In real estate, those first calls with clients are crucial for building lasting relationships and driving growth. Analyzing these conversations provides valuable insights. However, limited budgets, resources, and the complexity of collecting data across multiple channels often hinders real estate professionals from effectively drawing out key insights from conversations. Adding to the complexity, real estate professionals must also navigate fluctuating inventory, diverse client preferences, competitive markets, and fragmented customer data — all of which make understanding and acting on call insights even more critical.
To help real estate businesses optimize their marketing and get more from their calls, CallRail analyzed 1.1 million leads pulling key insights that show how successful real estate companies are growing their business. Our findings reveal which channels drive the most calls and deliver the highest ROI, how missed calls impact conversions, and the PPC keywords that attract the most qualified leads.
Here’s what we’ve learned about how real estate marketers can turn call insights into growth.
Top channels driving customers to call
Across all industries we analyzed, the top three channels for growth were consistent: Google Ads, Organic Search, and Google My Business. These findings reinforce the importance of continual investment in paid and organic search strategies, as well as local search optimization, in driving inbound leads. It also demonstrates that a successful real estate marketing strategy will leverage multiple channels working in unison to drive results.
However, the real estate industry is unique. Unlike other industries, where one channel typically dominates, real estate businesses see nearly equal success across these three leading channels. This means real estate marketers should prioritize a balanced approach across Google Ads, Organic Search, and Google My Business to maximize lead generation.
The key insight here is that unlike other industries, marketers in the real estate sector do not need to rely on Google Ads as their primary driver of leads. Instead, they benefit from a balanced approach across the three primary channels. That’s good news, as it means real estate marketers have more flexibility to diversify messages and approaches across different channels while still seeing strong results. However, marketing on multiple channels makes it harder to track and attribute leads accurately. Without a unified view of the customer journey, real estate businesses risk missing critical insights into what’s actually driving conversions.
The hidden paths customers take to find your real estate business
While call tracking can tell you whether someone called you from a billboard ad, a direct mail flyer, or your website, that often isn’t the whole story. AI-powered self-reported attribution bridges the gap between multiple online and offline channels. It helps capture not only first-touch interactions, like Google Ads, but also often-overlooked sources, such as personal referrals and returning customers.
In fact, our survey showed that across all industries, 54% of Google My Business calls come from repeat customers. Many of these customers treat Google My Business like a digital business card—finding and contacting your business without saving your information. This underscores the importance of balancing customer acquisition with retention.
In looking at real estate sector-specific call insights, we found that 40% of new leads attributed online search as how they heard about a real estate business. However, given real estate’s relationship-driven nature, it's no surprise that 28% of leads were attributed to returning customers and 20% to personal referrals. While only 5% of new leads were attributed to direct mail, real estate still ranks third highest in being found through direct mail across all industries studied. Notably, in the real estate investment sector, direct mail plays an even bigger role, generating 28% of all leads.
Knowing your keywords, and how to use them, matters
Real estate marketers consistently drive high-quality traffic by aligning their pay-per-click (PPC) keywords with customer interests. Given how crowded and competitive local real estate markets can be, this edge is a key tool in helping you stand out while increasing the possibility of converting initial phone calls to qualified leads, appointments or sales. Based on our insights report, we’ve observed some common trends in effective keyword use:
- “Near me” searches: In industries like real estate, customers use location-based searches such as "apartments near me" to find local services.
- Industry-specific searches: Terms using high-performing keywords like “senior or assisted living" drive traffic
- Segment keywords by intent based on conversations: Keywords that reflect specific customer needs, like "land for sale," attract leads ready to take action, improving conversion rates.
- Monitor trends and adapt: Keep your keyword strategy current by tracking evolving customer behavior and trends. For instance, "e-waste disposal" has gained relevance in the real estate investment industry.
- Use negative keywords: Filter out irrelevant traffic by adding negative keywords to your campaign. For example, a commercial mortgage broker might exclude unrelated residential services to avoid wasted ad spend.
Call insights help real estate companies overcome data fragmentation by tracking insights from customer calls regardless of which channel or platform drew them to your business. This allows you to review transcripts of your calls to identify the keywords that matter most to your specific customers. By allocating a budget to take advantage of these keywords across your campaigns, you can ensure a better ROI for your marketing spend.
Missed calls equal missed opportunities
Our study found that the real estate sector has a missed call rate of 9%. While that number might seem pretty good, it’s still a cause for concern given the level and saturation of competition in the sector. Since prospects can find multiple competitors if they have trouble connecting with you, every missed call represents an opportunity for your competitors to scoop up one of your prospects. In the sector, we know missed calls can have a major impact on your bottom line, as every unanswered call represents a potential lost lead. Studies show that up to 85% of customers whose calls go unanswered will not call back, often opting to reach out to a competitor instead.
With CallRail, there are various strategies you can deploy to ensure missed calls don’t turn into missed leads. With tools like automated responses and advanced call flows, you can easily set up systems that follow up with customers automatically when your team is unavailable, giving your business a chance to capture leads even when you can't answer the phone.
- Automated response: When a call is missed, CallRail can send an immediate automated text message to the caller, acknowledging the missed call and letting them know someone will be in touch shortly. Maintaining the connection reassures the caller that their inquiry is important and can stop the lead from moving on to the next real estate agent on their list.
- Advanced call flows: CallRail's advanced call flow feature allows you to customize how calls are routed based on availability. If your team is busy or on another line, calls can be automatically routed to another team member or location, reducing missed calls. You can also set up a voicemail-to-email feature, where voicemails are transcribed and sent to your inbox for quick follow-up.
- Call routing: Another powerful tool CallRail offers is the ability to create intelligent call routing systems that direct calls to the right department or individual based on the caller’s input or location. Ensuring your team handles calls more efficiently minimizes lost sales.
Ready to unlock growth with powerful conversation insights?
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Disclaimer - This report is based on aggregated and deidentified data and is provided for informational purposes only. To ensure the privacy of our business customers and comply with applicable data protection regulations, the analysis and insights presented herein are derived solely from deidentified data, excluding any sensitive or protected information as defined by privacy laws and regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. This report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of market trends without compromising individual privacy. Any reliance on the information presented in this report is at the user’s own risk, and we disclaim any liability for decisions made based on this report.
