Are Agents Getting More Value from rightmove?
November 16, 2008 by Simon Baker
While advertisers on rightmove.co.uk have been decreasing, the number of enquiries has been increasing thus providing those advertisers who continue to use rightmove.co.uk with more 20% more leads per month than the same time last year.
While most media and blog reports talk of rightmove losing 300 agents per month, they fail to pick up on other information in the Interim Management Statement, mainly that the number of enquiries generated have significantly increased.
As can be seen from the table below, the number of advertisers on rightmove.co.uk have decreased by around 9% over the last year or ~1,760. The main contributor to this decrease has been a 15% decline in the number of agencies – however this is to be expected in the tightening UK market and most portals would have experienced a decrease in advertisers. According to rightmove, the majority who have left have either gone out of business or were removed for non-payment.
This decrease in advertisers has been offset by an increase in lettings agents advertising on the site. Another move that is not surprising as people who can no longer afford to buy their own home (or get credit) still have to live somewhere.
| Advertisers | Oct-07 | Oct-08 | Change | % Change |
| (est) | ||||
| Estate Agencies | 12,600 | 10,700 | -1,900 | -15% |
| Developments | 3,820 | 3,400 | -420 | -11% |
| Lettings Agents | 2,320 | 2,900 | 580 | 25% |
| Overseas Agents | 520 | 500 | -20 | -4% |
| Total | 19,260 | 17,500 | -1,760 | -9% |
Source: Interim Management Statement, 13 November 2008
During the same period, rightmove.co.uk reported that the number of page impressions delivered was up 4% (year on year) and that the number of enquiries delivered (the true measure of success) was tracking around 1m per month, of 10% up on the same period last year.
Therefore, as can be seen from the table below, the average number of leads per advertiser per month increased from 47 in October 2007 to 57 in October 2008 – a 21% improvement.
| Advertisers | Oct-07 | Oct-08 | Change | % Change |
| (est) | ||||
| Total | 19,260 | 17,500 | -1,760 | -9% |
| Enquiries Generated | 910,000 | 1,000,000 | 90,000 | 10% |
| Enquires / Advertiser | 47.2 | 57.1 | 10 | 21% |
Source: Interim Management Statement, 13 November 2008
Why is this important? Well the reason anyone advertises any product is to generate leads (enquiries). Therefore the more leads that they generate per pound invested, the better off they are.
In today’s property market, agents need one thing – lots of leads. They then have to create processes efficiently to manage these leads and convert them into sales. Sure it is taking longer than before, but then that is the same for every agent in the market. Those that want to survive this economic down turn wont be the ones who save a few pounds by not advertising on the likes of rightmove.co.uk, but will be the ones the maximise the return from every lead they generate from cheap sources such as rightmove.
On a final note, what was interesting is that during the same period, rightmove also mentioned that the ARPA (average revenue per advertiser) increased from all advertiser segments meaning that the impact on revenues would be significantly less than the 9% decline in advertisers would suggest. This coupled with GBP5m in cost reductions means that rightmove is likely to maintain strong EBITDA margins (and therefore cash flow).
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Meaningful leads we receive are significantly down, and the cost per lead is ridiculously high. “Leads” are up overall due to Rightmove changing the way they generate leads – they introduced a form on their results page that allows consumers to spam all agents that match their search probably in an attempt to keep the lead generation level high enough.
John
Thanks for your comments. You do raise and interesting question – what makes a meaningful lead. At one end of the sprectrum, a meaningful lead can be defined as a confirmed buyer or seller and all the agent has to do is grab a signature on the contract. At the other end of the spectrum, a meaningful lead could be define as something as simple as an enquiry about a property or about commission rates.
Either way, they are leads and it is more important that an agency has strong systems and processes in place to handle all leads that come through the virtual door. By handle, i mean qualify the customer and work on them until they are confirmed as either dead or signed.
Now if an agent advertises on some of the other sites, “leads” are really just click throughs to their site. That click through is a lot less meaningful than a phone call or an email from a customer. It is just a click through. And then once it reaches the agent’s site, the click through has to convert to a lead which means the agent site needs to be optimised for lead capture. (How many agents really do that?)
I would rather leave the lead capture to the professionals (rightmove, propertyfinder etc) and get emails and calls from them and focus my attention on the qualification and closure of the lead.
Thanks
Simon Baker
I agree with Simon from the technical point of view but there are yet too much web operators that use to “build” lead in a lot of trick ways. That is a typical “worst practice” in our field and it is one of the main obstacle in realizing the success of r.e. web marketing vs traditional marketing channels and in promoting the “good” portals vs the naif portals to the agents perception. In Italy this problem is huge and any third part (r.e. observers, press, audi operators, stath operators, authorities) denounces that problem. I really hope Simon and “propertyportalwatch” wish to crash the silence wall about this and open a public discussion to perform our field (the r.e. web publishers). Thanks for your attention.
Fabrizio Imperlino (Managing Director of CasaClick.it)
Thats true, the other comments are correct, Rightmove have changed how enquires come to us. We are based in West London and we were getting enquiries from South London, these kind of enquires are no good and waste our time by calling/replying to find out they are not looking in West London, I asked rightmove if they can stop the spam(thats what I feel it is then). They said they cant control this. So I canceled my memebership in November. We are are more productive as we do do have to chase duff leads anymore. Rightmove In my opinion is not good value for money anymore.