The Challenge

Ojala Holdings is a multifamily development firm with a portfolio of apartment communities across Texas and Louisiana. One of their properties, The Standard at River District, is a connected urban living experience in Fort Worth where residents are ten minutes from the energy of downtown while residing in an idyllic natural setting. Forthea is Ojala’s digital marketing partner and responsible for the lead generation and marketing analytics programs for its portfolio of properties. 

The 293-unit luxury apartment complex opened its doors in 2020 during a global pandemic. With the multifamily industry experiencing one of the most turbulent times in recent history, Ojala needed a digital marketing strategy that would allow them to lease up and compete in the mass exodus of residents moving away from urban areas in response to Covid.

Our top objectives were:

  • Establish and grow PPC campaign to acquire lease applications
  • Grow organic traffic and local visibility
  • Measure digital marketing ROI back to lease applications and occupancy
The Client Multifamily Leasing up During a Pandemic Visit Site

Our solution.

Paid Media / Local SEO / Analytics

The results we achieved were outstanding! The property was able to “lease up” to over 96% in ten months, which is highly unique to fill a new property that quickly. Our PPC campaigns drove 1,023 conversions with an average non-brand conversion rate of 18.96% and an average cost-per-conversion of $18.62. The property was receiving an average of 148 applications each month from PPC efforts.

In ten months, we increased organic conversion rate to 33.27% and produced a monthly average of 161 applications driven by organic search. Our strategy for Google My Business included optimizing the profile along with content posts based on the keyword roadmap. Listings in map results increased from 0 to 350 to 1,904 quarter-over-quarter.

96%occupancy in 10 months
What Makes This Solution Great

1,023

conversions

33 %

organic conversion rate

309

average monthly applications

Best Use of Data (PPC) (Finalist 2021)

Best Integrated Campaign (Finalist 2021)

Best Use of Search - Real Estate & Property (Finalist 2021)

Our Marketing Approach
Data Driven Strategy

Leveraging predictive analytics, our data scientists built a real-time industry tracker to monitor the effect of Covid-19 on category demand. We could see the impact on multifamily was substantial. In July, when we started pre-leasing efforts, the search demand for luxury apartments was increasing above where it should have been without Covid. In fact, demand was up 32% because of the pandemic. Our team leveraged this information to help inform our strategies by increasing spend during demand spikes and decreasing during declines. This allowed us to control the client’s ad spend and keep waste under control.

Personas + Targeting

Dallas/Fort Worth is a competitive market for luxury apartments and requires a targeted approach to driving conversions that lead to leases. We worked with the property managers to understand the neighborhood, amenities, competition, and desirable tenants. This helped us design a digital strategy that would attract young professionals and small families looking for easy access to downtown attractions but far enough away from city life for comfort.

PPC Lead Gen

We created PPC campaigns that focused on luxury living in a brand new community with resort-style amenities, a dog park, and hike & bike trails situated near the heart of Fort Worth. The campaigns were optimized for mobile, since 55%  of visitors came from smartphones. Contradictory to normal multifamily advertising practices, we did not employ geofencing strategies. Our goal was to capture potential renters from outside the city, even nationwide, who were looking to make a move to Texas. As geofencing focuses on a specific geographic area, we thought it was too limiting for success.

Organic Visibility Lift

On the organic front, we built out a 12-month roadmap based on brand and non-brand keyword acquisition that outlined high priority tactics to help establish a baseline in search results and ultimately drive SEO leases. We focused on a Google My Business strategy along with meta data and on-page content improvements to increase qualified organic traffic.

Analytics + ROI

Our analytics team setup tracking to measure PPC call extensions, keyword-level call tracking numbers for the website, and UTM parameters for application submissions. We measured standard metrics like visits, clicks, cost per click, organic sessions – but ultimately it’s leases that matter most. We built a custom dashboard to connect digital marketing campaigns to lease applications so the Ojala team could monitor growth from our efforts.

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