Experienced digital advertisers know that much of their time is spent testing which copy, media, platform, and budget produce the best results.
However, because apartment supply and demand change quickly, multifamily marketers don't have the luxury of experimenting with their ads this way.
Thankfully, there's an innovation available that could make the process easier and address leasing needs faster: Google Performance Max Campaigns.
Google Performance Max Campaigns takes much of the guesswork out of advertisers' hands by automatically testing various messaging and media combinations, platforms, and bids to help digital marketers produce the best-performing ads that achieve whatever goal they have.
In this quick guide, we’ll cover:
- What are Google Performance Max Campaigns?
- How do Google Performance Max Campaigns work?
- Benefits of Performance Max Campaigns for Apartment Marketers
What are Google Performance Max Campaigns?
Performance Max (PMax) is a single, goal-based campaign type in which Google's AI automatically creates ads with varying headlines, copy, and images for display across all of its online channels (Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps) until it determines which combination best achieves the campaign's goal. Then, it optimizes spending accordingly so that the ad gets the most visibility at the best prices.
Watch the video below for a tutorial on setting up a Performance Max Campaign in Google Ads:
How does Google Performance Max work?
Advertisers can choose what they want their Google Performance Max Campaign to accomplish. Do they need to drive online sales or get more leads and conversions? Do they want more visitors to their website or try to promote a new product to the broadest audience possible?
Google optimizes a Performance Max campaign to meet the chosen goal in four ways:
Asset Optimization
Google tests different combinations of ads using assets provided by the advertiser. Those assets include up to 20 photos, five logos, five videos, five short text headlines (30 characters max), five long text headlines (90 characters max), and five 60-character text descriptions. The advertiser can also let AI create text and image assets using content gathered from a website URL.
⚡ Multifamily Marketing Pro Tip: Apartment marketers should avoid the URL option. Instead, upload the best-quality photos of exteriors and amenities alongside videos showing the inside of units. Also, ensure that the copy directs the target audience to act. Headlines like 'Now Leasing' won't drive action because every community is leasing, but headlines like 'Schedule a Tour' or 'Watch Walkthrough Video' will. Use prospect-centric keywords like 'pet-friendly' wherever possible in the descriptions, and make the Calls to Action simple, like 'Contact Us' or 'Learn More.'
Audience Targeting Optimization
As Google tests which combination of assets works successfully, it also learns more about the ads' audience. Its algorithms will refine and adjust targeting criteria by measuring how often users see or click on one of the ads, what search terms they entered for the ad to appear, and more.
⚡ Multifamily Marketing Pro Tip: Google lets advertisers suggest an audience signal when setting up their Performance Max Campaign. Apartment marketers can inform Google to pay attention to the 'Apartments (for rent)' signal when setting up. Importing first-party audience data—contacts collected in a CRM who previously engaged with the community—can also improve the algorithms' ability to refine who to target the ads toward.
Bid Optimization
Meanwhile, Google uses the advertiser's budget and constantly adjusts bids according to their real-time ability to meet the campaign's goal.
Cross-Channel Optimization
Over time, Google's algorithms understand which assets are best and which of its platforms the advertisers' audience is most active in. From there, it'll automatically pull back placement from other platforms and spend more on the platform performing best with the ad that achieves the campaign's intended goal.
Benefits of Performance Max Campaigns for Apartment Marketers
1. Advertise your apartments across multiple online channels.
Apartment marketers responsible for multiple communities face a daunting workload with digital advertising. Setting up and adjusting campaigns for each community on numerous ad platforms could take more than the 40-hour workweek allows.
However, with Performance Max, they set up just one campaign and get ad placement for their apartments across all of Google's massively popular platforms instead of setting up individual campaigns for each.
2. The perfect starter campaign for apartment marketers new to digital advertising.
Digital advertising has a steep learning curve, which is a common factor for apartment marketers who are hesitant to utilize it. Google Performance Max campaigns are a perfect option for marketers looking for a hands-off, stress-free way to run digital ads for their apartments and see positive results.
3. Improve traffic and visibility for your apartments before vacancies become a crisis.
A Google Performance Max campaign works better for multifamily marketers' needs—generating traffic and visibility for their community before vacancies stack and become problematic. If a community's supply and demand are constantly changing, so, too, should their ads.
While Google can't see what leasing needs a community has, the real-time optimization within a Performance Max campaign is a better alternative for driving more qualified leads faster than what many traditional, 'set-it-and-forget' multifamily marketing strategies can.
Conclusion
Google Performance Max Campaigns offer multifamily marketers an advanced yet user-friendly approach to digital advertising. With the ability to advertise across all of Google's channels from a single campaign, real-time testing to determine the best-performing ad set, and spending optimization, a Performance Max campaign could be the perfect digital ad starter kit for communities that need another reliable source of traffic and leads.
Want to take your Google Performance Max Campaigns—and pay-per-click ads, in general—to the next level? Predictive Advertising by RentVision is the most advanced and automatic PPC software for multifamily marketers. With integration into your community's property management software, it predicts your future supply and demand and automatically adjusts your ads and budget allocation daily, providing you with a hands-free digital advertising strategy that generates the right leads at the right time.
