by threshold | Dec 5, 2019 | Digital Marketing, Marketing, Tech/Web
Video continues to dominate content strategy across the digital landscape, making it more advantageous than ever to incorporate YouTube advertising into your digital media strategy. In fact, YouTube is the second most popular search engine today, so taking advantage of this platform means you’re poised to capture lots more attention from users who are actually ready to make decisions. Not only that, but you’ll have the option of leveraging a variety of ad types across the YouTube platform, each with the ability to drive different actions and increase brand awareness. In other words, you can inspire and excite your audience more than ever before and get the results to match.
We recommend YouTube video ads for anyone looking to heighten audience engagement and conversions. YouTube ads make a particularly strong retargeting strategy, inspiring users who are already searching for housing in your area to emotionally connect with your brand and actively imagine themselves at your property. That’s because video ads have the power to communicate a mood and message more effectively than static ads alone, using a variety of images, movement, audio, and written copy to tap into your audience’s wants, needs, and dreams. It’s also because YouTube benefits from Google’s flexible and powerful targeting capabilities based on search behaviors, video topics, and user demographics, allowing you to reach prospects who are most ready to convert.
How It Works
When you sign up for our YouTube services, Threshold will recommend a YouTube advertising strategy based on your goals and spend budget. We will then work with you to define your success metrics, identifying the goals we can expect to reach at key milestones, starting with three months after launch.
Our packages allow you to choose between one video ad each month or every two months and campaign management and optimizations at monthly or bi-weekly frequencies. You can also opt for the addition of location extensions to your ads as well as our help in setting up a basic or branded YouTube channel for your property. We can help you ensure the package you select fits both your marketing needs and your budget.
To get ready for your first campaign launch, we’ll gather existing assets (such as high-quality property photos or video clips) or contract with a specialized YouTube videographer to conduct an on-site video shoot at your community. Once we have the necessary assets, we’ll arrange for our existing video editors to create a polished video ad that engages and excites your audience while delivering key information they need to convert. Our digital team will then help you implement the ad effectively, leveraging YouTube’s powerful targeting options.
If you’re already one of our fantastic clients, then reach out to your Client Success Manager to get started! Or if you’re new to the Threshold fam, you can reach out to our team here—we look forward to meeting you!
by threshold | Nov 12, 2019 | Digital Marketing, Marketing, Tech/Web
If you read our blog post from earlier this year, you may already know that in March of this year, Facebook announced that it would be making changes to its ad targeting tools. Now, as of this September, those changes have gone live and are already affecting both existing ad campaigns and new campaigns. You may already be working to discern what this means for your real estate marketing plan and wondering what you can do to adjust your Facebook ad campaigns to ensure you’re still getting what you need from this digital platform.
As you ask yourself those questions, we’re here to help. We’ve been hard at work familiarizing ourselves with the recent changes and leveraging our expertise to compile updated best practices. Rest assured that while these changes do limit the functionality of certain targeting tools, it’s still possible to use Facebook ads as an effective part of your ad mix—you just need to rethink your strategy.
Why Did Facebook Change Its Ad Targeting?
In case you missed it, this all started back in March when Facebook was sued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for violations of the Fair Housing Act. According to HUD and a number of other organizations who supported the charges (including the ACLU and NFHA), Facebook’s ad targeting tools limited the housing options being presented to certain protected classes by allowing advertisers to target ads based on age group, location, education status, and so on.
Facebook then announced that it would be making changes to these advertising tools by the end of 2019, but did not offer a more specific time frame during which these changes would go into effect.
How Did Facebook Change Its Ad Targeting?
This September, without prior warning, Facebook implemented a number of changes that had immediate effects on existing campaigns and new launches. Many housing and financial advertisers logged in to find their radius targeting reset or their campaigns turned off.
A word to the wise: if you haven’t checked the status of your existing Facebook campaigns since September, it’s a good idea to give them a look and ensure they’re live and working as intended.
The September changes include:
- A number of interests have been removed from the targeting options for housing, employment, and credit ads. For example, many interests related to universities can no longer be targeted directly.
- Lookalike Audiences are no longer available for housing, employment, or credit ads.
- Demographic targeting by traits such as age, ethnicity, and income has been removed.
- Radius targeting has increased from a 1-mile minimum radius to a 15-mile minimum.
The overall effect is that competition among ads is now higher because ads are being served to broader audiences, meaning more people are seeing a wider variety of ads. This makes it more imperative than ever to find ways for your ad to stand out from the crowd.
How Should I Adapt My Facebook Ad Strategy?
There are a number of best practices and work-arounds we recommend in the wake of these changes. These strategies can help you work with the options still available to you to approximate the targeting strategies that have been removed, and/or ensure that your ads still get qualified clicks and low cost-per-click despite targeting limitations.
