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.

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.

Isn’t that what we want all consumers to do when they get to our websites? Builders like getting internet leads. With a good follow-up program, builders I have worked with tend to convert about 4% of leads into sales. Unfortunately, not all consumers fill out lead forms. This is a gross understatement. In fact, the number of online shoppers requesting information is well under 10%. So, how do you know if your online advertising on NewHomeSource.com, Google, or Yahoo! is working?

If you can’t measure leads alone to assess value, what should you measure to see if exposure to the other 90% of online shoppers were of any value to you?

Obviously, you have to measure something else. Let us help you out with some objective benchmarks. We completed a consumer survey of NewHomeSource.com users on October 31, 2009. 6,044 consumers participated in the survey. They were only asked to participate once they had bumped around the site a bit. So, these could be called “engaged home shoppers.” We pared this down to 4,245 that answered all our key questions. One of the things we asked is what actions consumers actually take:

NHS Consumer Survey 2009

23.5% of consumers took at least one of these actions. Keep in mind a consumer can take multiple actions. Here’s how they broke down:

NHS User Survey 2009 - User Actions

So, what does this really mean? Well, if 23.5% took at least one of these actions, then of all the consumers answering the survey 17.6% clicked over to the builder’s website, 5.6% printed off the driving directions, 5% called or are planning on calling you, and 7.6% filled out a lead form. How can you track this?

Tracking is always an issue. First, make sure you track through Google Analytics or whatever you are using, users coming to your website. You can even track their path and whether referred traffic converts into leads on your site. Next, you must modify your registration cards on site to capture the real source and ask the question in the right way.

23.5% of engaged shoppers are taking action we can measure on NewHomeSoruce.com. What about the other 76.5%? Come read about it in a week or two. In the meantime, let me know what you think by responding to this post or sending me a note.

What if I said, “Hey, let’s just not target 15% of the available homebuyers out there!”? That would be silly wouldn’t it? That would be like ignoring every sixth person that comes into the sales office. When we don’t do anything to cater to the fastest growing demographic in the U.S., that’s essentially what we are doing.

A 2006 Harvard University study shows that Hispanics represent 14.6% of U.S. homebuyers, and this number is growing rapidly. I did not have a more recent stat handy (this is a blog, not a thesis), but one can only assume this percentage has increased as the Hispanic population has increased.

But you would be amazed at the excuses I hear in our industry about why we don’t do anything to cater to this very critical and increasingly critical demographic…it almost becomes comical at times and sounds very much like the whining I hear at home about brushing teeth or doing homework or wearing underwear. (Well, he is only 9.)

Probably the most pervasive excuse I hear for not targeting Hispanics in the new home industry is that there seems to be this fear that we have to go completely Latino in all aspects — translate our website, our collateral, and our contracts; have bilingual sales agents, and, and, and,…Slap yourself. It is almost as if we are fearful that a bit of Hispanic marketing might work, and, oh gosh, what will we do if we get a lead?!

Take a breath — You don’t need all of that; nor would such efforts be expected. Hispanics who live in the US are fully functional day-in and day-out in a bilingual world. Just take some small steps, which, in and of themselves, will be truly appreciated.

We are all human and get a real jolt when someone has taken a bit of extra care to appeal to us specifically. For example, it’s not that the breakfast-in-bed that your kids bring you is all that tasty (and actually it can be quite scary). It is the thought and intent that was there. The same applies in any aspect of marketing. It’s all about showing extra care and appealing to another human.

Take that first step, mis amigos, even if it’s a baby step. Why not start by listing on Casas Nuevas Aqui?