The Holy Grail of digital marketing investment is, “closing the loop.”

Can you tell based on your website and digital marketing spend, how many leads came in from your website or from online marketing campaigns that ended up at a closing table as either a buyer or a seller?

We recently calculated this for a large client that we’ve worked with for a number of years, and they gave us permission to share the data anonymously.

We connected all of the people that signed up on their website at some point in time who eventually ended up buying or selling a home with them in 2023 by matching email addresses.

And, as my cross country coach in high school liked to say, “the clock doesn’t lie,” so… here are the results:

• They had $116,000,000 in total transactions in 2023 from leads that had signed up on their website at some point in the past!
• 6.2% of the leads in Accelerator, our website platform, bought or sold a home with them in 2023.
• The average duration from lead to close was 355 days.

What was most interesting to us was the duration from lead inception to close.

One of the smarter people I’ve met in the real estate industry likes to say, “People don’t go on the Internet and do things with no intention of ever taking action.” At some point in time, they take action. 

This client has invested in SEO with us over the years and, as a result, the site is now a search engine piranha regularly ranking for long-tail SEO phrases in their market. Organic presence brings visitors to their website. Visitors become leads. Leads become clients. In the end, the math looks really good.

Often, we’re asked about the ROI of SEO. And we always say that it’s a long game. 

A well-optimized real estate website is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s a valuable digital asset that generates leads when you own the asset and then is highly marketable when you are looking to sell your business.

If you’re looking to be a real estate agent for a year or two and then move on to something else, SEO might not be right for you. However, if you’re building a career in real estate and want to develop something that will have a huge impact on your lead generation strategy over time, reach out!