An estate agent’s Google Ads account succeeds or fails on one decision: which searches it pays for. Buyers and tenants are largely spoken for by the portals, so the money belongs on vendors choosing an agent, landlords looking for management, and buyers researching a specific development. Everything below follows from that.
How people look for property help on Google
Most people hunting for a home to buy or rent start on Rightmove, Zoopla or OnTheMarket, not on Google. That fact shapes the whole account. Paying Google to compete with portal listings for “three-bed house for sale” searches is usually costly and rarely produces anything a portal enquiry would not. The searches worth paying for are the ones the portals do not answer well.
- Homeowners choosing who to sell with. “Estate agents in Guildford”, “house valuation Croydon”, “which agent should I sell with”. Each of these can become an instruction and a commission, so for a sales branch they are usually the most valuable clicks in the account.
- Landlords looking for an agent. “Letting agents near me”, “fully managed lettings Bristol”, “property management company”. A managed landlord pays fees month after month, often across several properties, so the value of one enquiry builds over years.
- Buyers interested in a new development. The scheme’s name, the town plus “new build homes”, or searches about shared ownership. The buyer is looking for something specific, and a developer’s own page can answer far more than a portal listing.
- People checking your name. Someone who saw a board or was recommended to a branch searches for it before they ring.
A sound property account keeps these groups apart, because each needs its own budget, geography, wording and landing page.
What changes in Google Ads for estate agents and developers
Geography that matches the patch
A sales or lettings branch wins instructions inside its own patch, so the ads should follow it: postcode districts or a tight radius around each branch, set with location targeting that matches where the homes are. Developers face a different problem. A buyer for a scheme in Kent may well be searching from a flat in south London, so a development campaign often has to reach people searching about the area rather than only people standing in it.
Keeping out the searches you cannot serve
Property searches attract a lot of near misses: cash-buyer “sell my house fast” companies, council and social housing, rooms to rent, estate agent jobs, and people who want an instant valuation figure with no plan to sell. I build negative keyword lists for these before launch and keep adding to them each week from the search terms the ads actually matched.
Landing pages that ask for one thing
A valuation ad should land on a page about booking a valuation in that area, not on the homepage with a property search box. A landlord ad should land on a page that sets out the service levels and fees. A development ad should land on the development itself, with plot availability, the show home’s opening times and a way to book a viewing. Where a page like that does not exist, I can build one through my PPC landing page service.
The rules that apply to property advertising
The CAP Code covers paid search ads like any other advertising. Claims such as “the area’s number one agent” or “we sell faster than anyone” need documentary evidence before the ad runs, and a “from” price on a development has to be one a fair share of the available homes can actually be bought for. National Trading Standards guidance on material information expects property listings to show details such as price, tenure and council tax band, so any landing page about a specific home needs them too. In England, letting agents must also publish their fees, redress scheme and client money protection membership on their website, and a landlord landing page is part of that website.
If you advertise an in-house mortgage service, Google requires advertisers of financial services in the UK to pass its verification, which includes FCA authorisation, and the financial promotion rules apply to the ad. I treat that as a separate campaign; the issues are covered on my page about Google Ads for financial services.
Tracking that follows an enquiry to an instruction
A valuation request is not an instruction, and a landlord enquiry is not a signed management agreement. Many of the best leads in this sector also arrive by phone, so I set up call tracking alongside the form tracking. Then, wherever your CRM allows it, I feed outcomes such as “valuation attended” and “instruction won” back into Google Ads as offline conversions. That lets the bidding learn which searches lead to instructions rather than which ones fill in forms. I usually optimise to the instruction rather than the completion, because completions can arrive months later and the signal is too slow to steer bids.
A typical account structure
- Brand. Your agency or development name. Cheap clicks, and it stops a competitor or a quick-sale company sitting above you.
- Sales valuations. One campaign, or one per branch where branches have their own patch and budget, built on Google search campaigns for valuation and “sell my house” searches.
- Landlords and lettings. A separate budget, so a busy sales month cannot quietly absorb the money meant for landlord instructions.
- Developments. One campaign per scheme, closed down when the last plot is reserved. Once a scheme has enough conversions, Performance Max can be worth testing alongside search, with its brand and location settings checked carefully.
- Remarketing. People who looked at a valuation or landlord page without getting in touch, shown a reminder for a few weeks. Under PECR this audience can only include visitors who accepted advertising cookies, so it is usually smaller than agents expect.
Mistakes I see in property accounts
- Buying portal searches. Ads on “flats for sale in Leeds” that land on a search page with a handful of listings, competing against portals that hold every listing in the city.
- Counting every instant valuation as a lead. Online valuation tools attract a lot of curious homeowners. If each submission counts as a conversion, automated bidding learns to find more curiosity, not more vendors.
- One radius for everything. The same circle around the office for sales, lettings and a development, when each needs different geography.
- Stale ads. A development campaign still running after the scheme sold out, or “from” prices that no longer match what is left.
- Ads running when nobody answers. Call ads live on a Sunday when the branch is closed, so the most motivated callers reach voicemail and ring the next agent.
Where Google Ads sits alongside other channels
Google Ads reaches people already searching for an agent or a development. It works best next to SEO for estate agents and property businesses, which builds the local pages that keep earning valuations without a click cost, and Facebook and Instagram ads for property, which can put a development or a lettings service in front of people before they start searching. If you want the whole mix planned together, my page on digital marketing for estate agents and property sets out how I would weigh each channel.
Next step
Tell me where your branches or developments are, what an instruction or a sale is worth to you, and what you spend on advertising now. I will tell you which searches I would buy first, which I would leave to the portals, and what tracking needs to be in place before any money is spent. Book a call about your agency or development.