Are you preparing for your next pitch with an ownership group? Whether you’re pitching your lease-up strategies for a new property, looking to expand your property portfolio, or are discussing budgets for your existing properties, these marketing stats will help your presentation pack more punch.

Paid Social Advertising Crushes Organic

Simply put, paid social advertising helps communities reach stabilization faster. Success on Facebook used to be measured by the number of Likes on a page, but that is no longer true. Today, the average organic reach of any post is just 6.4% of your total page likes. 

Be sure to use paid and organic social strategies in the right way. Use the detailed targeting options available on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook’s Audience Network to drive leads to a landing page with robust information about a community. Use organic social content to create social proof for prospective residents and remember that it doesn’t have the requisite reach to drive a high number of leads.

Apartment Seekers Watch Videos

It’s true: video content drives qualified traffic. Research has shown that companies boost online search traffic by 41% when they incorporate video into their marketing strategy. Add to this that 73% of US adults watch YouTube videos and 33% of all online activity is related to video consumption, and you see why video is a must-have for multifamily marketing. 

Conversion Investment Pays Off

Communities that invest in conversion tools and automation see a lift in conversion rates on their websites. Automated tour schedulers such as Schedule Genie can give communities a 57% lift in the number of tours scheduled. In addition, our research has found that communities using Concession Manager, another of our powerful conversion tools, see an average lift of 81% in leads. These numbers demonstrate that making the tools on your site more effective generates a higher marketing ROI.

Search is a Must-Win

Most apartment seekers begin their search online. And how do they start that search? Google. Communities have a lot of competition against ILS sites for organic search listings. A Paid Search campaign can help your community rise to the top of the search engine. Here’s why showing up in the top three positions in an apartment search is so important.

Paid search listings perform better than organic search listings when searchers have a high purchase intent. According to WordStream, “64% of people click in Google ads when they are looking to buy an item online”.

That makes search ads a must-win for your community.

Google Business Profiles Drive Qualified Traffic

Nearly 30% of apartment website traffic comes from Google Business Profile (GBP) listings. And, apartment seekers are 29% more likely to convert to a lead when they click to enter your website from a GBP search. This is why investing in your Google Business Profile and posting content regularly is an effective way to attract new leads and engage prospective tenants.

Live Chat Converts

When apartment seekers land on your community’s website, they are often there for only a short amount of time before they need answers to specific questions. One of the most effective ways to engage them is with chat tools like Live Chat (as opposed to chatbots, which provide responses to keyword prompts and can fall short). In fact, we’ve seen that nearly 80% of prospects convert into leads after engaging in chat.

Connecting with Generation C is Smart

Google calls today’s modern digital consumer Generation C and recognizes their devotion to creation, curation, connection, and community. While 80% of Millennials belong to Generation C, this is a mindset that is cross-generational. Together, Gen C influences more than half a trillion (yes, trillion) dollars in spending. They’re using digital media, social media, and online video every day (often for hours) and that’s where they are making their purchase decisions. For this reason, your strategy needs to rely on an effective, precise marketing mix that puts your community where members of Generation C are looking. 

Conversion Logix supercharges your multifamily marketing with lease-driven campaigns, powerful conversion tools, and industry-leading customer service. Since our founding in 2010, we have assembled a team with decades of industry experience and provided leases for hundreds of communities across the country.

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Winter is a dreary time of year for apartment communities. The days are shorter, the weather is colder, and with the holidays taking center stage during the month of December, searching for an apartment isn’t top of mind for many apartment seekers across the country. While many leasing teams try to weather through the storm with the same strategies that brought them leads and leases in the summer, you came here because you know deep down you need to change your strategy.

Like you, we know that seasonality plays a role in a community’s ability to fill vacancies. We’ve helped communities all over the country to fill vacancies in the winter and we’ve gathered our best tactics and strategies in a winter guide to help leasing teams navigate the slow winter months. We analyzed thousands of apartment marketing campaigns across hundreds of clients to give better insights into the marketing mix, budget allocation, ad messaging, ad imagery, and conversion strategies communities can use to improve leasing results. To give readers a better understanding of the recommendations we provided in the guide, we wrote this blog post.

In this blog post, we share the marketing landscape we see affecting apartment communities in the winter so your team fully understands the challenges and opportunities facing your community in the least magical time of year.

The Challenges…

Most communities invest in a paid search strategy year-round to augment their organic website traffic. While paid search is traditionally one of the best sources of paid website traffic for apartment communities, paid search campaigns aren’t as promising in the winter as they are in the spring and summer. 

After the summer months, online Google searching for apartments steadily declines until it reaches an annual low in December. Searching picks up after the holidays in January and February but remains lower than the spring and summer months that follow.

When looking at lead conversion rates on apartment websites from organic Google search traffic, conversion rates start to drop below average from September all the way into February. When looking at conversation rates specifically in the winter months, December rates are lower than January and February. 

The drop in organic searches that occurs in winter reflects the overall lack of apartment searching during this season. Amidst a drop in the number of people searching Google for apartments, the number of apartment communities advertising on Google stays constant.

As a result, we’ve seen the price of apartment ads on Google increase during the winter months. Higher costs, fewer searchers, and steady competition creates a paid search environment that is less favorable for apartment communities.

The Opportunities…

Social media and display marketing are cheaper in the winter after the holiday season. Cost per click drops on Facebook and Instagram in January and February. January is the cheapest time of year to market an apartment on Facebook. The average CPC for apartment Facebook ads in January is 15% lower than the annual average. December is a slightly more expensive time of year to market to apartment seekers on Facebook. This is due mostly in part to the pool of advertisers running ads in the news feed in anticipation of the holidays. Once the holidays are over cost per click on Facebook drops 20%. Cost per click on Instagram drops 35% from December to January and remains 20% lower than the annual average through February.

Since it’s cheaper to reach apartment seekers on social platforms during January and February, apartment communities’ ad budgets stretch further on these platforms. This increases the volume of quality of website visitors coming into a community’s site.

The percentage of Facebook ad traffic that takes a lead action on apartment websites climb 27% on average from December to January. Instagram advertising conversion rates increase 67% on average from December to January and remain higher in February. More conversions per dollar spent make awareness-building platforms a better investment for communities in the winter months, especially after the month of December.

Creating a strategy for the winter months…

December is a tough time to market an apartment. Renters are focused on the holiday season and aren’t actively searching for apartments online. While marketing to apartment seekers on Facebook and Display networks isn’t at its peak in December, search is at its lowest point of the year, making awareness campaigns a better use of your ad dollars. As other advertisers compete to show holiday ads in the news feeds in December, prices remain higher across all platforms. Once the chimney smoke clears and the holiday season is over, communities are presented with a favorable outlook across social ad platforms like Facebook and Instagram and Display networks.

In the winter, communities get a better return on their advertising investment from channels that build awareness, compared to channels that capture demand. Advertising channels like Google ads are more expensive this time of year compared to the spring and summer and the audience searching is smaller. Apartment communities looking to get the most out of their marketing budget are better off shifting more ad spend towards awareness campaigns on social and display platforms and less on search ad campaigns from December to February.

So how do you build social and display ads that are positioned to succeed in the winter? What kinds of concessions and conversion strategies can communities use to create better winter marketing campaigns?

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