What has brought you more leads? GMP or Google Ads?

[milangroup]

Hello everyone,
Happy to be member of this forum I see tons of value I am a small marketer for my family business still trying to figure things out. So far I have 2 GMP's setup with some reviews but very low calls from the GMP it is in the real estate niche so now I am focusing on my dads service based business but with real estate having low calls I wanted to see what works best for you guys to generate calls?

Google profile ads?
or google ads ?

I want to start generating calls.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Real estate profiles really don't generate massive amounts of traffic because they rank mainly for "real estate agent" terms which get a lot less search volume than some of the big ones like "homes for sale" or "real estate". We usually focus a lot more on organic ranking for realtors as there are a ton of opportunities for content.

That being said, I wouldn't ignore the profile and would really focus on building up a ton of reviews. It will rank for branded terms and if you work for a large brokerage, there is usually a lot of search volume for some of those brands (re/max, keller williams etc) so if you are allowed to use the brokerage name in your profile name, I would definitely do it.

I recently published a video with a few other tips for realtors:

 

[milangroup]

Real estate profiles really don't generate massive amounts of traffic because they rank mainly for "real estate agent" terms which get a lot less search volume than some of the big ones like "homes for sale" or "real estate". We usually focus a lot more on organic ranking for realtors as there are a ton of opportunities for content.

That being said, I wouldn't ignore the profile and would really focus on building up a ton of reviews. It will rank for branded terms and if you work for a large brokerage, there is usually a lot of search volume for some of those brands (re/max, keller williams etc) so if you are allowed to use the brokerage name in your profile name, I would definitely do it.

I recently published a video with a few other tips for realtors:

Hey there Joy well I did focus on tons of reviews thats what got one of my GMBs to number one raking for keyword "Sell My House" but still not many calls?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Yeah I think there are a ton of other unknowns here that would make a difference - the size of the market, what the competition looks like, how the housing market is in that area (demand), how much volume that keyword gets, etc.

 

[milangroup]

Yeah I think there are a ton of other unknowns here that would make a difference - the size of the market, what the competition looks like, how the housing market is in that area (demand), how much volume that keyword gets, etc.

Is there a way to find all of this ?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Definitely. You'd need to analyze it using things like Search Console and Ahrefs.

 

[milangroup]

Definitely. You'd need to analyze it using things like Search Console and Ahrefs.

thank you

 

[GoLocal]

In 2023 I worked with hundreds of top realtors across Canada. The one with the most referrals told me she is 100% focused on reviews for whatever that is worth.

Joy, one question please. I notice a lot of top performing realtors have not filled out their questions section. I Semrush training they tell us to put a FAQ there. Is a GMB considered not optimized if the questions have not been leveraged into a FAQ? Thank you.

 

[JoyHawkins]

It can't hurt to add them but it won't impact ranking and it's almost impossible to really measure or track the impact it has on leads.

 

[GoLocal]

It can't hurt to add them but it won't impact ranking and it's almost impossible to really measure or track the impact it has on leads.

Thank you so much. So many top realtors have nothing, whereas many get comprehensive. Ben Sweet here in Calgary for example squeezed almost a web page worth of content in there. My official recommendation has been to do it but I will change that now and just be neutral on it. I deeply appreciate the knowledge share, cheers.

P.S. OP — I just asked the most powerful realtor I met during 2023 awards about this. She doesn't know what a GMB is. She said she has no concept of tech. She is winning solely based on analog. Old school relationship building. Of all the realtors I worked with she has the most organic support (on digital) than anyone else, i.e. she got 225 likes on the award post:

https://www.facebook.com/search/posts?q=jamie giszas sales insider

So theory is theory but in practice the most mobile realtor I've ever met uses zero tech. I know that's not the answer or insight asked for but I can say it was the biggest eye opener for me during the 2023 realtor thing. Jamie is out competing some of the highest-ad-spending realtors in Canada with zero tech or SEO.