Anton Babkov: Retargeting recipes

Retargeting recipes for Real Estate

Did you know that, on average, only 2.8 per cent of your agency’s website visitors are ready to actually do something? If 1000 people visit your website this month, only 28 of them will submit an inquiry form. The other 972 will wander around for a while, then leave.

This wouldn’t be a problem if they came back to your site when they were ready to transact, but that could be months, or even years, down the track, and your website is just one in a long list of tabs they’ve opened. How are they supposed to remember you?

IT’S A LONG JOURNEY…

Spoke is a certified Google Partner. In one of our recent, regular catch-ups, our Google account manager reinforced that it takes, on average, 19.7 months to go from the dreaming stage, to researching, to being in the market. Most people dream about transacting for nearly a year before they start researching.

If a homeowner sees an ad for your latest market report at the start of their dreaming phase, they’re probably not going to remember you when it comes time to sell.

PATCHING UP THE HOLES

Savvy advertisers have developed a way to make sure these people don’t forget about what you’re offering: retargeting ads.

Here’s a quick explainer:

  • Someone clicks your ad and goes to your website
  • They leave your website without submitting an inquiry
  • They continue to browse the web and social media
  • Another of your ads appears
  • They click it, go to your website, and eventually inquire

If your website is the leaky sieve, remarketing ads are the bowl underneath, capturing all that possible business.

YES, IT’S A BUZZWORD

Because, quite simply, it works. Using retargeting in your digital marketing campaigns helps you:

  1. Create brand recognition and trust
  2. Save ad spend (because people are three times more likely to click a retargeting ad)
  3. Keep your audience’s attention (the risk of fatiguing your audience is halved)
  4. Win and sell more listings.

RETARGETING INSPO

If you keep hitting your audience with the same ads, they will eventually fall victim to a phenomenon called ‘banner blindness’.

Basically, they’ll stop noticing your ads. Here are some ideas to keep your retargeting ads looking fresh.

FOR YOUR LISTING ADS

Remember that this audience will have already seen your ads at least once. Use retargeting ads to create urgency and generate fear of missing out with copy like, “don’t let this one slip through the cracks” or, “be quick before it’s gone” instead of the generic, “address, # bed, # bath”.

You can also use retargeting ads to combat sales objections. Potential buyers in your retargeting audience already know your listing is on a main road, for example, so you could use words like “sound-proofed”.

Other ideas include: creating ads focusing on different parts of the house, shooting a video of the set-up for an open home, or giving statistics about the first open home attendance.

FOR YOUR BRANDING ADS

This is your chance to remind the audience what they saw on your landing page the first time around. These aren’t icecold leads, remember.

If your campaign advertises free market appraisals, draft retargeting ad copy about how many locals have taken up the offer.

If you’re offering a market report, give away snippets of valuable information.

If it’s a campaign about who you are as an agent, show imagery of different parts of your life – behind the scenes at the office, a video about how you got into the industry. Your options are endless.

What it all comes down to is this: the average human’s attention span is less than eight seconds. Retargeting provides a mechanism for repetition, which helps your message, and your brand, to be remembered. It may become your most powerful marketing tool.

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