RISMEDIA, Sept. 22, 2008-Real estate website Zillow.com announced the launch of a new advertising platform for national and regional real estate brokerages that features local for sale listings right on the Zillow.com home page. Using Zillow’s ad serving technology, the listings are customized to the user’s most recent search of homes-down to the neighborhood or ZIP code, home size, price range and attributes. For a national or regional brokerage, this means exposure for their listings to the more than eight million visits that come through the Zillow.com home page every month.
Called Home Page Featured Listings, these ads use innovative ad serving technology developed by Zillow engineers to match sponsored brands’ for sale listings to a buyer’s search preferences for homes on Zillow. The Zillow home page features three graphical ad units at a time-two sponsored by national brands and one sponsored by a regional brokerage.
Because the ads are targeted to a user’s most recent search (versus their geographic location), advertisers are able to target all buyers, including those who may be relocating or purchasing a second home.
“At Zillow, we recognize that in today’s challenging housing market, national and regional brokerages need performance-based online advertising solutions that deliver real results for their agents and sellers, while strengthening brand awareness,” said Greg Schwartz, vice president of ad sales at Zillow. “Zillow’s new Home Page Featured Listings are another example of our commitment to providing high value, high return advertising solutions for real estate advertisers.”
According to the company, Century 21® is the first national brokerage to participate in the program. Buyers today can see CENTURY 21 ad units relevant to their recent home searches on the Zillow.com home page, on map pages, and on searches throughout the site. There are additional national and regional
opportunities available to brokerages who are interested in participating.
“We continue to leverage the most innovative technologies to reach online homebuyers. With 84% of consumers using the Internet to search for their next home (2), Zillow’s Home Page Featured Listings offer a significant new opportunity for CENTURY 21 to position our Brokers’ property listings for success,” said Bev Thorne, chief marketing officer, CENTURY 21 Real Estate LLC.
Zillow’s paid advertising options and free for-sale listings comprise one of the industry’s most extensive platforms for helping real estate agents and brokerages market their brands and their listings to engaged home buyers and sellers. Ninety percent of Zillow users own a home, and two-thirds are buying or selling today or in the coming 24 months. Additionally, a recent independent study published by Threewide Corporation found that listing a home for sale on Zillow produced more quality leads than nearly any other third-party site, meaning that Zillow users are closer to making an actual purchase than those on other websites.
(1) Of 11.2 million visits to Zillow.com in August 2008, 8.1 million originated on the Zillow.com home page. Source: Omniture.
(2) 84% of home buyers use the Internet to search for a home. Source: 2007 National Association of Realtors(R) Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.
For more information, visit http://www.zillow.com.
