For South African Estate Agencies
Google Ads
for Real Estate Agents
We run Google Ads for real estate agents with the focus on the side of the market you can actually win — homeowners thinking of selling and landlords who want a rental managed. Buyers searching “houses for sale” mostly go to the portals, and paying to chase them there is where agency budgets disappear. Custom pricing. No lock-in. You keep your own account.
Google Ads Certified · In Google Ads since 2020 · One specialist, not an account manager
Documented Client Accounts
Four client accounts our founder personally managed, two American and two South African. None of them is a real estate account, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Judge the method, then read the numbers on the results page.
What You Get
Google Ads for estate agents,
run by one specialist.
Mandates are the business, and the account is built around getting more of them. You deal with Vogien and Tumaini directly, every time.
Sellers before buyers
Valuation and “sell my house” searches get the budget first. That is where a listing starts, and where a portal can’t take the lead from you.
Rentals as their own campaign
Landlords looking for a managing agent are an annuity. They get separate ads and budget, instead of being buried under tenants looking for a flat.
Agent recruits and courses blocked
PPRA, NQF4, fidelity fund and “become an estate agent” searches are negated on day one. Your ads should find clients, not trainees.
Mandates counted, not forms
An online valuation form from someone curious about their suburb is not a mandate. We track which enquiries became appointments and listings, and tell the bidding which were which.
You own everything
Your Google Ads account, your billing, your data. Leave whenever you like and the account history stays with you.
One agency per area
We won’t take a competing agency in your suburbs. Two agencies bidding on the same valuation searches only raise each other’s costs.
Built For Estate Agents
Four kinds of property demand.
Four different campaigns.
Most agency accounts send every property search to one listings page — and pay portal-level prices for buyers who were never going to call.
01 · Where mandates start
Seller leads & valuations
Homeowners asking what their house is worth or how to sell. The highest-value search an agency can buy, built by suburb and sent to a page that books a valuation, not a search results page.
02 · The annuity
Rental management
Landlords looking for a managing agent. Monthly fees for years from one lead, kept clear of tenant searches that share the same words.
03 · Project demand
New developments
Launches and off-plan stock with a fixed pool of units and a clear buyer. Buyer campaigns make sense here, because you control the stock and the portal doesn’t.
04 · Different buyer
Commercial property
Offices, retail and industrial space. Low volume, long cycles and a business buyer, with its own keywords and a longer window before anyone judges it.
Stop Paying For These
The searches that look like
property leads and are not.
This is where most of the budget actually goes. Blocked from day one.
People who want to be agents
estate agent course · PPRA exam · NQF4 real estate · fidelity fund certificate
People who want your salary figures
estate agent salary · estate agent commission · agent jobs · intern estate agent
People the portals already own
houses for sale · property24 · flats to rent · cheap houses
People who want a free number
free valuation online · house price calculator · municipal valuation · bond calculator
Your free audit shows you exactly which of these your current account is paying for, in rands, from your own search terms report.
Worth Knowing
Why buyer traffic is
the wrong fight.
Buyer searches in South Africa are dominated by the property portals, which list everyone’s stock and outspend any single agency. An agency paying for “houses for sale” clicks is buying browsers, most of whom will enquire on several listings and belong to nobody.
The seller side works the other way. A homeowner searching for a valuation in their suburb is choosing an agent, not a house, and that choice is where commission is decided. It is also a search where local knowledge in the ad and on the page makes a real difference.
That is also why cost per lead misleads here. A mandate is worth far more than a lead suggests, so compare a seller enquiry against your commission, not against a form fill. Our checklist of the ways Google Ads wastes budget covers the tracking side of that. Conveyancing is a separate question — see Google Ads for law firms.
Pricing
Custom pricing.
Cancel any time.
Your pricing is custom. After a free audit and a conversation about your goals, we scope a management fee around how much you want to invest — separate from your ad spend, which stays in your own account, on your own card, and we never touch it. No lock-in and no notice period.
Want numbers for your business? Try the Google Ads cost calculator: it opens pre-set for real estate agents.
Questions
What estate agents ask us.
Can we compete with the property portals on Google?
Not on buyer terms, and we would not try. The portals win “houses for sale” searches because they carry everyone’s listings. Seller and valuation searches are different: the person is choosing an agent, and a local agency with a clear offer can win those auctions at a sensible price.
How long before a valuation lead becomes a mandate?
It varies, and some sellers take months. That is why we track appointments and listings rather than stopping at the form, and why the account needs a window long enough to show them before anyone decides it isn’t working.
How much should an agency spend?
Enough to cover your core suburbs properly on seller searches, rather than thinly across a whole metro. The Google Ads cost calculator gives a starting range for estate agents, and the audit narrows it to your areas.
Should we advertise individual listings?
Usually not, except for new developments where you control the stock. A single listing sells or is withdrawn before an ad has learnt anything, and buyers searching listings mostly stay on the portals.
Will you work with another agency in our area?
No. Two agencies bidding on the same valuation searches only raise each other’s costs, and only one can win.
Are we locked in?
No. Month to month, cancel any time, and the account stays yours with all its data.
Related Trades
Other trades we build campaigns for.
Google Ads for lawyers & law firms
Built one practice area at a time, with free-advice and legal-aid traffic blocked.
Google Ads for removal companies
Local, long-distance, office and storage moves, with bargain hunters and box shoppers removed.
Google Ads for architects
New homes, alterations, plan approvals and commercial work, with students and free-plan hunters blocked.
Areas we cover include George, Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Gqeberha, Bloemfontein, East London, Kimberley. See every area or every industry.
Free Audit
Find out how much of your
budget chases buyers.
Send your details and Vogien will go through your Google Ads for real estate personally — how much went to buyers and portal searches, how much to agent-course traffic, and whether seller and valuation searches are getting the budget they should. Straight answer either way, or get in touch another way.
Request your free audit
For estate agencies specifically.