You already know your marketing strategy is made up of many moving parts — but how well do you know the “vocab words” behind it all? (Don’t worry, there’s no pop quiz waiting for you… didn’t you hate that?) All facets of your social, SEM, and SEO strategies come together to help you reach your sales goals, so our team broke down the most important marketing terms to understand in order to succeed. Grab a seat and let’s dive in!

Social Media

Organic Social Media: These are social media posts that do not have money behind them, and will only show up on the newsfeeds of those that have liked your pages (unless they are boosted).

Paid Social Media: Anything on social media that has money behind it, whether an ad that’s running or a boost. These ads go to an audience that may have never heard of you before. You can also create paid social media that goes to a retargeting audience that has been to your website or is on your email list!

Carousel Ad: This is a multi-image ad that you can scroll through from left to right, similar to a carousel. Each slide has a different image and can click through to a different landing page. This ad is best for showing off multiple move-in-ready homes!

Collection Ad: Built solely for mobile devices, this ad expands to fit your entire screen when clicked. Similar to a carousel ad, it has different blocks that click through to different landing pages, but it takes up the whole screen rather than just a portion of a newsfeed.

Boost: This action puts money behind a social media post to ensure that it reaches an audience outside of those who like your pages.

SEM

CTR: Clickthrough rate is the percentage of people who see your ad and end up clicking it. If you receive 1 click on 10 impressions, then you have a 10% click-through rate. This is important because it determines ad relevance and effectiveness. A high CTR means that the ad is speaking directly to the search engine user, urging them to click. Simply speaking, the higher the CTR, the better.

FAQ: What’s a good CTR?

Google’s 2019 paid search average for new homes was 5.3%, but properly optimized Google Ads campaigns should have at least a 7% CTR for non-branded keywords. If you have a low CTR, you should revisit your ad messaging and targeting.

Impression Share: Impression share shows you how your ad performance compares to the performance of competitors’ ads. This metric is calculated by taking the number of impressions you’ve received and dividing it by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive. Eligibility is based on the targeting settings, budget/bids, and Quality Scores of your current ads.

FAQ: How do I apply impression share?

Impression share should be used to inform your digital budget. If your digital campaigns are converting well (see below) and have a profitable cost per conversion, use impression share to determine if you have room to increase your marketing dollars in certain channels.

Average Cost-Per-Click (Avg. CPC): This is the average amount that you’ve been charged for a click on your ad. Average cost-per-click (avg. CPC) is calculated by dividing the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.

FAQ: What’s a good CPC for home building?

Generally speaking, a $2 CPC is competitive for Google paid search if you are appearing above organic search results. That being said, CPCs can vary drastically depending on many factors such as keyword competition. It’s much more important to focus on cost per conversion.

Conversion: A conversion occurs when someone takes an action that you’ve defined as valuable to your business, such as calling your business, submitting a contact form, or chatting with your online sales counselor. It’s essential that you track conversions in Google Analytics so that you have an accurate overview of your marketing strategy. We recommend you use a call-tracking service like Call Rail or take advantage of Google Ads’ call tracking to attribute call conversions to their source.

Cost Per Conversion: Cost per conversion is equal to the total cost of generating traffic divided by the total number of conversions. For example, say an ad campaign costs $500 for 100 clicks, and 5 conversions were generated. The cost per conversion would equal $500 divided 5 conversions, resulting in $100 per conversion. This is important for you to manage your budget and decide on the best ways to advertise. By increasing your conversion rate, you will lower your cost per conversion.

Save: Cost per conversion = total cost of generating traffic / total number of conversions

Conversion Rate: Conversion rate is the ratio of total visitors to visitors who perform desired actions. Conversion rate is equal to conversions divided by total visitors multiplied by 100%. For example, 5 conversions divided by 100 clicks and then multiplied by 100% equals a 5% conversion rate. Generally speaking, the higher your conversion rate, the better your marketing is!

Save: Conversion rate = (conversions / total visitors) * 100%

FAQ: How can I increase my conversion rate?

If your ad campaigns are properly optimized but traffic is still not converting, your website might be underperforming. Every visitor is on your site for a reason — they’re considering a new home. Understanding this is the key to optimizing your conversion rate. Your ability to convert them starts with your ability to understand them and speak to their specific needs. Make sure you’re clearly communicating your differentiators as a builder, providing relevant information, and have clear and easy calls to action.

SEO

Backlink: Any link from an external website that links back to your website. For SEO benefits, it’s an advantage to have authoritative and reputable websites providing backlinks to your site. This indicates to search engines that your website is also trustworthy and will provide valuable information to users.

NAP Consistency: NAP stands for “Name, Address, Phone Number.” NAP consistency refers to the degree that this information is listed the same across the internet. Maintaining consistency helps to optimize your local SEO strategy and maximize your visibility for keywords like “home builders near me.”

Mobile-First Indexing: In July 2019, Google began to predominantly use the mobile versions of websites for indexing and to determine search engine rankings. With this in effect, a responsive design that ensures a mobile-friendly experience should be a priority for your website.

What better time than now to get acquainted with these marketing terms? We guarantee they’ll give you a better understanding of how to optimize your strategy moving forward. If you have any questions at all, feel free to contact our team — we’d be more than happy to help! (Again, no pop quizzes, we promise.)