In today’s crowded rental market, simply listing your apartment community online isn’t enough to stand out from the competition. You need to be where your future tenants are actively searching—and that’s where Google Ads comes in. Whether you’ve dabbled in digital marketing before or you’re new to pay-per-click advertising, Google Ads is a game-changer for apartment marketers. It's not just about throwing a few ads online and hoping for the best. When used correctly, Google Ads allows you to reach the right renters at the right time, targeting people who are already looking for a place to call home.
But let’s be real—it can feel overwhelming to figure out where to start with Google Ads. From selecting keywords to setting up campaigns, there’s a lot to navigate. This guide is designed to help you cut through the noise and create a successful Google Ads strategy that gets your apartments in front of prospective tenants and helps you fill those vacancies.
The Challenges of Multifamily Apartment Marketing
If you've been in the game for any length of time, you know that, like all other industries, multifamily apartment marketing has its own set of unique challenges. While demand may be high, the market is over-saturated, which means that marketers need to be smart in highlighting amenities packages as well as maintaining competitive pricing for their units - a delicate and ever-shifting balance!
Thanks to market saturation, marketing managers don't have to just use all of the marketing channels at their disposal (a big ask to begin with), but they need to have effective strategies for each as well, to help them stand out from their competition and reach their future tenants.
How Google Ads Can Boost Multifamily Apartment Marketing and Leases
Of course, the goal of marketing for multifamily apartment complexes is to increase occupancy, ideally with people who are willing to be "repeat customers," or, renew their lease when it expires. Google Ads is a unique marketing channel in that it can help you define your target demographic and serve ads to them, specifically. Here are some ways Google Ads can help you find and target your ideal customer:
Real-Time Data and Analytics
The level of detail provided in Google's analytics is unmatched. You can A/B test ad copy, imagery, audience, and more, and view the extremely detailed results to help you hone in on the perfect ad for your target audience and adjust accordingly.
Target Your Ideal Demographic
You can adjust your target audience by location, keywords, and interests, making sure that your ads show up only for people already interested in apartments like yours! Not only does that increase your percentage of clicks from view, but keeps you from paying for sub-optimal ad placements.
Other Google Integrations
Since Google is such a massive conglomerate, they have a wealth of resources and products that can integrate right in with Google Ads to help with streamlining processes, reporting, and disseminating information, such as Google Drive, as well as outside programs like email suites and CRM software.
Increased Visibility and Competitive Advantage
Google is and has been the gold standard for web search for a long time - so much so that "Google" has become a household term for "search." Most apartment searchers turn to Google first when starting to look for a new rental home. Using Google Ads will put your property at the top of search results for the most used search engine in the US.
How to Run Successful Google Ads Campaigns for Your Apartment Listings
While the Google Ad platform itself takes some getting used to, and many marketers find themselves getting into the weeds when it comes to the details of a Google Ads campaign, there are several underlying principals and best-practices that will clarify your detail decisions:
Conduct thorough keyword research.
When setting up your Google Ads, make sure you are doing thorough keyword research so you can target high-volume, ideally long-tail, and relevant keywords in your ads to give you the best ROI possible. Google has free tools available to advertisers to do keyword research such as Google Analytics and Keyword Planner, or you can opt for a paid tool (we at J&J Creative like SEMrush.)
Target important locations.
As an apartment community, you are most likely going to be targeting traffic from locations around your apartment complex - the city, neighboring cities, and the county as a whole. Be sure to double check, however, where the majority of your website traffic is coming from, and include that area in your location targeting.
*This is especially important if your community attracts many out-of-towners!*
Set up ad groups.
Targeting, targeting, targeting! The more specific you can be with your targeting, the better. Utilize ad groups to not only target each of your demographics specifically, but also to serve them their own unique ads.
Solve real problems in your ad copy.
Through keyword research, polling, and narrowing down your target demographic, certain patterns will start to emerge. You'll find searches for certain amenities, lifestyle accommodations, location perks, and more as being of high-priority to your prospective renters. Make sure your ad copy for those ad groups address those pain points or priorities.
Write well-written ad copy.
Not only should your ads solve the problems of your target demographic, they should also be well-written. What makes good ad copy? It should be clear, concise, use action-oriented language (a call to action, or CTA), and it should resonate with your target audience.
Utilize Ad Extensions.
Google offers a large catalogue of ad extensions (that they call "assets") to help advertisers with various aspects of marketing. Some of the most beneficial types when using Google Ads for apartments are assets for phone calls, dynamic pricing, and advertising rent specials.
Optimize your community website.
While paid Google Ads are incredibly powerful, nothing on the internet operates within a vacuum; the quality of your website, as well as how it is optimized for organic search, play a huge role in your CTR (click through rate). You will be throwing money down the proverbial drain if you are paying for ads that direct viewers to a poorly-built, poorly-optimized website. Check out this beginners guide to learn how to get started on SEO for your multifamily apartment community.
Need some extra help getting started with Google Ads for your apartment complex?
Let the professionals at J&J Creative help! We specialize in providing multifamily companies with a framework to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their websites and digital marketing strategies as well as the opportunities and threats present in the multifamily industry. From high-converting web design, copywriting, SEO, website analytics, and ongoing maintenance, we are passionate about leveling up the digital presence of our clients to help them attract better leads and increase their digital footprints. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation!