Google is removing average position as a performance metric in Google Ads at the end of September. What does this mean for advertisers?
Continue reading…Google is Sunsetting Average Position
First-Party vs. Third-Party Leads
Does your community rely on internet listing sites as your primary source of marketing? Communities are often fed the line that they can’t compete against ILSs for apartment seeker’s attention so they shouldn’t bother trying to go after their own first-party leads.
While it is true that ILSs provide communities with a chance to get discovered by apartment seekers, there are drawbacks to exclusively using ILSs for lead generation.
Here are a few of the reasons why communities are better off investing in their own lead-generation strategy.
Continue reading…Uncovering Your Prospects’ Website Journey: Part 2 Lead Flow
In the first part of this two-part series, we showed you how to track the path that website visitors take when they visit your site in Google Analytics. In part two, we will show you how to track the path prospects take before taking lead generating actions on your website. We will explore the “Conversions” section in Google Analytics, cover the most relevant reports for understanding your lead flow, and help you interpret your results.
Continue reading…Are Marketers Getting Too Personal?
Personalization is becoming a buzzword in the marketing industry. As organizations gain greater access to data collection and marketing automation tools, they naturally turn towards hyper-targeted marketing strategies in an attempt to better connect with their customers.
For many marketers, this unparalleled access to customer information and targeting tools feels like the dawn of the golden age of marketing, but there are consumers on the other side of the exchange who are left feeling differently. Facebook’s move towards a “clear history” feature and encrypted messaging are a sign of the recent pushback the general public has shown towards personalized marketing.
Smarter HQ (a marketing automation platform that works with large national retail and travel brands) found that while 72% of consumers only engage with marketing messages tailored to their interests, 63% of consumers stop buying from brands whose personalization experiences appear to be creepy.
The Driving Forces Behind Today’s Rental Market
Supply levels are surging in the rental housing industry. Will rental demand keep pace with sky-high supply? What can your community do to stay competitive in this evolving market? We explore the answers to these questions and more in our latest industry analysis.
Continue reading…Top Announcements from Google’s Marketing Live Event
At Google’s annual Marketing Live conference, they announced big updates in 2019 with changes to Search, YouTube, Shopping and their new Discovery ad units.
Continue reading…Uncovering Your Prospects’ Website Journey: Part 1
In a world full of multiple online and offline touchpoints, it’s become increasingly important for communities to understand the journey their prospects engage in before they become a lead.
Where do potential renters go to find trustworthy sources of information about your community? Which marketing touchpoints do they engage with first? Are the channels prospects go through to find your community online and in person working for or against you? Amidst this growth in complexity, marketing channels and platforms are making a greater effort to give companies more transparency and better tools to answer these questions.
One of the channels communities have the most control over in the customer journey is their website. Most communities already have the tools they need to understand how prospects are interacting with it but don’t know how to use them.
In this two-part series, we’ll help you retrace your prospects’ digital footprints so you can find out which pages on your website lead to engagement, and which lead to abandonment. In part one, we’ll show you the pages website visitors are visiting as they navigate through your website. In part two, we’ll explore the website journey that highly interested prospects took before they became a lead.
Are you ready to start your investigation?
Boost Posts vs. Ads on Facebook & Instagram
Gone are the days of reaching everyone in your social network on Facebook and Instagram. It’s not uncommon for businesses to reach only 2-4% of their fans on Facebook with each organic post. Businesses looking to extend their reach on the world’s most popular social networks have two choices to get their message in front of potential customers: boost posts or run Facebook Ads campaigns. While boosting posts might be a great solution for social media influencers and bloggers looking to build up engagement rates or get more blog post views, most businesses are looking for a greater return on investment from these networks. If you’re a business looking to use social media to generate sales, you should be running Facebook Ads, here’s why.
Continue reading…Ad Spend Trends in 2019
Ad spend across big brands has increased in the U.S. amid a growing economy, low unemployment, higher household wealth, and high consumer confidence levels. In their annual global ad spend report, the Dentsu Aegis Network forecasted that ad spend in 2019 will continue to increase, but at a slightly slower growth rate than we saw in 2018 (3.8% vs. 4.1%).
Where are brands spending their money in 2019? It’s still a mix of digital and traditional ad campaigns. While big brands across the world are investing more in digital every year, the move from traditional to digital is happening at a slower pace than what many of us in the marketing community might’ve expected.
Continue reading…How to Protect Your Apartment Community From Brandjacking
Is your brand working against you in the search engine? When your prospects search for you by name, are you the first brand they see? If you aren’t the number one listing for your community’s brand you might just have a brandjacking problem. You wouldn’t be the first community to experience this, even marketing agencies like us experience brandjacking attempts. We know being brand jacked can be a frustrating experience, but rest assured, it’s a battle you can win. By the end of this article, you’ll know how to overcome brand jackers and reclaim your rightful place in the search engine.
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