Google Advertising is undoubtedly one of the best ways to generate website traffic, land quality leads and, ultimately, conversions. But, as with any popular medium, it takes time, experience and dollars to create the perfect high-converting, low cost ad campaigns for your property.

Here’s a few strategies that you can utilize to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to Google Ads.

1) Choose your keywords wisely.

Keywords are probably one of the most important aspects of any Google Ads campaign and can make or break your budget pretty quickly. This is why you’ll need to ensure that when you do bid on keywords for your ads, they are the most relevant to your property. To help you with this task, you can utilize Google Ads’ keyword planner tool which will not only will help you find the keywords that are most relevant for your business, but gives you bid estimates, insight into how often certain words are searched and how those searches have changed over time.

2) Location, location, location!

Google Ads location targeting allows your ads to only appear in the specific geographic locations that you choose. This feature is the multifamily industry’s best friend, as you can now focus your advertising efforts solely on the areas close to your property location, ultimately increasing your return on investment in the long term.

3) Consider ad scheduling.

While apartment searches can occur at any time of day, if you’re truly trying to stretch your Google Ads dollars, you may want to consider ad scheduling. This feature allows you the capability to only run your ads when you see fit. You have the flexibility to choose certain days, times and business hours for your ad to run, and then set bid adjustments to increase or decrease your bids for those specific days and/or times. But, in order to master this strategy, you’ll need to first review your previous inquiries to determine during which general time(s) of day your prospects are contacting you most. Once you determine this information, you can more closely align your ad bids to your budget to be most profitable for you.

4) Take advantage of ad extensions.

Google Ads extensions come in the form of call buttons, location information, specific website links, or general text, and are a great way to set your ad apart from the competition. They expand your ad with additional information and can potentially increase click-through-rates by several percentage points by choosing which extensions to show in response to individual searches. When you incorporate more content onto your ad, extensions will give you greater visibility on the SERPs, which in turn improves click-throughs, calls or visits, resulting in much greater value for your advertising dollars.

5) Track your conversions.

The key to optimizing your Google Ads budget is keeping in tune with exactly how well your ads are performing. You should be closely tracking keyword performance and click-throughs just as diligently as you would with any other marketing medium. To determine if your prospects are venturing to your website, emailing or giving you a call, you’ll need to first establish a conversion tracking method. To do this, you would need to pinpoint exactly which metric you’d like to track (ie: button clicks, phone calls, property visits, etc.), then follow Google’s process to create your specific conversion action. If you’re not the most tech savvy, no need to fret, as Google lists step-by-step processes for each, here.  

Rentbot can help.

It’s true. The best low-cost leads are on Google, and that’s where you need to be. But, before you make the investment into Google Ads, you’ll need to ensure you have a great website to link to, first. That’s where we come in. As a Google-certified partner, we know websites, multifamily and, most importantly, how to help your prospects find you online. In addition to crafting your brand new website chock full of amazing features in a matter of days, we can also improve your Google website ranking and optimize your property ads so your property is noticed by the right searchers at the right time. Take a look at how our website and Google Ads solutions have helped turn leads into leases for some of our other clients, and learn how you can get experience similar results for your property too.

About the author

Jonsette Calloway joined the Rentbot team in 2015. With a background in public relations, advertising and copywriting, she has helped a multitude of clients achieve their marketing and communications goals within various fields, but she particularly enjoys working with the apartment industry.