SEM for Business Brokers

Google Ads for Business Brokers

An owner who types sell my business has been thinking about it for months. Google Ads puts your brokerage in front of that owner today. We split seller and buyer intent and report cost per qualified seller inquiry, not per click.

For owner-led brokerages that want seller inquiries this quarter, with spend tracked to each inquiry and nothing spent on job seekers or broker software searches.

Get a Free Audit arrow_forward All Business Brokers services

Why seller and buyer campaigns must stay apart

Context from how your customers search, compare and book.

Seller searches and buyer searches look alike to an untrained campaign. Sell my business and businesses for sale share most of their words, and a broad match campaign will happily spend the seller budget on buyers, on people looking for a business broker job and on owners searching for broker software. Two campaigns with their own budgets, their own ads and their own landing pages keep the spend where the mandates are.

The seller ad has to be careful. It cannot promise a sale price, a multiple or a timeline, and it should not describe any outcome as certain. What it can say is that the brokerage sells businesses of a certain size in a certain region, that the first call is confidential and that the fee schedule is on the site. That honesty is what an owner is looking for.

The landing page does the real work. An owner who clicks a seller ad wants to know what the business might be worth, how the process runs and who they will be speaking to. The page answers those questions and ends with a short confidential form that asks for an industry and a revenue band, never the business name. The call button and the form are tracked as separate conversions.

Exclusions matter as much as keywords. Jobs, careers, salary, franchise, course, certification, software, CRM and real-estate agent searches are excluded from day one, and the search term report adds more each week. The principal sees every search term that spent money, which is the only honest way to run a campaign in a niche with no published cost per click.

Who this Google Ads service suits

groups Customer segments

  • person Principals with capacity for new mandates this quarter
  • person Brokerages that have tried a generic agency and seen spend go to job and franchise clicks
  • person Firms entering a new metro area where the referral network is thin
  • person Brokerages with a buyer list that want seller campaigns funded separately

psychology What drives their decision

  • check_circle Seller and buyer campaigns with separate budgets and landing pages
  • check_circle Exclusions for jobs, franchises, courses, software and real-estate searches from day one
  • check_circle Ads that describe what the brokerage does without promising a sale price
  • check_circle Cost per qualified seller inquiry

How we deliver SEM

A clear, repeatable process built around how business brokers customers search and decide.

Marketing team planning paid search campaign structure on laptops. Photo by fauxels on Pexels
1

Account and tracking audit

We review any existing campaigns, search terms and conversion setup, confirm that calls and forms record correctly and agree the deal size range, the states where the principal is licensed and the industries you want to see.

Charts and graphs used for keyword performance and bidding decisions. Photo by Lukas Blazek on Pexels
2

Campaign structure

Seller campaigns for sell my business, how much is my business worth and business broker near me, buyer campaigns for businesses for sale, and a brand campaign for referred owners. Each has its own budget, ads and landing page, with location targeting limited to where the principal can act.

Person researching ad messaging on a laptop. Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels
3

Ads and landing pages

Ads state the size of business you sell, the region you serve and that the first call is confidential. Landing pages answer the valuation, process and fee questions and end with a short confidential form. Nothing promises a sale price, a multiple or a timeline.

Landing page wireframe sketches next to a smartphone. Photo by picjumbo.com on Pexels
4

Exclusions and search term review

Jobs, careers, salary, franchise, course, certification, software, CRM and real-estate agent terms are excluded before launch. Every week we read the search term report and add exclusions so spend follows seller intent.

Team reviewing conversion and attribution metrics together. Photo by fauxels on Pexels
5

Monthly reporting

Each month you see seller inquiries, buyer inquiries and cost per qualified seller inquiry by campaign, with the search terms that produced them. Where your CRM records engagements signed, those are linked back so the report shows mandates rather than clicks.

query_stats

What Business Brokers SEM includes

Reach people who are ready to book on Google, without paying for clicks that never turn into customers

  • check_circle Seller, buyer and brand campaign build
  • check_circle Seller landing page with confidential form
  • check_circle Exclusion lists and weekly search term review
  • check_circle Call and form conversion tracking
  • check_circle Monthly cost per qualified seller inquiry report
Laptop, notebook and printed charts on a white desk. Photo by Hanna Pad on Pexels

What you can expect

  • verified Seller inquiries from owners who searched for help selling, not from job seekers or franchise shoppers
  • verified Seller and buyer spend reported separately, so you know what each costs
  • verified Ads that describe your brokerage honestly, without a promised sale price or timeline
  • verified Every search term that spent money visible to the principal each month
  • verified A landing page that answers the valuation, process and fee questions before the call
  • verified Inquiries tagged by campaign and search term, linked to engagements where your CRM records them
Learn about HeyLead SEM arrow_forward

Deliverables you receive

inventory_2 Seller, buyer and brand campaigns with separate budgets and landing pages
inventory_2 Ad copy that describes deal size, region and confidentiality without promising an outcome
inventory_2 A seller landing page with valuation, process and fee answers and a short confidential form
inventory_2 Exclusion lists for jobs, franchises, courses, software and real-estate searches
inventory_2 Call and form conversion tracking with inquiry quality notes
inventory_2 Monthly report on cost per qualified seller inquiry in USD

Technical approach

The mechanics behind SEM for business brokers, explained plainly.

