Zoopla Targets Housebuilders With Latest Strategy

British portal Zoopla has revamped its New Homes segment in a bid to attract developers and expand the number of listings on its site. Reportedly 18 months in development the multi-million-pound strategy will see developers be given more control over their content and branding on Zoopla's site as well as a cost-per-lead model.

The new strategy for New Homes includes what Zoopla is referring to as an 'ecosystem' of different complementary products for home builders designed to smooth over the marketing of their wares: while Brand Builder lets developers create a showcase for their developments and show off the lifestyle associated with their properties, Sales Optimiser uses Zoopla's sales intent algorithm to get potential customers to the developer's database.

Zoopla's Director of New Homes Alex Rose said of his company's new strategy:

“Re-introducing Zoopla to housebuilders is an industry-defining moment that has been years in the making and the investment we’ve made is testament to the importance of this audience to Zoopla.”

“Housebuilders are at the heart of everything we do, and we want to optimise the Zoopla experience to ensure we’re driving commercial success and value for our partners at every stage of the development life cycle."

The talk in the British property industry is that Zoopla is taking consumer and customer analytics very seriously in an effort to truly demonstrate ROI to its advertising partners. The #2 portal company has long positioned itself as the smart choice for consumers in the face of Rightmove's more emotional and brand-driven appeal and the tactic appears to be the same with its customers as Zoopla looks to buy up data and ancillary services to give its partners more insight.

Just last week the portal company announced the acquisition of housebuilder software company YourKeys for an undisclosed amount. Add to that April's triumphant announcement that 2400 branches have joined Zoopla in just over a year and the company's biggest-ever ad campaign accompanying a branding and functionality change, and Zoopla clearly looks to be on the warpath.

Today's news shows that the Silverlake-backed firm is clearly looking to strengthen in an important housing segment in which revenue and demand is expected to grow throughout the year.