As one of the top places people go online to search for apartments, Apartments.com knows the importance of having a strong digital presence. The brand wanted to provide renters with even more information about its listings, so it added price extensions and expanded text ads to its Search campaigns.
Goals
Differentiate from competitors
Drive more website traffic
Increase click-through rate (CTR)
Approach
Implemented expanded text ads
Introduced price extensions across 1,000 markets
Tested new ad text and increased mobile bids
Results
10–15% increase in CTR (expanded text ads only)
120% higher CTRs (expanded text ads and price extensions)
24% increase in website traffic
With the largest inventory of available rentals in the country, it's no wonder Apartments.com is America's leading online source for apartment listings. The company uses AdWords to help promote its millions of listings across the United States and drive traffic to its website.
Apartments.com knew consumers want to compare units and evaluate properties when searching for their next home, so it set out to highlight as much information in its ads as possible. To give renters a more comprehensive view of its available units, Apartments.com implemented expanded text ads and price extensions.
Connecting with mobile-first renters
The majority of renters on Apartments.com conduct research on their phones. To help maximize its presence on mobile, the company transitioned to expanded text ads. Designed for the most popular smartphones, expanded text ads help advertisers make the most of limited screen real estate by offering almost 50% more ad space than standard text ads.
The company used this additional space to provide more information, such as the number of listings, availability, and verified reviews. This not only helped differentiate the brand with renters, but also helped customers make more informed decisions before they clicked an ad. Apartments.com was also able to test new ad text and better align creative with existing brand campaigns on other channels, like display and television.
"Expanded text ads and price extensions enable us to incorporate additional details and amenities into our ads to help guide renters to apartments that fit their needs."
After seeing great results with expanded text ads, Apartments.com added price extensions to its city-specific campaigns for over 1,000 U.S. markets. Price extensions offer a more engaging way for advertisers to highlight products or services and their prices. With locations, rent ranges, numbers of bedrooms, and other property details clearly highlighted, renters could easily compare their apartment options, qualify their click, and find the most relevant information.
Moving into better performance
Apartments.com's results were strong across its campaigns. It saw 15% and 10% increases in CTRs for expanded text ads on mobile and desktop, respectively. For expanded text ads that appeared with price extensions, CTRs increased 120%. The company also saw a 24% increase in total traffic across all markets where ad extensions were implemented.
"Apartments.com has always been about helping renters find their next home and delivering more qualified leads to our advertisers. Expanded text ads and price extensions enable us to incorporate additional details and amenities into our ads to help guide renters to apartments that fit their needs," said Elliott Thomas, senior search marketing manager at Apartments.com. "As soon as we launched these new formats, we saw an increase in CTR, overall traffic, and conversion rate—our most important KPIs. We continue to see success with both formats as we roll them out to more campaigns."
Thanks to this strong performance, Apartments.com has now transitioned to expanded text ads for the majority of its Search campaigns. The company also plans to make price extensions a key component of its marketing strategy as it focuses on scaling its success with both ad formats in the future.