First, a disclaimer: while Facebook has an option to declare that your ad is a housing ad, you can’t get around these restrictions simply by not declaring. Facebook also has sophisticated AI that will flag housing ads even when they’re not declared by advertisers. Better to declare and work within the restrictions given from the start.
Get Crafty with Interests Targeting
While a number of interests have been removed from the targeting options, you may still be able to target by relevant interests that will create a qualified audience for your ad. For example, student housing brands may find that, while many university-related interests have been removed, there are still targetable interests such as Greek Life that indicate an individual may be a current college student. Take a look through the remaining interests and see if any are uniquely relevant for your target audience.
Place your Targeting Radius Strategically
In some cases, you can still meaningfully target by location, even with the 15-mile minimum targeting radius. A trick that may work for your location is to center your target over rural or less densely populated areas so that only the outer portion of your circle includes the area you actually want to target. This reduces the number of unqualified prospects your ad is served to while still allowing you to target the desired location.
Switch to a Cost Per Click (CPC) Model
Facebook allows you to choose between a cost per click (CPC) or a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) strategy. The targeting limitations mean that, even with some adjustments, your ad is likely to be served to a broader audience, translating into more impressions. As a result, we recommend switching to a CPC model if you haven’t already. This means you’ll only get charged for clicks on your ad rather than on how many people see your ad, which will likely result in less ad spend per lead.
Optimize Your Ad Copy & Design
With more ads competing with yours, it’s more crucial than ever that your ad has crystal clear messaging that will resonate with qualified prospects. In other words, it needs to be clear what you’re advertising and why someone should care. Ad space is limited, though, so stick to high-impact copy and simple, high-quality property images.
High-impact copy typically includes the word “apartments,” “living,” “housing,” “townhomes,” etc. and the location of the property. Alternatively, you might specifically reference “2-bedrooms” or “$100 off your first month’s rent.” Whatever you do, just be sure it clearly communicates your product and what’s great about it.
Reconsider Facebook’s Role in Your Ad Mix
If you make adjustments and you’re just not getting the results you want, it might be time to reconsider the role Facebook plays in your overall ad mix. For example, even if Facebook ads don’t work well when targeting new prospects, you may still get a lot of bang for your buck when using Facebook for retargeting ads. That’s because retargeting ads target users by behavior (visits to your site) rather than by demographic, so those who are served your ad are already a qualified audience.
These are just some of the strategies you can use to adjust to the new Facebook ad targeting changes for real estate ads. For more Facebook ad insights and other digital marketing expertise, contact a Threshold team member today. We’d be happy to be your guide for all things digital marketing!
by threshold | Jan 18, 2017 | All, Marketing, Tech/Web
If Threshold’s skilled residential marketing designers only cared about getting the most information to the customer, our websites would look a lot like this blog post. We’d see a whole lot of text and the sites would have very little visual appeal.
That approach works well for blog posts and articles, but websites are a sensory experience; a virtual market where people spend their time enlarging floor plans, scrolling down lists of amenities and clicking through gallery images.
Of course, many prospective residents don’t spend much time on websites at all. Marketing to Millennials is all about keeping their attention, but plenty of lost customers see the homepage and immediately click away after deciding the property isn’t for them. In today’s post, we’re going to take a look at the most important elements to keep residents interested in your property, and get them to click on those important action buttons.
Animation
Animation helps communicate messages with style, drawing the user’s eye towards moving images instead without them having to load a video or click a “play” button. Animation can be as simple as rotating sliders on a homepage or as complex as animated water in a resort-style pool. Even the most simple movement can be the difference between grabbing and losing a customer’s interest.
Material Design and Beyond
As anyone in the digital marketing industry knows, when Google makes changes, the rest of the web follows suit. Google was the first big company to take “Flat Design” and turn it into something with depth and layers. Material Design pairs geometric shapes with shadows, movement and overlays to create visually appealing websites and web apps. That’s not the say that Material Design is the only way to make websites, but it’s certainly a look that internet users are familiar with and understand intuitively, which is always a positive. Speaking of making sure users can understand your website…
Navigation
Most property sites need the same standard pages in the navigation bar: About Us, Floor Plans, Amenities, Gallery, and Apply Now. Obviously, there are some exceptions, but every property website needs to cover those basic pages before moving on to anything else. Navigation doesn’t have to only happen via Navigation Bar though. In fact, more and more websites are using the “long-scroll” look, where all pages are accessible when the user simply scrolls down from the top of the homepage.
The whole point of a website is to get the prospect to take action, so keeping the complex navigation to a minimum helps steer prospective residents toward the “Schedule a Tour” button or the “Apply Now” button without too much extra fluff. Most properties sell a lifestyle just as much as they sell an apartment, so it’s important to convey that lifestyle with big, bold images and impactful design. People will locate the amenities and floor plans if they are interested in learning more, but they won’t be interested in learning more without a simple, impactful message on the home page.
