The Biggest Mistakes in Multifamily PPC (and How to Fix Them)

Campaign structures. Marketing copy. Bidding strategies. Optimization techniques.

Mastering PPC for multifamily properties is enough to make your head spin, but the goal isn't always about what to do right. It's about what you’re doing wrong and which mistakes to avoid.

Instead of focusing on the overwhelming to-do list for your PPC campaigns, you can weed out the stuff that doesn't work and watch your success grow.

Ready to supercharge your results? Here's what not to do in PPC.

Skipping the Search Terms Report

Only giving your search terms report a quick glance leaves the potential of your PPC campaigns untapped. Your report offers valuable insights into which searches trigger your ads and how they perform best.

They can also help shape your landing page content or other marketing assets to align what potential residents are really looking for.

Here are a few other benefits of using your search term report:

👉 Find new keywords to target

👉 View data for your search terms

👉 See the exact match keyword to see what's working to best shape your campaigns

Truth 💣: When you skip running a search terms report, you never get the full sense of quality traffic being driven to your site. You'll just spend more time and resources navigating it on your own.

Ignoring Negative Keywords

Despite their name, negative keywords can positively impact your multifamily marketing PPC campaigns.

Negative keywords prevent your ad from being triggered by a specific word or phrase. You never have to spend money on a query like "[Your Community's Name] WiFi and" Your Community's Name]" video tour.

Instead, you’re drilling down on the keywords that get the most results.

When you're laser-focused on your keywords, you inevitably increase your CTR, boost your conversions, and reduce your costs per conversion.

Using negative keywords as a superpower also keeps your ad spend low and supercharges your competitor campaigns.

Never Mentioning Your Community’s Real Benefits

Residents all want something different from a community, whether it’s a pool or in-unit laundry set-up. But do you know what they value most and actually include it in your PPC ads?

Tip 💡: Don’t just assume it’s the pool and add it to your campaigns, or you may be focusing on the wrong benefits.

You may discover residents are amped with living next to a Costco that makes their lives easier and puts everything they need within reach.

Instead, scour your online reviews to see what former and current residents talk about the most. You can also ask your leasing agents about what they're hearing, or send out a survey and ask residents directly about their favorite benefits.

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Not Using Pricing in Google Ads

Why run a PPC ad campaign if you're not using pricing that actually fits your budget?

Letting everything go on autopilot may yield results after pouring months into seeing what works (and what doesn't). But letting things run wild from the get-go leads to lackluster results for your ad spend.

Sure, you can set a budget cap and choose to pay for action vs. impressions, but your ads still require manual tweaking to honor your marketing budget while maximizing results.

Remember that manually updating your ad pricing takes a serious time commitment but is usually worth the trade-off of your time vs. budget.

Tip 💡: Or you can work with Flair and skip the headaches. Our clients benefit from real-time pricing integration and don't need to update manually (ever!).

Giving Little Thought to the Resident's Lifetime Value

You may have a good handle on your PPC's customer acquisition value for each resident who signs a lease, but do you know their lifetime value?

Before your next PPC campaign, ask: "Which residents are more likely to resign a lease than others?"

You may discover running PPC ads around rent specials only attracts residents who stick around for a year while looking for the best deals.

Or you may find that your millennial demographic are long-term renters who respond to ads about your community's peace, quiet, and upscale amenities.

Glossing Over Your Multifamily Marketing CRM Data

Is your CRM existing in a silo and giving your PPC campaigns the side-eye?

Truth 💣: Make sure you consider all of your available marketing data while running PPC campaigns. Otherwise, none of your efforts are working as efficiently as they should be.

Start by creating a dream team of true attribution and CRM in one place to help inform your PPC strategy.

For example, you may discover your most popular attribution comes from people of the same demographic and income levels who notice your community when driving home for work. Now you can make changes in your PPC campaigns to align with those high-converting demographics.

Forgetting to Track Your Ad Results

Whether you're part of a large team or are running your own marketing show solo, you need to track and justify the ROI of your PPC campaigns. Otherwise, you could be wasting time and money with unpredictable results.

There are tons of ways to track PPC results, starting with:

👉 Increase in signed leases

👉 Increase in leads

👉 Increase in apartment applications

👉 Increase in apartment tours

But it's wise to do more than just look over data points. Make sure you're also asking prospective residents how they found your community or what prompted them to stop by and take a look.

Your residents may have a surprising answer that never got tracked in your CRM or PPC results. For example, maybe they say, “My best friend’s cousin’s dog walker told me this is a pet-friendly community last year and I wanted to take a look when my lease was up.”

You probably can’t duplicate that type of attribution, but you can make a note that some of your residents appreciate your community’s dog-friendliness.

Handing Over Too Much Control to Google

Google is a juggernaut of all things search and PPC. But it's not the end-all, be-all of your marketing efforts.

Did you know up to 27% of U.S. internet users use ad blockers?

Social media ads, flyers, partnerships with local businesses, and even newspaper ads in popular neighborhood circulars are all ways to get your community in front of more residents.

Google Ads platform is a powerful marketing tool, but it's not the only one. Without diluting your efforts, diversify your campaigns to ensure you're maximizing the value of your budget.

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