Google Ads advertising for real estate agencies: complete guide

google ads real estate agency

Why invest in Google Ads when selling and valuing properties

If your goal is to capture sellers (valuations) and buyers (viewing requests) at the precise moment they are looking for a solution, Google Ads is one of the most effective levers. The strength of the channel lies in intent: a person who types apartment valuation Lyon 6 or real estate agency house for sale Bordeaux is not in a discovery phase, they are already taking action. For an agency, this means warmer contacts, an ability to manage lead volume, and relatively fine control over areas, schedules, budgets, and query types.

But in real estate, competition is strong (agencies, independent agents, networks, portals), cost per click can rise quickly, and setup mistakes are paid for dearly. A profitable setup therefore relies on a trio: targeting (the right queries + the right area), value proposition (a clear, differentiating offer), and journey (landing page + conversion + tracking).

Choosing the right objectives: sellers, buyers, investors… or recruitment

Most agencies make the mistake of trying to do everything in a single campaign. Yet performance depends on consistency between keyword, ad, page, and conversion. It is therefore preferable to separate your priorities:

1) Mandate generation (sellers) : online valuation, appointment booking, call back within 5 minutes, price audit, valuation report. These are often the most profitable leads in the medium term.

2) Buyer acquisition : viewing requests, email alerts, getting in touch for a selection of properties, financing. Often higher volume, sometimes less profitable if you don’t have enough exclusives.

3) Investors : rental search, yield, income properties, tax schemes. Interesting, but requires a very structured offer.

4) Recruitment : sales agents, negotiators, interns. Google Ads can work if you offer a strong angle (training, territory, compensation).

Each objective corresponds to a specific message, landing page, and conversion tracking. This is the foundation to avoid mixing intents that do not have the same value.

Recommended account structure (simple, readable, manageable)

A clear structure helps you control budgets and optimize faster. For a locally established agency, an effective architecture often looks like:

Valuation Campaign (search network): ad groups by city/neighborhood or by property type (apartment/house); appointment-focused ads; call and callout extensions.

Property Sales Campaign (search): queries house for sale + city, apartment + neighborhood, real estate agency + city. Activate only if your inventory and exclusives justify it.

Brand Campaign (search): protect your agency name, your well-known agents, your variants. Generally low cost, very profitable, and useful against competitors.

Remarketing Campaign (Display/YouTube/Performance Max depending on maturity): re-engage site visitors and people who viewed key pages (valuation, contact, listings).

Avoid, at the start, overly complex “gas factory” structures. Real estate mainly requires discipline: separation of objectives, consistency of messaging, and regular optimization.

Keyword strategies: capture intent without paying for unnecessary traffic

Keyword choice determines 60 to 80% of performance. In real estate, you need to find the balance between volume and commercial intent. Informational queries (e.g., price per m2, notary fees) can be useful for content, but not always for direct leads via Ads.

The most profitable query families

Valuation / price opinion : home valuation [city], estimate apartment [neighborhood], free valuation agency. Very mandate-oriented.

Sell a property : sell house [city], real estate agency to sell, valuation + appointment. Queries sometimes less direct but relevant.

Agency + locality : real estate agency [city], real estate agency [neighborhood]. Strong competition but clear intent.

Targeted purchase : house for sale [city], T3 apartment [city]. Use if your property pages perform well and if your site converts (form, call, WhatsApp if applicable).

Match types and control

To keep control over quality, often start with match types phrase and exact on your key queries. Broad match can be profitable, but rather after you’ve accumulated data, a solid negative keyword list, and reliable tracking.

In real estate, noise often comes from queries related to jobs, training, notaries, portals, or areas outside your territory. The negative list is therefore a strategic asset: it grows every week thanks to the search terms report.

Targeting settings: geolocation, areas and schedules

A profitable campaign is almost always a well-defined local campaign. Classic mistakes: targeting too broadly, or letting Google include people interested in the area rather than actually present.

Geolocation : prioritize targeting people present in the area (and not presence or interest), especially for valuations and viewings.

Radii and municipalities : adapt your map to your commercial reality (areas where you take on listings, where you have name recognition, where you can do viewings).

Schedules : bid strongly when you can respond quickly. Many leads are lost due to a lack of fast follow-up. If your team responds better from 9am to 7pm, adjust your bids for those time slots.

Ads that convert: promise, proof, action

In real estate, ads often look alike (free valuation, local agency). To improve click-through rate and the quality of contacts, structure your messages around:

Promise : timeframe (appointment within 24h), method (comparative analysis + market data), transparency (a well-argued value opinion).

Proof : number of sales, customer reviews, local presence, specialization (neighborhood, property type), exclusive mandate.

Action : Request a callback, Get an estimate, Book an appointment.

Systematically add useful extensions: call extension, location, callouts, site snippet, sitelinks (to estimate, contact, neighborhoods). They increase visibility and qualify the click.

