Combining search and paid channels to market new projects

Frame the growth challenge

Launching a new property development is a race against the clock. You need fast awareness, qualified enquiries, and proof of demand before the showhome opens. Competition is fierce, timelines are tight, and the majority of leads will never convert if you miss the intent window. This guide lays out a pragmatic property marketing strategy that blends SEO and paid search to create demand early, capture it at launch, and convert it into reservations and appointments for sales.

Why SEO and Paid Ads are essential

Search is where buyers reveal intent: by location, price band, tenure, and amenities. SEO builds a durable demand engine that compounds over time, while PPC lets you win high-intent queries from day one, build remarketing pools, and test messages before creative and collateral are finalized. Together, they surface your scheme whenever prospects look for new build homes, drive off-plan advertising at a controllable cost per lead, and deliver the data your real estate growth marketing decisions depend on.

What you will learn

In this guide you will learn a launch strategy for new developments, a landing page structure built for conversions, how to use geo-targeting and remarketing, how to balance awareness versus lead-generation ads, and how to measure pre-launch performance so you can forecast reservations and optimize spend.

Industry Overview

New build schemes are sold across three stages: pre-launch, launch, and post-launch. Digital maturity is mixed; many developers still rely on portals and signage while top performers dominate local search, run tightly segmented PPC, and nurture leads with content and automation. Demand signals are highly localized: searches like new build apartments in [city], off-plan homes [neighborhood], and 2 bed new build with parking spike around planning approvals and PR moments. Typical search interest for location-modified new build terms in tier-one cities can reach thousands of monthly searches, while suburban micro-markets may see hundreds. Buyers compare across multiple developments, revisit listings several times, and often need 2 to 8 touchpoints before booking an appointment. Privacy changes make first-party data (forms, brochure downloads, call tracking) critical. The winners structure campaigns by geo, intent, and stage of the funnel, then connect the dots between media, website behavior, CRM, and sales outcomes.

Common Challenges

• Low early awareness: Without pre-launch search visibility, rivals and portals capture intent first.
• Poor landing experiences: Generic pages, slow load times, and weak proof kill conversion rates.
• Untargeted spend: Broad geo and keywords drive clicks from renters or out-of-budget buyers.
• Leads without quality control: No scoring or qualification wastes sales time and media budget.
• Disconnected tracking: Offline calls and appointments are not tied back to keywords or ads.

Strategy

Anchor your property marketing strategy on intent, locality, and proof. Build a two-engine system: SEO to earn lasting visibility on high-intent pages, and PPC to capture demand, test propositions, and feed remarketing quickly. For off-plan advertising, show certainty and credibility early: planning status, developer pedigree, guarantees, and a clear path to visit or reserve.

Landing page structure for conversions

• Above the fold: Scheme name, neighborhood hook, hero imagery, price range, tenure, and 1 clear CTA (Book a viewing or Download brochure). Add a secondary CTA (Register interest) for pre-launch.
• Proof and trust: Awards, warranty logos, developer track record, completion timeline, FAQs on financing and reservation.
• Product clarity: Unit mix, indicative floor plans, finish specifications, parking and amenity list, energy ratings, service charge estimates.
• Local lifestyle: Walk times to transport, schools, parks, cafes; embed a static or interactive map.
• Social proof: Early testimonials from past schemes, press mentions, construction updates.
• Conversion modules: Sticky CTA bar, short form (name, email, phone, budget, time to move), call extension, brochure download gate, calendar widget for appointments, and live chat or WhatsApp.
• Speed and UX: Sub-2.5s load on mobile, compressed images, schema markup for Organization and Place, tracking for each micro-conversion (brochure, plan view, click-to-call, video view).

SEO for new developments

• Core pages: Development homepage, unit type pages (1-bed, 2-bed), location guides (neighborhood, transport), and financing options.
• Local intent: Optimize titles and H2s for new build, off-plan, apartments or houses, plus the neighborhood and city. Add FAQ schema to capture long-tail questions.
• Content sprints: Pre-launch blog posts on construction updates, design previews, and local area guides. Use these for email and remarketing.
• Internal links and portals: Link from corporate and past scheme pages. Maintain NAP consistency, add listings in business profiles and mapping services to anchor location.

PPC and paid social for intent capture

• Search structure: Segment by brand, competitor, generic new build terms, and location-modified keywords. Use exact and phrase match with tight negatives (rent, student, council lists) to maintain quality.
• Geo-targeting: Radius targeting around the site (3 to 10 miles), commuter zones, and feeder cities. Layer household income or in-market real estate segments where policy allows, and exclude irrelevant regions.
• Ad creative: Emphasize move-in dates, price bands, unique amenities, and commute times. Lead extensions and callouts for incentives (legal fees contribution, furniture packs) if available.
• Discovery and social: Run awareness in a 10 to 20 mile radius with short videos and carousels. Use lead forms for soft registration and drive traffic to content for remarketing audiences.

