Real estate is a big earner online, for a wide variety of people. Agents, experts and financial companies make out like bandits, while ordinary Joes can even cash in with affiliate sites and participation in ad-sharing. Zillow, a leading real estate ‘vertical search’ engine is at the for , having been taken under Yahoo’s wing and spent most of 2006 and 2007 setting the foundation for a good experiences.
They instituted ‘bird eye view, ‘hot maps’ (which show the square footage price and their own labs. .Zillow raised 30 million dollars last September, and has been steadily improving and expanding their search engine to provide better vertical options. Now they are introducing an even more comprehensive way to research real estate on the web.
Back in August, Zillow launched a program called ‘Showcase Ads’ – an extremely specific type of targeting that allows advertisers to by anywhere from 25 to 100% of ads in a particular locale. This is the tightest possible saturation, and can be extremely effective in certain markets.
Greg Schwartz, vice president of ad sales at Zillow.com, said: “Zillow is committed to offering local professionals affordable and easy- to-use tools to get in front of our large audience of consumers interested in real estate and buying and selling homes. Greg Schwartz, vice president of ad sales at Zillow.com. We strongly believe that the more targeted an ad can be, both at a national and local level, the more useful the consumer will find it and the more successful the advertiser will be.”
Zillow also announced a new network of its newspaper consortium in September, trying to increase attention for their 5.4 million audience. “The Zillow Advertising Network gives local and national advertisers unprecedented access to the largest online audience of home buying and selling consumers available, including the loyal, engaged audiences visiting Zillow and our newspaper partners,” Schwartz said. “This affluent and qualified audience of consumers making major home-related purchases is extremely valuable to advertisers and can now be targeted across a range of geographic considerations.”
Most recently, Zillow has launched their own directory, allowing real estate professionals to market themselves to the engine’s users for free. “This is a free opportunity for local professionals to market their services to Zillow’s millions of visitors – 90 percent of whom own a home, and two-thirds who are buying or selling now or in the near future. In today’s challenging market, it’s a no-brainer,” said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Zillow’s vice president of partner relations.
If you have a site that is any way related to the real estate market, you might be able to start optimizing for and marketing with Zillow.
Tags: geomarketing, online marketing, real estate, Zillow