What Makes a Good Property Listing Title?
At Property Finder we have a huge amount of data that we use in a variety of ways — from image analysis, to forecasting to text and Natural Language Processing (NLP) projects. You can see some of these examples right here on our blog! The Data team’s goal / vision is to turn property and usage data into features that drive exposure and user acquisition for our clients.
Part of how we do this is by having a space for them to list a Property Title which shows in our search results. The title can be from 30–50 characters in length and is part of the listing’s ‘storefront’, along with the hero image and the key facts that we provide on the card in the results:
This led us to ask the questions:
- What makes a good title?
2. Can we use data to help our clients optimise their titles to attract more consumers?
3. What information makes a title stand out from the crowd?
Gathering & Analysing The Data
As with all data projects we needed to start with… some data! We gathered a dataset suitably structured for our case, with a title and a performance metric (here we use CTR). The source of this data is our internal tracking which we can easily aggregate via an SQL query in our Presto data lake.
Gathering the data is pretty straightforward, and I won’t go through it line-by-line as it will differ for each company, depending on your tracking setup. If you are looking to undertake a similar analysis, all you need is a simple dataset with the text and your performance metric of interest, like this:
- Create ngrams for each title and then connect this back to the performance metric (a speedy way to do that can be found here)
- Create a baseline from which to measure uplift. Compare the ngram to this baseline of your choice to identify what exactly leads to an uplift. We created a new metric to understand the impact of a given term — this ‘CTR boost’ is what we will be analysing to help our clients’ performance. (a baseline could be a simple average for the group, or a prediction for that individual item itself, given other factors — it’s up to you)
- Make some pretty charts (I used ggplot2) and advise your clients in a helpful blog post about how to make killer titles for their listings!
What did we find?
Overall we found
- A lot of clients will repeat the information that is already on the card in the search results — there is no need to have a title saying ‘2 bedroom apartment in Dubai Marina’ because all of this is already displayed on the card. Agents can be much more creative by drawing attention to the features that make their listing special — the upgrade standard, the views or the garden landscaping status for example.
- The terms that make a title stand out vary from community to community (unsurprisingly), and so below we have detailed some of these terms that should be highlighted in listing titles.
Community Breakdown
Arabian Ranches
The biggest CTR boosters in Arabian Ranches rental listings are around the number of cheques and the type. This means that if the landlord will consider 12 cheques then you must mention this in the title to maximise the attention of the end user.
In the sale market, the term ‘on the market’ saw the biggest boost. Is it the largest on the market? The cheapest? The best!? Draw the users’ attention by mentioning this in the title.
Business Bay
In Business Bay we can see commonalities between buyers and renters — do highlight if your listing is close to a metro station. For rental listings, Business Bay can offer incredible views so mention whether you can see the canal or the Burj Khalifa from the apartment.
Downtown Dubai
Rental listings get a good boost in Downtown Dubai if they exhibit some ‘new-ness’; terms like ‘brand new’, ‘newly upgraded’, ‘recently upgraded’ give a good idea to the end user.
We frequently see listings in Downtown Dubai with a free month of rent — this is a great deal! Make sure this is noted in the title to grab the attention of bargain-hunting tenants.
Both buyers and renters are tempted by the views, so as with Business Bay, be sure to highlight any spectacular window vistas — although note that listings with a fountain view get a bigger boost over only a Burj view. Similarly listings with terraces are a hit — mention this in your titles if it’s a feature of your property.
Dubai Marina
Dubai Marina is one of our most competitive locations, and the location that we receive the most enquiries for. Ensure your slice of this big pie by highlighting these key phrases.
Terms around urgency are particularly prevalent in Dubai Marina. If the owner needs to sell quickly, or it’s a distress deal then you should put this in the title to grab the users’ attention.
For renters, highlight key features of the property such as maid rooms, studies or the upgrade standard if recently decorated. We strongly recommend that you put the number of cheques in the title — and push for more cheques; 6–12 cheques get the biggest boost in this community.
Jumeirah Lake Towers
There’s not much in it when it comes to the ‘boosty’ factors in JLT — metro proximity is vital, so highlight if you’re just a hop away from transportation. Similarly amenities like a pool are sought after and can be worth highlighting.
Palm Jumeirah
It’s all about the views over in the luxury of Palm Jumeirah! If the listing has sea or marina views then highlight this in the title — consider including a picture of the lovely view in your listing too!
For buyers, vacant listings get a boost in CTR so if the property is ready to move right in then highlight this in the title.
The Springs
Renters in The Springs are drawn to larger plots, such as corner units, and a private pool is a winner — highlight this in the title if your listing has these features. Private pools are a popular feature for buyers too who may be looking for affordably luxury. You should highlight if the villa will be vacant on transfer as this has one of the biggest CTR boosters among buyers.
Reem
As Dubai continues to grow, we’ll see more and more villa communities appear — highlight their local idiosyncrasies. For example the villa type, or proximity to local attractions (such as the pool and park in Reem).
Whether the garden is landscaped or not can be a dealbreaker for renters — highlight this and ideally include a photo so that potential tenants know what they’re looking at in terms of the garden.
What’s next?
This blog post is based on a sample from a point in time this year, and no doubt there’s a huge amount of insight yet to be released for this approach.
We’ll continue to work on our understanding of titles and descriptions, hoping to help our clients to maximise their exposure. Watch this space for exciting tools in this space!
Let us know if this analysis was useful for you, or for general comments below.
That’s it! Thanks for reading!
If you liked this article and want to be part of our brilliant team of engineers that produced it, then have a look at our latest vacancies here.
