Investing in The Complete Guide for Real Estate W Wishpond Online Sales Funnel

Investing in
YOUR

Online Sales
Funnel
The Complete Guide for
Real Estate

Wishpond

W


INTRODUCTION
The People who Actually
Pay You
Anthony Hitt (CEO of Engel & Völkers North
America) has a quote which is as true in modern
online marketing as it was when he said it about
phone calls and mailouts.

“To be successful in real estate,
you must always and consistently
put your clients first. When you
do, your personal needs will be
realized beyond your greatest
expectations.”

The quote framed the way the most successful real
estate agents and developers did it in the 90s and
2000’s, and continues to define them in modern

online marketing.


That’s why we created this ebook.
When you want to create a product that generates a buzz,
inspires others, and sells successfully, you do so first and
foremost with your end user in mind.
For real estate, that product is you.
The way to stay ahead of the curve in the competitive real
estate market is to consistently and visibly provide value
to your prospective clients - and to ensure you’re getting
something in return.
This ebook will guide you through doing that well, online.
I’ll also take a comprehensive look at optimizing your
online marketing efforts without spending your entire
budget and half your lifetime.
This ebook is your guide to uncovering the online
marketing formula that works best for you, but more than
that it is your guide to finding the formula that works FOR
you, even when you’re not paying attention.
Let’s get rolling.
Yours truly,

James Scherer
Marketing Strategist, Wishpond


TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

Introduction to an
Optimized Sales
Funnel

Getting the Most out
of Paid Advertising

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

Creating a Landing
Page

Retargeting Bounced
Traffic

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

Email Automation

Calculating ROI

Conclusion

Chapter 1:
Introduction to An Optimized
Sales Funnel

An optimized sales funnel is one which, once set up
intelligently and completely, takes care of you when you’re
not looking.
Let’s try a short experiment. Answer these two questions
(no need to write them down, just go over the answers in
your head):
1.

2.

Do you feel that online marketing only works when
you’re doing it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and
paying through the nose?
Are you currently able to track the ROI of your online
marketing efforts to determine exactly the value of
your dollar?

If your first answer is an emphatic yes and your second is
an emphatic no, then we need to work on an automated
and optimized sales funnel.


A Complete Sales Funnel
An optimized sales funnel consists of an entirely
automated strategy which:
● Collects traffic (either paid for through advertising or

organically through content)
● Drives traffic to a landing page designed with a single
conversion “Ask”, and equipped with a retargeting
pixel which shows bounced traffic further ads to
convert them at an optimal rate.
● Delivers content-focused and sales-focused timed
emails to nurture contacts towards a final sale.

Advertising & Content Marketing

Landing Pages &
Remarketing
Email
Automation
Final Sale


A Complete Sales Funnel
Let’s break it down into bite-sized pieces (all of this will be
covered in-depth in later chapters):
Top of Funnel:
Advertising and content creation expose your prospective
clients to your brand. Your optimized advertising
campaign has been tested to deliver optimal ROI and your
content (once created) can be utilized to generate organic
traffic and leads until the information is obsolete.
Middle of Funnel;
Each promotional strategy (paid or organic) drives traffic
to a page optimized to get a single conversion from that
traffic. Landing pages are used to get contact details.

Remarketing campaigns are used to reconnect with traffic
that bounces from your pages.
Bottom of Funnel:
Timed and automated emails (optimized with tested
subject line, length and content) are sent to the leads
generated by your landing pages. These emails either
nurture leads towards a final sale or (depending on the
landing page) arrange a good time to meet or call.


The “Aha!” Moment
Many real-estate agents find that there is a certain action
which prospective clients consistently take before
converting to a contract or deal. This is referred to, in
some circles, as the “Aha” moment.
Driving a prospective customer towards this action can be
a good way to design your sales funnel - optimizing it for a
single Ask which you’ve found (and proven) to result in a
conversion.
For instance, if you’ve found that a certain piece of content
you’ve created (a video series discussing the benefits of
passive income real estate, let’s say) elicits more final
conversions than another piece of content, you need to
devote more time, energy and resources to promoting that
content than you do a piece which doesn’t result in the
same kind of conversion rates.
I’ll get more into optimizing your sales funnel based on
“Aha” moments in Chapter 6.

Why Should I Produce Content?
Consider the reason your clients hire you. Why are you
worth your commission?
Because buying or selling a home is hard. It’s time
consuming, frustrating, confusing and the stakes are high.
You make it easier. You facilitate the easy processing of
what is often the largest purchase (or sale) of a person’s
life.
But you need to convince prospective clients that hiring
you is worth it. You need to be an authority, or else why
should they trust that you’ll ease any of their real estate
aches and pains?
Content does this.
Consistent, high-quality content increases the breadth of
your brand (you) online, increases your reputation and
makes you a sector authority. People looking to learn how
to intelligently sell their home learn from you.
Who better to help them when it comes time to buy, sell,
rent or invest?


Chapter 1
Key Points
1.
2.
3.

