Trulia has been an innovator, from Listing Syndication to our iPhone application to our partnerships - innovation is a core part of our company culture. Last year, we really went after innovating and improving your experience when we introduced our new Online Billboard w/ live listing widget. This has revolutionized the “banner ad” you knew before.
Banner ads don’t generally work to drive traffic to your website. They also tend to offer little relevant content to the consumer. What does that mean? The old banner ad is on life support because advertisers failed to ask one important question:
Why would a consumer interact with this ad?
Over a year ago we went in search of a solution. A few sites were dabbling with “live content” ads, however they were very expensive and the technologies were still not meeting the key criteria I believe a banner ad needs to meet for a consumer to click on it:
1) Relevant to the site they are on, and that specific site’s experience
2) Fresh, live data that won’t be overly duplicative
3) Movement or implementation that attracts the consumer’s eye
4) Deliver EXACTLY what the consumer expects when they click on it, thus making the experience positive.
5) Seamless integration into the experience
We had to make it easy. So we made a turn-key system that did not give them another project to worry about. Other than limited creative guidance from the client, we took care of the rest. Thus was born the Online Billboard listing widget. It fulfills the criteria above and more when coupled with Trulia’s advanced targeting by ZIP, county, state, price points and more.
We have had several clients test this new display technology for over a year, and I am happy to share the results.
Our hypothesis was correct. Every Online Billboard unit that ran our live listing widget saw a 3-5X increase in click through rates when compared to standard banner ads. Some had a 10X increase. It also did not matter where the widget was targeted - East, West, North, South, Regional or National - it worked!
Here are some Online Billboards with live listing widgets running now:
1) Rand Better Homes & Garden Online Billboard
2) Prudential California Online Billboard
3) Champion Real Estate Online Billboard
We have an early case study done with Prudential Real Estate, where they ran both ads in 30 day trials – increasing Click Through Rates by 5X. Post a comment below, or e-mail me (pierre@Trulia.com) for that report.
Learn More: Banner ads have evolved, have you? Join us on a Webinar (Sept 22nd) where we will share learning’s about online advertising. Click here to register. Space is limited!
Now a moment of silence for the banner ad…
Popularity: 7% [?]
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