REA Group leads the way in proving value to clients

real estate, call tracking, marketplaces, customer success, interview, analytics, call whisper, dedicated numbers, webconnect, whispers, whisper, 

When the home page on a website says “Changing the way the world experiences property” you know you’re about to interact with an ambitious enterprise; well, that’s REA Group. Based in Australia, REA Group is a leading global digital media business that specializes in property across 20+ different brands in eight countries. This article covers some of the new iovox call tracking innovations recently adopted by REA Group.

Real Estate Market Leaders Also Expert in the Innovation Game

As a diverse digital media business specializing in properties, REA Group helps people with many facets of the property experience including; buying, renting, selling, renovations, property news, and lifestyle content. REA Group didn’t become a market leader by resting on its achievements but rather they are constantly on the lookout for innovative ways to service customers and create a better property experience for users of their platforms.

Recently, Scott Holmes, Innovation and Strategy Manager for REA Group, sat down (virtually of course!) with Simon Baker, Executive Chairman of Online Marketplaces and Ryan Gallagher, CEO of iovox, to discuss how Australia’s leading destination for property news and inspiration, is applying call tracking to achieve new breakthroughs in property marketing attribution.

One Problem Was Quality Lead Metric Visibility

Prior to the deployment of iovox’s call tracking solutions, REA Group website visitors could download a document, complete a form to request more information, or click a button to reveal a phone number which may or may not lead to a phone call. The first two of these three lead capture activities, the document download and filling out the form, are considered “hard leads” or a lead that is easily quantifiable. The phone number reveal was a “soft lead” because while REA Group could quantify how many times the reveal button was clicked, there was no hard evidence that the reveal resulted in a phone call, and if it did, the call was indistinguishable from other calls coming in from other sources.

As Ryan Gallagher described, phone number reveals are similar to “eyeballs on ads” in online marketing. Marketers are less interested in how many people saw the ad and more interested in whether the ad created an action. As Gallagher mentions, “It’s the same thing. Did somebody see it…who cares? Did somebody call it? That’s different.”

An Easy Solution – Make Number Reveals “Hard Leads”

Clearing up this ambiguity on phone number reveals and making phone calls “hard leads” became the priority for the innovation team at REA Group. Combined with transparent data shared with clients, REA Group wanted to clearly demonstrate the value of their platform.

One Simple Solution – Get iovox Call Tracking and Analytics

REA Group added the iovox call tracking solution, which is now “sitting on a large number of project profiles”. The iovox call tracking service deployed includes a unique dedicated number displayed on the site and when called, provides a call whisper to the called party informing that the source of the call was an REA Group media channel. If a call goes unanswered, the iovox system sends missed call alerts to clients, along with information about the calling party. In addition, REA Group uses the iovox call tracking analytics to assess quantity of calls delivered to clients, how many were answered, how many were missed, among other data points.

The implementation of this solution enabled REA Group to move phone calls from “soft leads” into the “hard lead” category which provided clients with a stronger metric than the prior click-to-reveal solution.

The Results – Goals Achieved, Happier Customers, and ROI “Quite Powerful”

According to Holmes, the iovox solution “makes it easier for us to value our product and be able to show value back to our customer.” Among the three “hard lead” metrics (document download, form fill, and phone call), approximately 30% of all the leads are now proven to be from phone calls using the iovox call tracking system. As with most real estate businesses, seasonality can impact volumes and of course the pandemic has implications on volume as well, but REA Group is “quite happy with the numbers” and the ability to add phone calls as hard lead statistics has lead to an ROI that is “quite powerful” for REA Group.

Additionally, using the call tracking system from iovox allowed REA Group to have complete visibility into the performance of all its lead generation sources which enables them to experiment and optimize each method.

Another powerful benefit is the enabling of fully transparent conversations with clients about business performance. Not only has this been positive for REA Group, but according to Holmes, their customers ‘love’ the new call tracking option and the visibility they now have about how many calls they are receiving from REA in comparison to other lead options.

More Powerful Call and Lead Generation Options for Real Results

According to Gallagher, in addition to the iovox Dedicated Numbers and Call Whispers used by REA Group, iovox has released new tools that enable websites to be a place to initiate live calls. One of the new products, iovox WebConnect, is a WebRTC based product that adds a call button to a website without the use of a phone number. Users click the button and make the call through their browser on their mobile phone, tablet, or computer. Using HTML5, there’s nothing to download or install for someone to make a call using iovox WebConnect. On the back end, customers using this technology get all the metrics and functionality that comes with the traditional call tracking solutions from iovox such as call whispers, call recording and transcription and of course call or speech analytics.

For the full interview with Simon, Scott and Ryan, please watch below:

If you’d like to know more about iovox call tracking solutions, we’d love to hear from you. Give us a call toll-free from within the US at +1 888 369 9519 or send us an email at hello@iovox.com.

From outside the US please reach us at one of these numbers:

Las Vegas, USA +1 702 425 7505
London, UK +44 (0)20 7099 1070
Sydney, Australia +61 (0)2 8520 3530
Paris, France +33 (0)1 84 88 46 40