Customized Google Maps
Most of your website’s visitors will be familiar with the look, feel and functionality of a Google Maps plug-in, it’s very common in residential marketing. So much so, that they may just glaze right over it. Customizing your Google Map, however, offers prospective residents a totally new experience with a tool that they’re already familiar with. At Threshold, we often highlight certain locations around the property, such as restaurants, shopping centers, gyms and coffee shops. This gives residents an idea of what life will be like living in the neighborhood.
The best website designers know how to quickly — and beautifully—convey the lifestyle promised at every property. This is where animation, navigation tools, and customization come into play. Each element helps create a feeling within the website visitor that (hopefully) convinces them to explore the website and property further.
Is your property’s website up to date? Let Threshold’s designers come up with some creative marketing ideas for apartments in your portfolio. Our website development team will then create a responsive websites that drive traffic to your front door.
by threshold | Oct 20, 2016 | All, Tech/Web
Apartment marketing for mobile devices is as much about usability as it is about getting noticed. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a software can be used by specified consumers to achieve objectives with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. Over the past 10 years, Google’s search algorithm updates have focused mainly on the “satisfaction” part of this definition. The updates that Google makes to its algorithm are usually intended to improve the experience users have browsing the web.
Quick, think of the most annoying thing that you encounter when browsing the web on a mobile device. Many of you probably thought of mobile pop-up ads, which cause slow web page loading times and delay how quickly we can access content. Google hears you, and the tech giant has updated its search algorithm to lower search rankings for websites that feature mobile pop-up ads.
This change to Google’s algorithm will have major implications for many property websites that run promotions through mobile pop-up ads. Threshold has been creating and implementing pop-up ads on desktop and mobile for quite some time, so it’s part of our job to stay on top of any changing trends in the industry. That’s why we’re going to explain how the latest Google update will affect your property’s website.
In 2014, Google made a push to make the web more mobile-friendly. Pages that were mobile-optimized—that is, they featured readable text and had well-spaced links that were easy to tap with a finger—were ranked higher in search results. That update had the intended effect, and in 2016 Google announced that 85% of mobile search results are optimized as Google intended. This prompted Google to introduce new mobile-specific ranking criteria meant to further improve the mobile browsing experience.
Enter Google’s latest update, which will now favor websites that lack “interstitials.” Interstitials are ads that force exposure to the advertisement before visitors can continue on their content path. Think mobile pop-ups, full-page ads and between-the-page ads.
The algorithmic changes will go into effect on January 10th, 2017, and Google’s official stance on the issue is as follows:
“Pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible,” Google’s official announcement states. “This can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller.”
Although Google’s new update may seem daunting because of the way it will affect your property’s website, it’s actually a good thing for the overall mobile web user experience. The easier it is for people to use the web on their mobile devices, they more often they will be able to search for your property and access your site. Instead of forcing users to view mobile-pop up ads, marketers and apartment managers must come up with new apartment marketing ideas that consider users wants and needs in creative ways. Google’s update won’t crush anyone’s business, it will just force us all to create a better user experience on mobile websites.
Staying on the first page in Google’s search results is more important that any mobile-pop up ad. Thus, the first step to conforming to Google’s algorithmic changes is to remove mobile pop-up ads and other interstitials. The second step is to create worthwhile content that draws users in without disrupting their mobile web experience. Blogs and other similar content will become more valuable than ever, as websites search for marketing ideas for apartments that get information to users without using pop-up ads. As usual, content is king.
Threshold performs blog writing services for many of our clients. If you aren’t using blogs to update your web content and boost SEO rankings, now is a great time to start. We are also already making changes to our clients’ websites to prepare for the algorithmic changes. If you’re unsure about the viability of your mobile site, contact Threshold today for an assessment.
by threshold | Sep 1, 2016 | All, Tech/Web
What sets your property apart?
For some, it’s location. No matter what amenities the competition offers, prime location draws prospects to the leasing office day in and day out.
Other properties beat the competition with luxurious amenities. Resort-style pools and 24-hour fitness centers provide residents with an area to hang out or work out in their own community.
Still other properties might woo prospects with bigger, better floor plans than the competition. Lots of prospects decide to move simply because they want to upgrade to a larger living space.
The point is, every property has a differentiating factor. Today’s blog post is about another differentiator: technology. Properties that take advantage of modern technology offer a more convenient lifestyle, and sometimes that can make all the difference.
Differentiators are important because prospects have no shortage of properties to choose from these days. Multifamily housing construction increased 43% from 2012-2014, compared to a 20% growth rate for single-family home construction during that time. Much of this growth has been propelled by a young population renting to take advantage of luxury amenities they can’t get with single family homes.
