Guide To Advertising Rental Portfolios Using Google Ads

Successful digital marketing in the rental property business involves knowing how to use online marketing tools to your advantage. One of the most powerful of these tools is Google Ads. It allows advertisers to create targeted ads that appear when users search for specific terms or phrases, known as keywords.

This guide will provide clear, step-by-step instructions on how to start advertising your rental properties using Google Ads. Additionally, ways to maintain your ads, track their success, and the importance of latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords for effective ad performance will be covered.

Brief Overview of Google Ads

Advertising rental properties on Google has several key advantages over other advertising platforms:

Understanding the needs of general users and reasons for selecting a posted ad can optimize rental property advertising strategies. For example, recognizing that ads are often clicked when the brand is familiar and the search query is directly answered, you can determine whether your advertising goals should focus on establishing your brand or online presence and familiarity, or meeting user needs.

Understanding the Google Ads Pricing Model

Google uses a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model – you’re only charged when someone interacts with your ad. This, coupled with the ability to set a daily budget, ensures you get a high return on investment.

Your ad placement is determined by Google’s Ad auction – Adwords Intelligence. Once you create your ad for your rental properties, you proceed by placing bids on keywords. The higher the bid placed, the more likely your ad will be closer to the top of the search page. Adwords intelligence will determine where your ad will be placed based on the cost per click you have set and the quality of the ad.

Additionally, set budgets can be made to ensure that the increase in website visitations does not cost you a fortune. After creating your account, visit “Campaigns” and find the campaign created for your rental properties. Select “Budget” and enter your daily budget (Tip: If you have set a monthly budget instead, divide the set monthly value by 30.4.)

Starting your Google Ads Account

Step 1: Create your Google Ads Account

Visit the Google Ads homepage and click ‘Start now’. You’ll be prompted to sign in with your Google account. If you don’t have one, it’s free to create. Once signed in, follow the prompts to set up your Google Ads account.

After that, you’ll be prompted for additional information regarding the website you’d like users to visit upon clicking your advertisement for your rental property.

Step 2: Set Your Goals

Select “Create” and choose “Campaign” to get started. You will then be given the choice to identify your objective and fill out additional information that relates to your goals. If you’re uncertain what objectives will benefit your rental properties, it is covered below.

After identifying your goals, you will be asked to write your advertisement. When it comes to writing your advertisement to create the campaign for your rental property, there are certain things to keep in mind to maximize the effectiveness of those ads.

Step 3: Create a campaign

Setting Your Rental Property Goals

Positioning your ads to attract tenants requires a deep understanding of their needs. Establishing clear goals for your campaign can help determine the type of campaign you should launch whether your goal is increased website traffic, more inquiries on your rentals, or reduced vacancy rates.

To start, you can utilize Google Ads in two primary ways: Search Network and Display Network.

Search Network: appeal to looking customersDisplay Network: increases visibility
Shows ads to users actively searching for rental propertiesPlaces rental property ads on several websites that potential renters might be browsing

Additionally, here are the types of campaigns to consider launching based on your rental property campaign goals:

Campaign TypeObjectivesRental Property
Search CampaignsText ads on Google Search– Boost sales/ leads /website traffic
– Easy setup
– Specific targeting		Optimal for reaching people with higher purchasing intent
Display CampaignsImage ads on various websites– Drives sales/lead
-Brand Awareness
– Extended reach & re-targeting		To stay top of mind with potential renters and retarget visitors to the rental property website
Smart CampaignsAutomated campaigns using Google AI– Drives sales/leads
– Easy setup
– Advanced optimization		An efficient way to advertise rental properties with minimal setup and effort
Performance Max CampaignsMulti-channel AI-optimized campaigns– Easy setup
-Increased conversions
-Finds new customers		Great for expanding reach across various channels, finding new renters, and optimizing marketing efficiency
Video CampaignsVideo ads on YouTube and other websites– Brand awareness
– Drives sales/
leads
– Extended reach, re-targeting		To give potential renters on YouTube a visual tour of the property, reaching a wide audience and retargeting interested parties
Local CampaignsPromotes physical locations across channels– Drives in-person store sales
– Promotes offers/events
-Provides location info
– Multi-channel marketing		To bring potential renters to physical rental locations or offices
App CampaignsPromotes your app across channels-Promotes app
-Multi-channel marketing
-Easy setup and management		Useful for property owners with an app to streamline booking and inquiries

Once you’ve decided on the type of campaign to launch for your rental properties and have completed setting up your account, you can proceed to the next step – creating your ad.

