Homeowners on the move target of new Zillow ads

Real estate Web site Zillow.com last week debuted the launch of Zillow Home Direct Ads, a new set of tools that lets advertisers identify and connect online with homeowners who are on the verge of moving.

The Zillow Home Direct Ads let advertisers target ads to homeowners by individual address; home value; psychographic cluster, such as urban families with children; or a consumers' planned move date.

The new tools track more than 70 million US homes in its database. Each home has a move predictor based on traffic spikes to the home's page. With this information, an advertiser can serve ads accordingly.

"Often before a home goes on the market, a homeowner will be looking at their own home to see the value, and based on this uptick we determine whether they are in the market to sell," said Greg Schwartz, VP of ad sales at Zillow.

"Having this knowledge early is important," Schwartz continued. "We have one cable company client that says that it only knows when a customer is going to move when they call up and cancel their service. With this predictor, they can target ads in advance of the move when a customer is in market."

The soft housing market increases the number of visits to Zillow, according to Schwartz.

"When home sales are down, home renovations go up," he added. "And with this knowledge, marketers can send more targeted messages."

Zillow, named for a blend of the concept of looking at zillions of homes to the best place to rest your head, provides maps, neighborhood information and house details for buyers and sellers as well as free market listing to real estate professionals.

The site recently launched a community forum called Discussions in which buyers and sellers can post direct advice to others on the Web.