The Top (and Bottom) Performing Ads On Zillow
By: Sara Bonert, Director of Broker Relations | August 19, 2009
Zillow makes money by selling ads on the site. But, to be a successful media company, we need to make sure our customers are realizing success with their ads. To help our customers do this, it is important to look at what the best-performing ads look like, and the lowest performing, because ad content is crucial to performance. Actually, these findings can apply broadly to any advertising campaign, not just those on Zillow.
The #1 takeaway:
LISTING ADS PERFORM A LOT BETTER (in terms of “click-throughs”) THAN AGENT HEAD SHOT ADS.
Observations from the Top 50 ads on Zillow:
- 100% were ads for listings
- 45 of 50 ads were an exterior home shot, 3 were interior, 2 were aerials
- 42 of the ads mentioned a specific area (neighborhood, city or addres)
- 8 central messages revolved around Short Sale, Foreclosure or price reduction
- 2 were Open House ads
- 0 photos were renderings (illustrations), all were actual photos
- 0 ads promoted a specific person, business or brand
- 22 of the ads had a specific price visible
- 7 had a phone number visible
- 50 had photos that were taken on a sunny day
Observations from the Bottom 20 ads on Zillow:
- 18 of the ads promoted an agent/broker/brand
- 1 did not have a photo (and no clicks)
- 1 had some type of call-to-action on the ad
To protect the innocent, here are the most-used tag lines from these ads:
Buying or Selling?
Let’s Make It Happen!
Greater [City] Expert
[State] Specialist (you specialize in the whole state?)
Call For Results
Buyer Rebate
Luxury Living
I’ll Get You Moving
Need Perspective?
Local [Large City] Expert (would be more effective if neighborhood name was used)
31 Yrs Selling Experience
Certified Mtg Planner (does Joe Public know what Mtg is?)
… and the most common: No tag line - Just company name
Top 5 best-performing ads on Zillow this week:
In case you aren’t familiar with Zillow Showcase Ads, they are ZIP-code targeted ads that can be updated at any time.
Showcase Ads are very effective for agent advertising. If you want to get an idea of cost, you can call 1-866-324-4005 and one of our marketing consultants will be glad to give you a local quote, as prices vary depending on much traffic your area receives.
The marketing consultants would also be happy to consult with you on creative, whether you are a new or existing client.
If you are a visual person, please watch this video with more information about how Zillow Advertising works:
- Stumble it!
- Categories: Advertising
Comments
19 Comments so far
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Geordie Romer | Leavenworth WA on August 19, 2009 9:54 am
Sara- Thanks so much for this post. I think this is quite useful for folks attempting make the best use of the Zillow showcase ads. As you know, I’ve probably been pretty critical of Zillow ads - not because I don’t like Zillow, but because I am not convinced they are effective.
http://www.geekestateblog.com/buying-ads-on-zillow/
I’m curious what kind of click through rates (CTR)the successful ads are getting and maybe more importantly, how do they each compare to state averages?
It would also be interesting to know how the zipcodes for the top performing ads perform as far as Zillow answers, # of Zillow listings, and Zestimates.
If there are no Zestimates for a zipcode do the ads perform poorly? If no one participates in Zillow answers, do the ads perform poorly?
Les@ Release Equity on August 19, 2009 2:51 pm
Very informative info, good to know how it works. Like the look of the bankrupt auctions property, may take a look at that one myself!
Al Lorenz on August 19, 2009 4:31 pm
We’ve found the same thing, by testing various ads, that advertising specific strengths, with pictures, of our client’s properties is much more productive than advertising the brokerage or brand.
Our clients like it much more also!
edwin on August 19, 2009 6:28 pm
Interesting report, I’m learning about this online ads right now. Thanks
Gainesville Foreclosures on August 19, 2009 7:32 pm
Two of the top 5 ads were for auctions. I have an page on my site dedicated to auctions, but the foreclosure page is the most viewed page on my site by far. I would be advertising foreclosures on zillow if I had some foreclosure listings of my own, but REO’s are a hot commodity right now for both listing agents and buyers.