Creating your Ad & Leveraging LSI

Having identified your goal, understood their pricing model, and set up your account with Google Ads, you are ready to start your ad creation process.

Leveraging LSI keywords involves using alternative words and phrases that are semantically related to your primary keyword. Things like synonyms, closely related words, or phrases that often occur in the same context as your main keyword are optimal for the best outreach.

To start, choose keywords that users looking for rental properties would input to find their future homes. For instance, words like, “apartment for rent”, “home for rent”, and “2-bedroom apartment” are common searches users may choose when looking for rentals. Alternatively, instead of creating keywords from scratch, you can input your website’s URL link and Google can recommend keywords.

Additionally, you can leverage campaign settings to ensure your rental properties are reaching a relevant demographic by viewing the Campaign Settings to view your options.

Campaign Settings

Start by choosing locations to target your advertisements. This can be narrowed down to one or multiple postal codes, neighborhoods, cities, or countries.

** The assets created can be tailored to suit your preferences – you can create lead forms for potential tenants to view and indicate their interest, and create several headlines, images, logos, and videos which Google will then mix and match to track the most successful combination. **

Launching Your Campaign

Bidding

Once the keywords have been selected, the next step in the bidding process is launching your campaign.

After choosing objectives, you’re taken to the bidding portion of the process where you can decide how you want to track your ad success – these are some options to keep in mind that can help substantially grow interest in your properties and lower vacancy rates:

MethodPricing MethodBenefits
ConversionsTarget cost per actionOnly be charged when a specific action is completed (ie. a purchase, sign-up, or download)
Conversion ValueTarget return on ad spendOptimize your ad campaigns to focus on generating revenue rather than just conversions
ClicksMaximum cost per click bid limitCharged only when a user clicks on your ad. This approach is beneficial for driving traffic to your website.
Impression SharePercent (%) impression share to target & Maximum CPC bid limitEnsure that your ads appear a certain percentage of the time when relevant keywords or placements are triggered. This method helps you increase brand visibility and reach a broader audience while maintaining control over your maximum CPC bid.

After you’ve input your daily budget or bid, your campaign will be launched. It will be ready for you to track your rental property ad performance!

Tracking Success & Making Necessary Adjustments

After creating your campaign, go to “Campaigns” and view the analytics tabs appearing:

Each portion of the tab will reveal more about your rental property performance:

TabPurposeBenefit
OverviewGives you a brief insight into your assets – ie. your lead form or headlines created.Refine your marketing strategies to better attract prospective tenants and fill vacancies quickly.
InsightsShows interactions, cost, and interaction rate with your advertisement.Analyze the cost-effectiveness of your campaigns & understand what drives engagement. If a particular ad is generating a lot of interactions but isn’t leading to conversions, you can adjust the ad to better meet your goals.
When and where ads showedIndicates the time in which your ads were viewed, the location, and the device type used to interact with your ad.If your ads are most often viewed on mobile devices, you can optimize your website and ads for mobile viewing. Understanding the most effective time to show your ads could also lead to better conversion rates.
Report EditorAllows you to generate reports and edit report data to be downloaded and shared as needed.You can create custom reports to track specific metrics related to business goals, like the number of new tenant inquiries or the conversion rate of property viewings to leases.

