By Joe Saunders, Director of Marketing
In 2019 the National Association of Realtors reported that 98% of buyers used the internet in the home search process. Though these statistics are from the US, I don’t think it is a big leap to imagine that the Canadian market is similar. This of course has resulted in the internet becoming the new frontier for marketing your home…a sort of digital battleground where presenting your property listing in the right format, at the right time has become far more important than roadside signs, print ads and door knocking could ever be. As a real estate marketing professional, I spend my time working online to create the best positioned, most refined marketing campaigns to drive Lifestyles North’s online identity. (In 2018 this amounted to over 6.3 million web impressions, which required both constant and diligent work by all of our staff.)
The internet is becoming a sort of digital battleground where presenting your property listing in the right format, at the right time has become far more important than roadside signs, print ads and door knocking could ever be.
With the importance of the electronic world of real estate firmly in mind, I would like to shed some light on how Lifestyles North competes (and excels) at differentiating its listings in the sea of other competitors vying for your precious attention online.
Every property is different and so targeting a real estate listing is more of an art than a science. The result is that experience, up to date technical skills and continually monitoring the statistics of your online presence are all crucial factors in being noticed. At Lifestyles North we deal with this by taking the strengths of each property and matching them to those people who would likely be the best fit as buyers. Then we monitor and refine each ad, adjusting it to get the best results as the ad progresses. Most importantly we do this continuously and relentlessly to maximize impact.
Most people will be aware of the existence of Google Ads and Facebook Ad Manager, but may not understand the power of them. By considering the age, geography, general interests, lifestyles choices and many other details of potential buyers, we can take a property and deliver it electronically to the right people as I described above. For instance, Lifestyles North frequently has listings suitable for upper middle-class Baby Boomers. This suggests both demographic and geographical considerations are important for finding potential consumers for these listings. We would therefore create electronic campaigns directed towards ages 55 and up and target ads to the more affluent neighbourhoods of the GTA (where retirees moving north are located). Suppose the property is a ski chalet…no problem. We can take the targeting and direct it to people that show interest in specific sports.
Any seasoned advertiser will tell you that when you are selling a big-ticket item it will take more “customer touches” to close the deal. We can account for this too. Electronic ads can be further managed based on a potential buyer’s online activity. Suppose you have visited our website a number of times looking at a listing, but did not feel it was the right time to act. Using electronic ads, Lifestyles North can make sure that you see any new ads for the property if the price drops. Creating a call to action is crucial to get consumers to purchase!
I hear you say this all sounds very complex and truthfully it does take a specialized set of skills to design effective electronic ad campaigns. Moreover, real estate like most markets changes at a lightning speed, requiring constant updating of skills. The same study from the National Association of Realtors states that in 2019 the top concern for Real Estate firms (at 46% of those polled) was keeping up with technology. The truth is that the modern real estate professional has to grapple with this change to maintain the technological edge. Without it staying competitive is impossible.
The modern real estate professional has to grapple with change to maintain the technological edge. Without it staying competitive is impossible.
I also hear the question, is this type of marketing effective? The answer is a resounding yes! In order to quantify the effectiveness of electronic ads, the main indicator is called click through rate (CTR). This is the percentage of all ads that results in a viewer clicking on the link to check out the listing. According to wordstream.com the real estate industry average for Facebook Ad’s CTR last year was 0.99%. This means on average, a little less than 1 in every 100 real estate ads on Facebook resulted in a view for the listing on the advertiser’s website. In 2019 Lifestyles North’s Facebook ads had a 10.44% CTR…more than 10 times the reported average. This is because of our careful management approach to electronic marketing, a commitment to refining the results and staying up to date on technology.
So next time you are thinking of listing your home, remember that not only is an electronic advertising presence important, it is also crucial that it be properly targeted and monitored to provide the maximum results. If your real estate professional cannot commit to this, you are likely giving away your chances of being noticed in the crowded online marketplace. This is an advantage that you cannot afford to be without!