Google Ads.
Google Ads for expat and non-resident lending brokers.
The borrower is in Singapore at nine in the morning, which is midnight here, and the lender panel that will look at them is short.
Google Ads for expat and non-resident lending brokers means running the one campaign in the category where national targeting is correct, because the borrower is not in your service area by definition. The account is built around who the borrower is under Australian lending rules, the searches that never settle are filtered out, and the copy never promises how a foreign income will be treated.
What they type.
Expats don't search 'mortgage broker near me'. They search from another time zone.
An Australian working overseas, a visa holder living here, and a foreign buyer who has never been here all want the same thing: to know whether it is possible at all, and who will look at it.
- “australian expat home loan”
- “home loan for australians living overseas”
- “non resident home loan australia”
- “482 visa home loan”
- “firb approval property purchase”
- “foreign income home loan australia”
- “refinance australian property from overseas”
- “buying australian property as a foreigner”
Not one of them carries a suburb. The borrower cannot walk into your office, which is exactly why they are searching, and it is why the page has to do more of the work than usual.
Shown as searches, because that is what they are. None of it is ad copy, and none of it is written as a headline.
The pattern.
Where agencies go wrong.
The first mistake is running it as a local campaign. A radius around your office reaches nobody in this niche, because the person you want is in Dubai, Hong Kong or London. This is the one type where Australia wide targeting is right, and it is also the one type where an agency's default settings are most obviously wrong.
The second is promising how foreign income will be treated. The proportion of an overseas salary a lender will use, and the currencies they accept, differ by lender and change often. Copy that states a rule is stating somebody else's credit policy as a fact, and this is the niche where that policy moves most.
The third is a page built for someone in the same time zone. If the only path is a phone number and the only proof is a photo of your office, an expat reading at midnight has nothing to do next. The page needs a written contact path, the foreign investment approval process explained with a link to the government source, and an honest sentence about how short the lender panel is.
The method.
How the account gets built.
We audit your ideal borrower list against what Google actually has.
Expat demand is thin, expensive and national, which makes checking it first more important here than anywhere else. I look at what exists before a dollar goes anywhere, and I tell you plainly whether it can support an account at the budget you have in mind.
We build ad groups around who the borrower is, not around 'home loans'.
An Australian citizen overseas, a temporary visa holder living here, a foreign buyer with no residency and an expat reviewing a loan they already have are four different lender panels. Each gets its own ad group and its own landing section, because the panel is what decides whether the conversation is worth either of your time.
We filter the searches that never settle.
This keyword space sits right beside migration agents, visa applications, overseas property and international schools, which is a far larger and completely unrelated auction. Broad match is not used on this type at all, and the search terms report gets read every month.
We report on settlements, not clicks.
These files take longer, involve certified documents from another country, and some of them stop at the foreign investment approval step. Settled files are imported back into the account so it is learning from deals that completed rather than from enquiries that were easy to collect.
The maths.
What one mixed residential settlement is worth
Indicative figures from a working broker's book. A guide, not a quote, and never a forecast.
- Typical loan size
- $600,000
- Upfront on one settlement
- $3,900
- Trail in the first year
- $900
- Upfront plus three years of trail
- $6,600
- Genuine enquiries per settlement
- 7 to 13
- Enquiry to settlement
- 4 to 12 weeks
Loan size, commission and settlement rate are indicative figures from a working broker's book, last reviewed 2026-09-05. Settlement rate and time to settle are modelled ranges, so they are a model rather than a measurement, and every deal is subject to lender criteria.
The honest split.
What search delivers for an expat book, and what it can't.
Search can reach them
Search
The Australian on a contract overseas
They are outside every local network by definition, so search is genuinely how they find a broker.
Search
The temporary visa holder living here
They have been told the rules are different and they search which lenders will consider their visa class.
Search
The offshore buyer researching approval
The foreign investment approval question is searched directly and answered badly almost everywhere.
Search
The expat whose interest only term is expiring
A letter arrives, they are eleven time zones away, and they need someone who handles it remotely.
Referral only
Referral
The accountant who does expat tax returns
A professional relationship built over years of returns, and it never touches a search box.
