It’s no secret that remortgages represent a profitable opportunity for mortgage brokers - they are quicker to process and generally present fewer challenges, resulting in less hassle and quicker procurement fees. What seems more of a secret, however, is how to go about generating more remortgage leads in a cost-effective way.
Google Ads is a powerful tool that can be used to great effect for mortgage brokers looking to increase their remortgage enquiries. But, as with any other form of marketing, it’s vital to target your efforts in the right way if you want to see a good return on investment. With the right approach to Google Ads, you can tap into a virtually unlimited source of remortgage enquiries - all without breaking the bank.
If you're a mortgage broker wanting to improve the performance of your Google Ads campaigns - either in terms of reducing cost per lead and/or shifting your mix of enquiries more towards remortgages than purchases - then read on. This blog post will show you how to use demographic targeting in Google Ads to get more remortgage leads.
The Challenges of Keyword Targeting
If you are already using Google Ads as part of your marketing strategy, and focusing purely on remortgages, you will no doubt be aware of the challenges in targeting the right audience. Here are a couple of the most common:
• Those remortgage-related keywords are also highly competitive, and you can easily find yourself outbid by your rivals.
• People who are looking to remortgage may not always use specific remortgage search terms when searching on Google. Instead, they’ll use more general search terms such as ‘mortgage broker’ or ‘mortgages for self-employed’. By targeting only remortgage-related keywords with your Google Ads, you could therefore be missing out on a large number of potential leads.
So how do you go about maximising the number of remortgage leads you get from Google Ads without facing these frustrations?
A More Logical and Cost-effective Approach: Age Targeting
One of the best ways to get around these common challenges is using demographic targeting. It’s an approach that allows you to target your Google Ads at specific groups of people based on their age, gender, and other personal characteristics and, as such, reduces wasted budget by showing your ads only to those people who are most likely to convert into clients.
When it comes specifically to remortgages, age-targeting in particular can be used as an extremely effective tool to increase the number of enquiries you receive and/or lower your cost per lead. It allows you to focus your ads on a specific age group that is more likely to be interested in remortgaging.
A recent article published by the Guardian states that, according to a Halifax report, the average UK first-time buyer is now older than 30. Using this information can help focus your efforts and ensure that you are not wasting valuable advertising budget.
How? Well, it’s clear from this report that targeting people below the age of, say, 35 with your Google Ads is likely to be fruitless if you’re looking for remortgage leads. So you can use the age-targeting options in Google Ads to ensure that people in the 18-24 and 25-34 age bands don’t see your ads.
And if you’re bidding on the type of keywords we mentioned earlier that aren’t remortgage-specific – ‘mortgage broker’, ‘mortgages for self-employed’, etc – then you can increase the chances of getting found by people who want a remortgage if you adjust your Google Ads age targeting.
This is a much more logical targeting strategy for getting remortgage leads. It’s likely to yield better results in a more cost-effective way without bidding on those more expensive remortgage keywords.
Of course, when it comes to deciding what works best, testing is always key - so it’s important to try different age ranges to determine the most effective strategy for your particular business.
Google Ads vs Facebook Ads
It’s worth noting for those of you already using (or considering using) Facebook Ads, that while demographic targeting is possible in Facebook, age-targeting is not an option available to mortgage brokers.
Advertising for anything housing/mortgage related falls under Facebook’s special categories. Restrictions for these categories mean that ad targeting cannot be based on any personal characteristics such as age, gender, or religion.
This is a major drawback when compared to the flexibility of Google Ads. Facebook’s targeting options are far more limited, so if you’re looking specifically for remortgage leads, then Google Ads are most definitely your best bet.
Google Ads Age Targeting Restrictions for Mortgages
While Google Ads currently offer all UK advertisers the ability to target by age with no category restrictions, it may only be a matter of time before this changes. In the USA and Canada, Google has recently adopted a similar policy to the Facebook restrictions we mentioned earlier, in which age-targeting isn’t available for any housing/mortgage related advertising.
These restrictions don't apply to Google Ads in the UK at the moment, and we shouldn’t assume that Google will follow suit with updates to its UK advertising policies. It’s helpful to be aware that this may be a possibility in the future though - and if you're planning to generate remortgage leads using demographic targeting, now is definitely the time to leverage this strategy before any new restrictions come into place.
This, of course, also highlights the importance of making sure you’re always keeping up to date with any developments and policy changes in Google Ads so you can adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.
Conclusion
The benefits for mortgage brokers of using demographic targeting in Google Ads are clear. By understanding who your potential customers are and focusing on a specific age group, you can generate a higher number of more relevant leads, vastly improve the performance of your Google Ad campaigns, and ensure a better ROI on your advertising spend.
Hopefully, this article has helped you to understand why demographic targeting is such an effective tool for mortgage brokers who are using Google Ads. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch or post your comments below!