More than half my leads only want to see foreclosures or auctions.
Winners And Losers at zillow.com | Property Portal Watch on August 19, 2009 9:16 pm
[...] real estate marketplace zillow.com has published a blog post revealing the qualities of the best-performing ads, and lowest performing ads, on its website. [...]
zillow.com: What Makes A Good Listing? | propertyadguru.com on August 19, 2009 9:21 pm
[...] US real estate marketplace zillow.com has published a blog post revealing the qualities of the best-performing ads, and lowest performing ads, on its website. [...]
Brandon on August 20, 2009 10:38 am
Interesting analysis of what makes a good real estate ad! I hope no other agents in the Washington, DC area read it
Teresa Barthol on August 25, 2009 11:29 am
I would like see my display ad move into the best-performing ads. Otherwise its just another one of those ideas that empties the wallet. This is not what any of us want. Changing things up! More often! Looking for advise and open to suggestions.
George (Jerzy) Szkup on August 25, 2009 5:11 pm
Zillow’s Customer Service system “stinks”. I have been trying for some time get help in signing in - but there is no way to get help?
George
Sara Bonert on August 25, 2009 6:30 pm
George - The best thing to do is to post your question in our Zillow Advice. Also you can send an email to repros@zillow.com .
Jane Asdal on September 9, 2009 4:36 am
What Zillo data is being searched most frequently? Can you provide a top 10 list on this? Jane Asdal, Morristown NJ
sara bonert on September 9, 2009 5:47 am
Jane-
That is hard to answer because it really varies on a local level. I can tell you the piece of information that is most often searched for by our audience, and what drives the most traffic to the site, is the Zestimate.
If you go to this page - http://www.zillow.com/advertising/, you’ll be able to at least the type of people that are coming to the site.
Alex H. Wang on October 20, 2009 9:37 pm
Great job in tracking stats. What is the point of selling hiring an agent to sell a house if they’re more interested in selling / promoting themselves. I’ve never been a fan of advertising, but I definitely believe it produces good results if “done well” (which is not easy to do, especially in the real estate business)
Debra DiMassimo on October 22, 2009 9:00 am
I am hesitant to advertise on Zillow because I have an old listing (sold in May 2009) that I am unable to eliminate despite repeated efforts. Apparently, the actual closing date preceded the supposed listing date because of a renewing automatic feed. The house at 197 View Drive, Richmond, MA 01254 was sold for $380,000! Please take it off the site.
Sara Bonert on October 22, 2009 9:07 am
Hey Debbie - The reason is that it is still on Zillow is because it is still tagged as being for sale on Property Previews. Once you remove it from that database, it will no longer publish to Zillow.
I removed the home from Zillow for you. But if you don’t take it out of the Property Preview database, it will rewrite to the site the next time the feed runs.
Ken Baris on October 22, 2009 10:36 am
That was a really great post! It should make a difference for our marketing on Zillow!
What Real Estate Pictures Work Best To Attract Attention? | Dakota County Properties on October 30, 2009 3:15 pm
[...] Zillow recently published an article that showed which real estate ads were driving the most traffic. One thing that caught my attention was the fact that of their Top 50 performing ads – all 50 of them were of homes taken on a sunny day. Top Performing Zillow Ads [...]
Diana Dahlberg on November 4, 2009 4:45 pm
Just wanted to thank you for the great information on Top performing ads on Zillow. I took your advise and since I signed up for the Showcase Ads 9/30/09 I’ve had a better than average number of looks and hits. In my area the State average is .24 and I’m getting the following percentages from my 3 zipcodes:
.86% in one, .56% in another, and .57% in the other. This is great! I’m looking forward to experimenting with the information I provide to see how my percentages fair. Oh! I’m using only sunny photos and exterior pictures of my homes! Who cares what I look like? I’m not a house!!! And that’s what the buyers care about! At least when they are just in the Information Gathering stage of buying a home! Thanks again for the great advise.