Transcription
[Music] [Music] Alright, if you're wondering when to start paid marketing—when to start paid ads—while marketing online, here's the scoop. You're getting started with evergreen marketing, doing some SEO, getting content online, maybe building a few backlinks, but you want leads faster. Well, in this episode of The Evergreen Marketing Show, we're walking through when, how, and why you should launch your first paid ads, if you haven't already. We'll offer a different perspective than many others.
So, Brady, welcome to the Evergreen Marketing Show—our first official, official one!
Thanks, Trevor! I'm pumped, buddy. This is going to be a fun one. I'm excited because, whether you realize it or not, SEO is a long-term game. Many people ask how to get leads quickly. You can't stop all other marketing while working on your SEO and expect leads. That's what we're discussing today: supplemental lead generation.
This episode is brought to you by Carrot, campaign tracking links. Our software makes it easier to understand what's working in your marketing. We'll discuss that later. Trevor, talk to me about getting leads quickly. Let's say I just signed up for Carrot, got my website built (we covered that in past episodes), and we'll talk about keyword research and SEO strategy in coming weeks. Right now, it's like, "Dude, I need leads! I need to close deals!" Shiny object syndrome—Facebook ads, Google PPC, everything! Every coach says I need to do this. Why PPC and Facebook, and when?
Yep, dude. I'll start with the customer journey—something the industry doesn't discuss enough. They talk about marketing channels: SEO, PPC, PPL. Great channels, but few discuss *when* to use them. The way you use each channel differs based on the customer journey stage. I'll show a visual (if you're watching on YouTube or in the group), but picture the customer journey. A customer moves left to right.
First, they're aware of a problem, searching for a solution. A house seller might think, "I need to sell my house; I'm in foreclosure, or I have a hoarder house." Then they search. Further down, they're in the decision phase—aware of options, knowing they can work with an investor or agent. They need to decide.
(Braden pulls up a graphic showing the customer journey: Aware, Decision, Close)
The customer journey always goes left to right: Aware, Decision, Close. We market backward—right to left. As they near the close, we build trust. They're making a decision; they already know you. When planning marketing, many focus on Google PPC or Facebook ads in the early stages ("Let me attract new people who don't know me"). We'll discuss why starting on the right (Close) is crucial, focusing on Facebook and Google ads for those nearing a decision. We should be thinking about marketing channels by customer stage, not just the channel itself. Start with the close in mind. What builds trust to get them to work with us? That's where we'll start with Google and Facebook ads.
You need a website—it's a conversion tool. Without it, where's your traffic going? You can't close leads or turn visitors into leads. Let's dive into PPC or Facebook first, working backward. Let's do Facebook. What are the first paid ads you should run?
If you're doing direct mail, cold calling, Google PPC, referral marketing—whatever—and they go to your website, put a Facebook pixel on them. The pixel tracks them to Facebook, saying, "This person was on my website." Now we can serve them relevant content and testimonials. How many of you are doing marketing you're working hard for (referrals, networking), but they get to your site and you lose them? You're not setting up remarketing/retargeting. That's the first step.
Facebook retargeting might include two to three testimonial ads, each addressing a different objection. For real estate investors, objections could include lowball offers, closing time, and trust. Use killer videos showing, "Brady bought my house and paid a fair price," addressing closing time and trust. Then, include content (blog posts or videos) addressing objections and educating people on your process.
Start here before advertising to people who don't know you. These are your highest ROI ads—low cost (maybe $50/month). Check help.carrot.com and search for "Facebook pixel." It's simpler than it sounds. Set up your Facebook ads. Most think of Facebook ads as getting someone's attention, but as consumers, we're used to seeing ads after interacting with a product (e.g., Googling Casper mattresses and then seeing Casper ads).
Exactly! When, in the first 30–60 days, should you start Facebook retargeting?
Right after launching your website. Get the pixel on immediately. Facebook needs a certain audience size to serve ads. If only five people landed on your website, Facebook won't serve ads. You need time to build that audience. Initially, lengthen the tracking time—six or twelve months—to stay in front of them. Don't make it 30 or 90 days where people drop out. If you're getting lots of traffic, great, but especially when starting, make it as long as possible. Get it in place immediately, and once you have several hundred visitors with the pixel, start ads.
PPC is different; it's higher risk, more money per lead. Your website needs to be dialed in—customization, localization, credibility, testimonials. When do I start spending money on PPC?
My rule of thumb for PPC (outside of Facebook retargeting) is: if doing *any* outbound marketing (direct mail, cold calling, driving for dollars, radio, TV), start immediately. But for your brand—most people aren't doing this! Even high-level clients (20+ deals/month) aren't advertising for their brand. If I'm your competitor, I'd bid on your company name and owner's name. I'd advertise for all that. Do it ethically—don't directly use their name, but bid on their brand name and use copy that makes people pause before working with them (e.g., "Highest-rated cash house buyer," or "455 five-star reviews"). It's cheaper than broader terms ("Sell my house fast, Roseburg, Oregon"). Google sometimes jacks up prices on those terms.
