Many Homebuilders who advertise on NewHomeSource see a click-through rate (CTR) 5X to 10X the industry average for display advertising. Learn common characteristics of the best performing campaigns and get new ideas on how to use banners to further your marketing goals. For a review of your current banner campaigns contact Thane Tennison, Ad Ops Manager for NewHomeSource.
Display Advertising is a great medium for enhancing listings, driving traffic or raising awareness of upcoming promotions and special incentives. We’ve seen builders utilize all of these tactics with Display Advertising on NewHomeSource.
One strategy which seems obvious but is often overlooked is to advertise actual builder’s communities, similar to the way billboards along the highway are used. NewHomeSource shoppers are active home buyers looking for information about new home communities and new home plans. Display Ads that focus on a community or range of communities often outperform other types of campaigns. Considering consumers search homes by price and location, it’s critical to include that information in your display creative. A relevant landing page and tracking code is also critical to measure consumer action and generate leads.
When developing a campaign consider the following:
With a clear strategy in place it’s easy to tweak and refine a display campaign. You may find the campaign is delivering excellent traffic but converting poorly. The issue may be with the the landing page, not the ad. Or, you may find few clicks but very relevant action from those consumers who do respond. This insight will provide you the information necessary to optimize your campaign and drive more value from your online marketing.
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?!
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.
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:
Come on you market research types, tell me how it is. Let me know what you think.
Video ads have been used for years to advertise major brands online. Their success and popularity is attributed to several factors including consumer recall and increased click-through rates. To help home builders take advantage of this new medium BHI is now offering Video Banners across all its sites and can help with video ad production.
When considering video advertising keep in mind a few simple best practices to maximize performance. First, Video Ads adhere to the same rules as other display campaigns. The goal should be to pull consumers into the ad and make sure that it meets their search objectives. We recommend featuring homes or communities that appeal to the consumers search instead of long videos that touch on a variety of products. The Ad should have specific marketing goals and the videos should be short, 30 seconds or less. A recent report released by Point Roll & the IAB shows that on average about 50% of all video ads play to completion, which means your call to action should be present upfront remain on screen. I recommend including a snipe in the video or using other real estate on the banner to support the video’s message.
Let the images tell the story. Video is a great way to capture a plan or show the full amenities of a new community. Large pans, and fades are captivating and can often say more than a line of copy. However, as a policy BHI requires all ads to begin playing with sound off, therefore it’s essential that the video can stand alone without sound. It’s also important to consider other websites’ spec requirements if you’d like to use your Video Ad beyond BDX sites.
Click here to view a sample Video Ad or contact BHI Media’s professional staff to see how they can help you craft or video banner or edit existing footage to make your homes and communities stand out.
