Month: January 2010

In my role I work with hundreds of builders and agencies each month to manage and optimize their display campaigns across NewHomeSource.com and our network of websites.

I’ve seen all types of creative and promotional offers from builders big and small. Some Advertisers are very savvy, carefully scrutinizing performance by position, time of day, cycle of the moon, etc. Others understand the need to advertise on the most highly targeted and qualified new home listing website but fall short in their tracking and analytics.

One easy way to add tracking capabilities is to append your click thru URL with a tracking token that will allow you to measure the consumer action after the click. This is a vital and simple step to understanding the full value of your advertising dollars. Appending the click thru URL allows builders to isolate their display campaign on NewHomeSource.com and see how it compares to other marketing efforts. Important questions such as bounce rate, time on site, number of page views and of course leads can all be measured with a tracking URL.

Tracking and managing campaigns isn’t just important to Display Ads on NewHomeSource.com, but is also essential to successfully managing all types of online marketing ranging from Paid Search to Email campaigns. Unlike traditional media like billboards and radio, tracking allows markets to qualify their results and optimize against business goals. As a result you may find that one campaign with a high Click Thru Rate (CTR) also has a high bounce rate, while others at a more expensive rate or lower volume consistently deliver qualified consumers who are more likely to purchase a home.

Within our own marketing efforts we’re always working to optimize cost against quality to ensure that the consumers who visit NewHomeSource.com are highly qualified and will drive significant value to our builders. Creative positioning, landing pages, and other factors are important but can’t be fully understood without a proper system of analytics in place.

For questions about targeting or online creative strategies contact Thane Tennison, Advertising Manager for the BDX.

About a week ago we told you about a survey of more than 6,000 consumers on our new home shopping site, NewHomeSource.com. We lamented that less than 10% of consumers would fill out lead forms. While we were encouraged that 23.5% said they took action, this still left 76.5% not taking action. SO, WHY NOT?!


Image courtesy of sanja gjenero

Of course we asked this question as well. While some consumers really took no action, some merely took no action we could measure from our website. What do you think was the #1 reason consumers told us that took no action? The #1 reason consumers gave us for not taking action was “I might later, but I’m just looking today.” Have you heard this one before? That group really took no action … at least that day.

More interesting was the #2 response. 22.0% said that they would prefer to visit the community in person. The chart below shows the breakdown of why consumers took actions other than those we could measure.

NHS Consumer Survey

The consumers in this survey were motivated shoppers. After bouncing around NewHomeSource.com (i.e., they are motivated), they then opted into the survey. So, the absolute percentage taking action or giving a reason for not doing so is less meaningful than the ratios.

In my blog entry about the actions consumers take on listing websites on the November 20th, I reported that 23.5% of 4,245 consumers surveyed said they took some form of action on NewHomesource.com. 32.3% of these, or 7.6% of the total, filled out a form asking for information. While 76.5% took an action we could not measure, 22.0% of these or 16.8% overall, said they preferred to visit the community in person. So, for every person filling out a lead form on NewHomesource, 2.2 times as many said they would rather just showing up.

I always thought it was 3-4 times that number showing up as physical traffic relative to leads (early, presumably less scientific research), but I am okay with 2.2 times as many shoppers showing up as physical traffic as those filling out a lead form. Think about this when considering the number of lead request you get from your website. 2X the number may just show up instead. This has huge implications for any internet marketing expenditure.

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics:

  • 12.9% of new home shoppers in this survey (19.9% of 76.5%) really don’t want to be contacted. That does not mean they will not show up in person, but that they are not ready to talk to you. Does this mean that the other 87.1% are waiting for your call and wondering why you are ignoring them?
  • 10.3% of new home shoppers in this survey (13.4% of 76.5%) couldn’t find a community they were interested in. We either have the wrong builders 10% of the time or maybe these consumers don’t know your community well enough. Give them some pictures, video, and tell them why they should want to live there.
  • 2.1% of new homes shoppers in this survey (2.7% x 76.5%) aren’t even interested in buying a new home. To heck with that half-full mentality! 97.9% are actively shopping for a new home.

Come on you market research types, tell me how it is. Let me know what you think.