10 ways to convert more reverse mortgage leads using PPC

Finding the right reverse mortgage leads is crucial for your business to bloom. Here’s how you can get more of them.

Reverse mortgages: for you they’re a home from home. But there’s no doubt that it’s an extremely competitive market to work in.

Perhaps in the past you’ve resorted to purchasing leads. But there’s a far more effective way to make sure your business has a steady and scalable stream of people enquiring about your reverse mortgage expertise.

In this article we will give you a quick introduction to the need to knows. But first…

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Perhaps you’re too busy to concentrate on generating new leads. Maybe your time is better spent elsewhere. We specialise in managing mortgage lead generation campaigns for our clients. And we get big results – such as 5.3x return on ad spend for Prime Lifetime. We could even cover your ad spend. Find out how we work or arrange a short discovery call.

“Delighted! I’ve worked with numerous firms over a long period of time in mortgages and would 100% recommend Adbetter. Their in-depth and analytical knowledge of lead generation is something that would take us millennia to master – and thankfully we have nothing like that capacity due to the consistent stream of enquiries Adbetter is generating for our business.”

– Desmond O’Hara, Principle Adviser, Prime Lifetime

What’s the best way to generate reverse mortgage leads?

Ah yes, the search for reverse mortgage leads. Some people turn to print advertising and maildrops. Others hold networking events. And some businesses buy leads from online aggregators.

But there’s one lead generation strategy that, in our opinion, beats all others.

That channel? Pay per click (PPC) digital media advertising.

Here are four reasons why we think PPC is ideal for finding high quality, high intent reverse mortgage leads.

1. It’s easy to find the right prospects

Income. Occupation. Online browsing habits. Hobbies. Geographic location. Pay per click platforms endow you with powerful tools for zeroing in on the right audience.

Obviously one of the most important selection variables for reverse mortgages is age – and it’s easy to prevent your campaigns from being served to people below the age of 55.

But that really is the tip of the iceberg in terms of specifying the type of audience that your ads are served to.

You can even feed your existing customer data into a pay per click platform and it will find a ‘lookalike audience’ that shares certain characteristics with people who have arranged reverse mortgages with you in the past.

2. Your leads are YOUR leads

Running your own PPC campaign gives you control. Lots of it. You can utilise your branding, your tone of voice and your own lead nurturing process.

Contrast that with buying leads from an aggregator, where each lead’s first exposure to your brand will be when you are trying to sell to them directly. Worse, your competitors will likely be targeting the same people, at the same time.

With your own unique leads, you can build a connected experience for each customer – nurturing them towards conversion from the moment they first engage with one of your ads.

3. PPC is super accountable

Pay per click: the clue is in the name. You only pay when someone clicks your ad. And why would someone click unless they are interested in becoming a customer?

It makes pay per click the most accountable form of marketing on the planet.

4. You don’t need a huge budget to drive meaningful results

PPC is one of those things where the more you put in, the more you get out. But by no means do you need to have won the premium bonds to get going. Even a modest spend will get results when your campaigns are executed properly.

(Too busy? Let us help.)

With most forms of advertising the breakdown of your spend is often opaque. The results are hard to quantify. But with pay per click you see clear data on how every penny is contributing to your campaign results.

It’s easy to control your budget too. Set daily, weekly or campaign-specific maximum budgets. And hit the pause to stop spending immediately.

Pay per click platforms for reverse mortgage leads

The pay per click landscape is vast – encompassing many different platforms and ad media. For reverse mortgage leads, the following platforms tend to work well:

·   Google Search (and the Google Display Network)

·   Facebook

·   Instagram

·   YouTube

Which should you choose? That depends on many factors: your budget, how quickly you want results, your audience targeting and more.

The key thing to consider is that with Google you can target people at the precise moment they are searching for reverse mortgages, which can make the cost per click high.

But with social platforms, it’s more about raising awareness of your services. You also have to be a bit smarter with your targeting to find the right people.

Reverse mortgage leads: 10 tips for effective PPC campaigns

Okay, we’ve established that pay per click is one of the best vehicles for generating reverse mortgage leads.Now, here are 10 tips for creating a pay per click campaign that gets results.

The PPC planning phase

1. Get on top of your numbers

If you want to succeed with pay per click advertising, you need good awareness of key metrics like the average lifetime value of your customers, the cost of new customer acquisition and so on.

