Buyers and renters have more ways than ever to compare options, and that puts more pressure on brokers, builders, and property managers to win attention. More competition in listings and ads makes it harder — and often more expensive — to show up in search, on listing portals, and in local campaigns.
When people have more choices, they shop around. They may browse listing sites, click a social ad, read reviews, and search your business name before reaching out. If you’re not showing up in the right places, your competition will.
Many real estate businesses still lack clear visibility into which marketing channels are driving results. In CallRail’s recent survey of real estate businesses, only 14% said they’re confident their marketing is working. In a more competitive market, that kind of uncertainty adds up quickly.
More marketing doesn’t mean more leads
Most teams respond to slow sales by rushing to do more marketing and spreading their budget too thin. They might stick with a listing portal and then throw money at local SEO or social ads without a plan to measure them. You end up spending real money, but you can’t clearly show what it’s delivering.
Real estate prospects also rarely go from seeing one ad straight to a signed contract. A social ad can pique interest, but many inquiries happen later — either through a sales listing portal or after a quick search of your business name.
If you only judge success by clicks, you miss the most important actions: form submissions, calls, and texts. This leads to overspending on channels that generate traffic while the sources actually driving business are left underfunded.
What marketing attribution should look like for real estate teams
Marketing attribution should make budget decisions easier. You should be able to trace each call, text, or inquiry back to the marketing activity that drove it, rather than just the final click before they reached out.
A lead engagement platform like CallRail makes this possible by connecting each contact to their entire journey. Within CallRail's lead engagement platform, you can see exactly where calls and website inquiries came from:
- Call Tracking uses unique numbers to show which channel, campaign, or specific ad led to a phone conversation.
- Form Tracking captures website inquiries and ties them back to the original marketing source, giving you a more complete view of your lead activity.
Once every lead is tied to a source, it’s much easier to decide where to invest more budget and where to cut back.
How to spend with confidence
Start with what you already pay for. Assign each top channel its own tracking number, then add a tracking script to your website to pinpoint the source of every call and inquiry.
Next, define what a qualified inquiry means for you. That could be listing appointments, tours, or clear timelines and move-in dates.
When you’ve done this, start checking results weekly and adjust your spend. Put more budget behind the sources generating qualified leads, reduce or cut spend on the ones that don’t, and test new efforts with tracking in place to see how they perform.
Put your budget where the leads come in
When you know where qualified leads come from, it’s easier to invest in what works. CallRail helps you see what drives demand, so you can protect your budget from underperforming channels and double down on what brings in qualified conversations.
In a competitive market, visibility alone isn’t enough. You need clarity about what’s working — and the confidence to act on it.
See which channels are driving your best calls and inquiries.
