Key Points

  • Real estate data offers uniquely, powerful insights that can be highly impactful for an entire host of brands across many verticals.
  • With third-party cookie deprecation looming, there are several additional ways to collect real estate data for more precise audience targeting including first-party data, contextual signals, hashed emails, alternative IDs, and more.
  • In 2023, Playwire launched its standalone data solution, offering advertisers direct access to Playwire’s custom audience segments and powerful targeting capabilities across all channels, without reliance on third-party cookies.

 

Playwire Live Transcript

Paul Chenier, Playwire EVP of Sales: In a couple of sentences, what does it mean to lead data initiatives at Playwire? 

Nathan Thomas, Playwire SVP of Data Sales: I've been at Playwire for over 15 years. At this point, I've seen ad operations, partner success, and other departments firsthand. Through those experiences, I’ve learned what advertisers need, in terms of data, to run successful ad campaigns.

Over the years, we have always thought that having a standalone data practice would be a tremendous value to advertisers, not just as an add-on if you buy media on Playwire’s exclusive inventory, so that's essentially what we did.

Around the summer of 2023, we finally launched our standalone data solution, meaning now advertisers can use all the powerful data we've been using for audience targeting on Playwire publishing properties for nearly two decades on any channel they would like including social media, connected TV, and more.

However, today, I’m excited to talk specifically about the power of real estate data.

Paul: Let’s get into it. Playwire has been collecting first-party data from hundreds of publishers for a very long time, and one of the largest and most important data sets we have is real estate data, which is so important because of its limitless potential for a myriad of advertisers. 

So, we know it's an important data set. We know there's a lot of intent behind this data. But what about the data source and quality? There’s tons of third-party data on the market, but where is it coming from, how is it sourced, and what makes Playwire's data different? 

Nathan: There is so much third-party data being sold on the market. Everyone has data from somewhere, meaning everyone is currently selling some kind of data. But it’s important to look under the hood and ensure you’re asking where it’s coming from because there are only so many places where such data can be generated.

Tons of industry players are buying or selling some kind of data sets, which is why so often it’s the same data that everyone else has.

In contrast, Playwire does a couple of unique things. 

One, we have our exclusive publisher network, which means everything we sell data-wise is 100% from those exclusive publishers. We do not buy any additional third-party data or model data. Playwire’s data is from actual users coming to our properties. We then observe these behaviors to gain knowledge of and develop custom interest- and intent-based segments. 

More specifically on the real estate side, we have some incredibly premier publishers, or partners as we prefer to call them, who can more effectively run their business, including monetizing their ad placements. Two prime examples are Redfin.com and Rent.com in addition to several other real estate properties. 

Second, not only do we have exclusive publisher relationships, but we’ve built extremely advanced technology over the last 17 years, including our own DMP. Instead of relying on outside DMPs or third-party services, we built our own, fitting it right into our comprehensive ad stack and integrating directly with every publisher, which allows for the most direct form of data collection. 

Paul: I think “right from the source” is the headline there. On that note, I think the biggest thing on everyone's mind, concerning data, is the deprecation of the third-party cookie. 

What is Playwire doing to future-proof our services and how will the deprecation of gradual third-party cookies affect what we're doing with our real estate data? 

Nathan: The big buzzword right now is cookie deprecation, and whether it’s going to happen tomorrow, in a year, or at the end of Q4. Regardless, we welcome that development. 

There's been too much flagrant use of data, remarketed without proper purposes and such. I believe cookie deprecation is a good thing. The interesting and important fact for Playwire is that we developed our DMP from the ground up to be cookie-less. That's actually how we started. 

Our DMP is built to observe contextual signals and several additional non-cookie-based data. We only added cookies later, to use as long as the market allows it. So, we can work with first-party and third-party cookies and we also support other solutions such as hashed emails and alternative IDs.

Back to our real estate publishers, I think it’s important to note that the majority of users on real estate websites are logged in, which means we also have a substantial amount of users who are authenticated. This data can vary by timeframe, time of the month, etc., but about 40-50% of our properties, if not higher, are authenticated. With our real estate data, we feel extremely confident that the cookie is not even that relevant for us considering all the additional data measures we are taking. 

