Keyword Research for Multifamily: Boost your Google Ads by Choosing the Best Keywords for Your Apartments!

Are you struggling to choose which keywords to target for your apartment community's Google Ads?

Don't worry—you're not alone. Keyword research is one of the most stressful and consequential processes you must undertake when setting up ad campaigns.

That stress is becoming more real for many multifamily marketers as Google Ads undergoes changes and AI-generated search results are adopted.

This is why you need to conduct keyword research to understand what your apartment community's audience typically searches for when looking for you and to discover other relevant keywords you can target to reach that specific group of renters.

Follow along to learn more about conducting keyword research specific to multifamily and tips for ensuring the keywords you're targeting in Google Ads produce maximum leasing impact.

What is keyword research for multifamily?

Keyword research for multifamily involves determining the specific and relevant keywords to target in Google Ads that match the search intent or query of renters looking for a particular apartment community.

This is much different than conventional methods of keyword research marketers in other industries rely on to get as much online visibility as possible for their product for two distinct reasons:

1. Apartments are a "limited supply" product. Few apartment communities perfectly match an individual's unique needs, and their preferred choice is constrained by unit availability.
2. Unlike other items marketed online, no one can ship an apartment community they like to different parts of the country. The keywords and customer profiles applicable to specific communities depend on their geographic location.

So, the number of products to market is limited to just the floorplan types and units available at one particular apartment community, and the number of people to market to is limited. 

This is really important to keep in mind as we go forward.

Why is keyword research essential for apartment marketing?

Conducting keyword research is necessary for apartment marketers because targeting the wrong keywords in Google Ads may cause your campaigns to:

• Produce a ton of unqualified traffic.
• Become more costly than necessary.
• Lose your best-fit renters to competing communities' ad campaigns.
• Force you to invest more in other marketing sources to increase leasing.

But selecting the right keywords to target in your apartment's Google Ads will:

• Target renters who are actively seeking your apartments in Google.
• Drive qualified traffic to your community website.
• Be more cost-efficient.
• Positively impact leasing performance.

The end goal of your apartment community's Google Ads campaigns is not to get the most eyeballs possible. That’s a guaranteed recipe for getting unqualified traffic and leads who aren't ready to rent, poor in-person showings, and other challenges for your leasing staff. 

The purpose of your Google Ads campaigns is to drive qualified traffic to your community website, but that is only possible when you’ve identified and targeted keywords your ideal renter profile (a.k.a your customers) searches for when seeking your apartments or one like yours. 

What is the most effective way for apartment marketers to begin researching keywords to target in Google Ads?

The most effective way for apartment marketers to begin researching keywords to target in Google is to follow these three steps: Know who your target audience is, know what search terms your current audience enters into the search engine, and understand if those search terms are a good fit.

Know who your target audience is.

Before beginning to research which keywords to target, you must understand who you're trying to reach with your Google Ads.

What is their preferred lifestyle? Do they have pets? Where do they work? Answer these key questions when determining your ideal resident profile.

Knowing your audience gives you a tremendous advantage as you research which keywords to target in your Google Ads strategy. Understanding your audience shifts your mindset away from targeting keywords that could have the broadest reach and toward keywords that reach your best audience—those who are looking for what your community offers.

Know what search terms your current audience enters.

After knowing who you're trying to reach, the next step is to see the search terms people are currently entering in Google where your apartment community's website and ads are shown on the search engine results page.

At this stage, you can turn to some of the more popular keyword research tools, like Google Keyword Planner and Google Search Console, for help. Each link gives you more guidance on utilizing these free tools to their fullest extent.

Their primary value is enabling you to see a) the search terms people are actually searching for that point to your Google Ads or website and b) a list of potentially beneficial keywords you could add to your targeting strategy. 

Additionally, you can see detailed statistics about the performance and visibility of each keyword, including search volume, the average number of times per month someone searches that keyword, and difficulty score, which helps you understand how much competition there is for that keyword.

Understand if those search terms are a good fit.

At this stage, you should know both your customer and the current state of your keyword targeting strategy. Now, it's time to determine whether the keywords you're currently targeting or ranking for are the right quality and what if any, additional high-quality keywords you want to go after.

This begs the obvious question: "How do I know which keywords are good fits, and which ones aren't?" We answer that next.

What are the best types of keywords to target in my multifamily Google Ads campaigns?

As we stated earlier, choosing which keywords to target in your Google Ads is crucial to their success in driving qualified traffic to your community website and to their impact on your leasing performance.

So, to become better at keyword research, you need a better understanding of which types of keywords you should go after and which ones you shouldn't. 

Here are two simple places to start: branded keywords and qualifier keywords.

Branded apartment keywords

Branded keywords, like your name and location, are specific to your apartment community. 

When someone searches for a specific apartment community by name in Google, the search engine understands what that person is looking for and, if applicable, will prominently display that precise community's ads and website link at the top of the search engine results page.

That is why it's imperative for apartment marketers to target branded keywords in their Google Ads strategy. They're the most affordable keywords to bid on and provide the highest return on investment; it doesn't take much research or experimentation to prove that.

Plus, they protect your community's identity so competitors cannot swipe your best-fit prospects by using your branded keywords in their own targeting strategy.

Qualifier apartment keywords

Qualifier keywords are relevant to your apartment community and match what prospective residents use when searching for your apartments or ones like yours. 

