How a Property Developer Generated 45 Leads/Month with Google & Meta Ads
Project Goal
I was responsible for managing the Google Ads and Meta Ads accounts for a real estate developer in southern Germany that was marketing several new-construction housing projects. The goal was to accelerate the sale of the remaining apartments by selectively targeting potential customers, rather than focusing on brand awareness.
The campaigns targeted two groups: investors (individuals looking for profitable properties) and brokers (partners who resell the properties). The conversion goals were downloading the presentation as a first step and the contact form for those who were ready to talk.
Challenge
After reviewing the accounts, it became clear that a thorough adjustment was needed. The Performance Max campaign on Google Ads, with a daily budget of €30, was running almost unchecked: clicks were directed to brand-related searches, YouTube, and irrelevant phrases—sometimes even to apartments in New York instead of Bavaria.
In Meta Ads, optimization was focused on all website visitors for whom the pixel had been activated—a target that was too broad to generate high-quality leads. Furthermore, a significant portion of the traffic turned out to be bots: the average time spent on the website was just 2 seconds.
Project Details
Google Ads: I replaced Performance Max with classic search campaigns with ad groups clearly organized by search queries. Using my own data analysis and the target audience information provided by the client, I focused segmentation by state on those regions with a genuine interest in making a purchase.
Meta Ads: Instead of targeting all website visitors, optimization focused on specific actions: clicks on calls to action, form submissions, brochure requests (also considered leads), and calls.
To counteract bot traffic, I temporarily launched a campaign with an instant form on Facebook and Instagram as a safety measure while the main campaign was being fine-tuned. As soon as it began generating real leads again, the budget was restored; the form campaign now runs on a minimal budget, since leads from the website are of slightly higher quality.
Automation via Make populates a spreadsheet with leads; the records are manually verified to ensure their quality.
Results
Overall, through both channels, 45 leads per month were generated, with a cost per lead of about 63 euros.
- Google Ads: CPC €1.06 with a CTR of 8%, which far exceeds the industry average for search engine advertising in the real estate sector.
- Meta Ads: the CPM was €11.61 with a CTR of 1.1%.
- Combating bot traffic: the average visit duration increased from 2 seconds to 22 seconds.