Commissioned by Real Estate Webmasters, a quantitative survey was conducted by independent market research firm Concerto Marketing and included data from 300 active real estate professionals in urban and suburban regions, with their location evenly split between the United States and Canada. The research was conducted in October 2017, the company stated in its survey.
In 2017, a 53 percent majority of real estate professionals spent less than $5,000 on their annual marketing efforts, including both online and offline avenues. However, 1 in 8 real estate agents spent more than $20,000 in the year, with the top three percent spending more than $80,000 on their marketing, the survey said.
“I invest 10 to 15 percent of my annual GCI into marketing and 80 percent of that investment is into online channels, including my website, search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising,” Santa Cruz Realtor Lauren Spencer stated in the report. “As a result of this investment, approximately 50 percent of my clients find me online, although we still invest in traditional newspaper and magazine marketing too.”
Real Estate Webmasters CEO Morgan Carey stressed that real estate agents are taking advantage of the digital space available allowing more ambition when it comes to focusing on their websites and online marketing endeavors because that is where the clients are.
The quantitative study of 300 active agents, team leaders and brokers also revealed that websites and digital marketing are the top marketing tools used by real estate professionals today. Seventy percent of those surveyed had a website, while 38 percent actively advertise in social media, the survey showed.
The next most popular advertising channel was local newspaper advertising at 26 percent and search engine marketing at 23 percent. Other advertising channels used by more than 10 percent of real estate professionals include local sponsorships, magazines, online display ads and door-to-door flyers.
“Years ago, we used to be old-fashioned using print as our main marketing channel and we shifted to an online platform six years ago, reallocating that marketing spend to Real Estate Webmasters,” said Diane Johnson, operating principal at the Austin Keller Williams Realty Southwest Market Center. “Investing in our web presence is important because it gives me stories I can tell. I want to be able to tell any potential recruit that we’re out there spending these marketing dollars to help you get more business.”
The survey also revealed that at least 1 in 4 real estate professionals said they intend to invest more in their web platform spending (website, CRM, hosting), while only 1 in 10 real estate professionals were likely to spend less. The spending intention for search engine optimization (SEO) and other forms of online advertising was similar to that of web platforms, with nearly all respondents planning to spend the same or more in the coming year.
In nearly all categories, according to the report, real estate professionals with a higher GCI were more likely to maintain or increase their marketing investments in the coming year. The one notable exception was pay-per-click advertising, in which all income-earners had similar spending plans for 2018.
“Our real estate clients are investing in three core areas: SEO, pay-per-click and paid social media. SEO and PPC are tried and true, and they’ve long been the backbone of almost every successful strategy we’ve seen,” Carey said. “But agents across all income levels have also figured out that platforms like Facebook provide huge opportunity to generate new leads as well, so the industry is naturally gravitating towards social advertising in 2018.”