Boosting Your Marketing Effectiveness

  1. Precision Targeting: With Google Ads, you can target your audience with laser-like precision. Utilize keywords, demographics, and interests to reach potential customers who are actively searching for your products or services – recall the user data provided at the start of the guide. With questions being answered or brand familiarity being the primary reasons that an advertisement is clicked on, it is important to leverage the keyword options you mention in your rental property ads to reach the most leads.
  2. Engagement through Ad Extensions: Google Ads allows you to enhance your ads with additional information such as site links, callouts, and structured snippets. These extensions provide more reasons for viewers to click, turning casual browsers into engaged prospects.
  3. Cost-Effective Campaigns: Google Ads offers a pay-per-click model, meaning you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Experiment with different ad formats and bidding strategies to find what delivers the best ROI. It’s like having a customizable advertising budget that you can tailor to your business needs.
  4. Responsive Ads: Google’s responsive ads automatically adjust to fit different devices and screen sizes. This ensures that your message is always clear and compelling, whether viewed on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device. It’s like having a digital chameleon that adapts to its environment.
  5. Insightful Analytics: Utilize Google’s robust analytics to understand how your ads are performing. Monitor metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and cost-per-conversion to continuously optimize your campaigns.
  6. Building Brand Trust: Google Ads allows you to showcase your ratings and reviews right in your ads. By displaying positive feedback from satisfied customers, you’re not just promoting your products but also building trust with potential clients.
  7. Leverage Remarketing: With Google’s remarketing tools, you can target users who have previously interacted with your website or app. This keeps your brand top-of-mind and encourages them to complete their purchase. It’s like having a gentle reminder that nudges customers back to your business.
  8. Quality Score Optimization: Google Ads uses a Quality Score to determine how relevant and useful your ad is to the user. By optimizing for this score, you can achieve better ad placements and lower costs. It’s like having a guide to creating the most effective and efficient ads possible.

By leveraging these features and strategies, Google Ads can become a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal, helping you reach more customers, increase conversions, and grow your business.

In the fast-paced world of the rental property business, standing out in the crowded market is essential. Google Ads offers a dynamic and effective way to reach potential tenants and property buyers. By understanding the intricacies of Google Ads, from its pricing model to leveraging latent semantic indexing (LSI), you can create targeted and efficient advertising campaigns.

This guide has walked you through the essential steps to set up, launch, and track a successful Google Ads campaign for your rental properties. By following these instructions, you can not only increase your visibility but also optimize your advertising budget, ensuring that your ads reach the right audience at the right time.

Remember, the key to successful digital marketing is not just about using tools but understanding how to use them strategically. Continuous monitoring, learning, and adapting will keep your campaigns fresh and effective, helping you stay ahead in the competitive rental property market. Whether you are a seasoned marketer or just starting, Google Ads offers a scalable solution to help you advertise your rental properties.

Personalize Your Real Estate Data Experience

In today’s age of data-centricity, professionals across different sectors often face hurdles in persuading their peers to embrace novel tools designed for data handling. Consequently, despite the considerable resources poured into them, well-designed dashboards and reports remain overlooked. If these analytical insights remain untapped, can they be considered valuable?

These could encompass metrics such as property valuation, appreciation rates, rental yields, occupancy statistics, and the effectiveness of property marketing strategies. Despite having this comprehensive data at their fingertips, interpreting it and utilizing it for strategic investment decisions can be daunting. The sobering truth is that not all of these ventures have achieved their anticipated results. At the heart of the problem is often a glaring oversight – a misalignment between the meticulously planned management strategies and the genuine needs and expectations of the property investors and tenants.

Yet, in these challenges lie opportunities for growth and improvement. We must identify the reasons behind these disconnections and take steps to bridge the gap effectively. The key to success is fostering curiosity and gaining profound insights by studying your target audience. This, in turn, empowers you to create data experiences that not only meet but exceed expectations, catching the attention of management, elevating business value, and sparking valuable conversations.

What hinders asset managers from personalizing data experiences?

  1. Assessing data requirements: Even with their expertise, asset managers might not always grasp the nuances of every aspect of real estate asset management. Misjudging the specific data needs of various roles can hinder the delivery of actionable asset insights.
  2. Language barrier: Many professionals know what they aim to achieve but may find it challenging to express it in the precise vocabulary of asset management. Conversely, some may be so occupied in their routine tasks that they overlook the transformative potential of data in enhancing their asset strategies.
  3. Fear of change: Venturing into new methodologies, especially in asset management, can be daunting. The allure of tried-and-tested methods often overshadows the long-term advantages of innovation, such as optimized asset performance and increased returns.
  4. Learning from the past: Reflecting on past strategies and interactions within the asset management team and with stakeholders is crucial. Historical experiences can shape present strategies and perceptions, and harnessing these lessons to inform future decisions is vital.

