Why Look at Seasonality?

Black Friday & Cyber Monday are the start of the holiday shopping ads surge, backed by large e-commerce budgets. Because of this, we typically see an increase in keyword and ad competition. Bain & Company’s most recent report suggests that 2024 BF/CM sales may reach $75 billion dollars for the first time ever. While real estate and multifamily does not directly compete with retail, the rise in ad spend can drive up prices.

Additionally, online behavior fluctuates during the holidays. Many opt for offline interactions to share time with loved ones or embark on travels. These factors, combined with our industry’s own seasonality, suggest that performance for multifamily marketers in Q4 may not yield strong results. 

 

The Process

Digible’s paid media team analyzed more than 1,100 multifamily paid search accounts throughout 2023 to help predict how the 2024 holidays and seasonality can impact our multifamily client’s performance on upcoming paid search & performance max (PMax) campaigns.

Both monthly and weekly data was gathered to highlight performance shifts during holiday weeks. You’ll see in the data below that PMax Campaigns are shown separately since these tend to have significantly higher impressions and operate differently than typical search ads.

The Data from 2023 Holidays

Performance Legend

• Above average performance is green
• Neutral performance is in black
• Below average performance is in red

Holiday vs. Non-Holiday Paid Media Performance 

The below aggregated data combines all major markets in the U.S., and you can see how seasonality impacts bottom-line performance metrics.

 

Week	Cost Per Click (CPC	Click Through Rate (CTR)	Cost Per Lead (CPL)	Cost/Phone Call
Non-Holiday Week Average	$2.10	13.67%	21.06	$93
Holiday Week Average	$1.78	14.39%	19.53	$102
Percent Change %	-17%	+0.72	-7%	+9.6%

 

Holiday Weeks Outperform Non-Holiday Weeks

Holiday week averages outperformed non-holiday metrics across Cost per Click (CPC), Click Through Rate (CTR), and overall Cost per Lead (CPL).

Holidays also produced less efficient cost per phone call as users are more likely to submit online forms during the holiday season than dial a property. 

In previous years, performance during the holiday season suffered, however, 2023 showcased positive performance with online form submissions converting at a more efficient rate, while phone call conversions were slightly more expensive. 

 

 

Paid Search Recommendations During the Holidays

Digible’s recommendation is to keep budgets stable throughout the holiday season and pace evenly throughout the month in order to maximize positive performance, even during major U.S. holidays and the end of the year. 

 

 

Multifamily Paid Search Results By Month 

2023 Monthly CTR Performance

Month	Avg. Budget	Avg. Cost Per Click (CPC)	Avg Click Through Rate (CTR)
October	$1,689	$1.99	13.48%
November	$1,345	$2.03	13.68%
December	$1,303	$2.01	13.67%

 

2023 Monthly Conversion Performance 

Month	Avg. Cost Per Lead (CPL)	Avg Conv. /Property	Avg. Phone Calls/Property
October	$23.77	59.7	19.1
November	$27.65	51.2	16.6
December	$27.67	51.1	14.5

 

Q3 2023 vs. Q4 2023

Month	Avg. Cost per Lead (CPL)	Avg. Cost per Click (CPC)	Avg. Click Through Rate (CTR)
Q3 2023	$20.92	$1.83	13.60%
Q4 2023	$26.28	$2.16	13.78%
% Change	+25%	+16%	+0.18

 

Budgets Fall, CPC & CTR Remain Stable

Budgets decreased significantly from October into November & December. Despite the decreasing budget, the average cost per click remained flat, while click through rate showed improvements.

 

 

Flat Performance in November & December

We saw a decrease in our phone call volume to the property as well as overall conversions due to the sharp decrease in budgets from Oct – Nov & Dec. However, Cost per Lead & Conversions per property remained stable in Nov. & Dec.

 

 

What Does This Mean for Multifamily Advertisers?

If history repeats itself, multifamily marketers can expect similar declines in conversions and increasing costs to serve paid ads. The good news is that conversion performance remained stable through November and December, showing little decrease between the two months.

In short, the performance decline between October & November will be sharp, however, expect December performance to closely mirror November. 

 

 

Multifamily Performance Max (PMax) Results By Month 

Monthly CTR Performance 

Month	Avg. Spend	Avg. Cost Per Click (CPC)	Avg. Click Through Rate (CTR)
October	$401	$.0.50	5.67%
November	$398	$0.76	5.61%
December	$419	$0.46	5.76%

 

Monthly Conversion Performance 

Month	Conversions / Property	Phone Calls / Property	Avg. Conversion Rate
October	82	7.09	10.38%
November	47	6.86	9.03%
December	95	6.38	10.51%

 

December 🤝 Pmax

Despite nominal changes in budget, PMax outperformed all major metrics in the month of December! We saw improved CTR, CPC, ConvR, and overall conversion volume. Digible recommends launching or adding additional budget to PMax campaigns to improve overall conversion efficiency. 

 

 

November = Cost Per Click Spikes 📈

We saw a 52% increase in CPC from October → November.  This increase significantly hurt lower funnel performance metrics resulting in less overall conversions at a less efficient cost. 

As PMax serves across many placements, we attribute this spike to increased competition within Gmail, the Google Display Network, & YouTube. 

 

 

What Does This Mean for Multifamily Advertisers?

PMax is an excellent channel for the December holiday season for properties looking to maximize conversion volume while keeping costs low. Pairing PMax with a healthy search budget can significantly improve your overall conversion picture in late Q4. 

 

 

How to Spend Q4 2024 Paid Media Budgets 

These findings indicate that paid search performance is likely to decrease during Q4 2024.

However, if 2024 trends follow 2023, it is best to spend your November and December search budgets evenly vs. front-loading budget to avoid spending during major U.S. holidays.