Remarketing and sequencing

• Stage 1: Visitors who read location pages see lifestyle creatives and construction updates.
• Stage 2: Floor plan viewers receive unit-specific ads and appointment CTAs.
• Stage 3: Form starters and brochure downloaders get urgency messaging: limited unit releases, price changes, and viewing slots.
• CRM sync: Upload warm leads, exclude recent bookers, and create lookalikes to broaden reach efficiently.

Balancing awareness vs. lead ads

In pre-launch, lean 60 percent awareness, 40 percent lead capture to build quality audiences and email lists; at launch, invert to 30 percent awareness, 70 percent lead generation with search-first budget. Continually test whether lead forms on-platform or on-site forms deliver better qualified prospects by measuring appointment rates and reservation progression, not just cost per lead.

Measuring pre-launch performance

• Micro-conversions: Brochure downloads, plan views, time on key sections, call clicks, and calendar starts.
• Lead quality: Completion rate on enriched forms (budget, timeframe), call connection rate, and appointment booked rate.
• Forecasting: Use visit-to-lead and lead-to-appointment ratios to project qualified appointment volumes required for your sales targets and adjust media mix accordingly.

90-Day Growth Roadmap

Month 1: Foundation and pre-launch demand

• Build: Launch fast, SEO-ready landing pages with the conversion modules above; implement analytics, enhanced conversions, call tracking, and CRM integration.
• SEO sprint: Publish development page, 2 location guides, and a financing FAQ. Add schema and compress assets.
• PPC go-live: Branded and generic location-modified search campaigns; radius and feeder-market targeting; negatives list. Start with conservative bids to learn CPC and query quality.
• Awareness: Run short video and image ads highlighting location and amenities to build remarketing pools and drive registrations.
• Data: Define MQL criteria with sales (budget fit, move timeline). Create dashboards for CPL, MQL rate, and appointment rate.

Month 2: Launch and scale what converts

• Expand SEO: Add unit-type pages and a construction update post. Interlink across pages and add internal CTAs.
• Scale PPC: Add competitor and amenity-based ad groups (near station, parking, gym). Test responsive ad copy and sitelinks for floor plans and pricing.
• Conversion rate optimization: A/B test hero headlines, CTA copy, and form fields. Implement sticky bar and appointment scheduler if not live.
• Remarketing: Sequence ads by page depth; use countdowns for launch events or price releases. Exclude recent converters.
• Budget shift: Move spend toward best-performing geos and keywords based on MQL and appointment data, not click metrics alone.

Month 3: Optimize to sales outcomes

• Attribution: Feed appointment and reservation outcomes back to campaigns via offline conversion import. Adjust bids by keyword ROI.
• Content to close gaps: Publish comparison content versus nearby schemes and transport-focused articles to win undecided searchers.
• Lead quality controls: Tighten targeting, expand negatives, and introduce qualification questions on forms if appointment rate is below target.
• Scale winners: Increase budgets on ad groups with lowest cost per appointment and highest reservation progression. Cap frequency on awareness placements.
• Forecast and plan: Project reservation pace versus release schedule and decide on incentive-specific creatives if absorption slows.

KPIs and Benchmarks

• CPC (search, location-modified new build terms): typically mid to high single digits to low teens; monitor by geo.
• CTR (search): 6 to 12 percent on tightly matched queries; lower on broad generic terms.
• Landing page conversion rate: 5 to 12 percent for on-site forms; 10 to 20 percent for on-platform lead forms depending on qualification friction.
• CPL and cost per MQL: Anchor to appointment rate; CPL can vary widely, so judge by cost per qualified appointment.
• Appointment booked rate: 25 to 45 percent of MQLs with strong follow-up and calendar tools.
• Lead-to-reservation: Often 3 to 10 percent depending on price band and market; track by channel.

Real-World Example / Case Insight

What a winning campaign might look like: A 150-unit off-plan scheme targets buyers within 8 miles and two major feeder towns. Month 1 runs a 60k impressions awareness burst and tightly matched search. CPC averages 2.80 on brand and 6.90 on generic location-modified queries. The landing page converts 8.5 percent of paid traffic and 5.2 percent of organic. In the first 30 days, 420 leads are generated at 42 CPL; 58 percent meet MQL criteria. Month 2 adds unit-type pages and amenity keywords, improving Quality Scores and dropping CPC by 12 percent. Remarketing hits floor plan viewers with book a viewing CTAs, lifting conversion to 10.3 percent. Appointments reach 110, with a 34 percent appointment rate from MQLs. By week 9, 18 reservations are recorded; offline conversion import shows generic new build [city] terms producing the highest reservation rate at a cost per reservation of 890, while certain broad terms are paused. Month 3 shifts 25 percent more budget into the top three ad groups and introduces comparison content against two nearby schemes. Final 90-day tally: 1,350 leads, 720 MQLs, 260 appointments, and 42 reservations, with a blended cost per reservation under 1,100. The team uses these insights to plan the next phase release and adjust pricing on slower-moving unit types.

Next Steps / CTA

If you want a tailored property marketing strategy that aligns SEO, off-plan advertising, and real estate growth marketing with your sales targets, we can help map the funnel, launch fast, and optimize to reservations. Need a tailored growth plan? Get in touch.