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Client Snapshot
Company: FirstKey Homes
Location: Nationwide (110+ markets)
ICP: Broad targeting due to restrictions with housing
Industry: Single-Family Home Rentals
Channels: Google Ads (Search + PMax)
Monthly Ad Spend: $100,000
Campaign Duration: 12 months
Goal: Increase Apartment Tours & Quality of Leads

Overview

Over 12 months, I worked with the Kool Source, and built a hyper-localized Google Ads engine for FirstKey Homes across 110+ U.S. markets. By pairing market-specific Search with Performance Max (PMax), dynamic landing routes, CPA-targeted bidding, and conversion-grade tracking, we turned fragmented demand into a scalable pipeline: ~3,500 leads/month at $28.30 CPL, converting to ~650–750 leases/month.

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The Problem

Volatile local demand and CPL swings market-to-market
Inconsistent lead quality; broad-match bloat and junk intent
100+ markets hard to optimize under one strategy
Budget underutilized in slower metros; overspend in others
Limited conversion visibility (calls/forms not fully tied back to campaigns)
Budget underutilized in slower metros; overspend in others

The Solution

1) Hyper-Localized Campaign Architecture
- 100+ market clusters: Dedicated Search campaigns (Phrase/Exact) on local intent (e.g., “homes for rent in [City]”, “[#] bed house near [ZIP]”, “pet-friendly rentals [City]”).
- PMax overlays per market: Captured incremental volume across YouTube, Display, Discover, Maps, Gmail.
2) Market-Smart Creatives & Extensions
- City-specific copy, pricing bands, pet-friendly messaging, urgency (“Move-In Ready This Week”).
- Asset group testing in PMax to identify top images, short videos, and headlines by metro.
3) Landing Page Routing by Market
- Dynamic routes to city/zip filtered inventory pages or market hubs.
- Conversion-first layouts (map + property cards + instant contact form) to drive tour requests and calls.
5) Experimentation Cadence
- A/B tested local references, pet-friendly hooks, and urgency angles.
- PMax Insights → creative/audience winners fed back into Search and landing variants.
6) CPA Targeting Strategy (Guardrails for Profitability)
Tiered CPA Goals:
- Lead CPA (primary bidding): Target CPA set per metro tier (A/B/C) based on historical CPL, inventory velocity, and lease value.
- Downstream CPA (lease): Used offline conversion imports (CRM) to weight markets by qualified lead (QL), tour booked, and lease; budgets favored metros with the best CPL→Lease efficiency.
Portfolio Bid Strategies:
- Regional portfolios (e.g., Sunbelt, Midwest, Coastal) with shared tCPA to smooth volatility and allow fast budget shifts when a market breached CPA thresholds.
Signals & Eligibility:
- Primary conversion = Qualified Lead, with tour booked as a secondary, and lease imported for optimization signals (observe first, then include where volume allowed).
- Data Exclusions & Seasonality Adjustments for move-in spikes, holidays, storms, and policy changes.

The Results (Before → After)

Before (typical pain)
- Broad-match waste, inconsistent lead quality, idle budgets in slow markets
- Limited attribution for calls/forms; hard to reallocate efficiently
After (12-month program)
- Spend: ~$100K/month across 110+ markets
- Leads: ~3,500+/month (≈ $100,000 / $28.30 CPL)
- Tour Booking Rate: ~42% → ~1,470 tours/month
- Lead → Lease: 18–22% (by market) → ~650–750 leases/month
- Cost Control: CPA guardrails kept weak metros from draining budget; portfolio tCPA shifted dollars to markets with superior CPL→Lease efficiency.
- Attribution clarity: Enhanced Conversions + CRM imports linked media to leases, enabling confident reallocation and reliable tCPA calibration.

Contact me for your next project

Location:

United States
Tampa Bay, FL

Contact

+999 23654 2654

Houstonbui45@gmail.com

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