Advertising

By Katelyn Kellam, BDX Digital Advertising Coordinator

Over the past year more and more builders are looking to BDX to help them plan and execute their display advertising campaigns. Providing high quality customized service is critical to what we do and why we have some of the highest performing advertising campaigns in the industry. So, as our client list grows, so do our internal resources to support them. Katelyn Kellam recently joined BDX as Digital Advertising Coordinator and we thought you would enjoy this perspective from the newest member of our team.

I began working at BDX almost two months ago, and I can say with certainty that there is not a “typical day” in the advertising department. I’m responsible for trafficking campaigns, keeping track of new contracts, producing the NewHomeSource Professional community map, and fielding questions from sales reps and coworkers, while enjoying the occasional breakfast taco.

I’m taking it all in stride – learning to navigate the world of three-letter acronyms (BDX, RDC, VAN, RET, CRM, NHS…and the list goes on.  Click here for our Acronym Cheat Sheet) and the host of different products we offer and how they work together. Each day provides at least one learning opportunity, whether it is attending a webinar or troubleshooting a new campaign. Because of this, I truly admire the rest of the advertising team for having such a handle on the hundreds of clients that advertise with us.

The most notable aspect of the advertising team is its desire to make every client successful – whether it is optimizing current campaigns, testing new techniques, or communicating campaign results, Thane and Jamie never cease to work in the client’s best interest. By definition, digital advertising is ever-changing and our team seeks to stay in front of the latest technology and trends. Clients are constantly updating creative, sending new click-thru URLs, and extending flight dates, among other things. It is our job to anticipate these changes in order to better serve the client and maintain an efficient workflow.

BDX provides a unique service to its clients, ensuring that builders are utilizing the best possible means of communicating their message to prospective homebuyers. I look forward to learning more about the homebuilding industry and new ways of providing value for our clients as time progresses, as well as enjoying a few more breakfast tacos with the team.

To learn more about BDX advertising services, please contact Info@thebdx.com.

Katelyn Kellam is the Digital Advertising Coordinator for Builders Digital Experience and manages both traditional and digital advertising for BDX and affiliate channels.

 

By Thane Tennison, BDX Senior Advertising Manager

As a publisher, I work with hundreds of different builders and agencies all trying to gain a competitive edge in the online space. Sometimes that edge is obvious like adjusting creative to improve Click Through Rate (CTR) and drive lower Cost Per Clicks (CPCs).  Sometimes, it’s less revealing like understanding which channel yields better conversions and ultimately a lower $/lead regardless of the upfront spend.

Oftentimes agencies ask, “Why should I buy display advertising from you when I can get it from Google?”  It’s a legitimate question, Google and other Ad Exchanges provide a wealth of sites and a range of products from paid search and “contextually relevant” placement to keyword targeting and a seemingly attractive pricing model for Pay Per Click.

If I were a marketing team looking to drive traffic at the very top of the funnel display, an exchange like Google might make sense. However, for a more targeted media placement I often find that a direct buy has significant advantages.

PREMIUM PLACEMENT:

The main difference between a direct buy and a remnant network exchange is just that – it is remnant inventory. Publishers with direct clients are incentivized to provide the best placements for optimal performance and there are a number of tools at their disposal to help optimize the campaign. Publishers can optimize a buy by booking premium positions, managing ad priorities, frequency capping, day parting etc.

The exchange networks simply look at impressions available as well as the yield opportunity that your ad will get clicked vs. another ad in their network. This means if you’re not constantly managing your bid, keywords and testing new creative you could be at a significant disadvantage. At the BDX we have insights into creative that works and creative that doesn’t. A few times a month we help a builder achieve 4x lift in click thru just by making adjustments to the art.  With exchanges, the art would run as is and you might find that you’re having to pay more for that click since the exchange is going to need to serve more impressions to secure that revenue. A low CTR not only means you may pay more per click but you’re also competing against the yield they can make from every other advertiser competing for that customer.

