The Perth real estate market has experienced significant ups and downs in recent years, hasn’t it?
Buyers are more picky than ever, interest rates are doing their thing, and real estate brokers who aren’t utilising digital marketing to its full potential are fighting a losing battle.
You are lagging behind in terms of where your customers are online if you are still relying on letterbox drops and newspapers to draw in business. Let’s make that right.
Why Digital Marketing Matters More Than Ever for Perth Real Estate
Something that may surprise you is this: 97% of prospective homeowners begin their search for a home online. Despite the value of open houses and referrals, 97% of potential homeowners begin their internet search at 11 p.m. on a night while perusing the screen of their phone or laptop.
The Perth market’s got its quirks too. We’re dealing with a geographically spread-out city where someone in Joondalup might never consider a property in Rockingham, no matter how excellent the deal is. This feature makes hyper-local targeting absolutely crucial for your marketing efforts.
The Perth Advantage You Probably Don’t Know About
Perth’s actually got some massive advantages when it comes to digital marketing that most agents never tap into. Our time zone difference means we can catch interstate investors when other agents are asleep. Plus, our mining boom cycles create unique buyer patterns that smart agents can predict and market to.
SEO: Your Foundation for Long-Term Success
Search engine optimisation isn’t just about ranking “houses for sale in Perth”—though that’s nice too. It’s about becoming the go-to resource when someone searches for anything property-related in your area.
Local SEO That Actually Works
Here’s what most agents do wrong – they are trying to rank for massive keywords like “Perth real estate”, when they should own their farm areas. For example, someone with the search term “3 bedroom house Subiaco under 800k” is much closer to purchasing than a person just looking for “Perth properties”.
Your website wants to say something to individual suburbs. Develop landing pages specific to the suburb that don’t just show properties but add value. What is Mount Lawley like for coffee? Where do Cottesloe families send their children to school? This kind of content is what builds trust and authority.
Google My Business is a valuable resource in this context. Keep it fresh with photos, reply to reviews (positive and negative) and update it regularly. When an individual does a search of “real estate agent near me” while in Fremantle, you want the first face they see to be yours.
Content That Converts Browsers into Buyers
Stop blogging “Tips for First Home Buyers”. Every agent’s doing that. Try instead pieces like “Why Joondalup Property Prices Are About to Shift” or “The Hidden Costs of Buying in South Perth’s Heritage Areas.”
This type of writing does two things: it establishes you as the local expert, and it also catches people doing research in your general areas, instead of people just searching the larger metro areas where you’re working. Better than competing against Domain and realestate.com.au for generic terms.
Google Ads: Fast-Track Your Visibility
So while SEO establishes the foundation, Google Ads can put you in front of eager buyers right away. But the thing is, most real estate agents are pissing away their money with Google ads, driving clicks to the wrong keyword at the wrong time.
Timing Is Everything in Property PPC
The Perth property market is seasonal. Beach suburbs become much more popular during the summer, while family-friendly areas see increased demand from December to February when families are looking to move before the school year begins.
You want your Google Ads to mirror these trends. You would rather not be running the same campaigns year-round (that’s just setting your money on fire).
Bidding Strategies That Don’t Break the Bank
High-competition keywords like “Perth real estate agent” can cost $15–$30 per click. It is expensive, especially if you don’t convert well from the words that they require. This trick is particularly effective for local keywords because people usually navigate online quickly and preferences will change over time.
People will drop off at a specific moment on a particular day. You can use longer-tail keywords and phrases that show intent, such as “sell my house fast, Scarborough” or “property valuation, Applecross”, and run them in parallel with the shorter-tail summer or yearly themes.
Long keywords like these cost less to bid on than the short ones but attract people who are further along in their decision-making process. Here’s a trick most agents miss: Use location-based ad extensions.
When someone in Subiaco searches for a real estate agent, your ad can show your Subiaco sales, your knowledge of Subiaco schools, and even your Subiaco client testimonials. Want to know how much digital marketing really costs in Perth?
Check out the breakdown on Slinky and see how real estate agents can use it to boost leads and listings.
Social Media That Sells Properties
Facebook continues to dominate real estate marketing in Perth, but it requires more strategic use than simply posting attractive property photos and hoping for the best.
Facebook’s Hidden Real Estate Goldmine
Facebook’s targeting options are ridiculous. You can target people based on their income, interests, life events, or even behaviours. Is there someone who has recently been browsing home loan calculators online? Facebook knows. Someone whose relationship status just changed to “engaged”? Perfect target for your first-time homebuyer campaigns.
Create custom audiences from your existing client database, then build lookalike audiences to find similar people. If your past clients typically earn $80-120k, have kids, and live in northern suburbs, Facebook can find more people with those exact characteristics.
Instagram for the Aspirational Market
Instagram’s where you showcase the lifestyle, not just the property. That oceanfront apartment in Cottesloe? Don’t just show the rooms – show the sunset views, the morning coffee on the balcony, and the weekend markets within walking distance.
Stories are particularly powerful for behind-the-scenes content. Show the inspection process, share quick market updates, or give sneak peeks of new listings before they hit the market.
Email Marketing: The Follow-Up Champion
Most agents are terrible at follow-up. Someone enquires about a property, doesn’t buy immediately, and falls into a black hole of no communication until the next listing appears.
Email automation resolves this problem beautifully.
Nurture Sequences That Keep You Top of Mind
Set up automated email sequences for different buyer types:
First-time home buyers get a series about the buying process, government grants, and suburb guides. Investment buyers get market analysis, rental yield data, and property management tips. Sellers get market updates and property preparation advice.
