Isaac Asimov, best known for his sci-fi writing, was no slouch when it came to business acumen! He once observed that a successful business person needs an “A.I.D. degree to get by—Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics.”
It’s easy to see how the three combine to produce results; modern-day advertising is much like a business unto itself.
Internet advertising, in particular, involves a combination of all three elements of Asimov’s acronym: you need the initiative (or incentive) to target your market with advertising; then, marketers need to analyze the dynamics of each advertising campaign with an emphasis on the results. This is especially true when it comes to paid ads online.
The good news about paid ads is that you can scale your advertising according to more than just the size of your property management marketing campaign! You can also tailor ads to the level of comfort you have with the advertising methods.
The Advantages of Paid Ads Online
With many print ad campaigns, you have to invest a chunk of money up front and let the campaign run its course over several weeks or even months. If you observe the ad isn’t working, you’re still stuck looking at it until the document is out of print. With paid ads online, you can make changes at the drop of a hat.
This ultimately helps you maximize your property management marketing dollars on something that gets real results.
Less Commitment
You can run an ad for a short while, take note of how it’s performing, and then make changes. There’s no need to let it drag on for weeks at a time. If you’re new to using online paid ads for your property management business, this can be a huge advantage. You can design the ad, put it up, observe its performance, tweak it—and repeat.
The Ability to Target Specific Groups
How many times have you driven by a billboard, opened to a full-page ad in a magazine, or seen an ad on TV and felt either completely indifferent or somewhat annoyed? Hundreds, no doubt. Paid ads online give you the option of targeting the eyes of people who are far more likely to have an interest in your services.
You can choose to target people based on many different factors.
- Age: This one is surprisingly crucial for property management. Property investors and landlords tend to fall within specific age groups, and tailoring your content to that, including ads, will maximize your click rate.
- Location: Don't let your paid ads become the online equivalent of a highway billboard! Location-based advertising means you'll reach potential clients who have properties in your area of coverage.
- Gender: It doesn't seem like this one would matter, but it does. While property investors share some of the same pain points by default, men and women approach them differently.
- Beliefs: When we refer to beliefs in this scenario, it's more about what matters to the landlord or investor. An expectation for prompt, worry-free service and detailed reporting are examples of this from a property management marketing perspective.
- Preferences: Does the investor always want to be contacted in the event of a repair? Do they want weekly updates on the conditions of their properties? These are all examples of preferences that you can tailor your ads to.
This level of customization in your ads to find your ideal clientele is precisely why having a buyer persona prepared can really stretch your advertising budget.
Some of the advertising algorithms available also help your ads be more effective by analyzing the online behaviors of your target market. They keep track of which sites they go to, products they search for, and topics they are interested in, and can use this information to show them your ad at the right time and place.
Sure, a property management business can take advantage of paid online ads to get your services in front of your target market—but how can you tell if your paid ads are working?
Analyzing and Optimizing Paid Ads Results
Each platform is different, so analysis of your ad campaign requires steps unique to each advertiser. We’re going to focus on techniques that apply to a variety of online advertising options.
Keep Track of Referrals from Social Media
You can use tools like Google Analytics to determine how many visits to your property management website are coming from a social media-based ad campaign through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
If your ad has been running for a significant amount of time and there has been little to no improvement in the number of visitors coming from social media, you may want to optimize your ad. You should consider altering the following:
- Your target demographic
- The graphics of the ad
- When and where the ad appears
- The frequency of how often the ad is shown.
Check the Bounce Rate
The bounce rate helps determine how long users spend on your site after getting to it and how many pages they view on the site. If your paid ad campaign is getting people to your site, but they leave right away, that may mean the ad did not correctly represent what they eventually saw on your property management website.
For example, if the ad made it appear as if you were selling properties instead of renting them, the bounce rate would be high because users would instantly recognize the ad had been misleading.
Also, if the ad had attractive graphics that drew customers in—but not enough content—they may get to your site and realize it doesn’t meet the need they had in mind. These kinds of insights can be gleaned from analyzing your bounce rate.
Use Paid Ads to Introduce Quality Content
You can use paid ads and inbound marketing principles in combination. Inbound marketing is marketing that draws people in by giving them quality content they genuinely value.
A paid ad can advertise inbound marketing content such as a free ebook. If you use this method, you can optimize the campaign by making adjustments to either the ad and its placement or the content aimed at the prospective client. Analyzing your bounce rate will help determine if the issue lies with the ad itself or the content. You can then make adjustments as necessary.
Use Paid Ads to Your Ad-vantage!
Modern property management workflows should incorporate paid ads and other types of marketing. Updating your content, designing for SEO, and other elements of your workflow can help produce content that can contribute to your paid ads. Even if you take advantage of workflow automation, you should always think about if and how what you’re doing could help strengthen your brand. If it can, you can present it to the public using paid ads.
The age when advertising can be used to pinpoint exactly who you would like to attract to your property management business is no longer science fiction; it’s here! Carefully analyzing and optimizing your ad campaigns can make your business more dynamic—and profitable.
If you're interested in getting an insider approach to your paid ads, our definitive guide is your chance! Geekly Media designed this guide with property managers in mind. Don't let your marketing dollars go to waste: download your FREE copy!
3 min read
