Gold Ridge Apartments

The Challenge

When Gold Ridge came to us, they had over 90 current and expected vacancies -- and inbound leads to support the leasing team were few and far between (down to 15 per month).

The property had a history of mismanagement -- what should have been a nice place to live had slid pretty far downhill – and so did their website and online reputation. Fortunately, new management came in to help Gold Ridge Shine once again, and they brought Lease Engine in to turn their marketing around, support their online reputation, and get leads in the door.

With an online review score of 2.9 stars on Google, outdated imagery on the site, and dated descriptions, there was only one positive... room for improvement.

1. Infrastructure

Improving the website and ILS listings

Web Revamp and Listing Enhancement: when Gold Ridge first approached us, their online presence was far from stellar. Their main marketing engine was a website with outdated visuals and descriptions that didn't do justice to the property, it was clear that an overhaul was in order. However, with a short timeline and limited budget, a full website remodel just wasn't in the cards.

We kicked off the transformation with a thorough digital footprint audit and assessment. This deep dive revealed some key opportunities for improvement. The first order of business? Cleaning up photography.  

We took on photography in stages – starting with adding virtual staging to existing photography, then moving on to bringing in a professional photographer as budget and timelines allowed.

Improved visuals not only breathed new life into the website, but allowed us to truly showcase the property and its available units in the best possible light, leaving a lasting impression on potential residents. With these strategic updates in place, we were poised to take Gold Ridge to new heights.

Next on the agenda was a comprehensive update of all the property listings on Entrata. This ensured that when prospective tenants browsed platforms like Zillow and Apartments.com, they encountered compelling listings that painted a positive and fun picture of life at Gold Ridge.

‍

2. Reputation Management

With a lackluster Google review score of 2.9 stars when we came in, we knew reputation management was an urgent priority.

We focused on three main areas for reputation management: addressing negative reviews, encouraging positive ones, and providing a platform for constructive tenant feedback. For negative reviews, we responded to all negative reviews from the past 3 years to show we acknowledged past issues and we're actively working to resolve them.

To gather positive reviews, we subtly added review links to business cards for maintenance staff, and trained staff to encourage residents to leave reviews after positive experiences.

We also included our contact information on the business cards to make it easy for tenants to share concerns without affecting our online reputation. This helped promote open and constructive communication.

Since the investment into review collection, and stellar performance by GRT management, the Gold Ridge review base now sits at 3.4 stars on Google, and continues to climb month over month.

3. Promotion

With infrastructure established, it now made sense to invest in ILS promotion and Google ads to drive qualified traffic to our listings and site.

Google Ads Performance Data

Click Through Rate: 12.62%

Cost Per Click: $1.61

Cost Per Lead: $25.35

Estimated Cost Per Lease: $445.35

Boost In Zillow and Apartments.com

The Lease Engine team helped facilitate and guide the conversation around Zillow and Apartments.com ads, but at the end of the day, those platforms are managed by in-house teams at Zillow and Apartments.com, so we can't take credit for campaign results. We can say that updated imagery and descriptions had a major impact on campaign performance.

‍