Qualifier keywords are very high-quality targets because they can help achieve prominent ad placement for your apartments in Google searches that could be applied to multiple other communities.

Some examples of qualifier keywords that are great for apartments include:

• Location (ex. 'near campus' or 'in downtown Lincoln')
• Price (ex. 'affordable housing)
• Bed/Bath Count (ex. '2 bedroom floorplan' or 'studio')
• Pet Policy (ex. 'pet-friendly' or 'accepts cats')
• Property Type (ex. 'apartments' NOT 'condos')
• Property Class (ex. 'A class', ‘luxury apartments’)
• Property Descriptors (ex. 'high-rise' or 'modern')
• Amenities (ex. 'outdoor pool' or 'with garages')

The more qualifiers included in your apartment community's keyword strategy, the more likely that your Google Ads reach a more qualified audience! (See what we did there?!)

How do I apply my keyword research to my multifamily Google Ads strategy?

Prioritize brand and qualifier keywords first and search volume second.

Now that you understand the work involved in creating a list of potential keywords to target, the next step is to apply your research to your Google Ads strategy.

To explain the process of choosing the best keywords for your apartment community to go after, let's imagine we're establishing the Google Ads strategy for a new apartment community called Salt Lake Flats, located in Lincoln, Nebraska (RentVision's home!).

After conducting our keyword research, we've got a list of 20 targets (normally, you'd have much more than 20, just to be clear) and included data for their monthly search volume and difficulty score.*

*Not actual data

Marketers and, frankly,  many PPC vendors in the multifamily industry often make the mistake of focusing on keywords with huge traffic numbers.

Targeting keywords such as ‘apartments in Lincoln’ is risky because although it has a higher search volume, it is also too broad of a search query for Google to discern what the searcher hopes to find. In the screenshot below, you see what the top of the SERP looks like for that exact search—which mainly has ads and links to various listing services but not any specific community's ads or website.

Since nearly every other apartment community in Lincoln would like to rank for that keyword, the difficulty score is also higher. So, while keywords like 'apartments in Lincoln' get a ton of traffic, it's pretty much a waste of money to bid for it. Our Google Ads explainer for apartments offers more details into how the search engine determines what ads appear and when.

For your Google Ads to produce the ROI you want—delivering the right traffic to your apartment's website that ultimately produces leads who sign leases—it would be best to prioritize keywords by brand and qualifiers first and then search volume. 

Branded keywords are obvious. When someone searches for East Lake Flats by name in Google, the search engine understands exactly what that person is looking for and, if applicable, will prominently display our community's ads and website links at the top of the search engine results page (hence the lower difficulty score).

Though those branded keywords may not have as much search volume as others in our example list, they are extremely valuable because any prospective resident who enters those terms in their Google search represents your most qualified lead!

From there, you begin to sort through your qualifier keywords. Though keywords like 'apartments in Lincoln with garages' or 'accessible apartments in Lincoln' may have a smaller search volume, they both include qualifiers that are relevant to East Lake Flats. Behind each of those searches is a highly qualified prospect we want to get our community in front of!

And then there are a few gems within this list that, if you can identify them in your research, are home runs. In our example, we're looking at keywords like 'luxury apartments in Lincoln' or 'apartments in downtown Lincoln' with high search volume and easier difficulty scores. Targeting those keywords with an ad for our apartment community can set your apartments apart from the competition!

Inform Google of negative keywords you want to avoid targeting.

Negative keywords help you avoid wasting money on unqualified clicks from people who may have searched the keyword you’re targeting but are still not your desired audience. 

Before we talk about how to use negative keywords, we want to be clear that negative keywords are not the same thing as “negative advertising”—a marketing strategy that profits through criticizing their competitors. That is not what we are talking about.

Think of negative keywords as the opposite of your desired keywords. When you build your Google Ads campaigns, you get to select keywords to target—letting you bid on precise keywords you believe your customers are likely to type into Google. Negative keywords let you exclude search queries that are close matches to the keywords you have targeted but are obviously unqualified for your purposes.

Most of your negative keywords are discoverable early in your research when you see that your apartment's Google Ads are showing for search queries that have absolutely nothing to do with your community.

But even with our example list above, you may need to inform Google that you don't want to target keywords like 'apartments near me' or 'apartments by football stadium' because you've concluded they're less likely to produce the qualified traffic you want.

Conclusion

Keyword research is a highly valuable and intimidating endeavor, although the process for an apartment marketer differs from marketers in other industries. Apartments are in limited supply and have a smaller online audience. Rather than bidding for keywords and search queries in Google Ads that put an individual apartment community in front of everyone it can, it's more effective (and affordable) to bid on keywords that are proven to target a specific community's intended audience–the prospective residents most likely to sign a lease.

Advanced keyword targeting is one of the many benefits of Predictive Advertising by RentVision. In fact, your Google Ads adjust automatically according to your community's upcoming needs. If you have more availability coming for your 2-bedroom floorplans, our algorithms will allocate more spending to the campaign targeting keywords for your 2-bedroom floorplan and ensure you're getting the most qualified traffic from all of your PPC sources when and where you need it the most.

Continued reading on digital advertising for apartments

• Our complete guide to digital apartment ads is a great place if you're looking to incorporate Google Ads, Meta, or other channels into your multifamily marketing plan.
• Take the next step in your digital advertising journey and learn more about how Google Ads for apartment marketing works.