Google Ads API offers a number of tools and functions, but it isn’t always a necessity for a successful campaign. Nevertheless, any Google Ads professional you hire should still know what Google Ads API is and when to use it. Additionally they may have created new enhancements based off the API that you could take advantage of.
9) Will you use Display Network campaigns in addition to Search Network campaigns?
Display Network campaigns and Search Network campaigns offer distinct benefits, and it’s likely that you’ll want to take advantage of both.
10) Will your approach to Display Network campaigns differ from your approach to Search Network campaigns?
For the best results, it’s recommended that you use different settings and ads for a Display Network campaign than you would use for a Search Network campaign.
11) What is a conversion?
A conversion is an action taken after an ad click through. Phone calls, form fills, or any other action you would like taken on your website can all be tracked as conversions.
12) How long should we wait after creating a Display Network campaign before evaluating its performance?
Google recommends that you let a Display Network campaign run for two to three weeks before you evaluate its performance.
13) What are the most important KPIs to evaluate my campaign’s performance?
There are a number of KPIs that you will want to look at including click-through-rate, cost-per-click, return-on-investment, and more.
14) Will you make use of managed placements?
Managed placements allow you to bid differently depending on where your ad is displayed on the Google Display Network, and it is a function you should certainly take advantage of.
15) What is remarketing?
Remarketing is a strategy that allows you to display ads to people who have already visited your website but did not convert. You’re going to want to utilize it for inexpensive branding and getting those people back to your site.
16) Which visitors should I target in a remarketing campaign?
If you do create a remarketing campaign, you’ll only want to target visitors who are likely to convert the second time around. Your Google Ads professional should be able to help you differentiate between general visitors and visitors who were genuinely interested in the apartments you are marketing.
17) Should I use the remarketing list that Google Ads automatically creates?
When you create a remarketing campaign, Google Ads will automatically create a list of “all visitors” – those who visited your website. As more data is generated, other lists such as “all converters”, “similar to all visitors”, and “similar to all converters” are created. These lists are a great starting point and can be further customized in Google Ads or Google Analytics.
18) Will my website be able to handle the tracking requirements of a remarketing campaign?
Before you consider creating a remarketing campaign, you’ll want to make sure that your website is able to handle the pixels and codes that will allow you to successfully track your campaign’s performance. Using Google Tag Manager is the simplest way to add multiple tracking codes.
19) What is your process for writing ad copy?
There are several elements to effective ad copy, including an attention-grabbing headline, an effective call to action, and clear, concise writing.
20) What is your process for testing ad copy?
A good Google Ads professional should use A/B testing to test different variations of ad copy in order to determine which copy performs the best.
21) How will you help me reach my specific goals for this campaign?
Once you explain the goals you have for your campaign, your Google Ads professional should be able to detail how they will help you meet them. They should also be honest enough to tell you if your goals are too optimistic.
22) How long have you been creating Google Ads campaigns?
A Google Ads professional should have plenty of experience to show and should be happy to discuss that experience with you.
23) Are you a Google Certified Partner?
A Google Ads certification is a professional accreditation offered by Google to individuals who show proficiency in basic and advanced aspects of Google Ads. In other words, they demonstrate to Google through a series of exams that they know what their doing when it comes to Google Ads.
24) Do you charge a flat fee or a percentage of how much I spend on Ads?
A flat fee is recommended over a percentage of your actual spend on Google Ads. Therefore it doesn’t matter how much you ramp up your spend, the company managing your ads won’t profit from it.
25) What are your contract terms?
Locking in a short term contract of 3-6 months is ideal. This will give you enough time to evaluate if the service is working or not.
Conclusion
Choosing a Google Ads professional that specializes in multifamily should be at the top of your list. If they have the proper certification aka Google Partner, offer monthly calls to go over your account and don’t lock you in to long term contracts – then they should be considered.
As with any new marketing provider/vendor you hire, having a dedicated point of contact that you feel good about is key.
If you would like to ensure that you are working with someone who is truly an expert in using Google Ads to market apartments, we invite you to contact us today.
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Written by Josh Grillo
Josh Grillo is a #1 Best Selling Author, Speaker and Co-Founder of Resident360.