So, if I'm sending 2,000 postcards, I need a PPC campaign so I show up when people Google my name.
Valid question—aren't you cannibalizing your organic ranking? We discuss this internally at Carrot. We spend on Google PPC, and most revenue comes from brand searches. Why pay when they'd find you organically? It's valid. But it's defense; it prevents competitors from outranking you organically. You're not losing leads to the competition; it's defense.
Exactly! We've talked about when to start Facebook and get the pixel; when to do PPC?
If doing outbound marketing, start PPC for your brand name immediately. More practically, as soon as you can close leads quickly, respond to leads quickly—PPC leads need immediate responses (within minutes). If you can't do that, hold off. You'll waste ad spend. Next, have at least $5,000 to invest in Google PPC. If you have less, wait. It's like direct mail—you wouldn't do $300 and hope it works. With PPC, it's the same. People quit too early. Take your average profit per deal (or customer lifetime value), divide by four (ideal 4:1 return), and that's your marketing spend. If your average profit is $20,000, that's $5,000. If you don't have $5,000, wait. Get a deal or two, then move into it.
Make sure you have the money and time. People try it for a month and quit. It takes three to six months, minimum six months on any new channel, especially Facebook ads. Don't do it for a month or two and quit; stick with it long-term.
Even starting a new campaign, you need time for Google/Facebook algorithms to use your data. With an agency, we might spend $100,000/month across 35 clients, getting 10,000 leads. We have a master account where all data is pooled; Google finds better leads faster. If you start from scratch, it might take 90–180 days for the algorithm to learn.
Let's talk keywords for PPC—brand search, tracking, where to send traffic.
(Brady lists keywords: cash offer home buyers, companies that buy houses, we buy your home for cash, we buy houses fast, home buyers, sell my house fast, we buy ugly houses)
We'll bring data—not just theory. The keywords Brady shared are from internal campaigns—hundreds of leads. "Cash offer home buyers" got the most conversions, costing around $300/lead in this market (national could be under $100). The conversion rate was 29%. Other keywords ("companies that buy houses," etc.) were in the $200–$300 range, with conversion rates around 20–29%. Broader terms ("sell my house fast," etc.) converted lower (16%).
If we look at the customer journey, "cash offer home buyers" is in the decision phase; broader terms are in the problem-awareness phase. From a Google PPC perspective, start with brand-related keywords (company name, company name + reviews, owner's name). Then, move to solution-focused keywords ("cash home buyers," "companies that buy houses"). Then, problem-focused keywords ("sell my house," "sell my house fast"). The further left, the lower conversion, but more volume. The further right, the higher ROI, but less volume. Start on the right (highest ROI).
We mentioned Carrot at the beginning. If using PPC, track it. Campaign tracking links make it easy to see what's working.
Where to send paid traffic—homepage vs. landing page. We get this question a lot.
Think about the psychology—Facebook users are in distraction mode. You'll have a lower conversion rate (1:20, 1:30, 1:40). Google PPC users are in solution mode (1:10, 1:20). For Facebook, a landing page might perform slightly better. We tested this—hundreds of leads. Google PPC is different. Sellers are still often on desktop; buyers are mostly mobile. For sellers, a homepage might be better because they want information. Landing pages don't rank organically, and they want content. We saw higher revenue and ROI sending to a well-optimized homepage.
(Data showing homepage vs. landing page results is presented visually. The data shows that while landing pages have a higher lead conversion rate, homepages generate more deals and higher ROI, particularly for Google PPC campaigns)
The high-converting landing page example was simple—basic branding, localized photos, 800–1000 words, with navigation. The landing page had no navigation, simple, short, highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate. The homepage had a slightly lower conversion rate but higher ROI. Other variations were lower. We created that landing page in Carrot; you can use it.
Right there, that's what you wanted: the primary form. Update your content, throwing in some credibility towards the bottom of that page. Launch it live and test it; see what happens.
Nice, man. Cool. All right. Well, that wraps up that. That's some good data. I think that that's pretty much the best, most straightforward way we can answer that: homepage versus landing page. Hopefully that settles that. If there's any debate in the future, come back and watch the podcast. So we're going to dive insanely deep on that topic in the future. We're going to bring the data all the way to deal. Since we own InvestorFuse, we have that data now, and that's going to be a fun one.
Nice. All right. Well, everybody, thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you're listening to the podcast version, that's a wrap for this episode. We will see you next week. We're going to switch over to answer questions in the Facebook group. And if you're not on Facebook, yeah, join us. Community.carro.com. Get in the Facebook group and look us up on YouTube: Carrot Evergreen Marketing show. Just search for that. And yeah, come join us.
Awesome. Awesome.