OnTheMarket is struggling, Zoopla has said.
OTM totally rejected the claims and described Zoopla’s attention to it as “flattering”.
Zoopla, which once again used Hitwise figures, said: “Almost three months after its launch the latest data suggests that Onthemarket may not be making the right moves with consumers as it struggles to build audience momentum.
“The latest data from Hitwise shows that OTM traffic has actually been in decline for the last few weeks after peaking in mid-March.
“Far from closing in on market leaders Rightmove and Zoopla, despite the bold predictions from some associated with it, OTM traffic remains well behind the audience levels of PrimeLocation and other UK property websites including Spareroom or Holidaylettings.
“And the gap between OTM and the market leaders has actually widened over the past few weeks.
“Lawrence Hall of ZPG commented: ‘At the end of the day, OTM is simply a marketing channel like any other and will need to ensure that its audience levels justify its fees.
‘This is even more the case for OTM given that it has required its members to give up a huge audience.
‘It is hard to see how agents can justify paying anything meaningful for marketing on OTM at these current traffic levels.’”
Ian Springett, chief executive of OnTheMarket.com, said: “As flattering as it is to receive so much attention from Zoopla Property Group, we would like to correct their misinformation.
“The Hitwise figures regarding traffic levels at OnTheMarket.com are simply inaccurate both in terms of absolute numbers and trends.
“Far from declining throughout March, our traffic levels grew, with more than 1.5m unique visitors coming to OnTheMarket.com, and we have experienced a further uplift in April.
“In March, more than nine pages were viewed per visit, indicating a good level of engagement and one comparable with other major portals.
“The number of repeat visitors increased significantly, and trackable email and telephone leads also increased.
“As a mutual business without the immediate pressure to satisfy shareholders with ever increasing dividends, our focus is on attracting the active property-seekers in the market and generating good-quality leads for our member agents instead of casual-browsers who have no intention of buying, selling or renting a home.
“In just a short period of time we have significantly changed the portals market.
“Since the beginning of the year, our membership has increased by more than 800 offices.
“It is remarkable what has been achieved so far but this is only the beginning. OnTheMarket.com will continue to grow in size and momentum because of its clean, fresh and fast consumer search experience.
“Ultimately, the property-seeking public and the agents themselves will decide over time which portals deliver the most value.”
Comments (67)
Every company accepts the figures of hitwise and the like until it doesn’t match up to what the company wants to hear or wants the public to hear so we will never have a happy medium and with regards to otm, for all their pomp about becoming No. 2 and employing staff to contact every agent in the country, I wonder where they are as I have never had a phone call to join or to inform me of their hopes and dreams even though I knew about them I have been waiting for contact and still nothing, are they really out there trying or are they expending all their time fighting off the war of words from Z?
“I have been waiting for contact and still nothing, are they really out there”.
Do you wait for your buyers to find you?
I’m not sure why Zoopla are relying so heavily on HitWise to try and prove their dominance compared to OTM. I regularly visit Zoopla, but I’m not looking to buy/sell/rent/let. Zoopla has some very useful tools, estimated valuation, last sold price, last time a property was marketed (if listed) the list goes on. OTM doesn’t have all of these tools, and the ones they have, in my opinion aren’t as good as what Zoopla have. In any given month I probably accumulate over a thousand visits to Zoopla.
Instead of relying so heavily on the hits why not go by leads generated that then turn into sales/lets. Until that point, I’ll continue to take what Zoopla are saying with a bowl of salt.
Your saying you account for 1000 hits a month , so you log and out of Zoopla every 15 minutes of every business hour of every day of every week. You telling us you don’t believe the figures whilst just making stuff up? Really weird
I use Zoopla for searching for postcodes as Royal Mail restrict you to 50 searches a day, unless you pay for address management products.
I also use it for recently sold prices, newly marketed and also seeing what is going on in my neighbourhood. Zoopla are using hits, not unique visits for their figures, so every link I click, address I search for, search button I press or property I look at is a hit.
I could spend an hour a month on Zoopla and do the 1000 hits. We have 6 staff members, so probably account for more than a 1000 as a whole.
My point is they are using figures that are of absolutely no relevance to the market. I don’t care about how many hits they are getting in any given month, I would however be keen to know their unique visitors and their lead to buyer/renter conversation rates.