Referral
The employer's relocation contact
The introduction arrives with the posting, before the borrower has thought about property.
Referral
The family still living here
Parents ring their own broker on their child's behalf and search never sees it.
Referral
Your own clients who moved overseas
They already know you and they take you with them.
Both columns are real. A plan that pretends the right-hand column does not exist is a plan that will disappoint you in month three.
The check.
What a healthy account looks like for this niche
National targeting judged on its own
This is the one type where Australia wide is correct, so the geographic report has to be read every month to see which states and which countries are actually producing enquiries.
A written contact path that gets used
If every conversion is a phone call, you are only reaching the borrowers awake at the right hour. A form or a booking link that works across time zones should be carrying a real share.
Offline settlement import, running
Some of these files stop at approvals and certification. Feeding settlements back is what stops the account optimising towards enquiries that could never have completed.
Search term relevance
Watch for migration, visa application and overseas property traffic every month. It is the largest neighbouring auction in the library and it never stops trying to get in.
Common questions.
Google Ads for expat and non-resident lending brokers, answered
Australia wide at minimum, because the buyer is purchasing here even when they are not living here. Adding the countries with the largest Australian expat populations is reasonable if the budget supports it. This is the only type in the category where a local radius is the wrong answer rather than the safe one.
Next step.
Start with whether the settings are even pointed the right way.
Ask for the complimentary Google Ads audit. On this niche the first thing I look at is the geographic settings, because a local radius on an expat campaign is the most common and most expensive mistake in the category. Honest answer either way.
Keep reading.
Where to go from here
The same niche, the other service
- Websites for expat and non-resident lending brokersA borrower in Singapore at eleven at night, deciding whether to trust an Australian broker they cannot ring.
- Google Ads, the whole serviceHow the work runs, what it costs to start, and who it suits.
- The complimentary Google Ads auditA read of what you have now, by a working broker, with the first fixes named.
Google Ads for other niches
- Google Ads for first home buyer brokersThe deposit question, the scheme question, and the one typed at nine o'clock on a Sunday night.
- Google Ads for refinance brokersThe fixed term rolling off, the rate review, and the borrower who has already decided to move.
- Google Ads for self-employed and low-doc brokersThe borrower with two good years and no tax returns, looking for someone who has seen it before.
- Google Ads for investment property brokersEquity, structure and the second property. The searches of a borrower who already owns one.
- Google Ads for SMSF lending brokersA small, specific search market where the accountant is usually already in the room.
- Google Ads for commercial and asset finance brokersThe truck, the excavator, the shed the business just outgrew. Two very different books in one account.
- Google Ads for construction loan brokersA tender in one hand, a land contract in the other, and nobody explaining how the money actually arrives.
- Google Ads for guarantor loan brokersTwo people read this ad. The buyer who wants it to work, and the parent being asked to put their house up.
- Google Ads for medico and professional lending brokersA registrar, a physiotherapist and a solicitor search three different things, and the lender lists behind them are three different lists.
- Google Ads for rural and regional brokersA house on twenty hectares, a working farm and a home loan in a town of four thousand people are three different lending problems.
- Google Ads for reverse mortgage brokersThe most careful campaign in the category. Nothing here sells, and the government scheme gets named on the page.
- Google Ads for bridging loan brokersThe next house is bought, the current one is not sold, and the two settlement dates are a fortnight apart.
- Google Ads for car finance brokersThe whole category advertises a weekly repayment. That is the one thing a compliant ad cannot do.
- Google Ads for business loan brokersThe online lenders advertise on speed. Repeat their language and you have inherited their claim.
- Google Ads for development finance brokersThe smallest demand in the category and the largest files. One good enquiry a quarter can be the whole account.
- Google Ads for invoice and trade finance brokersThe invoices go out on thirty day terms and the wages go out on Thursday. That gap is the whole market.
Written for the home lending side of the book. If it carries commercial or asset finance as well, that page is listed alongside.
One more thing.
Start with what you already have.
Two complimentary audits, both read by a working broker rather than generated and sent. One looks at the account spending your money. One looks at the site the clicks land on. Take either, take both, or skip straight to the start form if you already know.