Published , updated by XLR8 Media

Agents ask us the price before they ask anything else, and the honest answer is that Google Ads has no list price. What a campaign costs depends on the suburb: how often vendors search there, and how many other advertisers want the same searches. This article explains how Google prices an ad, what moves the price and what to ask an advertising agency. It does not publish XLR8 Media's prices, because we quote every suburb on its own search volume and competition.

How Google charges for an ad

Google Ads is an auction. Each time someone searches, Google ranks the eligible ads by a combination of the bid, the quality of the ad and the context of the search (Google's own description of Ad Rank). An advertiser pays only when someone clicks, and pays roughly what is needed to hold its position rather than its maximum bid. So the price of a click is set by the competition for that search in that place, not by a rate card.

What makes one suburb cost more than another

  • Competition. The number of agents, agencies and lead referral companies advertising for keywords like "real estate agents [suburb]" sets the price of each click. Busy inner-city suburbs are crowded auctions; many regional towns are not.
  • Search volume. A suburb where vendors search more often will cost more to cover those searches than a less searched suburb.
  • Ad quality. Google gives ads that are relevant to the search a better position for the same price. Ads written and optimised for real estate help keep the cost of a position down.
  • Who else the agency works for. An agency running campaigns for two agents in the same suburb has them chasing the same top spot. XLR8 Media works with one agent per suburb, so its clients never compete with each other.

What to ask any agency about price

  1. Is there a referral fee or commission on listings?
  2. Will you run campaigns for any other agent in my suburb?
  3. What will you report, and how often?
  4. Is renewal automatic?

XLR8 Media's answers: there is no referral fee or commission; one agent per suburb; plain-English reports on impressions, clicks, click-through rate, position on the page and calls regularly and at the end of the campaign, with extra reports on request; and renewal is never automatic.

To get a price for your suburb, send it through the suburb availability check. The reply includes availability, the Google search volume and the pricing.