During the month of July we ran a promotion for our Canadian members to win a free Apple iPad.  With the purchase of each Spotlight Ad for Point2Homes.com during the month of July, an entry was made into the draw for the iPad.

I’m pleased to announce that Karen Kenyon of Nanoose Bay, BC has been selected as our lucky winner.

Karen shares, “I have been very impressed with the Spotlight Ads, not only because they get your listing great exposure, but vendors love the feedback about the web views.  Spotlight Ads are the best value for your advertising dollars.”

Karen’s feedback echoes what many of our members feel when using Spotlight Ads as an integral part of their listing marketing.

Bummed out you didn’t win the iPad yourself?  Don’t be sad.  Because of the premium placement on Point2 Homes, your listings potentially received far more views than if you hadn’t used a Spotlight Ad.  You still win!

With Point2 Homes Spotlight Ads your listings appear at the forefront of millions of eyeballs, featured right front and center on one of the highest traffic consumer search sites for listings.  That exposure is a valuable boost to your listing marketing.

For more reasons why you should use Point2 Homes Spotlight Ads read this post.

Congratulations Karen on winning the Apple iPad!  I am sure you’ll have tons of fun with it and find it very useful for your real estate business.

Stay tuned for more great giveaways and promotions from Point2 in the future!

Hopefully everyone has followed the advice we posted last week which lists ways to create your listings so they get noticed.  Now that your listings have all the rich content that buyers are looking for, it’s time to begin advertising your listings everywhere possible.

I mentioned in point #13 of that post to use the Point2 Exposure Engine to syndicate your listings everywhere.  You are probably already taking advantage of this amazing exposure for your listings.  If you aren’t already syndicating your listings, you should start now.  Our User Manual can help you get started with syndicating your listings now.

In addition to syndicating your listings, you may want to consider purchasing enhanced listing placement to advertise on busy consumer search sites.

Point2 has partnered with some of our syndication partners to provide enhanced listing placement on some of the highest-trafficked search sites.  We call them Spotlight Ads.

The additional listing exposure and extra visibility from using Spotlight Ads can go a long way to capture the interest of home buyers.

Point2 offers Spotlight Ads through NewYorkTimes.com, Google, Point2 Homes, and HotPads.com.

Spotlight Ad on NewYorkTimes.com

A Spotlight Ad on NewYorkTimes.com provides your listing with placement on their website which has approximately 36 million unique visitors per month.  Your listing also has the potential of  reaching a target audience of active affluent property seekers through the Great Homes network of newspaper sites, 35% of them with an annual income of $100K or more.

Spotlight Ad on Google

The Spotlight Ad for Google actually is a service we provide to book a Google Adword campaign for your listing.  We take the guess work out of the equation and provide you with an automated way to book pre-packaged campaigns with targeted keywords for your listings.  You can purchase Google Adwords in two separate packages, both for 15 days.  The amount of keywords that you receive in your campaign is based on the spend amount, either $30 or $60.

Purchasing Google Adwords this way does not change where your listing is viewed on Google Base as these are two different services from Google.  Instead, purchasing Adwords makes it so that your listing appears when certain keywords are searched in a Google search, in the Sponsored Links areas of the search results. 

Spotlight Ad on Point2 Homes

Give your listings additional prominence on Point2Homes.com by having it placed along the top and sides of the listing pages for State/Province, County, City, and Neighborhood.  It will rotate along with all other featured listings from those areas, and as the pages become more targeted (City, Neighborhood) your listing will show more frequently.

Spotlight Ad on HotPads.com

You can appoint your listings as Featured Listings on HotPads.com using the Spotlight Ad service we make possible directly through your Point2 Agent account.  Featured listings appear on the highest zoom levels in map-search, are given a bold contrasting icon in the search page, and has an expanded blue preview box on the right corner of the map. 

It’s very easy to set up a Spotlight Ad and is a relatively inexpensive investment for advertising your listings.  You can purchase Spotlight Ads directly through your Point2 Agent account.  You can find detailed instructions in our User Manual.

Did you know?  Point2 Agent Premium members receive 2 free Spotlight Ad credits to use every month for any listings they choose to be featured on Point2 Homes.