Marketing Homes As a Zillow Premeir Agent: Does It Work?

Marketing Homes As a Zillow Premeir Agent:  Does It Work?

What has your experience with Zillow been like?  Have You thought of being a Zillow Premier Agent?  Over the years I've tried a lot of different marketing techniques, with varied results.  I've done door hangers, paid for flyer drops, tested direct mail, done email drip campaigns, bought middle sections in the Real Estate Book, paid for radio advertising, and have a weekly real estate show.  We do video emails and video blogging, and now are trying the best we can to learn ActiveRain.  We are doing door knocking campaigns and are calling expired listings.

Attending Mega Agent Camp with Keller Williams a few weeks back, I decided to give Zillow Premier Agent a chance.  The customer service rep told me of another agent in my area who was getting 30 leads per month and was closing an extra two or three deals per month.  She had done so well with Zillow that she had picked up two or three other Zillow zip codes.  I got testimonials from two or three other agents that she connected me to, and based on the logic that if I didn't own a chunk of this online market for my farm area that someone else would, I decided to give it a shot.  So I bought 5,000 impressions that place my ad next to homes that average $215,000 in a zip code that I farm.

The Zillow package for $239 per month was based largely on the competition among other agents for the same area, so it seemed like a pretty good deal since many homes had sold in the last quarter in that zip code and the median home price was reasonably good.  Another more popular area had less homes sell, but more competition, and the same monthly expenditure would have cost me a few hundred dollars more and likely yielded less leads (these are important considerations according to my Zillow rep - who seemed to have a great deal of experience).

Naturally, the people at Zillow were very helpful to advise me how to set up my profile to maximize the results of my impressions, so I quickly built a nice Profile Page and got a whole bunch of Reviews by past clients.  In the Zillow system, people are much more likely to click on the agents who have many reviews than an agent who has none or very few.  I didn't want to pay for impressions that didn't get results so I quickly maxed out the profile to 100% complete, something the representative at Zillow says most people do not.

The ads you purchase with Zillow are on a rotating basis, and two to three agents show at a time.  The Zillow system immediately emails you if someone clicks on the ad and tells you their name (if they give you their real one) their phone number (if they provide it) and their email address.  This is kept in an online management system, and you are immediately texted the lead, and they can call directly through.

You can see Example of Zillow Ads and how the Leads Appear for tracking purposes.  So far I am 20 days into my first 30 days that I have paid for with Zillow.  I haven't received the 30 leads, but have received 5.  Each of the leads I followed up on within seconds to minutes of when they inquired.  This has been a key to success. Three of the leads wanted $75,000 below properties and couldn't qualify with a lender for financing.  I do have a listing appointment on Thursday for a $118,000 range home, and an appointment for a $150,000 buyers agency.

The staff has been extremely helpful, and they have provided me with an additional website that may be helpful. For me I would say the jury is still out.  I'm already at 4,969 impressions so in the last ten days they may overdeliver on the impressions they promised.  I also realize that the fourth quarter is going to have less leads than the others.

In the end I believe that being on Zillow for an extended period will get better results as buyers who are just begining to look regularly see me for a few months.  The measure of Zillow's success will be better then.  I also believe that a lot of it is YOU GET OUT WHAT YOU PUT IN.  As I look at poorly written, scanty and vague profiles with few reviews I'm not sure everyone gets the same results.  

In the end if I can get a 200-400% return on the marketing dollars I spend with Zillow, I will likely buy several other Zip codes.  I will say that the listing appointments I attend appreciate that I'm a Zillow Premier Agent, and the special offer ads that I am running (only available to Premier Zillow Agents) are getting a lot of  hits.

I can also say that a lot of the leads that I have received seem to come off of my actual listings in Zillow and not the ad impressions I'm paying for, that Zillow seems more effective for agents with several higher priced listings than agents who have few listings or lower priced listings.  

I'm thankful for the extra exposure Zillow is bringing to my sellers.  What has your experience been?