The Unseen Potential of Google Ads for Reverse Mortgages

In the digital era, Google stands as a colossal hub of information, where millions of queries are entered into its search bar every day. 

Among these queries are countless individuals in their golden years or approaching retirement, earnestly seeking financial stability and security. 

They are exploring avenues to maintain their lifestyle, cover medical expenses, or simply enjoy the peace of mind that comes with financial freedom. Herein lies a vast, yet often untapped audience, actively searching for the financial solutions that reverse mortgages can uniquely provide.

This is the unseen potential of Google Ads for reverse mortgages. 

It's not merely about visibility—it's about connecting with people who are actively searching for reverse mortgage information. These searchers are pre-qualified, warm leads. We know they are interested in your products or services because they had to type in reverse mortgage search terms.

But do Google Ads work for reverse mortgages?

Yes, they do - here’s an example.

Success Case Example

The example campaign below targets multiple states and directs traffic to a specially designed landing page we created. Daily conversions, represented by a red line in the chart, include phone calls and form submissions.

The Google Ads campaign strategy we utilized was a Search campaign and a Performance Max campaign. I go into more details below about both campaign types. 

However, we did find that the Performance Max (aka, Pmax) campaign in this example also drove conversions for people interested in forward mortgages. This is one of the challenges with Pmax campaigns - you lose a bit of control compared to keyword-focused Search campaigns. 

Your cost per conversion will likely vary somewhere between $50 - $150 per conversion depending on your market, competition, and other factors, including but not limited to interest rates. 

And your conversion rates (how many people take action on your site) will likely vary between 2% - 10% depending on how focused the campaign is, and the success of your landing page, among other variables. 

How To Set Up Winning Campaigns 

Step one: Landing Pages

It’s crucial to create a custom landing page for the Google Ads traffic for the following reasons:

You can read more about aligning landing pages with Google ads here.

Core Components of a Successful Landing Page

Step two: Google Ads Campaign Strategy

There are two core campaigns that we use that drive results - Search and Performance Max campaigns. Sometimes, we run them simultaneously, and sometimes, we run Search only. Below, I go into more detail about considerations for running both or just one. 

How Do Search Campaigns Work?

Let’s use a fishing analogy.

Your Fishing Gear

How the Fishing Works

Why This is Smart Fishing

What is a Performance Max campaign:

Think of a Google Ads Performance Max campaign as an "all-terrain marketing vehicle" compared to the precision fishing rod of a Search campaign. Performance Max show ads across all of Google's available inventory.

Here's the breakdown:

How Performance Max DIFFERS from a Search campaign:

So Which Campaign Should You Use?

Every market is unique, and the key to finding the right campaign lies in testing for your specific situation. This approach allows you to tailor your strategy to your market's needs, ensuring the best possible results. 

Running both Search and Pmax campaigns in tandem can be a powerful strategy. This approach combines the control and specificity of keywords in Search with the broader reach and machine learning leverage of Pmax, giving you a comprehensive marketing approach. 

The cost per conversion with Pmax is quite a bit lower compared to Search because Pmax has access to a more extensive and diverse ad inventory.

However, with Pmax, keep in mind that you will get mixed conversions with some leads searching for forward mortgages or other mortgage companies rather than reverse mortgages.  

Your Digital Plumbing Is Essential to Success

Critical to your campaign success is setting up your digital plumbing. 

It’s essential to capture the conversion actions on your landing page and then pass that information back to Google Ads to act on. You want to know when someone clicks-to-call or submits a form. Without these data, Google Ads is flying blind, and your campaign performance will be lower. 

Your digital plumbing is set up using Google Ads, Google Tag Manager, and possibly Google Analytics (GA4). You can read more details about this here (https://www.39celsius.com/unlock-the-maximum-profit-potential-hidden-inside-your-google-facebook-campaigns/). This step is best left to an experienced digital marketer. 

Setting Google Ad Budgets - What's Ideal?

Arriving at an ideal budget depends on a couple of factors. Every market has a cost to acquire a customer and it's this cost we used to back into an ad spend that aligns with your goals. 

Arriving at a budget based on your new customer goals

You can back into your spending based on how many new customers you want.

Based on the cost per conversion estimate and your conversion rate from lead to customer, you can arrive at an approximate monthly spend to achieve your goal. 

Let's look at an example - suppose your goal was ten new customers per month. This is how that might break down to arrive at a budget:

Budget Variables

Cost per Conversion Variable

For the cost per conversion, I am basing that number on the ranges we see across many different campaigns. The range is from $50 to $150 and depends on many variables. You can play around with different numbers to get a budget range.

Conversion Rate from Lead to Customer

Now, your conversion rate from a lead to an actual customer is a unique number based on your sales process and sales skills, not the campaign - this can vary greatly, so estimate different closing percentages based on your own personal historical number. 

So, based on this example cost-per-conversion value of $70 and your lead-to-customer conversion rate of 30%, you need to budget approximately $2,300 per month in ad spend to achieve ten new customers. 

Your Next Steps

The time is now to harness the power of Google Ads to reach this unique and motivated audience. Don't miss out on connecting with those actively seeking the benefits reverse mortgages offer. Remember, leads from Google are pre-qualified, warm leads - we just need to get them to take action.

Let's discuss how we can design a customized and results-driven Google Ads strategy tailored to your business goals. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation and see how we can transform those searches into successful closings.