Are you frustrated from potential customers entering your site, having a browse, and not enquiring with you? Are you looking to improve your conversion rates and generate more leads? If so, you are in the right place. With over 30 years of experience in the property industry and continuous research and development into the latest marketing channels, we are experts when it comes to lead generation.
By Adam Jennings
Not all leads need to be users who have stumbled across your website for the first time. Think about it, how many times have you thought about purchasing or enquiring about the latest products online but instead, for whatever reason, you leave and return a few days later to complete your enquiry or purchase?
This is very common, especially with Estate Agents! If you’re familiar with the marketing rule of 7, you’ll understand what we mean. On average, it takes a consumer 7 interactions with a business before a purchase or a conversion takes place. Now for the property industry, this is even higher. So if you are not retargeting to those who have previously engaged with you before, how can you expect to generate a healthy amount of leads?
One thing that we want to show you, is how your agency can make sure to always be at the forefront of a user’s mind while they continue to explore your competition…
It has become a running joke over recent years that websites follow you around the internet and over social media. One minute you were searching for a new property, and now your Instagram and Facebook feed is covered in well-designed ads in an attempt to draw your attention. Some people may find this annoying while others fall perfectly into the funnel and return to the website to complete their enquiry. This is remarketing.
You may be sat here wondering why we are focussing on remarketing and not the more common buzzword of retargeting? Well, the latter falls under the umbrella of remarketing.
Remarketing is a way to connect with people who had previously interacted with your website or app. It allows you to strategically position your ads in front of an audience as they browse Google and its partner’s websites or social media. This increases brand awareness as well as tempts a user to return to your website. This automated technology is often not utilised by a lot of agents but it is a fantastic way to attract users who did not convert the first time they entered a website.
Of course, remarketing is paramount for eCommerce outlets, but what about Estate Agents? At Property Webmasters we utilise remarketing for our clients and we have achieved some fantastic results. Purchasing a new property is a huge task that requires patience, however, it all starts with an enquiry upon a website.
If we think of a common problem estate agents can face, it is normally related to a lack of leads coming through their website. Remarketing can help solve this issue for agents, bolstering their lead generation potential from only new users of their website, to new users and old users who are being remarketed to. This method of marketing can allow users who may have not enquired the first time with another opportunity to input their details and get started on their journey to a new property.
But what about the quality of the leads that are generated through remarketing?
With a remarketing strategy, you are only targeting those who have previously shown intent with your business before. So you already know that these audiences have engaged with your brand, they have some understanding of what you are offering and you can assume they are interested in aspects of your services.
Now ask yourself, do you think these people, who match the criteria of your target audience, and have already been nurtured to some extent, will be more qualified than audiences who have shown no previous engagement before? Of course they are! Remarketing provides you with much more qualified leads than prospecting efforts. Now this isn’t to say prospecting can’t generate quality leads, but the process is longer than through remarketing efforts.
Remarketing is such a powerful tool, don’t just take our word for it, the stats do not lie!
Investing in a property is one of the most significant decisions someone can make. Whether renting or buying, it is a huge step. It is important to remember that not everyone wants to log onto a website for the first time and enquire about a property instantly. They may be interested in a property but that interest has not been expressed to your agency yet for whatever reason.
This is why remarketing is crucial. Someone may then go onto competitors websites before taking a break from searching. But, if your agency is using remarketing they will be constantly reminded of your brand on Google and social media.
Some of our best results for remarketing have been campaigns that are based upon location. For one of our international clients who deal in multiple markets globally, we have set up Google Display remarketing campaigns that remarket banners that feature the location the user has viewed previously on the website.
If a user has viewed a property located in the French Alps, they will now be receiving display banner adverts featuring picturesque views from the mountains, with copies relating to what they were searching for previously. This form of segmentation allows you to create multiple lists of users who can be grouped based on what they have viewed upon the website, therefore, allowing you to send ads that are actually about their interest in a certain location/style of property.
After all, it would not be ideal to send ads regarding the Costa del Sol if the user was viewing previously showing interest in a property situated in London.
Maybe this sounds a little complicated? If we’re honest, it may sound a bit confusing at first but when you go into this level of detail regarding audience and customer behaviour, your agency has a great chance of achieving fantastic results. Let’s find out more about how your agency can get ahead of the competition and make use of the tools provided by two tech giants, Google & Facebook.
There are a few ways that your business could take advantage of remarketing, we will go into the specifics of which methods could be most suited to your estate agency.