Landing pages: where profitability is decided

Sending to the homepage is one of the main causes of failure. A high-performing landing page must match the keyword intent exactly:

For the estimate : short form (address + type + size), clear benefit, trust elements (reviews, method, confidentiality), and the option to call directly.

For buying : a relevant property selection (filtered by area), a visible visit CTA, quick contact, and alternatives (email alert, financing estimate).

Also take care of mobile speed, readability, and social proof. In real estate, the user compares. A slow or vague page sends them to a competitor in one click.

Measurement and tracking: conversions, calls, forms, lead quality

Without reliable measurement, it's impossible to optimize. The minimum: form conversions, clicks on the phone number, and ideally call tracking (duration, status, qualification) and importing offline conversions (signed mandate, sale, commission).

Beyond volume, track the quality : requested area, property type, time to sell/buy, budget consistency. This makes it possible to arbitrate campaigns not by CPL (cost per lead) but by cost per real opportunity.

To frame your management, you can rely on a list of structuring metrics via a KPI dashboard to track and link your Ads data to your CRM.

Budget, bidding and optimization strategy (without burning cash)

Budget depends heavily on your area, competition, and your objective (mandates vs buyers). Start with a test budget sufficient to generate data: a few dozen clicks per week on your main keywords, otherwise you won't learn fast enough.

Bidding : if you’re just starting out, a Maximize conversions strategy can work provided you have clean tracking. Otherwise, manual CPC (with eCPC) can offer more control at the beginning.

Weekly optimization : analysis of search terms, adding negative keywords, geo adjustments, ad testing, and improving landing pages.

Monthly optimization : budget reallocation between campaigns (valuation vs purchase), analysis of CRM conversion rates, and structuring tests (new offer, new form, new messaging).

Common mistakes in real estate (and how to avoid them)

1) Targeting too broadly : you’re paying for clicks outside your area, outside your property type, outside your budget. Solution: strict geotargeting + negatives.

2) Mixing sellers and buyers : the intent and the pages are not the same. Solution: separate campaigns.

3) Not responding fast enough : a warm lead becomes cold in 30 minutes. Solution: call-back process, notifications, time slots, qualification.

4) Generic landing page : even a good ad, a bad page = low conversion. Solution: dedicated pages.

5) Judging only by CPL : a cheap lead can be unusable. Solution: feed back field data (mandate, sale, commission).

Aligning Google Ads with the rest of your real estate marketing

Google Ads shouldn’t live on its own. The best agencies integrate it into a system: content, social networks, local SEO, email, CRM. That increases conversion and reduces acquisition cost in the medium term.

Content : create pages and posts about your neighborhoods, your valuation methods, your feedback. This fuels SEO and improves the credibility of landing pages. To structure this approach, a tailored editorial strategy can also serve as support for campaigns (remarketing, audiences, ad ideas).

Social networks : they build trust (visual proof, team, tours, before/after). In addition to Search campaigns, social can feed remarketing and increase the overall conversion rate. Depending on your target and your formats, you can work on short formats: vertical videos to showcase your properties, or test if your audience is receptive to it via an approach tailored to TikTok. And to prioritize platforms, rely on a selection of the most effective social channels.

Special case: agents, multi-sector, and local competition

Mandate networks and independent agents can perform strongly, but they face the same challenges: sometimes wider areas, need for awareness, and differentiation. In these cases, offer clarity (availability, micro-local expertise, reviews, method) and negative keyword optimization are even more crucial.

To dive deeper into an agent-oriented angle, you can consult a dedicated external resource: Google Ads for real estate agents.

Useful resources to go further (without multiplying tests at random)

If you want to strengthen your foundations (structure, tracking, optimization, creatives) with a guided approach, this external resource can help: Google Ads Guide for Real Estate Agencies.

And if you want a broader view of formats, networks, and best practices for Google advertising in general, this comprehensive external reading complements it well: Advertising on Google: the ultimate guide to success.

10-point launch checklist (field version)

1) One objective per campaign (estimate, purchase, brand, remarketing).

2) Geolocation set to presence (and realistic areas).

3) Phrase/exact match keywords at launch + negatives from week 1.

4) Ads with a promise + proof + action, and full extensions.

5) Dedicated landing page (not the homepage), fast on mobile.

6) Tracking of forms + call clicks, ideally call tracking.

7) Internal process: quick call-back, qualification script, CRM follow-up.

8) Weekly analysis of search terms and best-performing areas.

9) Regular A/B tests (ads, forms, value propositions).

10) Measure quality (opportunities, mandates, sales) and not just CPL.

Before increasing the budget: secure your site and your conversions

Raising bids on a shaky foundation often amounts to amplifying flaws: slow pages, forms that are too long, lack of reassurance, incomplete tracking. Before scaling, make sure your site can convert and that the journey is smooth from the ad to the contact.

To quickly identify the blockers (UX, performance, messaging, conversion), you can request an analysis of your current site.