An interconnected online sales funnel
allows you to see the value of each
step independently and in conjunction

with the steps above and below it.
An automated sales funnel allows you
to sit back and watch the traffic and
sales roll in, only interfering when an
update or change needs to be made.
Creation of lead-generating content
not only acts as a first touchpoint for
your business, but improves your
status within your sector and spreads
brand awareness.

Wishpond

W


Chapter 2:
Getting the Most out of Paid
Advertising
It’s no revelation that online advertising delivers a
trackable ROI and (9 times out of 10) a superior one when
compared to traditional forms of advertising. Every time I
see a real estate agent on the back of a bus or a park bench
I cringe. If it works, awesome, but I’ve yet to talk to a single
broker, agent or realtor able to prove without a shadow of
doubt that their investment was a positive one.
And that’s the true benefit of online, even more than the
cost comparison: the ability to track what you spend and
what it delivers for you.
This chapter will dive into the two primary forms of paid

online advertising, Google Search Ads and Facebook
Advertising.
Both platforms have benefits and deficiencies in equal
measure. While Google delivers high-quality traffic, it is
highly competitive and can be costly. While Facebook is
extremely affordable it can offer a low click-through-rate.
Learning more about these platforms is the best way to
maximize their potential and your return on investment.


Google Adwords
Google delivers search-based advertising to prospective
clients. Your advertisement shows up at the top (or side) of
Google’s search results when someone types in its trigger
keywords.
Click-through-rates for Google Search Ads will vary widely
depending on placement (between about .5% and 7%). Ad
cost will also vary widely, as some keywords in some cities
- particularly for the real estate market - will cost upwards
of $15/click. While other cities will be only a dollar or less.


Google Adwords Tips and Tricks
Long-Tail Keyword
Google prioritizes the context of a search as much as it
does the keywords. Long-tail is this context-centric search
format.
Think of asking SIRI ‘Where’s the best Thai restaurant in
the area?’ She scurries off with that information and comes
back with a response that makes sense. Google is

designing its search (and Adwords) to do the same. Tap
into this when choosing your keywords, and see your ads
popping up more frequently than your competitors who
choose generic keywords only.
Test multiple ads until you find the right one
Create multiple ads for a single campaign (based on offer,
house, or service you provide) and watch the rate at which
people are clicking through on each. Determine which ad
works best for you based on Impressions and CTR.
After a month or so of running your different ads,
determine which single ad (or ad and landing page
combination) stands out based on the ratio of Impressions
to Clicks.


Google Adwords Quality Score
The placement of your ad isn’t based solely on your
budget. Google will reward ads with better placement if
they have a history of generating more traffic.
In other words, your ad will get better CTR and your cost
per click for the same position can also go down.
Here are a few best practices for how to do that:
1. Use the keyword phrase that you're targeting in your
headline. If you are wanting clicks on "Manhattan real
estate", then have that in the title, such as "View
Manhattan Real Estate Opportunities."
2. Try to also place the exact keyword phrase near the
beginning of the description. It could be something like "All
Manhattan Real Estate listings, maps and more here."
3. Enter the Display URL. This is usually the home page of

your site. It isn't necessarily where they're going, but
shows legitimacy.
4. Enter the Destination URL. This is the link to their
destination on your site, such as your IDX search page.


Google Adwords Extensions
Ad extensions let advertisers enhance their Google Ads
with phone numbers, an address, site links, reviews,
previous page visits and more. They generally show up in
blue, just below the ad description.
By including more contact information in your ads, you
make it easier for your potential customer to connect with
you.
Ad extensions don’t cost anything more to include in your
ad but you are still charged for interactions with your
extensions as you are for your headline. For example, if
someone clicks on your phone number to call you directly
from your ad extension, you’ll be billed for the conversion.


Google Adwords Conversion Tracking
There’s really no point in me paraphrasing Google when
their definition of conversion tracking is solid as a rock:
“A conversion occurs when a click on your ad leads directly to a
behavior that's valuable to you, such as a purchase, newsletter
sign-up, phone call, or download.
It's important to track conversions because they can give you
insight into how the performance of your ads relates directly to
the success of your business. Conversion tracking can also help

identify which ads and keywords are most successful for your
business.
To use conversion tracking for most sources of conversions,
you or someone else will need to edit your website's HTML
code to add a small bit of tracking code called a tag. This tag
will place a cookie on a user's computer or mobile phone when
he or she clicks your ad. If the user reaches one of your
conversion pages, AdWords looks for the cookie and records a
successful conversion for you.”
Here’s how to add a conversion pixel to your site to track
the success of your Google Adwords.


Google Adwords Resources
●

●

●

●

Google Keyword Planner
○ Keyword Planner allows you to search for
keyword and ad group ideas, get historical
statistics, see how a list of keywords might
perform, and even create a new keyword list by
multiplying several lists of keywords together.
Google Adwords Glossary of Terms
○ The top 25 terms you need to know before

diving into Google Adwords. Before reading or
learning advanced strategies, you need to start
with a solid foundation.
How to Optimize Keywords and ROI for Google
Adwords
○ Outlines 10 advanced strategies to increase the
success of your keywords and improve the
return on your Adwords investment
How to Add a Conversion Tracking Pixel to your
Adwords Campaign
○ Breaks down why to track conversions as well
as the how and where of implementing the
tracking pixel correctly within your website.


