A week after debuting an automated marketing platform for its agents with the marketing company Imprev, real estate franchisor Re/Max is touting the results of another automated tool.
Last October, Re/Max gave its agents access to automated marketing through a partnership with the online advertising firm Adwerx. Since then, Re/Max says, the online marketing campaigns generated through Adwerx’s platforms have received 1 billion impressions. Re/Max got 850 million impressions from its usual digital ad campaigns outside of Adwerx throughout all of 2017 in its company-owned markets, or about 70 percent of its U.S. markets.
Re/Max is bullish on automation — and for good reason.
Re/Max ads through Adwerx. Credit: Re/Max
“In the past, the number one most powerful marketing tool has been the physical yard sign,” Re/Max Executive Vice President Mike Ryan told Inman in an interview. “People drive past the yard sign, and they know the Realtor in their local community is doing business. Now we’ve taken that to the next step, to a digital yard sign. We’re reaching that highly targeted customer out there looking for a home. It’s not just somebody driving by. It’s someone engaging behavior that makes them a warmer lead.”
The Adwerx automated tools are similar to the automated platform Re/Max introduced with Imprev, although the Adwerx platform has more of a focus on hyperlocal ad targeting. The Imprev platform lets agents enter new listings into their multiple listing service and receive ready-to-go marketing materials, including YouTube videos, virtual tours and physical marketing materials like flyers and postcards. Adwerx’s platform auto-generates ads for new listings and places them strategically on websites and on Facebook.
Re/Max marketing materials through Imprev. Credit: Imprev
The Adwerx platform uses behavioral data analysis to target consumers within 15 miles of the listing and to target consumers who have been searching homes online, who have used mortgage calculators, and who have been buying items related to a new home at big-box stores like Costco.
Ryan expects that Re/Max agents will use both its Adwerx and Imprev platforms. While the offerings use similar data analysis and automated tools, they provide complementary services: automated ad creation and automated ad placement across the web.
Re/Max made its Adwerx tool available for free to agents for the past five months and will keep the tools available for agents in company-owned regions through June. Independent agents can purchase the service for $36.75 for a weeklong campaign, discounted from Adwerx’s usual $59 weekly price.
Adwerx-created Re/Max ads were used by between 90,000 and 100,000 agents on 350,000 to 400,000 listings, Ryan said.
The two marketing platforms are part of Re/Max’s efforts — like many big real estate brokerages and franchisors — to become players in real estate technology. Along with its Imprev and Adwerx partnerships, Re/Max announced its acquisition of the real estate tech startup booj last week.
