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In any market, you’ll get the most mileage from your marketing dollar by “meeting people where they are.”
And since “where people are” right now is online, it’s no surprise that digital advertising is even more important than ever as, across the globe, Google is reporting dramatic increases in web traffic.
In marketing real estate specifically, some elements have certainly had to change in the community-consumer relationship, such as emphasizing virtual tours and online appointments instead of working to book in-person tours.
But as far as consumer-driven interest goes, some surprising stats have emerged: Google reports an all-time high in the last week of April of searches in the U.S. for “houses for sale near me,” and, after a brief dip in March, a complete return in volume for search terms like “new homes” and general “real estate” terms. The chart below from Google Trends shows searches for “houses for sale near me” over the last 5 years.
While some of these searches are certainly more ‘aspirational’ than driven by an immediate move, focusing your spend on those Keywords that signal stronger intent (e.g., “buy a new home”) while also measuring success properly (e.g., targeting deep engagement with the site instead of just visits) ensures that you are in the conversation with relevant consumers at the very time that they are, in many cases, spending the highest percentage of their daily life online. It is a strong marketing move for now, but might also end up making very powerful impressions for actions taken later this year.
In Display, as long as the measurements of deep engagement are being tracked properly, the same dynamic applies: massive impression and click volume can almost be assumed, so the focus for us is on delivering the most relevant visits (conversions) to the websites at the best possible value. Google’s interface makes this simple to track and prioritize, and while the cost per conversion went up for many clients in March (because CPCs went up, given the ‘search demand’ for many Keywords), with the right optimizations it has settled down for most clients and has even started dropping to new lows for some.
In short, Paid Search and properly-tuned Display campaigns have gained as priorities, as they provide measurable success in terms of awareness and action: ad impressions at a time when it’s important to stay in the conversation, relevant clicks at a time when they are most needed for many clients, and — when coupled with Google Analytics — providing valuable data insights to help with decision-making for near-term marketing moves during a challenging period with cloudy-but-real opportunities.
