Are you trying to increase your listings in an efficient way? IP targeting allows you to lock in on specific homes so that you can focus your advertising resources on the best prospects. Keep reading to learn more about how IP targeting works and how it can help you grow your book of business.
What is IP Targeting?
IP targeting allows you to show advertisements to specific people or groups of people. It does this by showing ads to specific IP addresses on your list.
An IP address is a unique number that identifies each computer network. It works much like a physical home address. Every house with an internet connection has its own IP address. IP addresses also contain geographic information including the following.
- Country
- State
- City
- Zip code
- Area code
- Latitude and longitude
This allows you to lock in on a specific home or target a group of homes in a defined area. You can see it in action by using an IP location finder. The location finder will automatically detect your IP address and show the publicly available information tied to it. This is the same type of information you can use for IP targeting.
How Does IP Targeting Work?
When you buy online ads, you can set who you want to show them to. There are a variety of options available including geographic area, demographic information, keyword searching, and IP targeting. For example, you might set your ad to show in the New York City metropolitan area. That would show your ad to a potential audience of 8 million people and eat up your budget showing ads to people who aren’t considering buying or selling a home.
If you target your ads by IP address instead, your ads will only show on computers matching an IP address on the list or range that you provided. This doesn’t mean that your ads are guaranteed to show. You still need to outbid other potential advertisers. But, it does mean that your ads will only show to people who you’ve qualified in some way.
What’s the Cost and Benefit of IP Targeting?
When you buy online ads, you usually pay for each person who either sees or clicks on your ad. Across the entire real estate industry, the average percentage of people who click on an ad is 3.71% for search engine ads and 1.08% for display ads on websites. Of those clicks, many of the visitors still won’t have any interest or need in your services.
Per ad view or click, IP targeting can be more expensive. Your advertising network may charge more for IP targeting, you may have to bid higher to win ads in a narrower market, or you may need to pay for a list of IP addresses. However, if you have a good list of IP addresses, the people you’re targeting should be more likely to use your services and more likely to sign with you.
As a way of simple example, say with a broadly targeted ad you expect a 1% conversion rate with an expected client value of $1,000. That means you need to spend less than $10 per click (1% x $1,000). The point of IP targeting is to increase your conversion rate and/or your expected value. Changing the above example to a 10% conversion rate gives you a budget of up to $100 per click. If your expected client value increases to $2,000, that increases your budget per click to $200.
In short, IP targeting may have a higher upfront cost, but you’ll win out by closing more deals at a higher value.
How Do You Get a List of IP Addresses?
There are several different ways you can get a list of IP addresses.
- Track people who visited your website or clicked on your ad.
- Purchase broad databases that show things like IP addresses tied to physical mailing addresses.
- Purchase databases of specific consumer profiles such as people who have checked for mortgage rates.
This may sound complicated, but it’s no different than how you may have obtained direct mailing lists in the past. In fact, IP targeting can be combined with your traditional marketing methods so you can reach customers on multiple channels.
How to Use IP Targeting to Get More Real Estate Deals
The goal in real estate IP targeting is to find the people who are most likely to sell their homes or buy a new home in the near future. There are a few different ways you can do this.
Broad Approach
A broad approach targets groups of people with similar characteristics. This might include homeowners in a hot neighborhood who may be willing to sell to take advantage of recent market price increases. Or, it could be renters in an apartment complex who may be looking to buy. A broad approach works very similarly to a traditional direct mail campaign except you’re using online ads instead of postcards.
Tailored Approach
The problem with a broad approach is that you aren’t really narrowing your list down any more than you could have done with traditional marketing methods. You’re really just shifting to an online medium while your ads still reach people who have no interest in selling or buying.
A tailored approach lets you reach specific homes whose online behavior or consumer transactions demonstrate that they’ve shown some sort of interest in buying or selling a home. These users are also ranked by their probabilities, so you can only target people who are actively looking to enter the market or play the long game by targeting everyone who has shown interest.
Combining with Traditional Methods
As you’re aware from experience, it usually takes multiple conversations before you can convince someone to become a client. IP targeting can combine with your traditional marketing methods.
- Send ads to people who you’ve met with in person.
- Pair up digital ads with your direct mail marketing campaign as before or after reinforcement.
- If you have business contacts who send you referrals, put them on your digital ad list so they don’t forget you.
With the right IP address list, there are no limits to what you can do or who you can target.
Use ProspectNow to Build Your IP Targeting List
ProspectNow offers a database of over 140 million residential and commercial properties including 23 million that are predicted to sell. We offer a full range of marketing options including digital marketing, direct mail, and phone and email contact information. Instead of worrying about how to find your next listing, you can focus on closing more deals. To learn more, start your free trial or contact us with any questions you have.