Mobile Advertising in the Real Estate Market: Features, Effectiveness, and Trends

The real estate market is characterized by long sales cycles, high product value, and a complex decision-making process. Therefore, advertising campaigns in this segment require precise targeting and careful attention at each stage of the funnel.

According to research, more than 60% of homebuyers start their search on a smartphone or tablet. That’s why developers increasingly turn to mobile advertising to attract potential buyers and drive sales.

In this article, we explore how in-app advertising can promote real estate products and how programmatic helps achieve marketing goals.

Features of the Real Estate Market

The real estate market is significantly different from most other business sectors. It’s not enough to simply capture the user’s attention — it’s essential to build trust, provide comprehensive information, and support the client at every stage of the transaction.

Understanding these characteristics helps develop more accurate promotional strategies, allocate budgets effectively, and choose the right communication channels.

Real Estate Market Features for Consumers:

• Long decision-making process. Buyers study properties, compare offers, and consult with experts before making a purchase.
• Location dependency. Proximity to work, infrastructure, and environmental factors often matter more than price or layout. According to statistics, 78% of homebuyers value the quality of the neighborhood more than the size of the home, and 57% prefer shorter commutes.
• Low purchase frequency. Real estate transactions are rare, so each contact with advertising must be memorable.

Real Estate Market Features for Businesses:

• Long sales cycle. Several weeks or months may pass from the first contact to closing the deal. This increases marketing and lead nurturing costs.
• High customer acquisition cost. Advertising, events, and personal consultations require significant investment, making optimization of every channel crucial.
• Need for branding and trust. Developers and agencies build their reputation through reviews, case studies, and expert content.
• High competition and price transparency. The market is saturated, and customers can easily compare options online — businesses must respond quickly to changes in demand and pricing.
• Regulations and legal risks. Real estate construction and sales must comply with numerous regulations, so companies invest in legal expertise and transparent documentation.

Creating a marketing strategy must be tailored to each real estate segment. This helps generate more personalized offers for buyers and tenants, increasing their loyalty and likelihood of conversion.

Real Estate Market Segments:

• Residential real estate. Apartments, houses, and condos used for permanent or temporary living.
• Commercial real estate. Offices, retail spaces, and warehouses — used for business purposes and profit generation.
• Suburban and resort real estate. Cottages, vacation homes — often used for seasonal stays or as investments.
• Investment real estate. Properties purchased to generate income through rent or resale.
• New developments. Residential and commercial properties under construction or newly completed.
• Luxury real estate. High-end homes and properties with premium locations, finishes, and amenities.
• Land plots. Territories for development, agriculture, or investment purposes.

How to Promote a Product in the Real Estate Market

Marketing in real estate requires a comprehensive approach.

That’s why companies use various tools:

• Contextual advertising (Google Ads). Quickly reaches users with clear purchase or rental intent.
• Social media advertising (Instagram, TikTok). Helps promote properties visually and reach a broad audience by interests and demographics.
• Programmatic and in-app advertising. According to statistics, 96% of buyers start their home search online. Ads in mobile apps enable precise targeting and higher user engagement.
• SEO promotion of project websites. Attracts organic traffic with a higher level of trust.
• Email campaigns and messengers. Allow for personalized communication and re-engagement of warm leads.
• Influencer marketing. Expands reach through loyal audiences.
• Video tours using VR and AR. 3D tours receive 87% more views than traditional listings.

Why In-App Advertising is a Must-Have in a Developer’s Digital Strategy

In 2024, 54.2% of real estate agents’ marketing budgets were allocated to digital marketing, making it a key promotion tool. Online channels help reach buyers at different stages of the funnel and tailor content for various segments and property types.

In a highly competitive and information-rich environment, digital marketing helps brands stay visible. One of the most effective tools for online promotion is programmatic advertising.

Programmatic advertising is an automated system for buying and placing ads that uses data for precise targeting and personalized ad delivery. It enables reaching the right audience at the right time while minimizing waste on untargeted impressions.

