Making Google Ads Work for You
How to drive traffic to your apartment communities.

With Google still the most widely used search engine, is it any surprise that prospective renters rely on Google searches to find the perfect apartment?
Renters today tap multiple channels when they search for a new home. That’s why it’s essential for you as an apartment marketer to meet your prospects where they are—and that means having a fully optimized website with a compelling call to action, as well as a presence on ILS sites and expertise in creating marketing campaigns using Google Ads.
“Google Ads is a great fit for apartment marketing,” said Catriona Banks-Orosco, a senior director at REACH by RentCafe. “I recommend it as part of a balanced marketing strategy to promote your brand and your property directly to prospects, with less noise than traditional advertising or an ILS.”
Why Google Ads?
While many apartment owners and operators use ILS sites as part of their digital marketing strategy, Google Ads—the sponsored ads that allow you to reach customers who are searching on Google for a new apartment—offer numerous advantages that can lead to quick lease-ups.
“A Google Ad directs someone to interact with your website,” shared Tammy Casserly, senior vice president of growth and brand development for Resident360. “The goal is engagement—to get the user directly to your website so that they interact with you.”
Clicking on a Google Ad leads prospects directly to your community website or a specific landing page designed to convert them. This is a distinct advantage over ILS ads, which take searchers to their website, where your community is listed among its competitors.

Google Ads can also be revised quickly, with results seen immediately. “If your property leases-up sooner than you imagined, you can decrease your Google Ads budget, whereas with an ILS you’re stuck in that 12-month contract no matter what, and that money is continuously being spent even though you may not have any availability in that community,” said Nofel Molai, director of marketing for Cottonwood Residential, who added that Google Ads is his company’s most important digital strategy due to that ability to control costs.
Google Ads has disadvantages as well. “You can’t set it and forget it,” advised Christine Gustafson, vice president of marketing for The Breeden Co. “Google is notorious for coming out with updates, so you always have to stay abreast of what keywords are trending. It’s a lot of work.”
Still, many apartment marketers swear by Google Ads. “I’m always shocked by how many owners don’t know anything about Google Ads,” commented Jeff Klotz, CEO of The Klotz Group of Cos., whose firm spends “well into six figures per month” on the service.

Ellen Thompson, co-founder & CEO of Respage, recently worked with a small management company that was using all of the ILS sites to market a community in New Jersey, with no success. Only five of the 55 leases the company signed the previous year came from an ILS. She added Google Ads to the company’s marketing arsenal, and the community went from 88 percent occupancy to 96 percent within eight weeks. “The turnaround was dramatic.”
Meg Evans, marketing coordinator for Bristol Development Group, had a similar experience with Hurston in Jacksonville, Fla. During lease-up, Bristol increased its Google Ads spend by 7 percent. The result: 10 new leases in 25 days. “Google saw that we were paying more, so we got bumped closer to the top of the page and got more views,” she said.
Still, others tout the advantages of the ILS sites. “Some local markets are reliant on ILS sites because they dominate there,” commented Michael Zaransky, managing principal of MZ Capital Partners. He said that in most markets, the sites are most successful for him because “they’re so robust.”
What Exactly Is a Google Ad?
A typical Google Ad consists of the following five components:
Headline: This is the first thing viewers see, so it needs to be compelling because you want that viewer to click. Jeff Klotz, CEO of The Klotz Group of Cos., uses his top keywords in the headline and tries to keep them specific to avoid paying for low-quality leads. “We might even list the breed of dog we allow and be very specific about landmarks, locations and amenities,” he said. “If we have a special amenity that no one else in the market has, we’re going to make sure it’s in the headline.”
Nofel Molai, director of marketing for Cottonwood Residential, said he often includes starting prices in headlines to catch the eye of renters looking for deals. A recent Google Ad promoting the company’s Park Avenue Apartments in the trendy Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City featured this headline: Luxury Apartments Sugar House | Starting at $1405.
“Sponsored” label: This indicates that the listing is a paid ad and not an organic search result.
Description: The guts of the ad, this section includes additional details designed to be of interest to a prospective renter conducting a search. Be sure to include keywords you expect your target resident to use, such as “pet friendly” or “brand new.” Tammy Casserly, senior vice president of growth and brand development for Resident360, noted that this is also a good place to include specials or promos you may be offering. “It helps you stick out if it says you’re offering $500 off the first month’s rent.”
Display URL: This is the website you want your target resident to click and land on.
Ad extensions: These are interactive features designed to engage your target. They include individual links back to your community website that a searcher might click on to see floorplans (site-link extensions); a specific list of features or amenities that distinguish your community (callout extensions); the community address, which, when clicked takes the searcher to Google Maps (location extensions); photos that pop up next to your search ad (image extensions); and a link that lets searchers call your leasing office directly from the search ad (call extensions). Additional extension types include structured snippets and promotion extensions.
Best Practices

The success of any Google Ad depends upon careful selection of keywords, which should incorporate the basic tenets of marketing: Know your target customer and what they’re looking for—and then provide it.
Remember to include a judicious selection of negative keywords in your campaign, which prevents your ad from being shown to anyone searching for that particular phrase. “If you’re not a senior housing community, you don’t want to show up in a search for ‘55-plus communities’ or ‘senior,’” said Thompson.
Success with Google Ads also requires testing, testing and more testing—and Google provides users with a robust set of analytics to use. Why spend money promoting your communities if you have no idea if your ads are working?
Of course, Google is constantly enhancing its products, including Google Ads, and artificial intelligence will soon play a much bigger role. Molai explained you can already use generative AI, such as ChatGPT, to formulate ads, as well as specific keywords and headlines.
“Through machine learning, patterns can be identified and then used to target ads to audiences with similar interests,” shared Banks-Orosco. “There are a lot of tools available that will analyze ad performance and identify both high- and low-performing queries, ads and campaigns.”