Real Estate display ads strategies for 2024

In the ever-evolving world of digital advertising, real estate businesses have long relied on display ads to showcase their properties and attract potential buyers. However, recent data from Google's study reveals a seismic shift in the real estate display ads landscape in 2023.

While the expertise of REALTORS® remains vital to the home buying and selling process, the internet serves as a tool for all generations of home buyers; 97% of all homebuyers used the internet in their home search

90% of REALTORS® use Facebook, followed by 52% on Instagram, and 48% on LinkedIn

Cost per Lead surged by 46%

The Google study highlights a staggering 46% surge in the cost per lead for real estate display ads in 2023. This increase implies that capturing potential buyers' attention and generating quality leads has become more challenging and expensive. Real estate businesses must evaluate their lead generation strategies and explore innovative ways to optimize their ad campaigns to ensure a higher return on investment.

Cost per Click rose by 12%

Another noteworthy finding from the study is the 12% increase in the cost per click (CPC) for real estate display ads. This rise in CPC indicates a highly competitive landscape, where businesses are willing to pay more to secure ad placements. To navigate this increased competition, real estate advertisers must rethink their bidding strategies, refine their targeting, and craft compelling ad creatives to maximize their ad spend efficiency.

Conversion Rate declined by 18%

Perhaps the most concerning finding is the 18% decline in conversion rates for real estate display ads. This drop suggests a growing disconnection between the ads and potential buyers' needs or interests. Real estate businesses need to reassess their targeting criteria and tailor their ad campaigns to effectively reach their intended audience. Additionally, optimizing landing pages for a seamless user experience and implementing persuasive call-to-action elements can help mitigate the decline in conversion rates.

Ad Fatigue

One possible reason for the drop in conversion rates is ad fatigue. Over time, users may become less responsive to repetitive or irrelevant display ads. To combat ad fatigue, real estate businesses should regularly update their ad creatives and ensure they are tailored to specific target audiences. A/B testing different ad variations can help identify the most effective designs and messaging.

71% of consumers feel frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal. - Segment 

Here are some strategies to consider

Invest in Creative Innovation. To improve conversion rates, it is crucial to stand out from the competition. One effective way to do this is by investing in creative ad formats and innovative approaches. By incorporating engaging visuals, interactive elements, and personalized messaging, you can capture your audience's attention and increase the likelihood of converting them into customers.

Visual appeal: Use high-quality images and videos that are visually appealing and relevant to your target audience.

In the realm of display advertising, it's crucial not to underestimate the power of creative elements. Research has shown that from 60% to up to 85% of a display ad campaign's success is driven by the creative aspects. This statistic highlights the significant impact that well-crafted and attention-grabbing creatives can have on capturing audience attention, driving engagement, and ultimately boosting conversions.

Interactive elements: Incorporate interactive elements into your ads or landing pages. This could include quizzes, calculators, product configurators, or other interactive tools that engage users and provide them with a unique and personalized experience.

You can find out more about HTML5 banner ads and the way to scale it in our blog post: Honing the Art: Exploring the World of Static and HTML5 Banner Advertising

Personalized Messaging: Tailor your messaging to specific customer segments or individuals. Use data analytics and customer insights to create personalized ad copy, email campaigns, or website content that resonates with your audience's needs and preferences.

We have discussed this topic in depth in the blog post Scaling personalized ad creatives: the daunting hurdle in Adtech customization

A/B Testing: Continuously test different ad formats, visuals, messaging, and calls-to-action to identify what works best for your target audience. Conduct A/B tests to compare performance and optimize your campaigns based on the results.

Viewst can help your designers to resize your HTML5 ad creative with a click of a button. Please, watch this short video to learn more.

Mobile Optimization: Ensure that your ads and landing pages are optimized for mobile devices. With the increasing use of smartphones, it is crucial to provide a seamless mobile experience to potential customers. Make sure the design is responsive, load times are fast, and the user interface is intuitive.

Social Proof: Incorporate social proof elements such as customer testimonials, reviews, case studies, or social media mentions to build trust and credibility. Highlight positive experiences and showcase how your product or service has benefited your existing customers.

Clear Call-to-Action: Make sure your ads and landing pages have a clear and compelling call-to-action (CTA). Use action-oriented language, contrasting colors, and prominent placement to guide users towards the desired conversion action.

