How can a business accurately quantify the effect that their efforts have on consumer awareness? In most cases you simply hope that all of the dollars you spend on marketing and advertising show tangible effects on sales or on some other meaningful call to action. However, through our Retargeting efforts, we can accurately pinpoint how much more valuable a consumer is that has shopped your site and seen your products versus someone who has never run across your business. The results can sometimes be startling.

Several months ago we began a campaign dedicated to serving banner ads on general real estate sites with the goal to drive traffic for our builders and convert home shoppers into new home shoppers.  The results were fair, with click thru rates marginally above the industry average (.20%, or 2 clicks/1,000 impressions).

However, as the campaign progressed and we became more in tune with the ins and outs of Retargeting, we came across something interesting. Simply sending banner ads to websites that may be in your line of business may drive large volume in terms of impressions, but it may not be the best way to go about things. The real value comes when your banners follow those consumers who have shopped your site and THEN go to visit other sites.

For example, our real estate campaign received an impressive amount of volume from Homes.com, but we saw low performance in terms of click-through’s and consumer action.  The click-through rate hovered around a .10% and did not merit additional dollars towards this website. However, when we had users who had already shopped our site and were then retargeted on Homes.com, we saw an incredible lift in performance. In the month of October, our Retargeted users are more than 10 times more likely to click one of our banners than a new consumer would on the same website. We saw an even more extreme example on Hotpads.com, a highly valued partner in our Vertical Ad Network. Historically our campaign dedicated to getting new traffic on this site averaged a .20CTR. In the month of October, our pool of Retargeted users is averaging a 2.79CTR. 10X that of our regular campaign and 27 times the industry average!

From all of this, we can deduce that while a traditional campaign dedicated to new users certainly has merit, performance will not be as strong as it could be when targeted to pre-existing users. It’s obvious that in the world of online banner ads, there’s no better resource for your business than the people who have already shopped your site and are familiar with your product and brand.

Jaime Lintner, BDX Ad Ops Assistant, helps manages over 30 million ad impressions per month across a network of real estate websites for hundreds of homebuilders. For more information about advertising on the BDX websites and our network of affiliates, email info@thebdx or contact your local sales rep.

When:
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM CST

Register Here.

“We get leads but they just don’t seem to be very good?” How many times have you heard that from your sales team? Low lead conversion is usually the symptom and not the actual problem.

Surveys have revealed that only about 3% of sales executives are following up appropriately with their online leads.

This essential hands-on workshop provides an easy-to-follow roadmap leading to a successful Lead Management Program that will help you attract and convert more prospects into qualified buyers and explode your sales goals.

Learning Outcomes:

  • The latest homebuyer statistics and shopping behaviors.
  • Learn about the online sales process.
  • Discover ways to engage leads quickly and effectively online.
  • Maximize your lead capture rate by setting appointments from your website.
  • Set appointments that convert 30% of the time.
  • Mike’s top tech tool that guarantees more sales.

Presented by Mike Lyon

Mike Lyon has “real world” knowledge and first-hand experience in the realm of online marketing and sales for homebuilders. He delivers his information from the trenches and draws from his diverse background in online advertising, digital design and internet sales.

With his energetic and entertaining speaking style, Mike has brought to life the topics of internet marketing, sales and technology at events across the country including the past 3 International Builders’ Show.

He is a highly sought after consultant and has contributed to the success of homebuilders and real estate companies all across the nation. He is the bestselling author of Browsers to Buyers: Proven Strategies for Selling New Homes Online and the recently released Social Media Guide for Real Estate

Learn more about Mike at www.doyouconvert.com or follow him on Twitter @mikelyon

Taking advantage of new rich media and data features on NewHomeSource and Move New Homes websites leads to double-digit increases in performance for builders.

Austin, TX – October 12, 2011Builders Digital Experience (BDX), a leading provider of digital marketing solutions for new home builders, today released the latest performance details for the company’s flagship websites, NewHomeSource and Move New Homes showing significant increases in leads and click-throughs for builders.

BDX recently launched new versions of NewHomeSource and Move New Homes, the #1 and #2 new home websites[i]. The new sites create a more useful and useable home shopping experience and feature a host of rich media upgrades including larger images and video galleries. The BDX sites also allow builders to highlight hot homes, promotions and spec homes for consumers. The company analyzed builder data across the two new sites and found that the builders who were taking advantage of the sites’ rich media and data features saw dramatic improvements in performance over those who didn’t utilize the enhancements.[ii]


[i] comScore 2011

[ii] Study based upon Newhomesource.com website and all communities published during the study look-back period of June and July 2011 . Performance statistics, by community, were correlated to counts (“completeness”) of certain data, such as descriptions, pictures, videos, promotional text and other data assets.  The findings represent the percentage gains in lead and click-through performance of those communities having the desired data or with the data present in larger quantities, versus those with lesser amounts or absent data.   BDX considers these results to be significant and representative of the average performance gains that could be achieved by those builders who currently have none or little of the data now, if such data was provided in the future.  As with any correlative study, there may be other unknown factors that account for the results seen; and BDX does not guarantee specific results for any builder.

 

Green BuildingBlog Post From Tim Costello: CEO, Builders Digital Experience

Several weeks ago I found myself visiting Jeff Mezger, the CEO of KB Home in Los Angeles. I have been to their corporate office many times. It is housed in a glorious skyscraper on Wilshire Blvd. with magnificent views in nearly every direction.

Killing time before the meeting, I popped into the men’s room and there hanging on the wall in front of me was the future of green home building: the waterless urinal. Well, perhaps it was not the urinal itself that is the future of green home building but what it stood for.

OK, first I have to admit I am and always have been a huge fan of all things green! I have solar PV on my home, I own a Prius, I have tankless water heaters, my 8th grade science fair project nearly 40 years ago was a scale model of a net zero home. So this kind of stuff excites me.

Now back to those urinals. I had seen them before at trade shows and in high volume stadium settings but never in an office environment and more importantly never in a builder’s office. While my meeting with Jeff was not remotely related to KB’s green building practices, I could not help but comment about the urinal later during our meeting. That is when I actually saw or perhaps heard the future of green building.

That one comment opened the door to witnessing a personal and corporate conversion to the adoption of sustainability and green practices as a responsible business imperative. Jeff effortlessly glided his way through an hour long story of his and the company’s integration of “green thinking” into everything KB Home does. While I have heard many builders talk green, this was different, this was not necessary window dressing nor an individual’s lifelong passion. This was a pragmatic, thorough, well thought out business performance driven strategy that was infiltrating everything the company does.

I felt as though I had witnessed the first days of Adam Warbach as he lead Wal-Mart on their journey to discover the virtues of a holistic sustainable approach to business. While small builders across the country have been pushing the green building envelope for decades, the vast majority of new homes have been unaffected. For green building to have a meaningful impact on the energy intensity of the built infrastructure of the US, the large national builders will have to adopt green principles. In the weeks following that meeting I have seen real, meaningful movement from other large national builders to build greener more sustainable housing. While this is good for the country it is also undoubtedly good for builders as well.

So be careful next time you step into the men’s room, you may just discover the future of an entire industry.