Did you know that Google currently has over 271 products online?
Besides its main search engine, Google also hosts:
- YouTube
- Google Ads
- Gmail
- Google Business
- Google Alerts
- Google Maps
- Google Trends
- Several other online search, productivity, and analysis tools
If you decided to solely generate mortgage leads only using Google’s ecosystem, you’d have more than enough tools, data, and resources for a lifetime.
Here are the most important Google tools that mortgage lenders and loan officers can start using to generate more mortgage leads, ranging from free services like Google Business to paid ad accounts such as Google Ads.
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How do I get more mortgage leads from Google?
The first step to generating mortgage leads is building traffic to your mortgage conversion-optimized website.
As a mortgage lender, you’ll need to build a mortgage lead funnel — using a combination of content marketing, SEO, and paid advertising to plant content across the internet for your target audience to find and bring them to your website.
Once you start directing a decent amount of traffic to your website, you’ll be able to convert a certain percentage of those visitors into becoming new leads by optimizing your website for lead capture.
There are a million ways to drive traffic to your website, some are free (organic) and others, you pay for.
Organic traffic using content marketing
Free traffic, that you’re not paying for, generated by your mortgage website is called organic traffic.
Think of blog posts, social media posts, and email newsletters that are being clicked on by your target audience.
Every time somebody Google searches for advice on mortgages and clicks on your mortgage blog is another opportunity to convert your visitor into a new mortgage lead.
Therefore, one of the best bets for loan officers driving long-term, free traffic is to write as many blog posts as humanly possible. This is referred to as content marketing—and it works!
By writing several blogs each month related to mortgages, you’ll be able to essentially advertise your website in Google searches for free by filling it with your blog posts.
Content marketing is considered a long-term strategy because it can typically take months — or even years — for your blog posts to get shown on Google’s search engine results page (SERP).
But once your blogs start showing, they’ll continue to drive free traffic to your website for years to come!
See how good organic Google search leads can be. Start here.
Paid traffic using paid ads platforms
Paid traffic refers to paid ads, such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, or cost-per-impression (CPI) advertising.
Paid traffic works differently from blogging or content marketing in that you can put an ad at the very top of Google’s SERP within a day or two if you pay for it. No more waiting around to get to the top of Google’s search results!
Google Ads has numerous ad formats available, from basic search ads to image-based display ads.
We know that exclusive leads are the lifeblood of a mortgage lender. Let’s go more in-depth into generating exclusive mortgage leads using Google Ads.
Generate exclusive mortgage leads with Google Ads
Currently, Google has seven different ad formats available to Google Ads users.
Let’s look at the top five ad formats for mortgage lenders and mortgage loan officers to reach their target audience.
Text-based ads
Text ads are word-based only and are shown at the top of Google search results.
These types of ads are triggered and shown to users who search for the exact mortgage-related keyword or search phrase that has been bid on in the Google Ads platform.
For example, if you bid on the keywords “how much is a mortgage?” then you can expect to pay around $1 – $5 every time somebody clicks on your ad.
Of course, it all depends on the competitive market, which as you may have guessed, can be high for the mortgage industry.
Additionally, ad extensions can be added to text-based ads, such as location, click-to-call, prices, reviews, and more, to make your ad stand out from the competition.
What’s great about text-based ads is you’re not charged if your ad isn’t clicked on. In this instance, that’s known as an “impression.”
So even though you didn’t get a click, your website is still being advertised at the very top of Google’s search results.
Text-based ads target people with the highest level of search intent because the ads are only shown to people who are actively searching for mortgages.
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Responsive ads
Responsive ads can be either text-based or image-based, and they’re automatically resized and adjusted depending on which website they’re shown on.
They’re usually shown as image ads in the Google Display Network, which is a collection of over 200 million websites that monetize web traffic by showing Google Ads.
Image ads
Image ads can use JPG and PNG images, or GIFs to show across millions of websites within the Google Display Network.
They can range from square ads that sit on the sidebars of blogs, or wide banners that sit atop websites. Think of images and graphics that say something like “First-time homebuyer? Click to get a free quote!”
Image-based ads work better than text-based ads when the products being shown are flashy or more visual in nature.
While image ads are generally used to build brand awareness or buzz around physical products, they’re also useful for passively advertising to people who fit your targeted demographics, making them similar to Facebook Ads.
Video ads
Video ads are videos that can be inserted into online streaming content, such as YouTube videos, or can play before videos on news sites and other sites across the Google Display Network.
When it comes to video ads, we’ve found three different lengths that make sense:
- 15 seconds or less
- 30 seconds (traditional commercial length)
- 3 minutes long
There’s a reason Tik-Tok is so popular—if you want to capture people’s attention, keep it brief.
Call-only ads
If you want to generate phone calls directly to your business, you can set up call-only ads, which only show on mobile devices or computers capable of placing phone calls.
Call-only ads are responsive in nature so they can fit onto any mobile device to fit onto smaller screens if necessary.
Landing page tips to generate more mortgage leads
The purpose of online ads is to capture your reader’s interest and get them to click on the ad.
Once clicked, they’ll be redirected to a specific page of your website that matches your ad’s description. This is known as a “landing page” because it’s the place your reader lands.
Your landing page should be optimized for mortgage lead generation by including relevant, helpful information and several variations of contact forms to convert your visitor.
Let’s cover how to maximize your landing page’s effectiveness:
- Make your landing page load speed fast. If it takes more than a few seconds to load, your visitor will bounce.
- Make your landing page match your ad. Don’t send people to a home refinancing landing page if they clicked on a homebuying ad.
- Use simple contact forms. If the forms are too invasive, too generic, or intimidating, they’ll never get filled out.
- Make sure your landing pages are mobile-optimized since half of your readers will be viewing on their phones.