Only then can you determine a sensible ad spend to pump into PPC to make sure your profit margins are healthy. Do the commercial calculations before you go anywhere near campaign creation. 

2. Get the balance right: lead volume vs lead quality  

Not all leads are born equal. Casting a wide net can leave you paying to target leads that have a low likelihood of conversion. It’s better to narrow the focus and think very precisely about the type of people who are likely to be considering a reverse mortgage.  

3. Remember: it’s not about you, it’s about your reader

Good advertising – including pay per click advertising – is about building a connection with the person on the receiving end of your ad. That requires empathy. The ability to put yourself in your audience’s shoes. Considering their fears, doubts, desires and ambitions.

Arranging a reverse mortgage is a huge decision. Your approach with copy and creative should respect that. Think about how you can provide reassurance and peace of mind. Tap into the reasons people consider reverse mortgages: such as family gifts, the cost of care or a happier retirement.

Words matter – and finding the right ones isn’t always easy. Take the time to get it right.

The PPC execution phase

4. Send leads to a designated landing page

With reverse mortgage lead generation, it’s crucial to think about your campaign as a whole.

Your ad – and the click it hopefully generates – is just the first step. And what happens after the first click can be the difference between winning a new customer and paying for a click that goes nowhere.

The easiest – and most obvious – option is to send your leads to the homepage of your website. But it’s almost always best to drive your audience to a designated landing page that’s specific to the ad they clicked.

It gives your audience a more joined-up experience. It enables you to make sure your messaging is highly relevant to the ad they clicked. And it’s easier to track campaign performance.  

Win, win, win.

5. Take care over your branding

Reverse mortgages involve vast sums of money. You need to make sure your brand contributes to the perception of a credible, trustworthy expert.

If your branding looks cheap and ill considered, your audience will expect the same of your service.

6. Be wary of the regulations

As you’d expect, there’s a lot of red tape regarding the promotion of reverse mortgages via pay per click advertising.

The rules are ever evolving, so it’s important to do your research. For now, here’s a micro summary of the key considerations.

·   Ad copy must be fair, clear and not misleading

·   Each ad must provide a balanced view of benefits and risks without needing to click through to the campaign landing page

·   Risk warnings must be prominent and not obscured or truncated

·   Your ad must clearly state the range of reverse mortgage products you can offer

·   Your campaign must warn that a reverse mortgage is a long-term arrangement that requires independent legal advice

7. Utilise social proof and trust signals

One of the best ways to overcome audience doubt is to showcase your industry accreditations and relevant customer testimonials. Make sure both are prominent on your campaign landing pages.

8. Demystify the process of arranging a reverse mortgage

Reverse mortgages are a leap into the unknown for most people – no matter how many mortgages they’ve had in the past. You can go a long way to overcoming barriers to conversion simply by educating people about the process of arranging a reverse mortgage with your business.

When you set people’s expectations, it’s easier for them to visualise becoming a customer.

The PPC optimisation phase

9. Experiment with ad variations

Whatever pay per click platform(s) you use to generate your reverse mortgage leads, you will have the option to submit multiple variations of each ad campaign you work up. Treat this as an opportunity to experiment with different wording, images, headlines and descriptions.

Your PPC platform will then algorithmically test different variations on a subsection of your target audience – before preferentially serving the best-performing combinations across the remainder of your campaign. That all helps to keep your reverse mortgage campaign spend lean, mean and effective.  

10. Track performance and optimise for success

The most important part of your reverse mortgage PPC campaign is the performance data it gives you. Take the time to interpret the data correctly and you can reveal the tactics and techniques that are driving the best results for your business – doubling down on the ideas that are working, ditching the ideas that aren’t.

Let us take care of it for you

Of course, performance tracking isn’t just about what’s happening with your ads, but with all onward clicks. And take it from an award-winning expert, for the really big wins you need to understand behaviour throughout your customer lifecycle.

This tracking can be difficult to set up. That’s why many brands don’t bother. But when you have the right data, you unlock the ability to optimise your campaigns to drive more leads, more conversions and more revenue. Not just now, but in the future too.

And we can help.In fact we can take care of your entire reverse mortgage PPC activity for you. If you’d like to know more about the results you can expect, get in touch to arrange a short discovery call.