Well we were getting nothing from Zoopla but waste of time leads in comparison to RM. As a lettings only successful business with only I doing the viewings and letting most things within the first week of advertising I don’t think the skills are at question if I am converting RM leads, but not the Z leads as they are all getting the same services. As of next month we will join OTM. I will track these leads in the same way and compare. If OTM don’t stack up any better than Zoopla then it is time I saved some money altogether and just stuck with RM. We will see.
Nearly 3 months in and you have to ask why Zoopla keep producing these figures on almost a weekly basis. Surely they must have realised by now that the main bulk of OTM agents (roughly 5000) are not going to quit. Meanwhile as each week goes by OTM becomes more and more established and the contracts of those tied in to either RM or Z run down.
Perhaps it may be more beneficail for Zoopla to offer a free 3-6 month trial period to those that have left to try and prove to them that the leads received really aern’t just time wasters and people wanting to check on the value of their neighbours property?
I see your point. For the same reason (OTM agents are unlikely to quit) I also wonder why IS doesn’t take a position and say ‘This is what we measure and how, here are the numbers we believe matter most to our agents’. Be transparent and let people get behind the idea that OTM are about active buyers and sellers, not property porn addicts and nosey neighbours. They can’t fight the big brand big bucks big numbers war so fight tactical battles instead. Be a ninja not a nuclear missile!
It is increasingly tiresome to hear Mr Springett continue to rubbish the output of Hitwise analysis without supporting nor referencing the source of his own information. If the stock rebuttal of ‘the figures are inaccurate’ goes on much longer, then it stands to serve Z much better as they can back up their rhetoric. If Mr Springett is that confident OTM is improving/performing/delivering then one would imagine he would be first in line to share this which would significantly aid their new branch acquisition if they can demonstrate audience and lead growth for those agents sitting on the fence.
It would have more meaningful if Zoopla’s & RM own figures actually turned into actual business income. Everyone knows that the level of hits they keep quoting do not convert into sales one should have expected, hence someone’s comment that the quality and conversion at the coalface is the figure that really matters. A successful business survives on “net business”.
**I wonder** Are OTM Agents “Struggling” that would be the more interesting point! For me OTM has not stopped me getting business in fact the none OTM agents in our villages are falling further behind by the minute and this year is looking to be every bit better than last year!
That is what we see and I hear from other agents. The consumer will and is following the agents lead.
“**I wonder** Are OTM Agents “Struggling” that would be the more interesting point!”……
…….NO, we currently have our biggest group pipeline ever, fact.
Excellent, this is really what we want to hear, as vendors will continue to follow the market leading agents who will at some point be able to dictate their internet marketing and potentially treat RM how we treat Z now.
Strange; comments about “wading through Zoopla leads” and on the other hand the usual “dropping Z has made no difference to our business”. So … Z only attracts 100% timewaster leads and OTM 100% gold nuggets. What a load of biased tosh.
No such thing as a bad lead, they have taken the time to contact you they have some interest however small or unrealistic.
Its down to quality of staff converting the opportunity.
Every contact you get multiple sales opportunities Sales, instruction, mortgage, solicitor, survey, letting or just offer good customer service for a commendation in the future from them.
Its down to us the agent to motivate or educate them.
I worry about the agents dismissing leads. Sound lazy and just want to pick up a lead for a sale or instruction. Basically offering an online service which they are all quick to shoot down.
*Recommendation in the future*
The thing is though SP before OTM launched we were all in the same boat: neither of us knew whether OTM would really work for our businesses, some of us believed it would some of us not. The difference is now some of us KNOW what its done, sure it could be rhetoric but why bother, I don’t need to convince the likes of Harree, what I am happy to do though is be pleased with myself, if not all if Im honest a little relived that its worked out the way it has. We HAVE seen an increase in instructions and we have seen our average house price go up. The only people that believe we advertise on the portals just for buyer leads are portal reps and online only agents, the rest of us know that we also use them to secure instructions.
I understand your thoughts RA but also market has improved so is your increase in business is that down to OTM or market conditions?
Nobody knows!
I have not joined OTM and i like others have had record months, i dont put this down to Z i put it down to a better market.