- Add a mission statement or positioning statement at the top of the page, such as “helping homebuyers” to reassure your visitor they’re on the right site.
- Include social proof, such as testimonials, and customer badges to boost your credibility and increase your odds of generating a new lead.
- Display your contact information prominently for additional credibility and trustworthiness.
- Add calls-to-action (CTAs) such as “contact us”, “download your free PDF today”, or “get a free quote” to nudge visitors to reach out to you.
Find mortgage leads through the Google Display Network
The Google Display Network is a network of over 200 million websites that monetize their web traffic by showing Google display ads.
Using a monetizing platform called Google AdSense, bloggers and websites make additional money by showing Google Ads on their website, either on the sides of the pages, top of their navigation bar or by inserting Google Ads throughout their content.
Have you ever been scrolling on a blog and seen a bunch of square image ads on the right sidebar of the page? Those are Google display ads, and the website you’re on is a Google Display Network partner.
To find leads through the Google Display Network, first, you will need to create an image-based display ad, which can be a graphic, animation, or GIF.
Next, when you’re setting up your display ad, you’ll be prompted to enter mortgage-related keywords and interests related to your ad.
For this, you’ll want to target mortgage-related keywords and mortgage-related interests, as well as demographics and location information. If there are particular websites you want your ad to show on or don’t show on, you’ll specify those as well to improve your targeting.
When this is done properly, Google will then automatically decide which sites to show your display ad on, which can run from home improvement blogs, news websites, personal finance blogs, parenting blogs, and other websites that match the interests and behaviors of your target audience.
By using Google display ads, you can reach up to 90% of all internet traffic!
And these ads are smart. They’ll target people you didn’t even think of that are great matches using its powerful machine learning algorithms.
Advertise to potential leads on the Google Search Network
Unlike the Google Display Network, which is over 200 million websites large, the Google Search Network has fewer partners and mostly shows ads across various Google search-based services such as their search engine, Google images, Google Maps, and the Maps app.
Google Search Network ads can be text-based, dynamic, responsive, and call-only ads.
When you create the standard text-based Google Ad, it will show across the Google Search Network, as opposed to across millions of Google Display Network sites, which are mainly for visual ads.
Target previous website visitors with remarketing ads
Have you ever wished you could show online ads to only the people who have visited your mortgage website and left before filling out their contact information?
Well, now you can by using remarketing ads.
Remarketing ads place a tracking cookie in your visitor’s browser so that you can show targeted ads to them in the future.
In addition to targeting new web visitors, you can set up another paid ad campaign to only show ads to your previous website visitors.
Because these visitors have already visited your website, their sense of brand recall will still be sharp, making your ads more noticeable to them. This results in a much higher click-through rate than standard ads alone.
Improve your website’s ranking on Google with search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a search engine marketing strategy that makes your website more visible in Google searches, drastically improving your traffic flow.
SEO involves leveraging and creating content on your website that closely matches the search terms and keywords your target audience is searching for. Think of blog posts and about pages on your website that repeatedly use mortgage-related words.
For example, don’t put all of the mortgage loan products you offer on one landing page. You’ll need to create an individual page on your website for each of your products, such as an FHA loan page, a conventional mortgage page, a mortgage refinance page, etc. This helps ensure that your pages are easy to find in a Google search.
The more mortgage-related words are on your website, the greater your chances are of getting seen in Google searches by people researching mortgages.
SEO is a long-term investment and commitment that takes a while to get established, but once your website’s SEO has improved, you’ll essentially generate free, exclusive leads over the long term from organic search traffic alone.
Set up Google My Business for local leads
Improve your local search and SEO by setting up a Google Business Profile.
These free accounts will place your business on Google Maps and verify your company on Google, making it twice as likely to be seen as reputable.
With a Google Profile, you can update your location’s hours, phone number, and address, and interact with your customers.
But the best part of creating a Google Business account is that it makes your website much more visible in Google searches by placing a “knowledge graph” on the right side of the screen that houses all your business’s information.
Additionally, you can add a click-to-call button, social media links, and direct traffic to your website.
Monitor mortgage leads and website traffic with Google Analytics
Use Google Analytics to analyze all the traffic coming to your website.
You’ll be able to see exactly which websites are directing the most traffic to your website so that you can double down on those campaigns, while also monitoring which ads are the least effective, so you can pause those ads.
For example, you’ll be able to see if your YouTube video ads are working or not, or if display ads are working better than text-based ads.
You can also define destination goals and track conversions so you can see exactly how many people are converting on your ad’s landing page.
Using Google Analytics, you’ll also get this important information to help you fine-tune your websites and your ad’s effectiveness:
- Website bounce rate
- Time spent on page
- Page views on website
- Traffic referral sources
- Conversions and goal completions
- Top cities and countries
- Audience interests
- Type of device your readers are using
- Number of unique visitors and returning visitors
Analyzing success and SEO with Google Search Console
Another monitoring tool is Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) which tracks your website’s SEO and keyword ranking in search results.
With Google Search Console, you can see which of your website’s keywords are gaining popularity, or losing popularity, so you can readjust your SEO and content marketing strategies to compete for more traffic.
Google Search Console is essential for keeping tabs on your competitors so you can closely monitor which keywords are driving the most traffic to your site and your competitors.
Using this information, you can adjust your content marketing or SEO strategy to focus on specific mortgage-related keywords that will attract more traffic to your site.
We’ve done the work, you benefit
If all this sounds like too much, don’t worry. That’s totally normal. Here at My Perfect Leads, we’ve done the hard work so you don’t have to. All you have to do is buy high-quality leads, which we generate from only the best sources like Google search.
Answer a few questions and we’ll see if we are a good fit to supply your mortgage company with leads.
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