Earlier this month, we wrote a blog post on Things to Consider When Marketing Your Property Online. In this post, we talked briefly about using Paid Search Marketing to attract businesses searching for office space online to your listings. We understand that paid search marketing is no easy task to take on and have provided a few additional tips below to help you get started.

What is Paid Search Marketing?

Paid search marketing is the process of gaining traffic by purchasing ads on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. It is sometimes referred to as CPC (cost-per-click) or PPC (pay-per-click). This unique form of search engine advertising gets your site in the top search results for the keyword terms you target.
 
How does it work?

The search engines display ads in response to search queries. When a user searches for keywords you’ve selected for your ads (ex. San Francisco Office Space), your ad can appear above and next to the organic search results. You pay a certain amount each time someone clicks on your ad; this is why paid ads are referred to as pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-click (CPC) advertising.

The position of a keyword-targeted ad on the search results page is calculated by the click thru rate of the ad, the ad’s display URL, the relevance of the keyword and the ad to the search query, along with other factors. The top three ad positions get the highest percentage of clicks.
 
Where You Should Focus Your Paid Search Efforts?

Start with Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter (which includes Bing and Yahoo! Search).

Choosing Keywords

Traditionally marketers bid on one or two term keywords (ex. office space), while searchers type in three or more keywords per search. Three word plus terms are generally the cheapest per click with higher conversion rates (depending on the keyword and the quality of the landing page).

• Add long tail keywords to your account, the phrases individually are unlikely to account for a great deal of searches, but as a whole can provide significant traffic (ex. office for rent in San Jose).
• Here are some additional ways to generate keywords: create lists, keeping your website theme in mind. Research competitor websites and organic listings. Include a search box in your website to find out what customers are searching for.

Writing and Testing Ad Copy
 
It is better not to create ads on a blank canvas, instead consider opening your web browser and enter the search term. This will give you an idea of what creative’s are already being used for a search term.

• Don’t be all things to all people! It is better to create focused, concise and unique propositions in your ads than generic claims.
• Your ad is a window to your site. The message in your ad needs to be consistent with the language on your website.

Paid search marketing is a great way to reach business looking for commercial real estate online. Many well known industry players, such as Regus, or larger landlords such as Irvine Company effectively use paid search to reach potential clients online. We provided a brief overview of paid search marketing above, however there is a lot more involved. As a beginner, we suggest partnering with someone who can help you reach this online audience.

As always we invite your feedback and questions.