Glad you are happy, as always i am not knocking OTM just adding some balance.
Not a loaded question but does it not concern you the head of OTM is saying independent data is wrong and it is infact the opposite but he cannot / will not prove this?
Nobody expected OTM to beat Z or RM at this stage, i would have more confidence in OTM and the leadership if it was honest why not come out and say “Yes Z have more hits than us, we are 3 months old, we will catch them give us time” – That i think would send a stronger message out.
All I can say is that on a straight comparison basis, in almost all the locations where we have branches, OTM already has more stock than Zoopla. No Hitwise or any other debatable measure, just a pure count online, by us, by postcode.
Bearing in mind OTM has only been around 3 months and it’s not dying a death as pretty much every ‘Next Big Thing’ I see mentioned in PIE does, I think that’s pretty damn good.
THAT’S why Zoopla are so scared. RM aren’t bothered, they know it will end up back as duopoly but the difference is one of the two will be owned by its customers and won’t be rogering them senseless.
For our part sales up, costs down, sun’s shining, happy days!
Glad its working in your part of the country but do question the costs down part.
It is more expensive for me to advertise on Z so you must have been on an incredibly high rate with Z
As for being the other half of the duopoly, i thought the idea was to overcome RM and be the portal of choice?
We got on board with OTM at the start and have a lot of branches Smile, and that’s reflected in our OTM rate.
Re duopoly, even if OTM is the portal of choice, RM will still be there.
Overall I don’t see what everyone’s so vexed about (qualify that, I can see why Zoopla are troubled), everyone in the industry has been whingeing for years about the existing portals taking them to the cleaners and how there needed to be a credible alternative after others including Property Live had flopped and floundered.
Now we have a third way. Rejoice!!
Sorry still don’t get it we have multi branch and still almost twice the price.
I cant see why you are rejoicing you have not achieved anything have you? other than another portal trying to play catch up and guess you are still forking out thousands on RM?
Not sure what your point is. Twice the price of what? You said earlier ‘It is more expensive for me to advertise on Z’. What, against OTM?
If so that’s my point.
Haven’t achieved anything? Well after just 3 months if we were still on Z I’d be kicking myself bearing in mind their market share around here is already below OTM so we’ve achieved the satisfaction of knowing it was the right decision and we have achieved lower costs.
Most of all we’ve achieved what contributors to PIE have been whingeing about for years, giving the established Pinky & Perky portals a knee in the groin and been part of establishing a credible alternative.
What about you?
That is a fair point SP I do concede the market has improved. I would also say that the noticeable increases are specifically with two of my branches that have access to a slightly higher price of property. But their increase is so dramatic as to be either my fantastic leadership or another influencing factor. I think its no coincidence that we have been with OTM this year which makes our presentation to vendors look better (why have two portals the same when RM and OTM give us distinctly different marketing).
If I am honest no it doesn’t bother me IS is saying that and no the stats don’t bother me either because all that matters to me is what I am getting from it in my market. We get leads, not as many as RM but enough to prove it works. We have people registering through OTM and making viewings requests, but being candid and I will probably regret saying this to the online only brigade but really I get enough leads from RM, my mailing list and our local market, most houses are getting 15-20 people wanting to see them so I really DONT need the leads I may have got from Z, what I need is something that in presenting to potential vendors I can sell to them. OTM does that extremely well. Springett thinks he needs to defend it, I’m sure like most stats you can search for the ones you want (we all did that with Vissihomes) but actually he doesn’t for existing agents perhaps he feels he needs to to attract new ones but for me at least I can genuinely say if OTM said you can be released from your agreement today you know what I wouldn’t.
I think your past paragraph is the most telling, if you could switch you would not which means it works for you, so probably right choice you made to support.
On other flip of the coin i can move but do not wish to as Z works for me.
Lets hope in time i feel the need to change along with many other agents so it may one day rival RM
This is exactly right.
In my experience customer service from agents is staggeringly poor, both face to face and in responding to emails, returning calls etc. A good agent will make the most of a low quality lead, a poor agent will screw up the hottest lead via not doing the basics right.
