A few weeks ago we provided some insight on the impact COVID-19 had had on PPC, which explored the drop in market activity as the UK went into lockdown.
In this blog, we explore the latest trends in the property market, as we emerge from lockdown.
The property sector is known for its resilience in bouncing back and we’re already seeing evidence of this across general site traffic and via paid media metrics, with click volumes improving and conversions beginning to pick up.
Website Traffic Returning
In regard to website traffic, we have combined the data of 7 (randomly selected) estate agents, 2 larger, 2 medium & 3 independents, across the country.
As the below chart demonstrates, there is an obvious drop in traffic as the pandemic starts to impact market certainty in early March (day 60). However, more optimistically, the chart also shows signs of continued recovery from the end of April (day 113) to traffic levels similar to the start of the year.
Increase In Paid Media Clicks
Looking across the last four weeks of data, we can see that clicks are following an upward trend - increasing in some cases by 21%. Conversions have also been on the rise with a 9% increase over the last four weeks, and we have observed a spike more recently inline with the government’s announcements of emerging from lockdown.
The average cost per click for the property sector has dropped by 40% over the last 2 months, as a result of many estate agent offices closing during the lockdown and pulling back on media spend.
Consequently, as the average CPC has decreased, the cost per conversion has fallen by around 35% across most estate agency campaigns, generating new leads at a more cost-efficient price throughout the last few weeks.
Combining the upward trend in interest with the low CPC, makes now an excellent time to start ramping account activity back up.
Check out our article on how to be ready to bounce back and ramp up your campaigns, or get in touch if you have any questions on how to make the best recovery with PPC.