How to measure the success of your marketing efforts and optimize your performance
For many luxury real estate agents, marketing efforts are determined by what you see others doing and perhaps what your coach suggests you do. Perhaps you know enough about marketing to understand that getting in front of your target audience frequently and with a helpful message is the overall goal of your efforts and your budget. You’ve invested in social media marketing, property websites, email campaigns, and everything in between.
But how do you know what’s really working, and whether your efforts and investments are paying off?
That’s where KPIs come in.
KPIs, or key performance indicators, are quantifiable measurements of success. So, instead of judging the effectiveness of your marketing by trying to remember how many new clients mentioned your website, you can instead drill down on the metrics that matter most for your business.
The KPIs that you’ll want to spend the most time analyzing will depend on your overall goals and strategy for your business. For example, while measuring TikTok followers might be incredibly meaningful for one real estate agent, the next agent might not benefit from dedicating any time to social media analytics at all.
When it comes to determining how well your online marketing efforts are working for the growth and success of your real estate business, focus on these five KPIs.
1. Conversion rates
One of the most important metrics you can spend your time analyzing is conversion rate. The term “conversion rate” can apply to various different marketing goals, which is part of the reason it is so versatile and crucial. Conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors on a certain page or ad who complete the desired action on that page or ad.
For example, to calculate the conversion rate of a property website landing page, you can divide the number of people who contacted you about that property by the number of people who visited that page in a set period of time.
2. Web visits
Regardless of the other online marketing strategies and platforms you utilize, your high end real estate website likely operates as the hub of your online presence. This is where your ads likely drive, where you can showcase your listings, and where potential clients can learn more about you and get in touch with you. Assuming you’ve spent time optimizing your website with calls to action and compelling, helpful content, measuring how many people spend time on your website can give you a good idea of the success of your other marketing efforts and of how valuable your visitors are finding your content.
You can break web visits down into new and returning users in order to determine how many new people you’re reaching as well as how many people keep coming back for more of your content. If you find either to be lacking, you can use this as an indicator to double down on your marketing efforts and search engine optimization or to refine the content of your website to encourage visitors to come back or to get in touch with you.
3. Search traffic
Particularly if search engine optimization (SEO) is a core aspect of your marketing strategy, keeping an eye on how much website traffic is generated by organic search is crucial. In general, breaking down your website performance analysis into traffic sources can be extremely eye-opening and allow you to understand which of your online tactics are working well, and which could use some tweaks.
In order to improve your search traffic metrics, consider SEO basics. Ensure you’re producing user-friendly content that makes your visitors want to spend ample time on your website instead of clicking right back out of it. Work with website specialists to check that the technical aspects of your website are operating correctly; slow page load times or a page that isn’t mobile-friendly can throw a real wrench in your SEO rankings. Strategies like video content can also work wonders for organic SEO!
4. Cost per lead acquisition
Regardless of how many people follow you on Instagram, how many people pop onto your website each month or how many people “Liked” your most recent TikTok, in real estate marketing, acquiring leads is the name of the game. The entire purpose of getting your name out there and showing up consistently for your audience is to generate leads for your real estate business. Therefore, one of the most important KPIs for real estate marketers is cost per lead acquisition.
For example, if you run a Facebook ad that directs users to a lead form by collecting their email address and phone number, you can calculate your cost per lead on the particular ad by dividing the amount spent on the ad by the number of leads you’ve gained. If you ran an ad for $500 and ended up with 37 leads, your cost per lead would come out to $13.51. Depending on what fraction of those leads turn into closed contracts or listings, that price is likely well worth the budget!
5. Referral rate
One of the best and most affordable ways to grow your real estate business is to focus on generating referrals. A new lead that comes to you via a referral compared to a cold lead generated from a Facebook ad is much more likely to partner with you for their real estate needs down the line. Especially because real estate transactions are often the largest financial investments people ever make, the level of trust required before someone dives in to work with a new realtor is understandably substantial.
When one of your clients tells their friends and connections about you and you gain a new lead (or multiple new leads) as a result of your hard work with your initial client, you can quickly see your business grow exponentially. Because referrals are so valuable, tracking referral rate as a core KPI can keep your attention on action items for generating those referrals.
You can calculate the referral rate by dividing how many clients refer you to others by your total number of clients. If your referral rate is low, it may be time to incorporate more follow-up emails or touchpoints with clients after closing occurs. Staying top of mind is crucial, even with your connections who likely won’t be moving for a while. When someone’s friend mentions needing a realtor, you want your name to be right on the tip of their tongue!
Taking Action Based On Your KPIs
The additional KPIs you choose to focus on will depend on the specific goals and strategies of your particular luxury real estate business. For example, if you’re completely bought into using TikTok as a marketing strategy for your listings, it makes sense to track TikTok followers as a core KPI because your number of followers will help dictate how many people see your content and therefore how many people will be able to inquire about each property via TikTok!
Fortunately, many of the KPIs discussed here can be applied to various different strategies. Regardless of how you go about finding leads, calculating your cost per lead acquisition is crucial. No matter whether you’re looking to book showings or buyer consultations, tracking your conversion rates will tell you how your efforts to get the word out are performing.
In addition to tracking these KPIs, take time to create an action plan if you see any metric begin to slip. We can’t control what we aren’t measuring, but if we don’t take action of those measurements, we can’t expect a change. For example, low conversion rates on ads might call for a revamp of your ad images or copy. It may be time to run a split test to see whether one is underperforming!
The important thing is to make a plan and execute based on the story told by your KPIs. Marketing is an ongoing learning experience no matter how long you’ve been in real estate, thanks to the ever-changing landscape of social media and SEO. The more you keep watch of your key metrics and implement strategies to improve them, the better your results will be!
