Real Estate Lead Generation Case Study: The Wolf’s Nest

“Sierra’s PPC is one of the best features. It has landed me one of the biggest deals of all time–30x more than what I spent.” – Dylan Wolf, Managing Broker, The Wolf’s Nest

Meet the client: The Wolf’s Nest

As managing broker of a small team, Dylan Wolf prides himself on understanding the mindset of home buyers and sellers and that of the marketplace his agency serves; residential Seattle and the surrounding communities. 

Originally from the Netherlands, Wolf entered Seattle’s real estate market without a sphere of influence, and spent years honing his expertise as a part of a large agency. While working as an ISA, then later an agent, Wolf gathered years of industry expertise, learning the best software solutions to support and scale his efforts. After several years, Wolf achieved his dream of opening his own agency and The Wolf’s Nest was formed. 

As the real estate market becomes more crowded, agencies of every size must develop reliable (and repeatable) systems and procedures to generate the most quality leads for the least amount of effort, giving agents themselves more opportunity at closing properties instead of dealing with heaps of administrative work. For small teams like The Wolf’s Nest, who are managing a growing client list without a large team to help absorb the workload, this kind of business efficiency is absolutely necessary. 

Solving the #1 Agent Challenge…and Then Some

At the time of The Wolf’s Nest’s inception, Wolf already had years of experienced agency work to his name. As such, he had a laundry list of needs he wanted to incorporate in his business model as he built his agency from the ground up.

1. Lead Generation

“The number one challenge for any agent is lead generation,” said Wolf. “People outside of the industry, or newcomers trying to break in, often think an agent’s job is wholly made up of showing homes and writing offers.”

2. Follow-up

“A huge part of lead generation is the follow-up. The communication and nurturing that goes into every single lead’s experience can easily overwhelm and consume an agent’s time. I needed a tool that could not only help my follow-up efforts, it could automate them to keep moving the needle, especially as some conversion cycles have months to years of lead times.”

3. Client Management

“Having a CRM is critical for a new agency. It gives agents a way to manage, chase and follow-up with all leads. With the click of a button, you can see what lead sources are providing the most traction, or automatically position messaging in front of a lead based on the most optimal timing for their buyer’s, or seller’s, journey. No agency can survive without a best-in-class CRM.”

4. Website

“I knew I wanted a website that was built to interface with the technicalities of Google – ensuring my site performed well based on search engine intent while serving as a platform for my content and expertise derived from my coaching service of choice.”

5. Scalability

“As a small agency, I knew I needed something that could grow as my business did. I needed it to be manageable enough for a team-of-one to effectively use, but sophisticated enough that a robust team of the future could also excel, without having to change providers or uproot entire strategies.”

6. Cost-effectiveness

“At the end of the day, I needed a system that was affordable for a small and growing agency. I wanted to be able to get the most value for my business, and my clients, out of every dollar I spent, instead of management and service fees.”

The Solution: Sierra Interactive

From his previous experience working with a larger agency, Wolf was already acquainted with Sierra Interactive’s solutions. Still, he wanted to do his due diligence before committing to a software provider for his own business.

“I researched everything that was available on the market,” Wolf said. “I wanted something that was user friendly and attractive, but much more sophisticated than what market competitors were offering.”

While Wolf painstakingly weighed the pros and cons of each option, clear differentiators pulled him towards Sierra’s offerings. Sierra’s action plans, for example, offered ways to incorporate texting and ringless voicemails and voicemail drops – a tool which leaves a personalized voicemail message directly in a contact’s voicemail-box, without pushing a call first. Sierra also offered access to other industry experts through their platform partners, including best-in-business coaching organizations. 

Combined with the Sierra’s CRM solution (which Wolf knew could scale as he needed it to) and Sierra’s follow-up automations (which Wolf could already envision using to nurture communicative relationships with leads and past clients alike) and Sierra’s website services (which were proven to deliver intent-driven organic website traffic) Wolf saw enough value in Sierra’s platform to convince him to implement. 

It wasn’t until months later that he even broached Sierra’s Google PPC ad management team with his number one challenge, lead generation.  Once he did, he was 100% certain he’d made the right choice. 

Prior to launching PPC ads with Sierra, Wolf used a mix of Facebook remarketing campaigns combined with advertising through real estate information sites, like Zillow. The first effort worked as a part of a nurturing process aimed at his existing sphere of influence, but targeting limitations resulted in lower volume, and quality, or incoming leads. The second effort delivered transaction-ready leads, but at low volume and high cost, sometimes as high as $2,000 per single lead. 

Sierra’s PPC management is based on years of data and client experience, ensuring advertising budgets are used as efficiently as possible to achieve the most value for the spend. It averages a PPC conversion rate around 11%. It’s also cost-effective for agencies of all sizes, but especially small team’s like Wolf’s – undercutting the industry average by 20%.

Measurable Results and Results Beyond Measure

Within two weeks of launching The Wolf’s Nest website through Sierra, Wolf captured a high-quality organic website lead. Seven months later, the lead converted under the nurturing efforts of Wolf’s automated action plan follow-up efforts. 

His ad spend with Sierra’s PPC management has grown, the ROI enough that he stepped away from other strategies, like advertising on Zillow, completely. Even so, his monthly spend for buyers is still 8.75% less than what he’d previously paid to generate a single lead. 

With a combination of PPC lead generation, a content-driven website, CRM management and automated action plans spanning 13 months, Wolf closed on one of his biggest deal to date in February 2021 – a commission that netted 30x the amount of spend he’d invested in capturing the lead with a PPC ad in the first place. 

Perhaps the biggest value for Wolf, though, was the a benefit he hadn’t even put on his initial list of needs. 

“It’s the nature of the real estate industry for an agent to drop everything when a lead is acquired,” said Wolf. “All too quickly, that adds up to missed time with family and friends; with the things that really bring joy to your life. With Sierra’s platform backing my business, I know I have everything in place to capture, connect and nurture a lead depending on their level of intent and transaction readiness, no matter where I am. For me, that kind of value is worth so much more than what I can put into words or equate to money. It’s priceless.”

About

Sierra Interactive develops residential real estate software and services for agents, teams and brokers in the U.S. and Canada. Sierra’s proven lead generation and management solutions are trusted by top-performing teams and influential coaches in the real estate industry. Founded in 2007, Sierra is headquartered in Louisville, KY, but has a remote-first workforce across the U.S.