Clarky46 had it about right … on the ground, that’s all that counts really, our own personal experience. For what it is worth (and it may be an idea for more agents to tell it like it really is with the standard of enquiries they receive, from all portals, on this forum), the quality and quantity of leads generated by Zoopla this year, for us, has declined so dramatically that we are now forced to drop them. Purely economics – no amount of ‘stats’ is going to change the lack of results we experience from listing with Zoopla.
Zzzzzzzzoooooopla!
So, OnTheMarket is a diminishing threat Zhoopla?… why bother briefing against then?!
A more accurate measure of Zoopla in the portal market is with their longstanding master…. Rightmove…. I hear and read Zero Zhoopla comments/briefings against them…. why Zhoopla, why?…. yes of course, the subservient No2 Portal nestling up the rear of the No1 Portal.
Is Rightmove still Finding their Happy?… then the New Marketing fella at Zhoopla can run with… Zhoopla-Happy being No2… now how the public relate to Zhoopla and No 2’s?…. we can contemplate.
I would have more respect for Zhoopla if it gave up its Settle for No2 Portal Protection Stance and actually gave everyone a reason to consider them as a contender!… however when offered the chance to flush Zhoopla No2 down the Portal Potty, I and thousands of others did just that.
With all these briefing/comment stats from Zhoopla they are fast becoming the Portal Potty Paper which Rightmove use when they pop in the cubicle.
Of course we really know the Zhoopla briefings are nothing to do with their members, portal performance or OnTheMarket…. they are about the single most important objective that drives Zhoopla to the exclusion of everything else… their Stock Market rating and share price!…. and for that reason both Zhoopla & Hikemove lost my vote a long, long time ago!
Moving forward… OnTheMarket.com… 3 months on, still here, still moving forward… Sticks & Stones Duopoly, Sticks & Stones!
Looks like Lawrence needed to get in a couple of passing shots but do you know what the bottom line for me is what I make of OTM at the coalface. It is now producing reasonable leads, our vendors seem to like it, we have attracted some higher priced property in some of our more affluent districts and those offices are not just ahead of last year but actually 45% ahead of last year and smashing their instruction targets. We don’t have to wade through the waste of time Zoopla leads we used to get so the business we do is more controlled and streamline and as a business overall we are 38% up on last year. So someone please tell me that switching to OTM was a mistake!!
Ditto Real Agent…
Dropping Zhoopla made Zero difference to our business.
The OnTheMarket leads/enquiries are better quality than Rightmove as our Sales & New Instructions clearly demonstrate.
Much less chaff.
Switching to OTM was a mistake!!
if you’re an estate agent and your business foundered because you left Zoopla then I have to suggest that you must look for a new profession.
switching on your lights in the morning is a mistake if you think they (the lights) are going to make you successful in estate agency!
but switch them on and video your star turn then send to Britain’s Duopoly Portals Have Got No Talent!…. sorry, BGT!
Oh I see Property Ear, you mean I could have been 50% up as a business on last year….. you clearly have the gift of insight. How silly I am.
It’s such a relief to be free of those dreadful Zoopla leads, every morning having to go through the applicants that want a 2 bed flat in ‘Hampshire or Dorset’ based on their recent search – Aaaarrgh!! We haven’t moved to OTM to increase sales this year from that alone. Anyone relying on portals for their business will never really understand what makes good agency. However our costs have reduced and we’re in for the long haul. If everyone dumped Zoopla tomorrow then you too could get more in control of your costs. Oh, and BTW we have already had record sales months this year, and we’ve been in business for nearly 20 years so OTM must be doing something right!!
i’ll drink to that EAMD! For us it is more about regaining control of our business than spurious visitor numbers. While the current big two are contacting OUR clients directly without informing us it is time for change.
What a nice sensible comment!
I would say dismissing Hit wise, an Industry standard website as “simply wrong ” is a brave move . Be interesting to see if their lawyers get hold of this claim and challenge …..
“if the lawyers get hold of this…” what a stupid comment to post.
Aaw Danny… are you doing that scary legal threatening comment thing again?
You get your Big Brother to go over to that nasty portal thingy and sort it out for you.
Come on Danny… you can be more constructive than the equivalent of “Im telling my Dad!”…. surely.
