The property market on both sides of the Atlantic is booming. In the US, 2020 was a record-breaking year for the housing market with 5.64 million homes sold – up 5.6% from 2019 and the most since before the Great Recession. Existing home sales reached the highest level in 13 years.
In the UK, buoyed by the Stamp Duty Holiday being extended until the end of June 2021, house price growth increased by an average of 7.3% despite the economy contracting by -10%. This was in spite of the uncertainty surrounding finance and jobs.
So, what does this mean for realtors and estate agents? Both opportunity and competition. How can you step ahead of the competition and take advantage of the opportunity? Here are three digital advertising tactics to build into your strategy today.
1. Take advantage of those browsing online with effective targeting
If you know potential homebuyers are researching online, you have a variety of options to get your digital display ads in front of them. If they’re checking out your website, great. Retargeting is an essential tactic to keep them engaged – just make sure you feature the exact properties they viewed in your ad to keep their interest up.
It’s also a given that users will likely be researching the properties in the area (and the area itself) using search engines. Keyword search ads enable you to engage with homebuyers early in their search and continue this engagement down their purchase funnel, coupled with the likes of retargeting for example.
2. Create a local opportunity with geofencing
Geofencing is like retargeting in a physical space. You define your own location by drawing a digital “fence” around it. Once users pass through this area in real-time, you place a digital marker on them and serve them with ads on whatever device they’re using such as their smartphone or tablet.
You decide where you want to draw the fence. It could be around a property that potential buyers and viewing, or around a street where you’d love to get a property put on the market. Think about geofencing this way – you’re targeting your customers on where they are, not where you want them to be.
You can use geofencing in a number of ways. Specifically:
- Letting current owners know how much properties are going for in their area.
- Capturing people physically searching for new homes in a specific area – whether they’re attending open houses or simply visiting the location.
- Engaging with customers once they’ve viewed a specific property – this could be one you’re selling or even one that a competitor is selling.
3. Keep up with the market through feed ads
There have been stories of properties in the UK being sold without even a viewing, let alone a second viewing. The market is moving fast with properties coming on quickly and then being sold in a flash. Whilst this is of course good news for realtors and estate agents, it means that your digital advertising needs to move with the market.
To ensure you can get properties on as quickly as possible and keep everything updated when they are sold subject to contract, Feed Ads are essential. By automatically connecting your inventory to your ads everything will update in real-time. There’s now no need to spend budget building expensive ads whenever a new property comes on. You’re good to go just as quick as the market does.
Home buyers priorities have changed greatly since the beginning of the pandemic so it’s important to evaluate any benefits this brings. This could be in terms of targeting new buyers looking to move and your existing clients whose requirements may be subject to change.
Contact us today to learn how Fluid Ads can deliver digital display campaigns that keep you one step ahead of the real estate competition.