Simplify Conversion Process: Streamline the conversion process by minimizing the number of steps required. Remove unnecessary form fields, ensure a smooth checkout process, and provide multiple payment options to reduce friction and increase the chances of conversion.

Remember, it is essential to monitor and analyze the performance of your creative innovations. Track key metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI) to assess the effectiveness of your strategies and make data-driven optimizations.

Unlocking the Metrics: Measuring the Performance of Ad Creatives

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital advertising, measuring the performance of ad creatives has become an essential practice for real estate businesses. Accurate and insightful performance metrics help marketers understand the effectiveness of their campaigns, make data-driven decisions, and optimize their strategies for maximum impact. While various tools exist to measure ad creative performance in social media, the display ad realm faces a lack of specialized tools. Let's delve deeper into this topic.

Measuring Social Media Ad Creative Performance: When it comes to social media advertising, marketers have access to a plethora of tools to measure ad creative performance. One such tool gaining traction is Motion app. Motion offers comprehensive analytics and reporting features that enable marketers to track key performance metrics, including engagement rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Additionally, Motion provides insights into audience demographics, geographical reach, and ad placements. With these valuable metrics at their disposal, marketers can refine their creative strategies, target the right audience segments, and optimize their social media ad campaigns.

Another innovative tool making waves in the social media advertising space is Marpipe. Marpipe offers a unique platform that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize ad creative performance. It allows marketers to create multiple ad variations and automatically tests them against each other, providing real-time insights into which creatives are driving the best results. Marpipe's robust analytics capabilities empower marketers to make data-backed decisions, iterate on their ad creatives, and improve campaign performance.

While the social media advertising landscape boasts a range of tools for measuring ad creative performance, the display ad realm faces a dearth of specialized tools. Display ads often have different formats, placements, buy media across different DSPs and targeting options, making it challenging to analyze ads across all different DSP channels. This lack of dedicated tools creates a gap in the ability to measure and optimize display ad creative performance effectively.

Real estate businesses investing in display ads must rely on general analytics platforms, such as Google Analytics, to gauge the overall performance of their campaigns. These platforms provide insights into metrics like impressions, click-through rates, and conversion rates. However, they often fall short in providing granular insights specific to ad creatives, making it difficult for marketers to identify which specific creatives are driving the best results.

In a world where display ad creatives often struggle to find dedicated performance measurement tools, Viewst emerges as a game-changer. Designed to address the pain points of the industry, Viewst provides real estate businesses with a powerful solution to generate, test, and measure the performance of their ad creatives in a seamless and efficient manner.

Viewst's innovative platform empowers designers to generate HTML5 banner ad variations in bulk, creating dozens, or even hundreds, of unique ad creatives. By leveraging its advanced technology, Viewst enables designers to easily iterate on their creatives, experiment with different visuals, messaging, and calls-to-action, and generate a wide range of variations to test.

What sets Viewst apart from traditional ad creative tools is its ability to provide real-time performance insights. By connecting their Campaign Manager ad accounts with Viewst, designers gain access to a wealth of valuable data. They can monitor how their ad creatives are performing in terms of impressions, click-through rates, and conversions, all in real-time. This level of visibility allows designers to make data-driven decisions, identify the top-performing variations, and optimize their display ad campaigns for maximum impact.

As the digital advertising landscape continues to evolve, Viewst's innovative approach to ad creative performance measurement sets the stage for a new era of data-driven optimization. By empowering designers with actionable insights, Viewst propels the real estate industry towards more effective and impactful display ad campaigns.

For real estate businesses seeking to scale and optimize their display ad creative efforts, Viewst offers a powerful solution. To learn more about how Viewst can revolutionize your ad campaigns, don't hesitate to reach out to the team and schedule a live demo.

"My marketing team and I have been using Viewst to build Google ads banners, and I'd like to tell you about my experience with the platform. We were able to make advertising that looked professional in no time at all with Viewst. Thanks to Unlimited Resizes, we were able to easily change the format of our ads. Resizing is now a thing of the past! Thanks to Viewst's intuitive Design Editor, we have full creative power, and it's even easier than Photoshop and Illustrator. We have complete control on the color scheme, typefaces, and layouts. Because it lets us make different ad versions with varying content, it also makes A/B testing easier. The capacity to do away with tedious design chores like resizing is, however, Viewst's real selling point. Our testing throughout and productivity have both been greatly enhanced by this."

Roy El Baba
Head of Marketing at Provident Real Estate