When you want a job in estate agency rather than portal potty land give me a call and I guarantee you an interview…
Why is it stupid? Hit wise surely trade of the fact that they know these figures . They are used across all industries and you have someone as a CEO saying they are simply wrong ? My point is it would be interesting to see if they challenged his viewpoint and why they are wrong .GPL , thanks for the offer but a) you couldn’t afford me b) I’ve got a business to run
It was stupid Danny because how many courts do you know full of statistic firms suing people for disputing the figures they’ve published??
Danny…..come on……what is your motivation behind your constant bashing of OTM????? You hardly ever comment on any other industry stories and you have stated 100% you have absolutely no intention of ever using them now or in the future so why are you always first out of the trap to have a go every time? …Yes you are entitled to your opinions but you must have a motivating factor……Where this story is concerned I want OTM to do well and succeed that is my motivation……So tell us what is your motivation for your posts??????
Wilko, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again . I’ve been in the industry 20+years! I was an investor in Primelocation and as such I’ve met Ian Springett a number of times . He has sold this as by the industry ,for the industry. I believe it to be Primelocation 2 dressed up as a portal for everyone . I write these posts as there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of people questioning why we have 3 bed semi agents paying for a portal aimed at the top 5% of the market. I would cut some ones right arm off to have a proper industry portal. This isn’t it ….
With respect Danny you don’t need a portal, you need a site that promotes you and your agency rather than itself and its own SEO.
Thanks for your honesty Danny. At least we all know that it is a personal vendetta against Ian Springett that motivates you.
I do think it’s a shame that you would “cut off your right arm to have a proper property industry portal” but you don’t think this is it……unfortunately, if this one doesn’t work I don’t think there will be another chance.
Have you written to OTM senior management with your viewpoint that OTM is aimed at the top 5% of the market? Surely if it were true they would have difficulty defending it?
Many of the offices in my jurisdiction market houses well below the national average and still they get leads from OTM, and that is a fact. Perhaps those leads came through from those that saw the OTM advert in the interval of Coronation Street, or in one of their local Archant papers?……….Also if you say OTM is ONLY aimed at the top 5% why bother spending £millions on TV advertising on programmes like Emmerdale, Jeremy Kyle, Benidorm, You’ve been Framed, Jonathan Ross, Carry on films, Give a pet a home, Ice rink on the council estate, etc etc….I don’t think you can say with any degree of accuracy that the portal is aimed at the top 5%. It just isn’t true……But then , like all personal vendettas, you will choose to continue to write comments that aren’t true just because you don’t like the MD. At least we know why you do that now.
“Also if you say OTM is ONLY aimed at the top 5% why bother spending £millions on TV advertising on programmes like Emmerdale, Jeremy Kyle, Benidorm, You’ve been Framed, Jonathan Ross, Carry on films, Give a pet a home, Ice rink on the council estate, etc etc”…Yes but how about Country life magazine Wilko surely just advertising in that one publication alone clearly demonstrates that OTM is only targeted towards the top 5%????
Yes, quite…..but at least we know that Danny is motivated by trying to make OTM fail because he has personal issues with Ian Springett-and he will make untrue comments to help his aims.
Whatever any agents’ views on OTM/AM he is in a tiny % of agents that actually want it to fail………the vast majority , members or not at this point, want it to be a huge success for all the right reasons.
I won’t make OTM fail Wilko , uk estate agency will. This isn’t a personal vendetta Wilko ,as you suggested three times , this is about facts .. The facts are. 75% of business owners like me think the same way and haven’t invested . Zoopla sends more leads to my agency than OTM would , they are spending heavily in the wrong market segment I.e mass market to attract volume agents. And no I haven’t written to the board , then again I’m not paying my money into this farce ,I suggest it should be a member asking for the marketing breakdown . They should be able to show you that most of the spend is targeted t agents like me right ?also their blogs would feature a wide range of homes across a broad spectrum of prices ..
http://blog.onthemarket.com/content/onthebalcony-eleven-homes-with-a-fantastic-view/
I think the lawyers bit is a little heavy, i am sure they have heard worse.
BUT people may not know Hitwise is owned by Experian and i think we will all agree they are the leading industry standard in credit profiles. Why their reporting on web hits are questioned i do not know.
I think Ian Sprignett needs to be careful dismissing them, as he could be accused of misleading members if he cannot independently verify his comments.
