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The Nationwide Promoting Division, an arm of the Higher Enterprise Bureau’s Nationwide Packages, delivered a blow to Houses.com Tuesday, recommending the portal large halt use of two key visitors claims in its promoting on account of a problem filed by Realtor.com mum or dad firm, Transfer, Inc.
Transfer challenged Houses.com’s claims that it has reached 156 million distinctive month-to-month guests on its web site and has double the distinctive month-to-month guests of Realtor.com. This echoed Transfer management’s earlier arguments that each statistics are primarily based on the Houses.com Community and never the Houses.com web site alone, which boasts 110 million distinctive month-to-month guests — a reality that’s disclosed in small print on Houses.com advertisements.
The Nationwide Promoting Division agreed with Transfer’s issues, saying that each “claims [are] not supported” primarily based on Houses.com’s publicly shared information statistics. Consequently, the portal should cease utilizing “Homes.com just reached 156M monthly unique visitors” and
“Homes.com now has DOUBLE Realtor.com’s traffic” in its advertisements.
“NAD recommended that those claims be discontinued because the claims conveyed a message that Homes.com attracts 156 million monthly unique visitors when that figure was based on combined total traffic, calculated using Google Analytics, for 16 other CoStar websites,” the NAD mentioned in a press launch. “According to Google Analytics, Homes.com itself has 110 million monthly unique visitors.”
“NAD considered the accuracy of the challenged comparative claim that ‘Homes.com now has DOUBLE Realtor.com’s traffic,’” NAD continued. “NAD determined that this claim is not supported and recommended that it be discontinued because Homes.com’s claimed 110 million monthly visitors are not ‘double’ the 66 million unique visitors claimed by Realtor.com.”
Transfer additionally took concern with CoStar Group evaluating its Google Analytics visitors information to Realtor.com’s Adobe Analytics visitors information, saying the websites use “use different methods” and shouldn’t be used to make apples-to-apples comparisons about visitors efficiency. Nevertheless, NAD declined to offer a advice on that concern on account of “limited record in the SWIFT matter.”
In an announcement to Inman, CoStar Group Common Counsel Gene Boxer took a swipe at Realtor.com earlier than spinning the Nationwide Promoting Division’s censure as a victory since NAD will permit CoStar Group to proceed utilizing visitors figures for the Houses.com Community in its advertisements so long as they “explicitly disclose it in the body of its advertisements.”
“Homes.com has far surpassed Realtor.com, which is now sliding into obscurity,” Boxer mentioned within the assertion. “CoStar is delighted that the NAD recognized that the Homes.com Network had 156 million unique monthly visitors in March 2024, and that Homes.com had 110 million (as calculated by Google Analytics). Realtor.com reported only 66 million unique monthly users in the same period, measured by Adobe Analytics. CoStar is pleased that NAD recognized that both metrics are derived from “site centric data gathering tools.”
“As a result,” Boxer continued, “Homes.com is the No. 2 most-visited residential real estate portal, far surpassing Realtor.com, and the Homes.com Network has double the traffic of Realtor.com. Apples to apples, Realtor.com is losing the portal wars, and losing big. Consistent with NAD’s decision, CoStar will continue to advertise that fact and disclose the number of unique visitors to the Homes.com Network and Homes.com. Realtor.com’s NAD gambit can’t change those numbers, or the reality: Realtor.com has fallen far behind.”
Damian Eales
In an emailed assertion to Inman, Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales praised NAD’s advice, saying the group noticed via “Homes.com’s smoke and mirrors.”
“We’re pleased the National Advertising Division saw through CoStar’s smoke and mirrors and put this issue to rest with the recommendation that CoStar withdraw their false advertising claims of 156 million monthly unique users for Homes.com and having double the traffic of Realtor.com,” he mentioned. “The contrast with CoStar is becoming increasingly clear.”
“CoStar has misled Homes.com customers while Realtor.com has remained focused on growing a quality audience and quality leads for both buying agents and listing agents,” he added.
The NAD mentioned CoStar has agreed to adjust to its suggestions, noting that its Tuesday ruling “precludes CoStar from making other truthful and non-misleading claims about the number of unique visitors to its websites collectively or to any of its individual websites, or comparative claims about Homes.com’s traffic.”
As soon as an advertiser agrees to adjust to NAD’s suggestions, the division closes the case. Nevertheless, if an advertiser doesn’t comply, NAD will refer the case to the Federal Commerce Fee and “other appropriate regulatory agencies” for additional motion, as defined on the division’s FAQ web page.
The NAD’s announcement comes amid an intensifying battle between Realtor.com and CoStar Group as they attempt to grab the portal crown from longtime chief Zillow.
Whereas a lot of their variations have been restricted to feedback made throughout earnings calls, interviews, and onstage appearances at actual property conferences like Inman Join, Realtor.com introduced their issues to the courts with a July 3 theft of commerce secrets and techniques lawsuit filed in opposition to CoStar Group within the U.S. District Courtroom in California.
The lawsuit claims that the previous Realtor.com Information and Insights head James Kaminsky “systematically invaded Move’s secure computer systems, secretly exfiltrated Move’s trade secrets, and spied on Move’s real-time confidential electronic documents to give CoStar a massive unfair competitive advantage and to help CoStar increase traffic to its competing real estate listing website, all to the detriment of Move.”
Realtor.com declined to touch upon the lawsuit; nevertheless, CoStar basic counsel Gene Boxer mentioned the swimsuit is solely one other distraction in an ongoing battle between the 2 portal giants.
“This lawsuit is Realtor.com’s latest desperate attempt to distract from the fact that Homes.com has replaced Realtor.com as the number two portal according to the parties’ own site-centric data gathering tools,” Boxer mentioned in a earlier Inman article.
