Better To Increase Direct Mail Or Adword Budgets?

[Nick Zocher]

I am at a point where I can increase my marketing budget by about $1,000/mo.

I can either begin another direct mail campaign to a new type of list (OOS Absentee, etc) or put the money towards a far more agressive Google AdWords campaign than my current one.

Based on your experiences, where do you see bigger lifts?

[Justin Silverio]

I'm a big proponent of direct mail but for it to be very effective, you need to start with a good list.  In my opinion, an OOS absentee list is not a good list.  The reason is that everyone is mailing to them.  However, if you put together a quality list (i.e., driving for dollars, tax liens, small niche lists, etc.) then I would recommend DM over google Adwords.

I'm not sure if you have experience with Google Adwords but it takes some know how to accurately identify good keywords, figure out a PPC amount, and then manage the account so you are putting money into the right keywords and off of the keywords that are not performing.  If you don't have this skill, then you have to pay someone to create and manage Adwords, which means you are not spending money on actual marketing.  With DM, it would require more upfront time than money and the full $1,000 could go toward marketing.  Also, if you focus on sending out unique looking mailers (not the mailers everyone else is using), then you will have a higher likelihood of success.  Also, I've been buying a lot of properties from older people who don't go online much.  Therefore, I wouldn't have purchased the homes if I solely did Google Adwords.

I hope this helps.