A new home isn’t exactly an impulse buy. In today’s market, the home buying process is complex and lengthy, with many important steps. According to Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report (2017), the typical buyer spends over 4 months searching for their new home. The report also indicates that most buyers use self-service online tools as a complement to working with an agent, with 79% reporting that they used online tools to shop for homes. Buyers, on average, take four private tours, attend two open houses, make two offers and have one home inspection conducted before finalizing their purchase.

Understanding this, the real estate team at 90octane builds Lead Generation Programs designed to capture shoppers in various stages of their homebuying journey and drive them toward consideration of our clients’ homes.

How? In-platform insights from our lead generation programs allow us to accurately track a consumer’s interaction with paid search and paid media prior to conversion. This helps us understand just how many touchpoints a potential buyer expects to have with a brand before they’re willing to provide their email address.

Conversion Example from a 90octane Client:

Clear as mud? Let’s dig a little deeper

1. A prospect is targeted with our ad and clicks to our site.

• The media team uses programmatic prospecting to predict consumers’ interest in buying a home and target them by demographic, behavioral or other parameters.

2. The same user is then browsing properties on sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, or Trulia, and is served a native ad that appears in the feed with other “for sale” listings. The user clicks on one of these ads and is again brought to our site.

• Native ads on Real Estate sites are an important part of the mid to low funnel tactical mix, capturing users during their home-buying research and driving them to our site.

3. After visiting our site twice, the user is tagged as a qualified prospect and is retargeted with display ads.

• Retargeting presents an opportunity to adjust messaging geared toward previous site visitors, encouraging them to return to our site and re-engage.

4. Finally, the user is ready to take the next step and runs a Google search for our community. After clicking to the site, they fill out a form to get on the interest list.

• Paid Search plays an important role in ensuring that the brand shows up for any relevant search terms so we can capitalize on user intent.

This gives you a glimpse into the complicated web of interactions a user can have with paid marketing over a short period of time during their home buying process. Not to mention the additional actions taking place offline— home tours, interactions with realtors, or even visits to the site through organic search and paid social. The takeaway? Marketers must have a true understanding of their buyers’ digital footprints, including insights into every step they take along the path to purchase. This will empower them to create digital programs that target the right people at the right time.

Interested in learning more about full-funnel marketing for real estate? Reach out to us.