Marketing team planning paid search campaign structure on laptops. Photo by fauxels on Pexels

Conversion tracking

Calls over a set length and form submissions are recorded as separate conversions, tagged with campaign and search term. Where your CRM records engagements, those are linked back without any seller detail leaving the brokerage.

Charts and graphs used for keyword performance and bidding decisions. Photo by Lukas Blazek on Pexels

Location and schedule

Campaigns target the metro areas and states where the principal is licensed to broker a business and run heavier in the evening and at weekends, when owners do this research. States where the principal cannot act are excluded.

Person researching ad messaging on a laptop. Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels

Landing page speed

The seller landing page is built to load fast on a phone, with the call button and the short form as large tap targets, so an owner who clicks at eleven at night can reach you before the thought passes.

Marketing from $500 USD a month

Month to month, no commitment. One fee covers the pages, the search and ad work and the tracking. Ad spend is separate and stays in your own accounts.

Starting at

$500 USD per month

Free to cancel with 1 month's notice. Tell us what you sell and where. We come back with what the first month would fix.

Get a Free Audit

What $500 a month covers

  • Pages

    Included

    Pages built around the searches your buyers actually type.

  • Search and ads

    Included

    Search and ads aimed at people ready to inquire.

  • Tracking

    Included

    Calls, forms and bookings tagged to the search, ad or page behind them.

What to expect from Google Ads

Google Ads can bring seller inquiries within weeks, but owners research for a long time, so early inquiries are conversations rather than mandates.

Days 1 to 14

We audit the account and tracking, agree the deal size range, states and industries, build the campaigns and landing pages and set the exclusion lists. Campaigns go live once calls and forms record correctly.

Weeks 3 to 8

Search term reports show which phrases bring seller inquiries and which bring noise. We add exclusions, adjust bids and refine ad copy. You start to see cost per qualified seller inquiry by campaign.

Months 3 to 6 and beyond

Campaigns settle around the terms that produce conversations, and your CRM data shows which of those became engagements. We cannot promise a number of mandates or a cost per inquiry, because the market and your capacity shape results.

Other Business Brokers marketing services

search SEO for Business Brokers arrow_forward ads_click Meta Ads for Business Brokers arrow_forward web Web Design for Business Brokers arrow_forward

Our team

The same people on the audit and on the work

Martin writes every audit and takes the first call. The same team stays on the account. 160+ businesses since 2010.

Martin, Founder, strategy and audits

Martin

Founder, strategy and audits

Writes every audit and takes every first call. On your account from day one, running growth for SMEs since 2010.

Yoana, Social and app development

Yoana

Social and app development

Shapes social strategy and builds practical app experiences that turn attention into action.

Mike, SEO

Mike

SEO

Owns technical, local and content SEO so the right buyers find you when demand is highest.

Robert, Paid media

Robert

Paid media

Plans and manages paid search and social campaigns around qualified leads.

Elmer, Analytics

Elmer

Analytics

Connects tracking, attribution and reporting so decisions are based on revenue-quality data.

Dino, Design

Dino

Design

Creates clear brand and conversion-focused design across landing pages, campaigns and product experiences.

Certified and experienced

Certified where it matters. Accountable for the outcome.

Verified platform knowledge, 25+ years of hands-on experience, and an operating track record since 2010.

Google AdsCertified
Google AnalyticsCertified
Google Tag ManagerCertified
Operating since 2010Proven experience

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a seller inquiry cost from Google Ads? expand_more
We do not know until we have run your campaigns, and we do not quote a cost per click for business broker keywords because we have not measured one. After the first weeks we report cost per qualified seller inquiry from your own data, and we set budgets from there.
Can the ads say we will get the best price? expand_more
No. We do not promise a sale price, a multiple, a timeline or a number of offers, and we do not claim anyone is the best. Ads describe what the brokerage sells, where it operates and that the first call is confidential. That is enough for an owner to click.
Which states can the ads run in? expand_more
Only the states where the principal confirms they are licensed or exempt to broker a business. Some states still require a real-estate license, so we set location targeting from the principal's confirmation rather than from a map.
How do you stop spend going to job seekers? expand_more
Jobs, careers, salary, how to become a business broker, franchise, course, certification and broker software terms are excluded before launch, and the weekly search term review adds more. You see every term that spent money.
Do you run buyer campaigns too? expand_more
Yes, in a separate campaign with its own budget and landing page, so the principal can decide how much to spend on buyers versus sellers. Buyer pages describe listings in the general terms the brokerage approves.
What happens when an inquiry comes in? expand_more
You get an alert with the campaign and search term, and we recommend a same-day discreet reply. The conversation, the confidentiality agreement and everything after that stay inside the brokerage. HeyLead does not contact sellers.
Who owns the ad account? expand_more
You do. Campaigns run in your own Google Ads account, billed by Google to you in USD, and HeyLead works as a manager. If we part ways, the account and its history stay with the brokerage.

Ready to get more from Business Brokers SEM?

Get a free audit and we will show you where you are losing inquiries today.

Get a Free Audit arrow_forward