The key is providing value first, selling second. By the time someone’s ready to buy or sell, you’re already the trusted expert in their inbox.
Market Updates That People Actually Read
Monthly market reports are excellent, but weekly suburb spotlights are better. Choose one suburb per week and really drill down into recent sales, new developments, and local insights. People love the inside scoop on their region.
Website Design That Converts Visitors
You are probably losing money right now on your website. Harsh? Maybe. True? Probably. The vast majority of agent websites are digital brochures—they have lovely pictures and the agent’s phone number, but no indication of where to go next. Visitors touch down on your site, look around a little bit—and then head on out without reaching out.
The 3-Second Rule
You’ve got three seconds to explain who you are, where you cover, and why someone should hire you rather than one of 847 agents in Perth. If your homepage does not clearly address these three key points, you are losing prospective clients. Your unique value proposition must be absolutely unmistakable. “Perth’s #1 Agent” is not a value proposition—it’s marketing puff. “I’ve sold 127 properties in the past 2 years in Fremantle” is much more compelling.
Lead Magnets That Actually Attract Quality Leads
Quit asking for contact info in return for “more information”. That’s not valuable enough anymore. Instead, suggest something concrete “and instantly helpful”, the authors caution:
- “Subiaco 2026 – Something For Everyone”
- “The 47 Questions to Ask Before Buying in Joondalup”
- “Hidden Costs Calculator for Perth Home Buyers”
They position you as the expert and only require someone’s contact information who’s genuinely interested in your area of expertise.
Video Marketing: Show, Don’t Just Tell
Videos are where most agents drop the ball completely. They either avoid it altogether or create stiff, corporate-feeling content that nobody wants to watch.
Property Tours That Sell Stories
Sure, drone footage of a backyard looks impressive, but it doesn’t sell properties. Stories sell properties.
When filming a property tour, don’t just walk through rooms describing square footage. Tell the story of living there. “This kitchen’s where family breakfasts happen before school runs” hits differently than “This kitchen features stone benchtops and stainless steel appliances.”
Market Update Videos That Build Authority
Weekly 2-3 minute market updates work brilliantly for establishing authority. Pick recent local sales, explain what they mean for the market, and share insights only a local expert would know.
Film these casually – in your car between appointments, at a café, wherever. Polish is less important than authenticity and consistency.
KPIs That Drive Real Results
Track backwards from revenue. How many commissions do you need monthly? How many transactions does that require? How many qualified leads convert to transactions? How many website visitors become qualified leads?
Once you know these ratios, you can calculate exactly how much traffic, engagement, and ad spend you need to hit your revenue goals.
The Attribution Challenge
Someone might see your Facebook ad, visit your website, subscribe to your email list, attend your open house, and then sign with you six weeks later. Which marketing channel gets credit for that sale?
This process is why integrated campaigns work so much better than isolated tactics. Your Google Ads should reinforce your social media messaging, and this messaging should align with your email content, which in turn should match your website experience.
Common Perth Real Estate Marketing Mistakes
We wrote this post after seeing hundreds of Perth businesses in various industries make the same mistakes. And real estate agents are especially notorious for making a couple of costly mistakes every single month.
These are not tiny oopsies – these are critical mistakes that can drop a sledgehammer on your marketing ROI before you can bat an eyelash at an off-angle property shot.
- Trying to serve everyone everywhere is ineffective; you cannot be a top agent for both Scarborough surf lovers and Kalamunda families, as well as Fremantle artists. Choose your niche and own it.
- Features instead of benefits: Your subscribers do not want to hear about how you are using “cutting-edge CRM software”. They appreciate that you will return their call in two hours and keep them updated.
- Failing to consider the mobile experience: More than 70% of property searches occur on mobile. If your website is a horror on a phone, you’re losing clients before they’ve solicited your call.
- Uneven branding across platforms: Your Facebook page, website and email signatures should appear to have come from the same company. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many agents get it wrong.
The good news? These are all solvable problems with no need for a huge budget or tech wizardry. The solution does not rely on any magical thoughts or tricks.
Making It All Work Together
Digital marketing for real estate isn’t about picking one channel and hoping for the best. It’s about creating a system where each component amplifies the others.
Your SEO brings in organic traffic. Your Google Ads capture high-intent searches. Your social media builds relationships. Your email marketing nurtures those relationships. Your website converts visitors into leads.
When someone’s ready to buy or sell, your name comes up naturally because you’ve been consistently helpful and visible throughout their research process.
Getting Started Without Getting Overwhelmed
Don’t try not to do everything at the same time. Select one digital channel to focus on and ensure it is functioning effectively before incorporating another. Most agents jump onto every platform at once, do everything half-assed and then determine, “digital marketing doesn’t work for real estate.”
Start with the social media site where your prospective customers congregate. Are you targeting first-time homebuyers in their twenties? TikTok and Instagram. Are current families who are renovating their homes your target audience? Google and Facebook.
Just get one channel working and producing regular leads, then open another.
Perth’s property market rewards agents who establish themselves as local experts through regular, valuable digital content. It’s not a matter of if digital marketing works for real estate — it’s a matter of whether you start doing it the way you should before your competitors do.
Ready to quit losing money with your current ad strategy? We know the online world evolves quickly, but the idea of providing value, building relationships, and positioning yourself as the local expert has not changed.
Your next client could be the new one that found you on Google at 12 a.m. when searching Perth suburbs. Make sure they can find you.
Searching for more leads for your Perth real estate business? Please contact Slinky today, and let’s get started.