This is why we must not overlook the crucial role played by data designers. They bridge the gap between data and user experience, ensuring that data remains accessible, understandable, and exciting.

Here are four straightforward yet highly effective strategies to create data tools that genuinely resonate with your team:

  1. Use Common Insights: Most of the daily touchpoints you interact with are designed to present data in an easy-to-understand format. For instance, news apps use graphs, colors, and formatting to make their content more user-centric and effective. Drawing inspiration from these touchpoints allows you to create more intuitive and user-friendly tools.
  2. Understand Team’s Perspective: Allocate time to understand how your team incorporates data into their strategic decisions. Observe their preferences and understand when and how they engage with the data. As such insights will be a game-changer while developing the tools that fit their everyday processes and needs
  3. Engage in Tool Development: Involve your team members to participate in the tool development process actively. Understand their preferences in data personalization and visualization. However, it is crucial to maintain a unified approach that aligns the broader style and goals of the firm with individual preferences.
  4. Start simple and improve: Rather than aiming for perfection from the outset, adopt a strategy of starting with the basics and improving as time goes on. Collaborating with your team to identify the most critical data insights required for decision-making. Prioritize these, tackling them systematically so that it is in alignment with the team’s needs. This approach ensures a smoother adoption process and avoids disruption.

By fully embracing these strategies, you can overcome the challenges of adopting data tools and create a culture that values data for organizational success. It will help boost operational efficiency, ensuring the management of diverse portfolios – a challenge that would traditionally be overwhelming.

As you navigate the complexities of data-driven decision-making in property management, it’s essential to recognize that solutions are readily available to streamline this process. The utilization of smart data solutions can significantly enhance efficiency, making it possible to manage multiple user experience scenarios simultaneously—a task that would otherwise be daunting.

RealSage Analytics is a cutting-edge solution that has the potential to revolutionize real estate operations and take decision-making to new heights of sophistication. By adopting these strategies and exploring innovative solutions, you can effectively tackle the challenges of adopting data tools and embark on a journey toward a more efficient, data-driven future in property management.

Multifamily Risk Management

Risk management is an essential aspect of the multifamily industry. With rental owners managing multiple units across various geographies, properties and tenant demographics, it is crucial to identify and mitigate potential risks.

The risk management process can be segmented into four categories – each of which RealSage offers solutions to give clients peace of mind regarding internal or external challenges they may be facing. The risk management process can be divided – into risk identification, risk assessment, risk response planning, and risk monitoring.

Identifying Risks

Historical data is often used to identify potential risks, elicit trends and anticipate areas of concern. However, the use of retrospective data paired with human oversight to make decisions can negatively impact the future of a company. To address this concern, RealSage’s dashboards paired with AI provides companies with real-time data regarding all business-related metrics and tie it with actionable, predictive insights.

With this feature, users can monitor every dollar moving within their company and track performance while understanding its effects on their bottom line. For instance, if a marketing channel is not performing as anticipated, the system proactively suggests reallocating funds to more promising platforms based on their performance. It tracks expenses and identifies patterns for cost improvements across all management-related functions.

Assessing Risk and the Effects

After identifying potential risks, the next step is to assess the likelihood of each risk occurring and the potential impact it could have on the organization. RealSage’s analytics software acts as a comprehensive risk assessment tool always on the lookout for the best interest of the business.

For example, if an unexpected increase in utility costs is identified on a particular property, RealSage’s software not only alerts property managers but also highlights aspects that warrant a deep dive.

Risk Response Planning

Using RealSage’s risk assessment tool, property managers can make decisions about allocating resources to ensure the long-term success of their properties. RealSage’s analytics software makes it easy to track the success of building portfolios by tracking conversion, occupancy, and renewal rates on units. Once the system has identified a method to cut costs or increase revenue, actionable insights that address issues like cost overruns, increasing NOI, improving the tenant acquisition process..etc, are given.