Additionally, we have some other exciting integrations like Google PAIR; very few publishers have access to Google's authenticated solution. We are also experimenting with PAAPI and we have LiveRamp ATS direct-for-use of data on IOs. As I briefly mentioned, we also have alternative ID partners we work with including Trade Desk UID and ID5.

All in all, we feel great at Playwire about the cookie apocalypse.

Paul: When it comes to users logging in on real estate websites, it’s safe to say they are at some point in the home-buying journey. They're either in the process of researching a new neighborhood, or of purchasing a home, or perhaps they purchased a home already and now they want to get those pictures down so nobody sees what their home looks like.

This brings me to the next question, who needs this type of data from an advertising perspective and where does this data add value for marketers? 

Nathan: When it comes to real estate data, the first thing that comes to mind is the endemic advertisers at the core of real estate. This could be home builders, apartment complex owners, brokers, landlords, communities, and so on. There are so many interesting applications for real estate data depending on where the user is in their real estate journey. 

For example, if you just purchased a home and you're about to move, you will need a variety of services such as new internet and insurance. Now, we’re branching out of that core real estate segment into other verticals, including telecommunications and insurance. 

Now, let’s take it a step further. A new homeowner will probably be searching for new furniture, lamp fixtures, fresh paint, etc. What about having data about the length of the homeownership, and the type of property, which gives some unique demographic information? Where's the home located? What type of housing is it? This information can lead to things such as political affinity or what kind of automotive interests you might have, depending on if you're living in the suburbs versus the city. 

The point is that there’s an entire host of brands that can be impactful in real estate and still be hyper-localized. 

Paul: The real estate data funnel can open the doors to so much more data than most even realize. What if someone needs a cleaning service in town, or a moving company, or is looking for an interior decorator for their new home?

When it comes to the real estate world, users are thinking about a whole cluster of things that come along with owning a home. There is a huge upper funnel component of this audience, this leaned-in qualified audience as they're engaging with this information and thinking about their home. In some ways, it is certainly a deep funnel, but in other ways, it is akin to platforms like Pinterest, or even Instagram in some cases.

With that said, our data can now be used to target audiences on Instagram as well as other social platforms. Learn how, here.

Paul: What is the current state of real estate market data? Is it differentiated, and are there strong sources of data? 

Nathan: We have so much experience with data at Playwire, but once we brought on board premier partners like Redfin and Rent.com, we started to pay more attention to the real estate data and real estate market trends. 

One of the things that I found most interesting early on is that a lot of the data is not very differentiated. Essentially, you might have audience segments available for purchase that are something like “interested in real estate”, but what does that mean? Are you a broker? Are you a buyer? Are you a seller? Are you a landlord? It was too undifferentiated.

It’s key to have those high-level segments, but you also need to be able to dive deeper while still maintaining scale, which is not an easy thing to do, but that's what we've worked so hard to do with our partners. 

To offer access to high-level, bigger audiences is great, but then scaling them down for better targeting is critical and it’s typically what advertisers are looking for. 

So instead of “Are you interested in real estate ”, we’re asking, “Are you a home buyer, a renter looking for apartments, or a broker”, or “Do you own a home in a neighborhood in this area?”

Paul: To that point, we have tons of off-the-shelf audience segments that you can use today. Because the data is so rich and differentiated, is there the ability to combine data sets or to work with you and the team to create custom audience segments?

Nathan: Yes, absolutely. We have around 50 off-the-shelf real estate segments right now available on all major platforms, available in the LiveRamp marketplace, by IOTA, and other partners, all branded with Playwire so you know exactly where it's coming from and what you're getting. 

This insight can be used for modeling, analytical purposes, matching, or at its core, where Playwire is best, in media activation, either on our inventory or for data usage on external inventory.

We can also work to build custom data sets into specific advertiser platforms for a specific brand, agency, or partner that we work with, which is something we're always doing with our larger partners. 

