I have been advertising and market in print and online for 15 years. I have seen many types of advertising and been to the seminars.  I've read the books on horizontal vs. vertical advertising, but the question always comes up.  Is it productive and is the ROI (return on investment) better than any other campaign.
I made a switch on my website after four years and have a new flavor, site works good is easier to update, and I must say I look good.  Take peak, www.leerealtyalaska.com,the site is not real sticky but it is better than my old site of 4 years.  I did notice that I am getting less people to the site, but they look at more pages.  This is good.  The site definitely provides me with more basic leads, although still hard to convert.  Therefore, I drip on them forever. Hope the like it, not many cancel.
Now I am looking at PPC (pay per click),my website already has a great natural placement.  I started by submitting to the Open Directory Project and then make sure my tags and descriptions are good.  The PPC angle is a consideration do to our local rag charging so much money for simple line ads.  I want any amount of info and I am at $75+for a day and a short two or three line of ad is the same over a couple of days.  Add $10 to link it to their website and then it gets lost or the lead harvested and sent to someone else.
I am trying PPC and looking at it in two different lights.  I am going to run a simple campaign linking to my site, to the home page with one ad and to the CMA section with another.  I am also considering specific home PPC ads that link to the homes info on the site.  I believe this is a fancy line ad in the now new media online.  The newspaper just doesn't seem to get it.  Homes and Land, as well as the Real Estate Book do a much better job but still do not deliver a big bang for the buck.  Back to the ROI.
I have started with Google Adwords and am looking at the MSN site, Yahoo was difficult to get information, and with their certain demise in a couple of years I think that Google is the best place.  Heck Google had better advertising links on Yahoo then Yahoo did, that says something.  I also liked the tracking system at Google, and I did not have to pay someone $300 a month to write a 70 character ad, by the way if anyone would like to have me write a 70 character ad for them, I only charge $250, give me a call 907-360-7471.
Please comment on what PPC campaigns have worked for you, please which did not work, but only comment on the ones that didn't work if you actually worked the leads.  I don't want to hear the story how you paid the money and got these hits but never called the people back.  I've heard this story too many times from the Realtors here locally.
Thank you,
Eric Bushnell, Realtor
Associate Broker
Sales Manager
Prudential Jack White/Vista Real Estate of Eagle River