When real estate professionals think of “metrics” and their online marketing, many people think of popular tools like Google Analytics.  While Google Analytics is definitely one of my most favorite reporting tools, it’s not the only one to look at, and when you are looking at….just what should you focus on to start getting more leads that you can turn into closed transactions?

After spending literally thousands of hours looking at reporting tools in Yahoo, Google, and yes even YouTube, I thought I would share a couple of key insights that can help you to get more out of your online marketing.  Note, this will not involve you spending endless hours pouring over spreadsheets that are thousands of rows long!  Although you could get lost in some of the tools, focusing on just a few key items will help you minimize your time, find out the challenges, and get back to closing sales.

Analytics Intelligence

In the newer Beta feature of Google Analytics you can get notification when key events happen.  One of the best things would be to track when your “goals” (aka your leads”) exceed your desired range.  So, if you got an email notification then you would be in good shape, and if not, then you would have a problem to investigate.  Just as you can set Alerts for the positive, you can also set them for the negative (i.e. if you aren’t getting enough leads).  Taking some time set up alerts can save you hours of pouring through reports.

Pay Per Click

Far too often, one of the first items people focus on is Cost Per Click.  While it is important to have a good bid strategy, it is not one of the most important metrics to focus on.  One of the most important metrics to focus on when optimizing your paid ads is that of Cost Per Conversion.  This number tells you much more about your business than the cost per click,

For example, if you were paying $7.50 per conversion (aka a lead) and you knew that every 10 leads resulted in an appointment that you would turn into business then you are paying just $75 for a customer!  Focusing on your cost per conversion will help you to have consistent results.

YouTube Insight

YouTube insight is the reporting tool for your YouTube videos.  While many real estate professionals are still finding creative ways to use video in their online marketing it is helpful to know what to look for.  While many would say, “hey I just want 100,000+ views of my videos” it is probably unrealistic unless you are featuring a video of a dancing cat.

For your YouTube videos, consider looking at two key check points.

1. Discovery - Where are they finding your video?  Are they only playing the embedded player on your website, or have you been found in the search engines?  This can be key to finding out which videos are the best to continue to be produced.
2. Hot Spots - This helps you gauge user attention.  Are people watching until the end or are they just playing a few seconds of your video?  Keeping them longer will show you which videos users are most interested in so you can do more of what people want!