Risk Monitoring

RealSage Analytics’ use of predictive AI, makes monitoring risk seamless. The software tracks and analyzes key performance metrics in real-time, identifying trends and potential issues before they become significant problems.

For example, if there is a sudden increase in tenant turnover, RealSage Analytics can help managers identify the root cause and develop a plan to address the issue. The software can also provide insights into potential risks, such as upcoming expirations of lease agreements or changes in local housing regulations.

Conclusion

RealSage Analytics assists property managers in taking proactive measures to address potential problems and guarantee the long-term prosperity of their properties. With RealSage Analytics’ predictive AI capabilities, it has become simpler than ever before to remain ahead of risks and make informed decisions based on data, ensuring the success of your multifamily properties.

Commitment Bias in Software Investments

Large multifamily organizations often invest significant amounts of money into property management technology hoping to improve efficiency, increase profits, and gain a competitive edge in the market. However, despite the potential benefits, there is a significant risk of commitment bias – a tendency to stick with an original decision, even when it’s no longer the best option or even a viable one.

Many organizations have recognized the costs and inefficiencies associated with their existing software investments and ongoing maintenance. Despite these considerations, they have made the decision to explore new property and asset management technologies, demonstrating their ability to overcome commitment bias.

The Trap of Existing Investments

One of the most significant contributors to commitment bias is the sunk cost fallacy. This is the idea that once a company has invested a significant amount of resources into a particular technology, it’s difficult to abandon it, even if more efficient options are available.

This can be particularly problematic when implementing new technologies, as older systems may be deeply ingrained in a company’s infrastructure. Employees may have been trained on older systems, and it can be difficult to justify the expense of retraining them on new ones. In some cases, new technology may require a complete overhaul of existing systems, which can be daunting, expensive, and time-consuming.

Recognizing that multifamily operators have made previous investments in various software systems, developing new software that can seamlessly integrate with their existing software stack has been our focus. By collaborating with prop-tech companies that can integrate with the current tech stack, rather than starting from scratch, new investments are considered sustainable and the overall risk of a new purchase is reduced.

The Fear of Failure

Another factor contributing to commitment bias is the fear of failure. Investing a significant amount of money into new technology can be daunting when it fails to deliver the expected results. This fear can lead companies to stick with older systems, even if they’re no longer the best option. Unfortunately, this can be a self-fulfilling prophecy – by avoiding new technology, companies may be missing out on opportunities to innovate and improve their bottom line.

To overcome commitment bias, it can be helpful to collaborate with a company that values continuous improvement. At RealSage, we prioritize close partnerships with our clients, allowing us to gain deep insights into their specific needs and challenges. Our commitment to evolving our product ensures that we can effectively address the multifamily industry’s pressing issues. By providing a curated dashboard and actionable insights, we help multifamily property owners track their progress toward goals and measure ROI, offering valuable metrics and projections.

The Importance of Flexibility

To avoid commitment bias, companies must remain flexible and open to new ideas. This means being willing to upgrade older systems, even if it means admitting that the original investment was a mistake. It also means being willing to take calculated risks and invest in new technology, even if it’s not a sure thing. Companies that are willing to take these risks are more likely to stay ahead of the curve and maintain a competitive edge.

Although the idea of replacing a trusted system with something new may seem daunting, our unique offerings tailored to the multifamily industry are precisely why our clients have felt confident in doing so. With our user-friendly tools, clients can easily price rental units based on current market data, access comprehensive dashboards to analyze trends over time and automate the tenant acquisition process. These client-oriented features empower our clients to make informed decisions, streamline operations, and achieve their goals more effectively.

Conclusion

Commitment bias is a significant problem for many large companies, particularly when it comes to investing in new technology. By being aware of the sunk cost fallacy, the fear of failure, and the importance of flexibility, companies can avoid this trap and remain competitive in a rapidly changing business landscape. Ultimately, our commitment to constant evolution and improvement is what sets us apart from other property and asset management technology providers. We understand the importance of flexibility and the willingness to take risks, and we’re dedicated to helping our clients overcome commitment bias and stay ahead of the curve.