Right move do not use Hit wise!!!! Property sales transactions have been in decline since 2007 FACT! Right move and zoopla report millions more unique visits year on year but there is less stock and no more buyers than 5-6 years ago. This proves people browse the big 2 for other information and are not necessarily looking to buy or rent!!!
So what your saying is that they are looking to sell ? Or that because the amount of research that people do has exploded since more information is available than 5-6 years ago …
What I’m saying is people visit zoopla to look at the current values, to get an estimated valuation on their house, their neighbours house-not necessarily serious buyers. In this current climate agents do not need more applicant leads!
Have to say that on the ground, without any techy stats stuff, the level of enquiries received from OTM increased in March and is continuing to do so (sales & lettings)
Without getting into the usual pros and cons of OTM and Z, I would question why IS is claiming Hit wise figures are wrong? They are independent. If figures have increase what body can verify this?
Do you know what a visitor is, I don’t. I do know I have logged well over 10,00o testing visit to Zoopla in the past 6 weeks, if each of the results is counts as 100 visits because there are 100 results on each test, I alone account for 1,000,000.
The numbers might be correct, they might be independant but what are they? 90,000,000 visits in 12 weeks from a population of 65,000,000? Perhaps it is Hitwise who have some questions to answer. What constitutes a visit?
As a side note where I have had 10,000 x xxxx results back from Zoopla and RM I haven’t go a single result back from OTM, it is not advance search capable or it is running in stealth mode. That certainly skews results and could be a fundamental flaw in the statistical methodology. Stealth mode might be deliberate but it doesn’t help natural result SEO.
They are comparing like for like data so which every way you look at it numbers have dropped and Z still has greater share.
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But that is my point Smile, what appears to be like for like isn’t. If you would accept my invitation I can show you how and why. If you don’t want to do that ask Peebee, I have shown him how to access the back, searchable catalogue of data that gets searched, indexed and counted.
I will take your word for it Robert but find it strange that Hitwise would on purpose fudge figures to benefit Z. What is in it for them? Surely only negativity from the public?
I did take a look at a free site that compares website hits and they were comparable to that of Hitwise.
They are not fudging anything they are counting and reporting something but haven’t said what it is they are counting; what a visitor is.
There is a raft of data still active but invisible on both Rightmove and Zoopla, there are little bots all over the world having a look repeatedly at layer apon layer of historic data. Without knowing whether the visitor is a person or a bot the numbers mean nothing In old money an Agent in a motorway services could claim to be more succesful than an agent in a high street simply because of traffic volume passing the door. In both cases it is who stops and spends cash that counts.
Hence why coming off Zoopla has made no difference to the business that have.
The only thing that will are the people behind the desk!
I wonder if Zooplas newly appointed marketing man was given a set of crayons as a starting present…..well someone will need to spend all they’re time colouring in the Hitwise graph each week.
Not much red needed though apparently.
But OTM agents are not returning to Zoopla in they’re droves are they 1sttimebuyer. Why is that?
And they won’t be whatever happens.
All Zoopla are doing is trying to stop the rot, because those that have left can survive without them.
“They say we’re young and we don’t know, We won’t find out until we grow, Well I don’t know if all that’s true, Cause you got me, and baby I got you.” Groundhog hitwise Wednesday?
90,000,000 visitors resulted in how many sales, viewings or enquiries?
Someone didn’t like that question! How about…. how much data of ex Zoopla, Primelocation, Findaproperty, Globrix ,Think Property, Asserta Agent clients’ data is being used to power current valuation requests?
Does a single random number generator request for advice on value count as a single data visit or 1 visit per file accessed?
We could try…. Does the SEO strategy of Zoopla which produces an uncountable number ( sheer volume, I stopped after scrolling through after 2 minutes) of optimisation routine results for any given location count as a single visit or are Hitwise counting that SEO activity as meaningful visits? Do Hitwise know what they are looking at? (Just to have fact to include in this post my single village search will have caused at least 6+ pages of search results)
There are some really solid and professional ways of dealing with what is now becoming a damaging and vexatious vendetta driven battle between two sets of execs. This battle fronted by Lawrence Hall isn’t one of them. It is shameful and embarrassing for all involved.