08 Feb Why You Should (or shouldn’t) Advertise on Houzz
I have been asked many times “Should we advertise on Houzz?”
I wanted to explain my answer to this question to perhaps help some more people.
By the way, my answer is always “That depends”. It is not a simple answer. I do not have an answer to this question that applies to every company. I will explain.
It is my opinion that you should not have an attitude towards Houzz that since you are advertising you are maximizing your marketing efforts. You are not. You may be maximizing your advertising efforts but definitely not your marketing efforts.
Whenever I am asked this question by a client I tell them that we should look at the data and make a determination based on reality and specific data and not simply based on the fact “that you think you should”.
I will give you some examples of various scenarios and how I would use data to make the determination.
Scenario: You just started using Houzz and/or don’t have many projects.
In this case advertising on Houzz may be good for you. It will help you improve your exposure. You would need to give careful consideration to which areas you are paying for.
Scenario: You have been advertising on Houzz and are not sure if you should continue to advertise.
In this case you should look at the data. What we do for clients is to create a digital map which includes pins for every lead generated from Houzz. Then you highlight the leads which have converted to actual sales. It is my opinion that if you have been advertising for a certain region for a year and do not have an amount of leads or sales that justifies the cost for that region then you need to probably eliminate it. You can even breakdown down the cost to acquire these new clients from Houzz.
Scenario: You want to advertise so you do not have to optimize your profile.
In this case you should realize that you are missing out on the bigger opportunity. Having a quality profile which generates organic exposure for your company on Houzz. If you fall into this scenario then you are probably dissatisfied with the amount of sales that you have generated from Houzz. I don’t blame you. Also in this scenario I would recommend that you incorporate an organic optimization strategy instead of advertising. You can always add the advertising later.
Scenario: You have a highly optimized profile and you are ranked #1 for most of your cities. Your photos also receive good exposure.
What is good exposure for your photos? You can look and see how many people have saved your photos to “Ideabooks”. If this number is low then they cannot find them. In this scenario, assuming your profile and photos are highly optimized then I would say “No you don’t need to advertise”. Reasoning- if your profile ranks #1 organically for every city then why should you be paying for being randomly inserted in the results?
The exception to this is if you could potentially be in two different categories. For example, let’s say that you are an architect and you do design and design/build. Then you could potentially be in two categories. But Houzz only lets you be in one organically and you can then pay to show up in the other category. Also, if this is the case for you, and you are paying for the same category as your organic category then you either don’t care or you don’t know any better. Please call me immediately if this is the case.
Scenario: You are a manufacturer or have franchisees and you have adopted the co-op advertising program.
You are most likely doing a disservice for your dealers or franchisees. I can guarantee you that the majority of them assume that this is maximizing their “marketing” when in reality it is maximizing your budget with little or no results. You should also call us immediately as we have developed marketing programs that drive real, measurable results, organically. You can achieve better results for your dealers without having an advertising budget that increases each year and provides mediocre results.
Disclaimer: the opinions expressed here are my opinions and thoughts on advertising on Houzz. I make no claim as to whether you should or should not advertise simply based on anecdotal evidence but rather it is my belief that you should make the determination based on reality (based on data) and what is in the best interest for your business and your specific scenario.