Turn browsers into homebuyers: The power of retargeting
August 26, 2025
Retargeting is a proven strategy for turning home browsers into homebuyers. Retargeting gives you an edge in this competitive real estate market, keeping you top-of-mind with potential buyers and sellers. Let’s explore the science of retargeting and insights to increase your real estate conversions.
Understanding retargeting
Retargeting shows ads to people who have visited your real estate website, app or social media channel to remind them of the services you provide, even if they haven’t bought a home yet. Every click, page view or search leaves an opportunity to turn a browser into a homebuyer as it keeps your brand top-of-mind with potential buyers and sellers.
Why it’s important: Research indicates only 2% of web traffic converts on the first visit. Use retargeting to share virtual listings, blog posts, market reports and client testimonials to build trust and credibility.
How it works: When someone visits your website or interacts with your social media, a small piece of code–called a pixel–is placed in their browser. This pixel doesn’t collect personal information but acts as a digital reminder that they showed interest. As that person continues browsing other websites or apps, the pixel allows you to show them targeted ads like virtual tours of similar homes, upcoming open houses or other listings they might like. This keeps your properties and services top of mind, even after they’ve left your site.
Budget considerations: Retargeting is cost-effective as it focuses on a smaller, more engaged audience segment. The budget depends on factors such as the size of your audience and how long you want to retarget them.
Strategies for retargeting
When you retarget, you want to do it right. Here are a few ways to make your ads more personal, more relevant and more likely to get results.
Segment your audience: Not all potential customers are the same, and segmenting your audience allows for more personalized ads. You can segment by location, style of home, home requirements, etc.
Personalize your message: Appeal to each audience segment with messages based on their needs for increased conversions. This customization may include highlighting move-in-ready homes for professionals, showing investment property to investors or sharing tips for first-time homebuyers.
Use dynamic ads: Dynamic ads display content around what your potential customer has shown interest in to drive higher engagement. These personalized ads increase brand loyalty and encourage conversions.
SEO optimization: SEO strengthens retargeting as it ensures the right audience sees your ads at the right time. It finds people actively searching for real estate keywords, increasing the number of qualified people to retarget.
Clear call-to-action: Make sure your ads drive the action you want the person to take like signing up for an email newsletter or scheduling an appointment.
Pro Tip: Today, more than nine out of 10 US cell phone owners have a smartphone. This underscores the retargeting advantage in a mobile-savvy world, where engagement is already high.
Examples for retargeting
Often, prospective homebuyers need a little nudge in the right direction. As retargeting reconnects with those who’ve already checked out your listings or resources, you’ll stay on their radar until they’re ready to take the next step.
Here are some retargeting ideas:
Property-specific: Retarget people who viewed a specific property listing on your website with ads featuring additional photos, a virtual tour link or a price reduction announcement.
Location-based: Reach potential homebuyers who are actively considering a move to a specific area. For example, you can re-engage people who browsed specific neighborhoods, researched local schools or downloaded a relocation guide.
Behavior-based: Retarget high-intent leads, those who spent a significant amount of time on your mortgage calculator, viewed several property listings, responded to an email or downloaded a market report.
Open house: Retarget people who attended an open house with targeted ads showcasing that property or similar home listings.
Turn data into action
Measuring the success of your retargeting allows you to determine the success of your advertising and make any refinements to achieve better results.
You’ll use metrics such as:
Click-through rate: Gauges how effective your ad is in prompting action.
Conversion rate: Measures the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action post-click.
Cost per acquisition: Shows how much it costs to gain one new customer.
Engagement rate: Tracks interactions such as likes, comments, shares or video views.
Return on ad spend: Evaluates the efficiency of your ad spend in generating revenue.
How to get started
You can manage retargeting, but it requires time and knowledge (and often takes longer to see results). Forum Communication Company streamlines the process, uses our expertise and best practices and leverages data to increase conversions and make every dollar count.
As partners, we’ll:
Define your goals: Determine what you want to achieve with your advertising strategy.
Build audience segments: Use data to create audience segments based on their interactions with your agency, website, social media or app.
Craft personalized ads: Create personalized messages for each audience segment. Speak to what your audience wants, and pair it with eye-catching photos and videos that hold their attention.
Choose the right channels: Work with FCC’s team of experts to guide you in retargeting on various platforms like Google Display, AdRoll and Facebook Dynamic.
Monitor and optimize: Analyze key metrics and make adjustments to maximize your return on investment.
Stay compliant: Follow fair housing laws and include all required disclosures in your real estate advertising to ensure transparency and protect your business.
Retargeting is an important tool in your advertising toolkit, allowing you to reconnect with people who are considering purchasing a home. Start by reminding them of their interest and influence their desire to buy!
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