What is retargeting?
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a form of online advertising that can help you keep your listings, profile and content in front of clients and prospects who have already been to your website. For most websites, only 2% of its traffic converts on the first visit – this means a form submission, blog subscriber or phone call. Retargeting is a tool designed to help real estate websites reach the 98% of users who don’t convert right away.
What’s this I keep hearing about a ‘pixel’?
It starts by placing a small piece of code on your website (this code is sometimes referred to as a pixel). If you’re running ads on Google or Facebook, both of these platforms provide you with a unique ‘pixel’ when setting up your account. The code, or pixel, is unnoticeable to your site visitors and every time a new visitor comes to your site, the pixel is triggered.
Then, when your website visitors are browsing Google or Facebook later, those platforms will know that the person has been to your website, because their pixel was triggered, and your ads will be served – giving you the opportunity to bring your previous website visitors back to your site once again.
Why is retargeting important?
Retargeting can act as a digital reminder to clients and prospects of their desire to engage with your business, hopefully encouraging them to come back to read your content or request a meeting. It can also be a great way to raise brand awareness in the digital marketplace, keeping your company at the forefront of consumers’ minds wherever they are browsing on the web.
In real estate, with so many companies now competing for the attention of consumers – including the major portals and ratings & reviews sites – it’s critical that you drive as much traffic back to your own website. When someone is on your website, you’re no longer competing for attention against other real estate agents.
But wait! You’ll need this first…
Retargeting your website visitors can be a very cost-effective way of converting cold prospects into clients. But before you even think about installing a pixel on your site and running ads across the web, you need traffic. And lots of it!
You can’t retarget traffic that doesn’t exist.
The average real estate website in Australia generates between 800 – 1,200 visitors per month.
By giving everything away in the body of an email or social media post, your readers have no reason to visit your website and therefore your pixels won’t be triggered.
Furthermore, your pixels from Facebook and Google can only be installed on web pages that you own. So if you’re using third-party email providers who build landing pages on their domain, you’re missing a huge opportunity. You ultimately want that traffic on your website.
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