Most estate agencies that start running Google Ads make the same structural mistake. They build one campaign for the whole business and expect it to generate seller instructions and tenant enquiries equally well. It rarely does, because the two enquiry types are driven by different motivations and need to be treated as separate campaigns from the outset.
Why sales and lettings behave like two different businesses
A homeowner searching for an agent to sell their property is thinking about valuation, market conditions, and who they trust to represent a significant transaction. A tenant or landlord searching for a letting agent is thinking about speed, availability, and whether a property is still on the market. These are different buying journeys with different timelines and different trust signals, and a single generic campaign structure cannot serve both well.
How the search terms diverge
- Sales: 'house valuation [town]', 'estate agents [town]', 'sell my house [town]'
- Lettings: 'properties to rent [town]', 'letting agents near me', 'landlord property management [town]'
- Investor crossover: 'buy to let properties [town]', which behaves closer to a sales search but with rental yield intent
The hyper-local competition problem
Real estate is one of the most locally competitive categories in Google Ads. Every agency operating in a town or postcode area is bidding on largely the same set of terms, which pushes cost per click higher than in most other property niches. Tight geographic targeting, agency name recognition in ad copy, and local proof points such as recent instructions or lettings in that specific area all help an ad stand out in an auction where every competitor is targeting the same searcher.
Landing pages need to match the enquiry type
A valuation-focused landing page and a lettings availability page are different products, not different sections of the same page. A seller wants to book a valuation and see recent sale prices in their area. A landlord or tenant wants to see current availability, response times, and management fees. Sending both audiences to a general contact page on the main website loses the intent that brought them there. This is part of why website design built for real estate agencies treats sales and lettings as separate conversion paths rather than one generic enquiry form.
Budget and tracking for two campaigns, not one
Splitting sales and lettings into separate campaigns means splitting budget too, and the split should follow local demand rather than an even default. An agency with a strong lettings book in a rental-heavy area may need more lettings budget, while an agency focused on high-value instructions may weight spend toward sales. As a starting point, £2,000 per month and up in combined ad spend gives both campaigns enough data to optimise properly, though the right figure depends on how competitive the local market is.
Conversion tracking should distinguish a valuation request from a rental enquiry from the first day of the campaign, not after the fact. Lumping every form submission into a single lead goal makes it impossible to see which campaign is actually working, or to hand the sales team and the lettings team accurate numbers. Separate conversion actions, separate campaigns, and separate landing pages give an agency a clear read on cost per qualified enquiry in each part of the business, which is the number that actually matters once the ads are running.
Split your sales and lettings campaigns properly.
Colonnade builds Google Ads campaigns for real estate agencies that separate sales and lettings enquiries and track each to a genuine result.