Today, we’ll be focusing particularly on real estate websites.
The main reason for categorizing the Web / Google Analytics setup tutorial by different businesses is because every business has different set of goals.
Even in the same niche, there might be different goals.
But for now we’ll assume our main goal as lead generation.
We’ll focus on the web/google tracking & analytics setup along with some other tools.
Web / Google Analytics Audit Checklist
1.) Tracking Code on All Pages
Make sure you have analytics code on all pages. If you are firing analytics tag via GTM then make sure GTM code is on all pages.
Code should be placed high up above the head tag, so you won’t miss more pageviews.
Make sure to fire following codes in GTM
- Facebook Pixel
- Google Analytics
If you have other any other social media where your potential audience are, then add a remarketing pixel for the same.
Even if you are not planning for paid ads on other networks, its good to collect audience list for later use.
You can use google tag assistant to check if the google analytics code is firing
- to the property ID you have access to &
- only once per pageview
The plugins you can use are
Also, you can checkout http://www.gachecker.com/ , where you can get which pages contains/doe not contain your analytics code.
2.) Raw Profile Creation
As soon as you create GA account, go to View Settings > Click Copy View at top right corner.
You can create 2 other view namely Test View & Filtered View.
Filtered view must have atleast the following filters
- Internal IP exclusion
- Spam filters
- PII exclusion from URLs filters (if applicable)
3.) Create Content Grouping
This is really great functionality in GA & underused too.
If you have URLs of the type
- /LOCATION/….
- /PROJECT-NAME/…
- /PRICE-RANGE/….
- /BEDROOMS/…..
you can group the URLs to get a much clearer data.
Here’s an example.
- Setup the Content Grouping
- In Behavior > All Pages Report
Now, you get a clear view of the users on your website. You can now analyze
- Which location properties have more unique views?
- Which location properties users spend more time on?
- Which category has the most Bounce Rate & Exit Rate?
Also, you can group pages using
- Price Ranges
- No. Of Bedrooms (1/2/3BHKs)
- Project Names & so on..
4.) Set Up Different Types of Goals
One of the most important settings in GA is the Goal Setup.
Macro Goal would be to receive email or phone no. of potential customer.
I know this is not a CRO post but i want to emphasize on the way you can ask email or phone no from user.
Nowadays, people are too skeptical for giving out their mail Ids & numbers.
You need to be creative to ask out for the user info.
If you struggle with getting leads, here are some ways you can do it.
(Other than the Normal Contact Form)
Strategy 1: Offer Something in Return.
You can offer a PDF in return for an email or phone no. You can list all the
- Recent projects
- Customer testimonials
- Future Projects
- Awards
- Loan Facilities
- Partner Contacts – Interiors, Designers, etc
in PDF.
or If you have a new upcomming project, you can offer Plan Details, etc
Set that as a Goal named: PDF Download Leads
Process: When the user clicks on a button, ask them their email or phone no. & then redirect to thank you page where you can offer PDF.
Set this page as Goal in Google Analytics
Strategy 2: Use Live Chats
When the user is browsing the website you can have an interactive chat by giving an offer.
Here’s an example from Drift.
They also have various event listeners. So if someone submits an email, we can fire events in Google Analytics.
For Tracking info check here.
Other chat tool you can use is tawk.io.
You can set it up as Goals named: Chat Leads
Strategy 3: Offer CallBack
You can ask phone numbers from users so that your customer rep can call them back or you can have a toll free number.
You can use call tracking softwares to track calls in Google Analytics.
Some of them are
Strategy 4: Offer Users To Send Detailed Enquiry
You can have a enquiry box, where user can enter any detailed query. Your customer reps can offer him/her help via email.
Here’s an example
You can ask for email or phone no. after send enquiry button click.
You can track that as google analytics event & set that as Goal. (Enquiry Leads)
Strategy 5: Book Site Visits.
You can mention on the form to book a site visit.
This is a great way to make user commit.
Here’e an example from Lodha
Make sure to implement 3 or 4 types of goals. Experimentation is the only way to get more leads.
There might still be some other methods which I missed. Feel Free to add in comments. 🙂
5.) Create Remarketing Lists
You can create a basic remarketing list such as
- Users Who visited Premium Projects & had Session Duration > 3min.
- Users Who visited Andheri(Location) Projects & pages/session > 4
Make sure to have atleast 2 conditions to create targeted list. This list can be used for Adwords Remarketing.
The option is available in Property > Audience Definition > Audiences.
Also, you can create the same list on Facebook
Check:
6.) Google Analytics Integration with other Tools
You can integrate Google Analytics with
If you are new to Optimize, it is a great Free A/B testing & Personalization tool by google which integrated with GA.
More details here:
https://www.google.com/analytics/optimize/
The option is available in Property >Product Linking.
7.) Implement & Track Site Search
If you have a site search, make sure to track it in analytics.
Your site search should let users ask open ended queries.
Eg: ‘Properties in XX location below XX
‘1BHK second sale in XX location‘
‘2BHK having schools nearby in XX location’, etc
Leaving apart our conversion rate of 4-5%, there are 95% anonymous users on your website.
Everyone has their own needs. So, Let them share with us anonymously.
You can get a lot more valuable data which can be used for SEO & Adwords keywords too.
8.) Track Banner Visibility
Many of the real estate website invest in banner design. Whether they are property image views, Offer banner views, etc
Now with GTM’s new Element Visibility Tracking, we can track views of banner.
We can track a specific banner view as event if user views it for more than 5-6 secs.
Eg:
You can find the Tutorial Here.
You can then compute
- How many of the total visitors on the website saw the banner?
- How many users who saw banner converted into leads?
9.) Implement Cross Domain Tracking (Optional)
If you have a different sites for different projects
Or
You are an affiliate website & you send users to other domain for enquiry.
Only then you can implement cross domain tracking. Its an easy setup via GTM.
Check here for more details on setup
10.) Landing Page Design (Optional)
Make sure you have the best landing page design possible.
Even if you have internal designers & developers make sure you check out the professional landing pages for real estates.
Some metrics like Bounce Rate, Cost per lead, Conversion Rate, etc depends a lot on the landing page design.
Summary
- Make sure to add all tracking codes of tools which are not retroactive. (Past data cannot be restored)
- Always collect leads in different form & add those as goals. You can then find out which lead method works for you.
- Keep the targeted remarketing lists ready for future use.
- You can use other tools for chat, surveys, heatmaps, etc.
- Tracking Site Search is a must to gain user preferences.
- If you spend a lot on banner, then track it & check how the banner views correlate with the leads.
Ritwik is a product owner at DigiXport. He also loves to write technical & easy to understand blogs for Marketers & Entrepreneurs. A Firm Believer in Teaching -> Learning -> Growing. :)