Lead Tracking and Conversion - Todd Katler
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Transcript of Lead Tracking and Conversion - Todd Katler
Present Day Realities of Lead
Tracking and Conversion
Topics:
• Lead Accuracy in Property Management Software
•Lead:Lease Conversion Metrics
Lead Accuracy inManagement Software
Questions:
• How accurate is the lead source data contained in my property
management software?
• If the data is not truly accurate, where are my leases coming from?
• Since 1 out of every 3 times people visit the property they get lost trying
to find it, how can ‘Drive By’ be responsible for 30% of my leases?
Lead Accuracy inManagement Software
Solving The Equation:
• Call centers and other software packages digitally record the originating ad
source for each rental inquiry (no human bias/error).
• We conducted a study where the leases transacted were compared with the
original guest cards using a 3rd party software application to determine matches.
• The results show if the ad source data in the property management software
matches the original records as well as other interesting discussion points.
Lead Accuracy inManagement Software
The Results:
For the population of leases where a match with a Level One guest cards exists:
32.6% of all leases were
sourced correctly(67.4% had a source other than what was recorded at lead origination)
Lead Accuracy inManagement Software
Other Interesting Observations:
• Of the 13 paid ad sources included in the analysis, 11 created more leases
than they were credited.
• One of the sources was only given credit for 26.3% of the leases it
generated.
• Craig’s List was the most over-reported source – it received credit for 40.6%
more leases than it generated.
Lead Accuracy inManagement Software
Other Interesting Observations, part 2:
On April 6th, 2008, www.pizza.com sold for $2.6M.
Internet-Other received credit for 13 times 13 times more leases than it generated!
As the most successful ad source in the industry, www.internet-other.com is now
owned by Todd Katler. The eBay auction will start next week with a $1M reserve…
Lead Accuracy inManagement Software
Other Interesting Observations, part 3:
• 22.3% of leases were incorrectly attributed to ‘Drive By’ or ‘None’.
• Of the renters that set an appointment to tour and subsequently leased,
64.5% were recorded incorrectly despite the source being transmitted with the
visit notification.
• Of renters that applied sight-unseen, 60% were incorrectly recorded
despite the source being transmitted with the rental application.
Lead Accuracy inManagement Software
Other Interesting Observations, part 4:
• 18.2% of all leases came from leads that originated when the property was
closed.
And since you are all going to ask anyway….
• Both pay-for-performance ILS’s created more leases than they were given
credit for in the management software.
Lead:LeaseConversion Metrics
Questions:
• How can I rank my ad source effectiveness using Lead:Lease ratio?
• What are the limitations of using this metric?
• Everybody talks about Cost-Per-Lease, but how can I really track that
accurately?
• How do I manage the trade-off between ad source effectiveness, lease volume and cost per lease?
Visit Set Ratio (VSR) Demonstrates That Not All Leads Are Created Equal
This graph shows variance from the median VSR across
four companies.
Be mindful that you will have wildly different experiences with each ad source that will often differ by property or sub-market.
Lead:LeaseConversion Metrics
Solving The Equation:• Isolate the “real leads” from the “fake leads” (family, friends and vendors).
• You can also assume “fake leads” are a constant.
• The data must allow at least 3 months for the leads to convert into leases.
• It will take 5 months to achieve 80% accuracy and 8 months to achieve 90%+
accuracy.
• To establish conversion, you have to compare the renter names from the leads to
lease names in your management software.
• Do not use the source tracking in your software and simply divide those leases into
the total leads- this will produce a highly inaccurate ratio.
Lead:LeaseConversion Metrics
Solving The Equation, part 2:
• Use matching software to determine which of your leads became leases.
Computer algorithms are far more consistent and are not prone to fatigue.
• Use a significant sample over several months (if not longer).
• Do a smell test! Across you portfolio, lead:lease conversion should be between
3% - 7%. If it is not in that range, there may be an issue with the data.
• Depending on the accuracy of your data, Cost-Per-Lease becomes a trivial
calculation at this point.
Lead:LeaseConversion Metrics
Lead:Lease Conversion Limitations:• Not all leases from an ad source start as phone calls or emails. 20% - 50% of the leases
generated by your ad sources will not be considered in this exercise (even higher for sources
like Craig’s List).
• As the old saying goes:
#@!* in, #@!* out
• Accurate data will be the single most limiting factor and often prevent meaningful
analysis
• Your use and management of your ad source (as well as overall content management) may
vary greatly and will to some extent dictate your results.
Lead:LeaseConversion Metrics
Lead:LeaseConversion Metrics
What if this source is a high cost per lease?
Ad spend optimization tends to be possible at lower converting,
lower volume sources.
Remember that some of this
traffic originates at the other ILS’s.