5 Ways Home Builders Can Adapt in a Down Market

Home sales hit a nine-month low back in June 2025, and despite a slight spike in August, the market is likely to suffer a slowdown as the year comes to a close and into 2026. 

Meanwhile, on a nationwide basis, sellers outnumber buyers by more than 30%, creating a “buyer’s market” condition not seen for several years.

In such times, home builders are best served by adjusting their digital marketing strategies. Simply spending more money on the same ads or experimenting with different platforms isn’t the answer. Smart builders make more intentional, strategic decisions about where to put their dollars to help more prospective home buyers reach the finish line. 

Here are five ways to adapt your digital marketing now to stay competitive, move inventory, and improve home sales in a down market. 

1. Stop Marketing Your Incentives

It may seem controversial, but builders should reconsider blindly promoting incentives. I'm not saying you shouldn't use incentives as selling tools, but you should stop relying on them as a primary marketing strategy.

A more effective approach is to create incentives with clear end dates that generate urgency and serve their main purpose of encouraging potential buyers to make a decision.

Consider using specific retargeting ads (see point #4 below), custom emails, or personalized postcards to target only people who are actually ready to buy or are on the fence. 

The reality is a $50,000 discount means nothing to someone who just started their home search. You can engage them just as much or more without relying solely on incentives. 

2. Embrace True Lead Generation

Most builders' websites and strategies focus on someone submitting a contact form from the community page or calling to make an appointment. Instead, do everything you can to incite prospects to give you their information much earlier in their process. For example:

• Write a compelling piece of content about mortgages and financing options, including a simple form that enables them to ask questions and start a dialogue
• Create broader search ads that lead to a landing page displaying homes in a specific area
• If your website features interactive tools such as floor plans, exterior builder options, walk-throughs, mortgage calculators, etc., consider requiring users to complete a contact form before they can access all or some of those tools
• Create an ad with an attention-grabbing message. Instead of linking to your home page, direct them to a page where they can sign up to learn more, which connects back to the ad’s message.

These are just a few simple ways to generate more leads, but the key is to adopt a mindset of thinking about what tools, content, and features you have that encourage people to sign up earlier in their journey. 

For many builders, implementing just one specific lead generation strategy has increased leads by an average of 15.6%.

3. Expand Your Engagement Channels

To really boost digital engagement, builders should tap into diverse channels.

For example, if you're not creating video ads on YouTube, start now. On average, YouTube campaigns for builders can generate about 25,000 views on average for just $235 per month. 

Many builders may also think TikTok is only for people who can't buy a home yet, but that's simply not true. TikTok's user base is 150 million Americans and growing—an untapped market for most home builders. TikTok’s influence continues to expand, and it’s only a matter of time before more people turn to it to find homes. 

In addition to video, consider embracing text communication as another way to engage, and ensure that prospects get an instant reply when they text you.

When builders instantly respond to a text message from a prospective buyer, the conversion rate to an appointment jumps to 77%. With that, communication should be targeted and personalized to avoid sounding generic or spammy.

4. Bring Your Retargeting Into 2025 

One of the most tried-and-true digital marketing tools for times like this is retargeting; that is, ads that get shown to a person after they have visited your website. 

That being said, avoid using a standard retargeting campaign that shows the same few ads with the same message. Instead, personalize and change it depending on the user. 

There are many ways to personalize retargeting, but an easy one is to compare and contrast a user who has visited the site once and browsed the quick delivery page versus one who has visited the site three times and looked at three different plans. 

Those two user types should not get the same retargeting ad, but rather a personalized version.

For example, if a user has spent a significant amount of time viewing a certain quick delivery home on your website instead of serving them a general retargeting ad about the overall incentive on quick delivery homes, deliver an ad featuring the home they spent so much time looking at with a message of how the incentive applies to that home.

Even better would be to show a quick delivery home with an ad that says it has an incentive, but does not reveal all the details. 

This approach is incredibly easy, and we have seen such ads convert at a 74% higher rate when they are personalized. 

5. Combine Urgency With Your USP

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is the secret sauce that makes you stand out from your competitors. Everything you do digitally should reflect that USP, but in these times you need to add a sense of urgency. 

A key challenge is to give a compelling reason for purchasing. For example, if you are building entry-level townhomes and your USP is building homes for everyone, the messaging should highlight that it’s cheaper to buy than rent in the long run. 

If you sell homes to the 55+ market with a USP is creating a better lifestyle, create ads that emphasize the immediate benefits of embracing that better lifestyle. 

This combination of USP and urgency helps push buyers over the finish line while still staying true to who you are as a builder. 

Above all, the main way to stay competitive in the down market is to think strategically about all of the marketing funnels and how to move prospects to the next step, whether that be a lead, appointment, second visit, deposit, or agreement. 

By tailoring efforts to target each stage of the buyer's journey, builders can not only take on current challenges but also position themselves for long-term success.