Facebook Advertising
If Google Adwords is intent-based advertising, Facebook is
target-based. Facebook gives you access to the largest
guaranteed advertising audience in the world. 1.35 billion
possible monthly impressions means that there’s no doubt
about it...

Your next client is on Facebook, you just have
to find them.


Facebook Advertising
For those unfamiliar with Facebook Advertising, here’s a
short snapshot of the platform.
A quick breakdown

There are three types of Facebook Ads: Sidebar, News
Feed, and Mobile News Feed:
● Sidebar ads are the cheapest options, though they
also have the lowest average click-through rates.
● News Feed ads are the most expensive and have
the highest average click-through rates.
● As the name suggests, Mobile News Feed ads are
specifically designed for display on mobile devices.
For real estate, there are two primary objectives, “Send
people to your website” and “Increase conversions on your
website”. For the latter, you’ll
need to place a pixel
(provided by Facebook)
within your website’s code
to track conversions.
There are two primary pricing
structures: pay-per-click and
pay-per-impression (an
impression being 1,000 views of your ad.)


Facebook Advertising Best Practices
Images:
● Go with eye-catching colors (avoid blue, white and
grey except to accent). Remember that your ad
(whether sidebar or newsfeed) is competing with
your target market’s niece covered in spaghetti or
their brother-in-law’s trip to Hawaii.
● Avoid too much detail as your image will be
compressed before it goes live.

● Test multiple images for the same campaign to
determine which works best. Try multiple headshots
to see which yields the highest clickthroughs.
Copy:
● Your headline should immediately communicate
value. Try phrases like “below market value” or “with
25 years experience”
● Include a “call-to-action” phrase like “click to see
more” or “get access now!”
● Test phrases that create urgency, like, “while spots
last,” “limited time only,” or “offers have been made!”
For more, be sure to check out my comprehensive guides
on Facebook Ad Images and Facebook Ad Copy.


Facebook Advertising Targeting
Now that that’s out of the way we can move onto the thing
that makes Facebook Advertising worth doing.
Targeting.
A Facebook Ad thrown haphazardly onto the platform is
no better than your face on the back of a bus (actually, it
still is, because at least you can see the value of your
dollar).
A Facebook Ad targeted intelligently is a whole different
creature.
With 1.35 billion possible users, you’re going to need to
hone it in a bit. And that’s the beauty of the platform.
Because people (knowingly or unknowingly) put a huge
amount of information on the platform, advertisers can
target users extremely precisely - thereby increasing their

click-through-rates and the chance of a conversion.


Facebook Advertising
Here’s what the basic ad targeting manager looks like, and
how it all breaks down for the real estate market:

Apart from targeting by location,
there’s no real need to mess
around with initial demographic
targeting. The fun stuff is below.
More Demographics allows you to
target your ads by education, job
title, and life events like recently
married or engaged.
Interest targeting allows you to
target by people interested in real
estate or investment.
Behavior targeting allows you to
target Facebook Page Admins,
frequent travellers, etc.


Facebook Advertising
An example:
If your ad is shown to 5,000 untargeted people in
Sacramento, California, your click-through-rate is unlikely
to venture above .02%. That equals about one person per
day being sent to your page. True, you’ll only pay about 40
cents for that person, but it makes the whole process a

waste of time.
If, however, you target your Facebook Ad at 5000
newlywed or newly-engaged users (who have a reasonably
high chance of being in the market for a new home) in
Sacramento, California, your results will be entirely
different.
Your click-through-rate goes up to .1% and each day you
get a qualified lead (provided your landing page converts
at about 10%) for $4.00.


Facebook Advertising Tips and Tricks
Work the Ad Auction:
Facebook Ads go through an “ad auction” before they go
live on the social media website.
Your daily budget, along with the amount of competition
trying to reach your audience, determines whether you
win that auction.
Winning the auction is important (and is the basis for
Facebook’s “Suggested Bid”) because it determines what
portion of the “Possible Reach” your ad will actually
encounter.
But if your ad isn’t time-sensitive, you can refresh the
suggested bid every once in a while to see if winning the
auction would cost you less at different times.
Once you set your maximum bid and win the auction, your
ad reach won’t change — which means you could save
some serious cash over the course of an advertisement’s
full run.

Facebook Advertising Tips and Tricks
Work the Outside Angle:
Consider targeting specifications ostensibly unrelated to
real estate. Facebook allows you to target newlyweds,
married people of a certain age group, even people who
have friends who have recently purchased a home.
● Test different ad
audiences to see which
delivers the highest
click-through-rate.
● Test different ad images
for different ad audiences.
Does a picture of you work
better for people Interested
in Real Estate while a picture
of a home work better for
people recently married?
● Test different ad copy.
Do you see more clicks when
you keep your ads short and
factual, or colorful and full of exciting words and phrases?