Here’s another statistic showing the demand for amenities only found in larger communities: In 2004, 24% of new multifamily units were located in large buildings with 50 or more units. In 2014, that number grew to 48%. With rent prices only going up, renters expect large communities to meet their wants and needs in terms of amenities.
One “want” that has become a “need” is high-speed internet. A fast Wi-Fi connection is the No. 1 desired amenity for multifamily properties according to Richard Holtz, CEO of Infinisys Electronic Architects. People want internet access in their apartments, at the pool, in the gym and in common areas. Today’s connected residents need Wi-Fi like they need air to breathe, and the industry must conform.
Technology can help bring in revenue too. A recent study by PayPal and Koski Research revealed that millennials enjoy paying digitally and are more than willing to try out emerging payment options. The study also reported that more than 30% of millennials consider credit cards to be “old school.” If credit cards are old school, what does that make monthly rent checks? The days of collecting rent payments in person are long gone, and online rent and utility payment portals should be the new industry standard. Online payment options not only help residents submit payments on time, but also helps them feel like their property management team is working with them rather than against them.
Smart home automation is the leading edge technology popping up in new properties these days. Nest Thermostats and smart lightbulbs work with mobile apps to help residents stay comfortable and reduce energy costs. These devices learn and adapt to resident preferences, giving your property an extra “wow” factor to mention in your multifamily marketing materials. Even low-cost smart home offerings like built-in USB ports let residents know your property is tech-savvy.
One new technology we’re extra excited about is Beacon technology. Apple’s iBeacon allows mobile apps to scan for signals from physical Beacons in the real world and react with push notifications. The opportunities to use Beacons with current residents and prospects are endless. For instance, when leasing agents are giving tours, Beacon technology can be used to highlight key features as residents make their way through the property. A finishing touch here, a spectacular view there, calling attention to the little things that residents might otherwise miss.
Current residents can receive alerts about special promotions at your property’s spa or snack bar when they walk by. Beacon technology could also remind residents about renewal specials when they’re passing your leasing office. Beacons are truly a next-level opportunity for apartment marketing.
At Threshold, we spend a lot of time coming up with marketing ideas for apartments that harness the power of emerging technology. We know that the faster property’s implement new technology, the more impressed future residents tend to be.
by threshold | Aug 5, 2016 | All, Tech/Web
Facebook rolled out its new 360 Photo feature in June, describing it as a way to “share immersive stories, places and experiences.” As the marketing agency Austin turns to for innovative apartment marketing ideas, we can definitely get behind the “places” part of that quote. The new technology presents a prime opportunity for residential marketers to provide in-depth property tours to prospects before they ever leave home, and provide those tours on a platform the prospects are already familiar with.
360 Photo offers a whole lot more than your typical “fly-through” or “walk-through” property video. The viewer can rotate their device and drag their fingers across the screen to view the room from every angle depending on the direction they’re facing. This type of experience is tailor-made for prospects to see every nook and cranny of a residential space.
Facebook offers succinct directions on how to take and post 360 Photos:
1. Take a panorama on your iOS device or Samsung Galaxy phone or capture a 360-degree photo using a 360 photo app or 360 camera.
2. Open the Facebook app and share the photo as you would any other photo: tap the status tool from the top of your Timeline or News Feed, select Photo/Video, choose the photo you want to share, and tap Post
3. Once your photo is posted, look around in your photo — or any other 360 photo in News Feed that’s marked with the compass icon — by moving your phone or dragging with your finger. Tap on the photo to view it in full screen.
Facebook’s 360 Photo technology is a step below the Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR in terms of an immersive virtual experience, but to dismiss the technology for this reason misses the point of 360 Photos on Facebook. Part of the appeal of 360 Photo is how easily the content assimilates into everyday life. One second prospects are scrolling past baby photos on their Facebook feed, the next they’re taking a virtual tour of your property on their own terms and on their own device.
There are similar marketing ideas for apartments that property managers can use to offer virtual tours, but 360 Photo is the most intuitive option. Apartments.com offers virtual reality tours on their website, but they require expensive virtual reality headsets. At a demo in San Francisco at the National Apartment Association conference in June 2016, attendees could walk through a series of properties using an HTC Vive headset and hand controllers. However, very few people have access to virtual reality headsets. Even if property managers supply prospects with the headsets on-site, isn’t the whole point of virtual tours to allow renters to check out properties on their own time and in the comfort of their own home?
As Business2Community.com points out, brands have been slow on the uptake of 360 Photo. However, colleges like Oregon State and The University of Oklahoma have recently featured 360 Photos on their pages, which should be a signal to the student housing marketing industry that future residents are ready and willing to use this technology.
Threshold Agency can help your property get started with 360 Photo and any other social media marketing initiatives. Schedule a call today so you can fill vacancies and keep them that way.
