Digital Marketing Trends for Home Builders from Q2 2025

As we approach the end of the year, many home builders are preparing their digital strategies for 2026. Reviewing recent performance trends is one of the best ways to understand how buyers are behaving, how channels are shifting, and where to focus marketing resources in the year ahead. The latest aggregate data from Blue Tangerine offers a view of what is working, what is changing, and where new opportunities are emerging.

Even with mortgage rates showing signs of relief, buyer hesitancy remains a factor in the market. Shoppers are taking more time to research builders, compare communities, and evaluate options before engaging with sales teams. These behavioral shifts are visible in the data, and they highlight the need for strong online experiences, consistent lead nurturing, and a thoughtful mix of marketing channels.

The insights below can help guide your 2026 planning and support smarter decisions that meet buyers where they are today.

Traffic Growth Continues Year over Year

Total website sessions increased 5% from Q1 2025 and 20% compared to Q2 2024. This consistent growth suggests that buyers continue to rely heavily on builder websites to research homes, explore communities, and gather pricing information. It also highlights the value of maintaining a strong digital presence, especially during periods of fluctuating demand.

Engagement Remains Steady, but Conversion Gaps are Emerging

Average session duration held at 3 minutes and 6 seconds, the same as Q2 2024. This signals stable interest and healthy browsing patterns in spite of broader market variables.

Key event rate, which measures deeper engagement actions such as form submissions, decreased 7% quarter over quarter and 27% year over year. This dip suggests buyers may be taking longer to convert or are evaluating more options before reaching out to a sales team.

Direct Traffic and Paid Social are Gaining Momentum

When we look at channel performance, several shifts stand out.

Direct traffic grew 4.7% year over year, which often signals stronger brand awareness and repeat visitors. Paid Social saw a 5.3% increase, reflecting the growing importance of visual storytelling and audience targeting on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Organic Search, Paid Search, and several smaller channels experienced declines year over year. This may be influenced by changing search behavior, privacy-driven attribution gaps, or increased competition for paid search visibility.
 

AI Traffic is Emerging as a Meaningful Source of Engagement

One of the most notable trends this quarter is the rise of AI-driven website sessions. AI traffic delivered a key event rate of 4.5%, significantly higher than the 1.8% rate from non-AI sessions. The top source was chatgpt.com, which accounted for about 89% of all AI traffic.

This trend shows that buyers are increasingly using conversational AI tools to research homes and ask questions about builders. As these platforms continue to influence discovery, builders will benefit from structured content, strong FAQ coverage, and clear community and plan details that AI tools can interpret confidently.

You can read more about this strategy in this blog post: 
Beyond Traditional SEO: What Home Builders Need to Know About GEO and AEO

What this Means for Home Builders

Last quarter’s trends highlight several opportunities.

• Strengthen your organic presence, since channels with high intent continue to deliver the best conversion rates.
• Continue investing in Paid Social, especially creative formats and audiences that connect with active home shoppers.
• Monitor attribution shifts, since privacy changes and AI search tools are influencing how buyers find and interact with builder websites.
• Optimize your website experience to close the gap between strong traffic growth and lower year-over-year key event rates.

The market is evolving, but builders who pair high-quality content with well-structured digital campaigns will be best positioned to capture and convert buyers.

If you would like help interpreting your own analytics or improving your digital performance, connect with our team.