Benefits of Using Programmatic Advertising in the Real Estate Market:

• Precise targeting. Delivers ads to users who match specific demographic and behavioral criteria.
• Cost optimization. Reduces spending on non-targeted impressions.
• Broad reach. Provides access to numerous online platforms and apps, increasing the visibility of real estate properties.
• Analytics and reporting. Offers detailed insights into campaign performance, allowing for timely adjustments to improve results.
• Process automation. Simplifies campaign management, minimizes human error, and increases the speed and accuracy of ad placement.

Guide: Why Developers Need Mobile Advertising and How It Works

We list the opportunities that programmatic offers for promoting products in the real estate segment.

Targeting

Programmatic allows to set up targeting across three main types:

• Socio-demographic parameters
• Geography
• Interests

Targeting based on socio-demographic criteria includes gender, age, income level, education, marital status, presence of children, and profession. 

Geo-targeting shows ads to users from specific countries, regions, and cities. The BYYD platform also offers a SuperGeo technology — it displays ads to audiences located just meters away from the brand, for example, near a developer’s property.

This is especially relevant for offline real estate sales: a user can see an ad while near a residential complex and immediately proceed to a site visit or submit an inquiry.

The effectiveness of SuperGeo can be illustrated through the case of the 3S Kale Topaz residence. This tool was key in attracting the target audience. The campaign reached users near the project’s location, generating 31,341 ad clicks and a CTR above the real estate market average — 1.7%.

Mobile specialists narrow the audience by interests. In the real estate segment, relevant interests include apartments, buying/selling homes, business, money and investments, stocks/bonds, financial news, and more.

In the case of the ArmConstruct residential complex, the BYYD team grouped users’ interests into key categories: real estate, family and parenting, income level, and personal finance.

BYYD also allows targeting by:

• Device type
• Mobile carrier
• Device manufacturer
• Operating system

Optimization

To improve campaign performance, BYYD conducts daily optimization based on platform statistics in conjunction with Yandex.Metrica. Specialists exclude underperforming apps by adding them to a blacklist, allowing ad delivery to focus on high-performing platforms.

Popular Creative Formats

Mobile advertising offers a wide range of formats — from static banners to mini-games. The most common and effective include:

• Static banners. Non-animated images placed in various screen positions, e.g., fullscreen, native banners.
• Rich Media. Interactive format with animations, video, audio, and gamified elements.
• Video. A format that demonstrates the product in action. The Video Interaction format is gaining popularity — it combines video with Rich Media and fullscreen banners.

During the CRealEst campaign, we created a fullscreen banner. A clean design and clear message helped communicate the service’s value and drive quality traffic to the site. We managed to get a good percentage of conversion of clicks into sessions by 54%. Great time spent on website, average over 30 seconds on mobile devices.

To drive traffic to the landing page of the SEA BREEZE residential and resort complex in Baku, we developed Rich Media banners. The creatives showcased accommodation conditions and leisure scenarios to emotionally engage the audience. As a result, the campaign reached 816,166 unique users with a CTR of 2.4%, which is above the real estate market average.

To motivate users to visit the website during the promotion of the ArmConstruct residential complex, we created a video creative. This helped highlight key features of the complex and strengthen brand awareness through its visual identity and style.

Safe Ad Placement

The BYYD platform places a high priority on the safety of mobile campaigns. We implement a Brand Safety approach in our processes.

Brand protection includes several steps:

• Multi-level verification of ad inventory
• Traffic quality assessment using specialized trackers
• Creation of White and Black lists
• Participation in auctions only with verified devices

More details are available here.

Methods for Measuring Ad Effectiveness

The BYYD platform offers clients several ways to evaluate mobile campaign results:

• Brand Lift Study: Measures brand awareness before and after a programmatic campaign. BYYD surveys two groups — users who have seen the creatives and those who haven’t — and compares the results.
• Metric Analysis: Includes average time on site, bounce rate, click-to-session conversion rate, and CTR.

Mobile advertising is a powerful tool for real estate brand promotion. Programmatic ensures high-quality traffic and builds user loyalty.

Take a look at our case studies to see how thoughtful mobile advertising really works.

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