Again, we don't deal much with third-party data, which is our strong suit. Our data is driven by first-party signals, which is super important to keep in mind.

Paul: Right now, what are the most popular segments that you've seen demand for? 

Nathan: We now have over a year of external data sales under our belt, so we have some areas that have crystallized as being very important. 

First, there’s the real estate journey around the mover. If you're a pre-mover, you're an active mover or a post-mover, this is a key segment. As we know, during that process, you're going to need a variety of different services. To reach the right user at the right time in that process is key.

For example, you probably don’t want to serve a user an ad for a moving company after they already moved or an ad for insurance when they've already been in the house for some time. Timing is very important. 

Then, there are segments around home buyers versus sellers. These are two totally different clientele and different audiences to reach. You want and need to know who you're talking to meet the needs of the audience. 

Additionally, there are a lot of popular segments around what kind of properties, be it to buy or to rent, users are looking at. Is it high-end luxury? Is it a family home? Is it a penthouse? Does it have a boat ramp? Does it have a pool? Those things are important to know to truly tailor your messaging. 

Last but not least, there is all the demographic information that comes around with this data. Depending on the type of housing you're looking for, the mortgage rates you got preapproved for, or the area you're moving to, you’re providing critical demographic information about how to reach different people. 

Paul: That’s a hot topic right now: renting versus buying. Renters tend to be younger but also a bit older, so even there you have two sets of users with very different needs both considered renters. How does that affect audience segmentation with real estate data? 

Nathan: That's where real estate can differ a little bit from data across other verticals in terms of localized targeting. Typically, when we think of localized targeting, it sounds something like, a user is in a certain zip code so you’re going to serve them an ad for a shop that is around the corner. However, real estate has two dimensions to it. 

While you may live in your city right now, you're also trying to move to a different city. So, knowing the difference between where the user is and where they're planning to go in the moving process is very important. Otherwise, advertisers are wasting money advertising something local to someone who is planning to move 500 miles away.

Playwire’s data is incredibly powerful all by itself but it can also be combined with new data sets to create layers. This might look like someone who likes movies also just bought a new home so they might be interested in a new TV. 

There are so many incredible things you can do with this data. 

Paul: Can you talk a little bit about the difference between using this data to activate programmatically at scale, decoupling it from media buying, and activating it on a real estate site?

Nathan: I think everyone would agree that the contextual nature is very, very important. Advertising on a real estate website with proper data overlaid is extremely powerful. 

Let's say a user is on Redfin.com and they’re looking at either a home or a rental. We can then narrow that down depending on what property data they’re looking at. Is it a rental? Is it a condo? Using a user’s history and the audience segment information we have, we can then serve hyper-relevant, contextually relevant ads on this property. Not to mention, Redfin is a premium property, a clean property with no brand safety issues, making it a great place to be for advertisers. 

The limitations with real estate websites are that due to the nature of the site itself, with users there to look at listings, and scrolling through fairly quickly, this doesn't allow for every ad format there is. 

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Check out our ad layout recommendations for real estate websites.

But from the data perspective and audience targeting, this data is almost limitless. We know all this real estate information, and intent from the actual properties, and now brands and advertisers can use it on social media, such as while a user is watching a TikTok video, or maybe you want to serve an in-game ad as the user is playing. With real estate data, you have the unique opportunity to complete a journey with that user.

What I love to see is that full circle moment, where we can serve users great, relevant ads on the property itself, and then continue the brand messaging as they move through the online advertising ecosystem, benefiting the user and the advertiser at the same time. 

Paul: The value is reaching users within the real estate environments with hyper-targeted messaging, but then also reaching them with high-impact placements and other passion points, other subcultures that they're into. 

In summary, this real estate data that we are sitting on top of here at Playwire, this exclusive first-party data, is incredibly valuable for a host of reasons, starting with the fact that it comes from a reliable source. 

There's a high level of transparency regarding what advertisers are getting, and how it works, and we're continually updating it and making it even better. 

 

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