TARGETING:

Networks have limitations in their targeting abilities by relying on keywords and the contextual relevancy of the website. However in real estate – especially new home construction – these networks alienate about 50% of the home shoppers who are relocating into a market.  If I’m a local builder in Austin advertising on Google targeting real estate websites I’ll reach consumers in Austin but I won’t reach consumers moving from Dallas, Houston, L.A., Chicago or D.C. into the Austin market.

We recently ran an analysis of traffic by market and the results are clear; traffic on a market level works in concentric circles. In Austin, about 50% of the traffic is within market (people moving from one side of town to the other) another 30% of the traffic is from neighboring cities (i.e. Dallas, San Antonio, Houston) and 20% from consumers outside of Texas.  In Texas, these markets are hundreds of miles apart and if I’m a local builder I have zero brand equity with a consumer from Dallas or Houston and much less from someone moving from Atlanta or LA.

What was even more interesting is when we looked at clicks by each of these groups. People living in Austin were the least likely to click the ad.  We saw the greatest click thru from consumers out of market looking for information and shopping home builders in Austin.

PERFORMANCE:

We’ve looked at the Google Analytics of several builders and have a predictable level of performance across each of our advertising channels. This allows us to keep pricing competitive and ensure we’re delivering meaningful value to our clients. With Ad Networks, a builder might receive a low CPC but we typically see much higher bounce rates and fewer meaningful actions. So while you might save on the front end it could cost you more on the backend where it really counts.  Obviously at some point the economics will work but it’s important to differentiate quantity vs. quality.

These factors are some of the reasons many exchanges have reverted to focusing on retargeting which shows significantly stronger conversion vs. blanketing a host of sites with ads.  The metrics simply didn’t warrant continuation and they’ve had to create solutions that provide better value. Even with the impact of Retargeting for the online exchanges we’ve identified a whole set of nuances specific to that medium.

Exchanges do have their place and may make sense for specific campaigns or clients that can afford continued active management. However, I think most builders who try to “save” by taking their advertising in house often lose out in reach and performance.

For information regarding online marketing and a review of your current digital marketing plan please contact us at info@thebdx.com.

Thane Tennison is the Senior Advertising Manager for the BDX and manages hundreds of home builder brands across a network of over a dozen real estate websites.

By BDX Guest Blogger, Carol Morgan, mRELEVANCE

If you haven’t visited the Facebook ads manager recently, you might be pleasantly surprised next time you take a peek. Facebook recently rolled out new updates that give businesses more control over campaign objectives and ad placements, as well as access to more accurate reporting.

The biggest change is that advertisers can now select from one of eight campaign objectives whereas previously businesses only had a choice for ad type. The new objectives include page likes, post engagement, website clicks, website conversions, app engagement, app installs, offer claims and event responses. Based on the chosen objective, Facebook will then recommend the type of ad your business should run.

The revamped ad manager also allows businesses to choose where they want their ad placed (in the news feed or in the right hand column and on desktop or mobile). However, Facebook still offers the option to let the site automatically determine where the ads will be placed based on where it believes they will perform best.

With both of these changes, making sure your business’ campaign is effective will be more important than ever. Thankfully, new ad and campaign performance statistics now display how many times a particular objective was met and what the cost per result was.

These new changes to Facebook advertising literally put businesses in the driver’s seat when it comes to social media advertising. With more ways than ever to use Facebook to grow your business, this form of advertising is definitely one of the easiest and most cost effective out there today.

 

By Jamie Lintner, BDX Advertising Manager

 We’ve known for a while about the importance of running a BeBack Retargeting campaign to help convert home shoppers into home buyers. The numbers show time and time again that driving repeat traffic back to a site significantly increases both the on-site usage and the likelihood of a backend conversion. And this makes perfect sense. The more engaged a user becomes with a particular brand, the better understanding they have of the products/services being offered and the more apt they are to take action.

