A new build opens with none of what its competitors have
A new delivery opens with zero reviews, no search history for its website, no Business Profile history and no tenants telling their neighbors. Established competitors in the trade area have years of all four, and the Map Pack positions to show for it.
Time is the expensive part. Every empty unit in year one carries costs the owner is already paying, and a lease-up doesn't get a second first year.
Everything was live and tracked before the first tenant searched
The website, the Google Business Profile, local SEO and Google Ads were built before opening. Call tracking ran on every phone number from day one, and move-ins were matched to their channel by the tenant's phone or email against the management software.
Spend went to Google and the facility's own website first. Nothing else got a dollar until those were producing, and nothing went to a channel that couldn't be measured against the rent roll.
Occupancy climbed every month
| Month | Occupancy |
|---|---|
| Mar | 4.8% |
| Apr | 13.1% |
| May | 23.2% |
| Jun | 32.1% |
| Jul | 36.1% |
| Aug | 41.3% |
By late August the building was 41.3% occupied by unit count and 40.6% by square footage. Promotions ran on about a third of move-ins, and median in-place rent is $179.
155 of the 280 move-ins trace to a channel
The matches are real, not modeled: each one pairs the tenant's phone or email with the record in the management software. 71 came from the Google Business Profile, 57 from Google Ads, 26 from organic search and 1 from Apple Maps.
- $0 ad spend
- Paid
| Channel | Move-ins |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | 71 |
| Google Ads | 57 |
| Organic search | 26 |
| Apple Maps | 1 |
The rest walked in, saw the building from the road or couldn't be matched. The monument sign alone drove 56 tracked calls. We count only the move-ins we can tie to a channel, so the digital total here is a floor.
The no-ad-spend channels beat Google Ads in all six months
98 of the 155 attributed move-ins came from the Business Profile, organic search and Apple Maps, with no ad spend behind them. That's 63%. Those channels out-produced Google Ads in every month, starting with the first.
- GBP + organic + Apple Maps ($0 ad spend)
- Google Ads
| Month | No ad spend | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Mar | 9 | 2 |
| Apr | 14 | 9 |
| May | 19 | 12 |
| Jun | 17 | 10 |
| Jul | 19 | 14 |
| Aug (through the 27th) | 20 | 10 |
A lease-up that leans on paid search rents its occupancy
Google Ads can buy move-ins on day one. If the Business Profile and organic rankings aren't building underneath it, the owner ends up renting occupancy instead of earning it.
Here the free channels were live before opening, so they never trailed. Paid search added move-ins on top of channels that were already leading.
The website and phones showed steady demand
Over the same window the website had 5,671 sessions. Leads came to 401, online reservations to 186 and tracked calls to 1,124.
The rent roll shows 85% autopay and no delinquency past 30 days
85% of tenants are on autopay. 96% of occupied units enrolled in tenant protection within weeks of its rollout. So far, delinquency over 30 days has been zero in every month since opening.