Google display remarketing is a great way to re-engage old customers through the power of banner adverts that can be as visually demanding as you wish. Your agency can have full disclosure over how the adverts will appear on Google partner sites however you do have to adhere to Google’s sizing restraints.
(Example of a Google Remarketing Display Ad Below)
The process is relatively simple and once set up, the audience you remarket to automatically builds and gets added to as more people visit your website. By monitoring the data of your website visitors through Google Analytics, you can create an audience and remarket to those specific users who become a part of the audience.
Then, after building up an audience, you can create a campaign within Google Ads which serves display ads to the select audience to help draw them back onto your website. After all, Google Display Ads are seen by 90% of internet users, so make sure to design yours so they stand out and get recognised.
By displaying adverts, particularly of listings or areas a user may have looked at previously, they will be encouraged to return. Even if it takes several visits over the coming weeks, this will often result in an appointment for a viewing. Not only is this great for conversions, but it also increases your brand’s exposure across Google.
Due to the increase in social media usage, Facebook is a platform that can not be ignored by estate agents. With over 2.7 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social media platform worldwide, which is an extremely large audience you could be missing out on!
Facebook provides you with the opportunity to not only engage new and future audiences but to also re-engage those who have previously expressed an interest in your site, allowing you to directly target those customers and as a result, bring in higher quality leads with greater intent to buy… as who is very likely to make an offer or purchase a property at first glance?
When it comes to remarketing and generating quality leads, a Facebook Pixel is an essential tool. Through the use of the pixel, you can trace all website visitors which then allows you to create an audience off the back of this data and remarket your campaigns to them specifically, creating leads of higher intent.
Meta also allows you to see how your ads are performing, not only does this give you an insight into how successful your campaigns are, it gives you the opportunity to understand which platforms and ads are generating the most engagement allowing you to make the most of your remarketing efforts.
With over 80% of property buyers doing extensive research before they make the commitment to buy, Dynamic Product Ads are a vital part of the marketing funnel, showcasing to the people who have previously visited your website the properties or services they viewed on your site. This gives you the opportunity to re-engage and pull back those ‘lost’ customers and direct the properties that your audience has previously viewed directly to their timeline. With messages tailored directly to your audience, dynamic remarketing helps you build high-quality leads and bring back previous visitors to your site.
Another key feature of Dynamic product ads is the ability to target an audience based on their personalised interests meaning that whether or not they have viewed your site before if they have a high interest in what you are offering there is a high chance they will see your ad.
(Example of Dynamic Product Ad Below)
Reaching the right customers at the right time, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to re-engage customers, by reintroducing a specific product or service that they have shown an interest in before. With over 60% of people allowing email marketing to affect their purchasing decision, there has never been a better time to get your email remarketing up and running.
With email marketing databases only consisting of those who have previously engaged with your business before, whether this be through signing up to a newsletter or through previously enquiring with your business, this leaves you with an audience who has high intent in your product or services. Again, this complies with the ‘marketing rule of 7’, although the theory has been around for a while it has never been more relevant, stating that a prospect needs to “hear” the advertiser’s message at least 7 times before they’ll take action to buy that product or service.
Allowing you to take full advantage of those audiences, email marketing lets you create campaigns that can help nurture these customers until they are ready to go ahead and make a purchase or leave a serious inquiry, by giving them reminders of what they have looked at in the past. Email remarketing overall allows you to produce highly targeted and highly converting campaigns, and who wouldn’t want that?
How much should I spend on remarketing?
Remarketing can be set up from as little as £10 per day, allowing your business to attract users back to your website to renew their interest in your services.
How do you promote your estate agency?
Brand awareness is a massive part of remarketing, it is a great way of keeping your brand in your target audience’s mind while they search the web and social media.
How effective is remarketing?
Remarketing campaigns are extremely effective, once set up they can drive a great number of leads due to the intent the audience has previously shown. Especially, when audiences are segmented into smaller, more targeted quantities.
Your agency must be willing to invest in its marketing in order to attract sellers, buyers and other general enquiries. If you’re looking for a great return on investment then remarketing should be the way to go, why? It is simple, the users who you are spending money on targeting have already shown intent, they have been on your website in the past and they are aware of your brand. Remember, retargeted customers are 3x more likely to click your ad than cold prospects. If you’re not providing any sort of remarketing to your customers in this day and age then you really are falling behind.
If you would like some advice on how to grow your agency and take it to the next level with the help of PPC advertising, Paid Social Media and remarketing, or any other service, we’re the experts, Property Webmasters can help give even more clarity upon what would be the best route to take for your business.
By Adam Jennings
By Ben Spowart
By Ben Spowart