Google Ads for Real Estate — buy owner leads instead of bidding against portals

Typical project flow with a real estate company

6 months until Smart Bidding cleanly optimizes for mandate revenue — then linear scaling.

1. search

   Phase 1 — Market & funnel audit

   Month 1

   Commission analysis per postal code, mandate-mix review, competitive audit (which portals & competitors bid on what), keyword research split between owner and buyer funnel, negative keyword strategy.

2. code

   Phase 2 — Tracking & landing page setup

   Month 1–2

   CRM integration for offline conversions, stage definition (valuation → appointment → mandate → sale), conversion value model per postal code and property type, valuation tool as landing page, GA4 and Google Ads cleanly wired.

3. document

   Phase 3 — Campaign launch & learning phase

   Month 2–4

   Owner campaigns on Exact + Phrase, buyer campaigns only in prime locations, Performance Max segmented regionally, manual CPC bidding until 30 conversions per month are reached, then switch to Smart Bidding (Maximize Conversion Value).

4. sparkles

   Phase 4 — Scale & run seasonality

   From month 4

   Budget curves aligned with market seasonality, monthly reporting with CPA per signed mandate, continuous negative-list maintenance, A/B testing on the valuation landing page, expansion into further postal codes once ROAS is stable.

Frequently asked questions from real estate companies

Does Google Ads make sense when portals like ImmoScout24 dominate everything?

On pure buyer keywords (e.g. 'apartment for sale city') yes, you compete against portals with multi-million budgets — a losing game. The lever is owner acquisition: 'sell house + city', 'free property valuation', 'market value estimate'. CPCs there are 6–15 EUR, but a signed selling mandate brings 8,000–25,000 EUR in commission. We build buyer visibility through organic SEO and concentrate the ads budget on the owner funnel.

How do you measure conversions down to the actual sale?

We track lead stages via offline conversions: valuation requested → appointment booked → mandate signed → sale closed. Each stage gets its own conversion value in Google Ads, and the final sale is fed back via offline conversion import (CSV or API from your CRM). Smart Bidding then optimizes not for valuation form submissions, but for actual commission revenue.

Can we cleanly separate owner and buyer campaigns?

Mandatory, not optional. We build separate campaign structures with their own match types, ad copy, landing pages and budgets. Owner campaigns run on Exact and Phrase Match with extensive negative keyword lists ('rent', 'looking for', 'no commission'), buyer campaigns only in prime locations or for new-build projects. This prevents Smart Bidding from blending two completely different lead values.

What does an owner lead realistically cost?

In mid-sized and major cities 80–250 EUR per qualified valuation lead, in B and C locations 40–120 EUR. From those, typically 8–18% become signed mandates depending on follow-up quality. Expect 600–1,800 EUR CPA per actually won selling mandate — at a 3.5% commission on a 500,000 EUR sale that is a ROAS of 10–30x.

How do you handle seasonality? December is dead.

We run budget curves matched to market reality: spring (March–May) and early autumn (September–October) at 130–150% of standard budget, summer dip at 70%, December and January at 30–40%. Smart Bidding receives seasonal adjustments via Google Ads Seasonality Adjustments so it does not overreact to budget jumps. Paused campaigns retain their learning history.

How do you handle commission disclosure and German MaBV regulations in ads?

We do not put specific commission percentages into ad copy (competitive risk and since the 2020 commission-sharing reform regulatorily sensitive anyway). Instead of 'Only 3% commission' we use 'Fair & transparent' — exact terms only after a valuation lead in the personal conversation. Ad extensions with trust signals (association, reviews, local presence) instead of price claims.