Updated October 2023
Multifamily Campaigns for the Holiday Season
Yes, ’tis the season. There’s no doubt online consumer behavior fluctuates during the holidays – in many industries. And multifamily is not the exception. Many people opt for offline interactions to share time with loved ones or embark on travels. These factors, combined with our industry’s historical seasonality performance, we often see a dip in performance during the winter months. But don’t fret, the Digible Crew has you covered with multifamily marketing trends, data, and steps to get ahead this holiday season.
Here’s a complete multifamily holiday marketing strategy with recommendations for optimizing your campaigns, shifting focus on upper funnel brand awareness, diversifying your channels to attract future residents, and getting the best bang for your buck this holiday season.
Paid Media Holiday Strategy
Budgeting
When it comes to budgeting for your property, we recommend keeping budgets steady in the winter months (Q4) and continuing to optimize strategy based on occupancy needs and goals. We do not recommend pausing Paid Media services during November or December unless occupancy goals are strong or there are adjustments in goals, such as focusing brand awareness (upper funnel) strategy.
Paid Search
- Eligible Impressions Dropped 22% the week of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Despite the drop in eligible impressions, pacing ahead in December 2022 allowed us to increase our CTRs stable.
- We Suggest: Planning ahead to spend the majority of the budget prior to Christmas and consider Performance Max (PMax) in your strategy.
Paid Social
- The Average Canvas View Time hit a high the week of Christmas up 7% (WOW!). While user engagement with paid social campaigns increased throughout the month, user intent decreased
- We Suggest: Continuing to focus on upper-funnel campaigns with high-engagement content.
Display
- From Week 1 to Week 3 SVR continued to drop from November, however, increased again after the week of Christmas, up 31% from Week 3 to Week 4. Lower Display SVRs and increases in cost/site visits indicate increases in the competition heading into Thanksgiving.
- We Suggest: Consider testing to spend impressions after the Christmas holiday.
Spotify
- Consider including audio ads into your programmatic strategy during the Holiday season and adding targeting for the Holiday genre.
- Required: Approval of 55-75 word script and approval of voiceover. 640×640 companion image is needed.
- Lead Time: 10 business days due to voice-over production and approval steps.
Ad Copy for Search, Social, & Display
- Ensure ad copy is updated to reflect amenities that are currently open and available.
- Consider adding ad copy variations with “Look Forward to” type of ad copy, encouraging users to think ahead to the warmer months and outdoor amenities.
TikTok
- Consider including TikTok ads into your paid social strategy and capitalize on the increases in user engagement with “bite-sized content” during the Holiday season.
- We Suggest: 15 – 45 second video and 98×98 pixel logo.
- Lead Time: 5 business days.
Native Article Advertising
- Consider implementing Native campaigns and reaching users with rich and engaging content that can increase awareness about your property.
- Required: Article provided or written by Digible.
- Lead Time: 10 business days due to approval and article production time.
Diversify Your Holiday Strategy
Geofencing
- Historical data from December saw a -46% in CTR when compared to November campaigns
- We Suggest: Consider pausing Geofencing campaigns for November and December and utilizing the budget in other upper funnel platforms such as paid social, and continuing Geofencing in Q1. Read more about our Geofencing strategy.
- Email campaigns had a 10% decrease in Click to open rate in December when compared to November. When looking at days of deployment, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday had the highest Click to open ratios.
- We Suggest: Though performance for Email campaigns compared to November is slightly lower, December is still an average performing month when compared to the rest of the year.
SEO, Organic Social, & Websites
Implementing SEO, Organic Social, and Website optimization strategies for your apartment communities can help attract more traffic, residents, and engagement during the holiday season.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- While leasing in November, December, and January tend to be historically the “slowest” months seasonally, this is the time to let your property shine and show off your apartment community.
- We Suggest: Adding seasonal imagery in GBP, blogs, and on the website. Highlight amenities with seasonal appeal, such as fireplaces, heated garages, garage parking /off-street parking, and refresh evergreen content. The slower season is a great time to get robust content on your website and showcase holiday events at the property. Don’t forget to update your property’s GBP holiday hours.
- Our team can add schema to the event page on your website for enhanced searchability. Ask us about our Content Boost Package.
Organic Social
- Organic Social content typically has a steady decrease in engagement rate when compared to YoY performance.
- We Suggest: This is a great opportunity to promote resident events and resident lift content to increase engagement. Additionally, consider collaborating with local businesses and influencers for holiday giveaways, which can increase engagement and brand awareness.
