The above graphic was used in a presentation by The Bokka Group at the 2017 DCX Home Builder Conference. It illustrates conservative average rates through the new home sales funnel. In other words, these are the conversion rates most home builders are currently experiencing. Average conversion rates vary greatly by industry.
According to the average sales funnel conversion rates in the graphic above, a home builder would need to generate the following construction leads for every home sale:
- 5 Appts / 25 Leads / 5,000 visitors / 500,000 impressions
Using these average sales funnel conversion rates, you can work backward to determine where to focus your marketing efforts. It’s vital that builders track the average conversion rate through each stage of the sales funnel. In doing so, you can focus on the stage that will have the greatest impact on sales. Keep in mind, however, these are only average conversion rates, and they can vary from builder to builder. For example, home builders with a person dedicated to all online leads (an online sales consultant) tend to see much higher lead-to-appointment conversion rates. > Read more about this type of Online Sales Program for builders here
Impression-to-visitor conversions
These ratios, called click-through rates (CTRs), are usually provided by the publishers who run your ads or listings on other websites. So, out of the number of times your ad was viewed (or its number of impressions), you're calculating how many people clicked through to your site to become visitors. The highest conversion rates will always come from publishers who provide content to active home shoppers (e.g., NewHomeSource, Zillow, or PPC ads targeting phrases like “new homes Denver”).
There are extensive ranges of this type of sales funnel conversion rate because the ads can be run in so many different places. The lowest converting ads tend to come from banner ads displayed on general purpose websites (e.g., local news outlet pages) or 3rd party affiliate sites. Keep in mind low conversion rates aren't always a bad thing, though, especially if your goal is brand awareness. For example, if you're opening a new community, you may want a lot of impressions to let people know it's coming soon. Clicks may not necessarily be the end goal.
Visitor-to-lead conversions
Once your site draws visitors, the next stage in the sales funnel is to engage them enough to become a lead. This is where most digital marketing strategies tend to focus. Tactics include contact forms, downloadable gated content, and user logins (to save plans or favorites). Here's a great article listing proven methods to capture more leads on a home builder website. The 0.5% average visitor-to-lead conversion rate listed above is for most builders with a passive site with little more than a contact form for converting leads.
Bokka clients regularly see conversion rates above 10% when using a landing page campaign specific to the inbound source. An example would be a grand opening campaign targeting new home shoppers in a particular area, linking them to a page with tailored content.
Lead-to-appointment conversions
Once a construction lead is in your home builder CRM, the goal is to get them to schedule an appointment with a salesperson. This is where follow-up is crucial. An average of 20% of your leads will eventually come for an appointment or walk-in with little to no follow-up. The faster your Online Sales Counselor reaches out to the lead, the higher your chance of conversion. Home builders with a dedicated online sales program have much higher lead-to-appointment sales funnel conversion rates, as they don't rely on the on-site staff—who are busy with customers in person—to follow up. For more info on this type of program, get this Ultimate Toolkit for Online Sales Counselors.
Appointment-to-sale conversions
This is the rate most builders are already tracking. It's the ratio of appointments or walk-ins (model center traffic) to the number who write contracts. Many factors can influence these conversions, and generally speaking, the best way to improve them is through new home sales training and coaching. Again, builders that invest in an online sales program have higher appointment-to-sale conversion rates because the quality of appointments tends to be better. It's quite common for a builder with a successful program like this to see well over half of their total sales coming from online leads and appointments.
If you're interested in hearing how a program like this could work for you, just send us a message or schedule a free consultation below. We'd love to help.
How a top 50 builder crushed these visitor-to-lead conversion rates
Builders that work with the Bokka Group for their home builder marketing strategies see much higher conversion rates than these. For example, this top 50 builder achieved an 11% visitor-to-lead conversion rate from paid search traffic. And by closely tracking this investment they found they had achieved a 96% decrease in cost-per-lead. See how they did it here >>
3 Examples of Builders that Outperformed Industry Average Conversion Rates
Are you a home builder interested in tracking your sales funnel conversions? How about getting the best ROI from your digital spend while crushing average conversion rates? If so, find out how the Bokka Group can help you do all of the above. If you’re still not sure, check out the following case studies.
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