Whenever possible, we recommend that clients use a neighborhood-centered approach for PPC if the property they are marketing is located in a large city. Sometimes this isn't possible as there is little to no search volume for neighborhoods in certain locations. Not sure if a neighborhood-centered approach would be best for your property? One of our PPC experts would be happy to advise you.
But why?
Most properties have an advertising budget that they must stay within and most keywords in large cities have an incredibly high search volume & suggested bids. Most multifamily marketers don't have a high enough budget available to them to be competitive in these markets. Fortunately, neighborhood keywords are generally less competitive and using this approach generally results in more targeted leads. As a result, marketers will have a much lower cost-per-click (CPC) and a much higher ROI if they're able to use a neighborhood-centered approach instead.
Case Study:
A property in a large metropolitan area wanted to market to the entire city. However, they heeded our advice and also allowed us to create a neighborhood-centered campaign, allowing us to compare the two different approaches in real time. In a 90 day period, the city-centered campaign received 22 conversions, and the neighborhood-centered campaign received 108 conversions for the same period of time. However, spend was higher for the city-centered campaign ($8,200 vs. $7,500). As a result, the average CPC & CPV (cost-per-conversion) was much lower for the neighborhood-focused campaign, resulting in a higher conversion rate and ROI.
Why does this approach result in a higher ROI?
One factor that contributes to a higher ROI for the neighborhood-centered approach is that the CPC is generally much lower for neighborhood keywords than for city keywords. This not only allows you to pay less per click, but also gives you the opportunity to have a higher ad position at a lower cost, which generally results in a higher click-thru-rate (CTR). All of these factors contribute to a higher quality score, which allows your ads to show up higher in search results at a lower CPC.
The other contributing factor is that your ads are reaching renters who already know where they want to live. Think about it: someone who is searching for "apartments in Northern Liberties" is more likely to click on your ad targeting the neighborhood in which they want to live and contact the property versus someone who is just generally searching for "apartments in Philadelphia".
Next, learn more about keywords.