By: Alyssa Hamm
Every season brings new trends in the real estate market and the start to 2018 is no different. We are already off to a fast start as the selling season is starting sooner than in previous years. “Buying season (began) as soon as January. This year’s buying market isn’t waiting for spring, which is the traditional beginning we’ve seen in past years.” It is a seller’s market with homes priced $100K- $350K making it a tight market for first time home buyers as homes in that range are selling quickly. We saw a quick market in 2017 (25% of homes selling in two weeks or less during peak buying season and 1 in 5 off the market in less than a week), and 2018 is expected to be even faster. This means reaching that buyer or seller is as important as ever. With decisions happening quickly, a strong branding campaign can ensure your business is top of mind when a buyer or seller is ready to hit the market.
88% of buyers use a real estate agent, and 50% found the home they were looking for online. Many buyers are doing research and searching listings before they reach out to an agent, but still rely on an agent to help them “cross the finish line.” With digital there are many ways to reach the home buying audience, and since home buying is a very visual process, many advertisers have invested in video. Using video as a way to reach a home buyer can be a very good way to stay top of mind while providing images that help to influence the buying decision. Below are some tactical ideas for reaching this audience:
Ways we can target:
- Audience Data: Using both data collected on desktop and mobile devices we can reach people based on content they have consumed, locations they have been and apps they have on their device.
- Contextual Data: Reach home buyers and sellers while they are actively reading content on real estate.
- Hyperlocal: Use the power of location to reach users based on where they are. Advertisers can target hot neighborhoods or areas of town with lots of listings.
- Video: Reuse tours and agent/advertiser video messaging online on mobile, desktop and connected TV devices.
- Programmatic Native: Showcase beautiful images in an ad unit that feels more native to the content the user is consuming.
- Retargeting: This is a key tactic! Your advertiser must ensure they are top of mind with buyers and sellers especially in this quick moving market.