For example, it’s unlikely that a runner would buy the first pair of shoes he sees at Dick’s Sporting Goods. But just because he leaves the store without purchasing the shoes doesn’t mean you should abandon the prospect of a sale. He has showed strong intent to purchase shoes; he simply needs a little guidance and a little push to get him to the checkout counter. The same goes for the online space. Even if a person bounces from your site or shows little engagement, the fact that they arrived in the first place conveys intent to learn about your product.

What kind of a lift can you expect from driving return visits? On NewHomeSource, we see significant gains in both user engagement and conversion. On average, returning users showed a 25% increase in pages viewed, a 13% decrease in bounce rate, and a 60% jump in average visit duration over their “new user” counterparts.

The data shows a new shopper is exactly that, new. They come to the site wide-eyed with little idea on how to navigate the pages to find what they want. Returning visitors know what to expect from the site and have an idea on how to navigate. Because of this, they bounce less often, on average view another page and stay on the site almost twice as long. What’s most important is these users convert 30% more often, so those increased actions are actually translating into increased conversions.

Digging deeper, users who ended up on NewHomeSource.com for the first time through a display banner ad converted 2.6% of the time. Returning users who had shopped NewHomeSource previously and came back by clicking the SAME AD converted 6.5% of the time (a 150% increase). Obviously these metrics will vary from site to site due to the prevalence of the lead form, layout, number of pages to shop, etc. but the same principle applies across the board. And while display advertising is a main cog in driving repeat traffic, returning users can come from multiple sources (Pay Per Click, organic search, Google, social media, etc). Marketers should understand how all of the media channels work together to convert searches into purchases, and the best way to manage that is to consistently drive repeat visits.

Are you looking beyond cost per lead and leveraging various forms of online marketing to generate quality traffic? And secondly, are you fostering your existing traffic in ways that will lead them to return, either by creating a new customer experience or utilizing a retargeting program? Returning users generate much stronger interest and conversions on the backend, making it essential to prioritize getting as many people as possible to return to your site.

If you’d like more information about how builders are improving their web traffic through display advertising and retargeting campaigns contact us at info@thebdx.com.

This fall, BDX is taking a special in-depth look into Online Advertising and best practices.  If you’ve never attended one of our webinars before- you’re in for a treat! Each webinar in this series is presented by our very own Sr. Advertising Manager, Thane Tennison. He works with hundreds of builders across the country to deliver successful display advertising solutions. Thane is also no stranger to the BDX blog- check out some of his insights here.

Have the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about BDX’s advertising solutions and what it can do for your business. Take a look at the upcoming topics below and be sure to sign up to reserve your spot now!

Advertising on Social Networks – Target, Promote, and Boost                             SEPTEMBER 24th

Register Here

The most successful social media users aren’t just posting content on Facebook and Twitter. Most are capturing mind share by using the various advertising opportunities that are available on these social networks. This session will discuss these paid placements. What are your options? What type of ROI are other builders seeing? And where should you start?

Tracking Online Advertising Performance – Measurement and ROI                   OCTOBER 22nd

Register Here

If you’re like most builders, online advertising plays a key role in your marketing strategy. If you are investing your time and marketing budget on display advertising, this is a session you can’t afford to miss (literally!). During this webinar we will be talking about best practices for measuring online advertising performance: What metrics matter? What is a good Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for your ads?

Hyper-Retargeting – Taking Your Re-Marketing Strategy to A New Level          NOVEMBER 20th

Register Here

If you aren’t currently using re-targeting as a marketing strategy then you’ve likely experienced it first-hand when you are online. But retargeting is more than just capturing visitors who came to your website? What if you could retarget based on a specific piece of content they read or a specific home plan they viewed? Or even specific pages on third part sites like NewHomeSource.com? Join us for this webinar to learn more.

 

Interested in working with BDX? We have a full suite of research resources and tools that are available for our clients and are happy to talk with you about how we can help shape your business. For more information, contact BDX at Info@thebdx.com.