How to Speed Up Leasing Velocity

The lease-up clock is ticking to reach stabilization—fast. Yet factors such as supply and demand, competitor pricing, and a property’s location can disrupt reaching this mission-critical milestone.

One element that investors and operators can control is marketing. A strategic marketing plan executed by an agile team can increase the speed units are leased, enabling investors and operators to reach their leasing goals on schedule. 

We analyzed over nine months of occupancy and campaign data across a sample of apartments in the lease-up stage to determine which campaign decisions were the most effective at speeding up the leasing velocity. Read on to discover our findings.

The Research

To better understand the marketing approaches that impact lease-up timelines, we executed two studies based on client data to identify marketing campaign factors that impact leasing velocity.

In study one, we analyzed occupancy and campaign performance across eight lease-ups located across Washington, Oregon, and Arizona from March 2023 to December 2023. We studied the time it took for these communities to reach 80% occupancy and the marketing mixes that contributed to fast turnaround times.

In study two, we looked at ten lease-ups from the same period located across Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and Maryland to assess the impact of syncing property-level CRM data with ad operations to enable proactive ad updates. These updates included price-related ad updates, and the addition of floorplan focuses in Google Ads. 

The Result

In the initial study of eight lease-up properties, the average starting occupancy rate was 17% in March 2023. By December 23, 2023, six of the eight lease-ups had reached 80% occupancy, taking an average of 192 days. Of these six, four reached between 93-98% occupancy. 

Top performing campaigns within this research sample had the following marketing mix in 90% of the months analyzed in the study: Paid Search, Display Retargeting, Paid Social, and The Conversion Cloud®. 

Furthermore, top performers with this marketing mix experienced better conversion rates and lower acquisition costs from the traffic these campaigns generated.

• 2.5x higher website traffic conversion rates
• 78% lower costs per website conversion
• 23% lower marketing acquisition costs per unit 

In the second study, we assessed the impact that campaign optimization had on reducing the time it took to fill vacancies. We theorized that the more proactively a campaign was managed and the more targeted the advertising was towards filling vacant floorplans, the faster a property would achieve stabilization. 

During the study period, we compared campaigns where one of the following optimization events occurred: 

• pricing extensions were added
• floorplan focuses were implemented
• neither price extensions nor floorplan focuses were added (this was our control group)

Our findings revealed that floorplan focuses have a multiplier effect on leasing. Clients in the study that included these in campaigns saw increases in leasing activity, faster rolling unit velocity (calculated as total units occupied at the end of each month divided by the total available units at the end of each month), and higher returns on their ad investments.

The Takeaways

Multichannel Marketing Moves Prospects Through the Customer Journey Faster 

The best-performing campaigns to reach stabilization applied a multichannel approach to marketing that connects with prospects throughout their customer journey. These campaigns include a mix of the following to drive awareness and leads:

• top-of-the-funnel strategies (Paid Social)
• mid-funnel strategies (Paid Search and Display Retargeting)
• lower-funnel lead generation strategies (The Conversion Cloud®) 

This holistic strategy ensures consistent engagement across different touchpoints, efficiently guiding prospects from awareness to conversion.

Integrated Efforts Yield Better Results

Syncing property-level CRM data with your ad operations gives advertisers a line of sight into critical property-level changes to make strategic campaign optimizations faster. This integrated approach ensures that marketing efforts align with the leasing goals, adapt to market dynamics in real time, and deliver qualified leads.

Maximize Your Ad Investment With Strategic Targeting 

While high-level brand awareness is key to filling the top of your marketing funnel, a more targeted approach to keyword targeting and ad copy will help fill your remaining units as you reach stabilization. 

Optimization strategies such as floorplan focuses can direct your ad dollars toward the prospects most likely to lease your remaining units, filling your pipeline with the most relevant rental candidates while providing you with a higher return on your ad investment.

Fill Vacancies Faster with Conversion Logix

Ready to supercharge your leasing velocity and optimize your ad investment? Create your next campaign with Conversion Logix. Schedule a call with a Conversion Logix team member to discover how we can help you fast-track your leasing goals.

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