Paid media case study
A search and social lead engine that reached 90% occupancy ahead of schedule.
On a modest starting budget, Bowrand built a lead engine across Google Search and Meta that helped The Metropole reach 90% occupancy months ahead of its own projected timeline.
The results
90%
occupancy reached three months ahead of schedule471
total leads generated across Search and Meta campaigns179x
return on investment in estimated lease revenue per dollar spentThe engagement
A rent spike, then a price war.
When The Metropole came to Bowrand, the 430-unit building needed a lead generation strategy in a rental market that had just swung from a rent spike to a price war.
On a modest starting budget, Bowrand built a lead engine across Google Search and Meta that helped the building reach 90% occupancy months ahead of its own projected timeline.
- Industry: Residential rental, multifamily
- Market: City-centre rentals in Canada
- Services: Google Search, Performance Max, Meta Ads
- Engagement: Ongoing since December 2025
The Bowrand Method
Two channels, one lead engine.
Search alone couldn't win this. The best-known apartment listing sites already own the top organic and paid positions for the exact terms renters search, and The Metropole's starting budget wasn't big enough to outbid them everywhere. Working The Bowrand Method, Bowrand set the strategy, then built the acquisition and conversion layers around it. Search captured high-intent searchers directly, Performance Max brought back people who compared and left, and Meta met renters where they already spend time browsing, using a lookalike audience built from The Metropole's own customer list.
Google Search
Acquisition. Captures high-intent renters at the moment of search.
Performance Max
Conversion. Brings back shoppers who compared and drifted off.
Meta Ads
Acquisition. Reaches renters on a lookalike of past tenants.
The baseline
Starting conditions.
| Condition | Detail |
|---|---|
| Niche / market | Residential rental, 430-unit purpose-built building |
| Target geo | The building's city-centre neighbourhood |
| Occupancy goal | 95% |
| Existing lead channels | Listing platforms (apartments.com, RentFaster, Rentsync), walk-ins |
| Existing lead volume | 20–30 a week from listings, 8 a month walk-in |
| Starting ad budget | $1,500 a month |
| Market conditions | Rent had roughly doubled the year prior, then softened. No rent caps in the province. New competing buildings undercutting on price to fill occupancy. |
The challenge
Four reasons a simple search campaign would fail.
A crowded, well-established competitive set
apartments.com, RentFaster and other listing websites already hold strong organic and paid positions for the exact search terms renters use, and both are default destinations renters go to before searching for a specific building by name.
A modest budget in a high-volume keyword category
Generic rental keywords carry huge search volume, most of it low intent (competitor research and price shopping), which meant every dollar had to be protected from that noise.
Renters don't always convert in one visit
People shopping for an apartment compare multiple buildings, browse several listing sites, narrow down a shortlist, and only then book a tour, so a single-touch Search campaign was never going to capture the full opportunity on its own.
A softening, unpredictable rental market
With no rent caps and new supply undercutting on price, timing and message mattered as much as targeting.
The strategy
Five moves that protected every dollar.
-
A dedicated paid ads pod
Bowrand assigned a dedicated paid ads strategist as lead on the account, supported by a developer for landing page and conversion tracking implementation and a designer for ad creative and incentive-focused assets across Search and Meta.
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A tightly focused keyword strategy
The campaign targeted the core, high-volume keywords for the rental industry alongside high-intent location terms for the building's neighbourhood and the surrounding city centre. Because a term like "apartments for rent" carries enormous search volume but pulls in competitor research, price shopping and general low-intent traffic, Bowrand built an extensive negative keyword list specifically to filter that noise out before it ever touched budget. Direct tour bookings via Calendly, Schedule Tour form submissions and phone calls were set as the sole primary conversion goal, with all other website actions as secondary conversions.
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Incentives built into the ad itself
Bowrand researched how competing buildings were positioning themselves and what move-in incentives they were offering, then worked with The Metropole to shape a set of offers built specifically for the campaign. Those incentives were built directly into headlines, descriptions, image assets and callout extensions, not left as something a renter only discovers after they've already clicked.
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Performance Max, built around real buyer behaviour
Renters don't sign a lease on the first listing they see. Bowrand added a Performance Max campaign specifically to retarget people who had already shown interest but drifted off to compare other options, bringing them back through other platforms instead of losing them to a competitor mid-search.
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Meta Ads, meeting renters where they already are
Since The Metropole couldn't win every Search auction against the major listing sites, Bowrand layered in a Meta campaign to reach renters on social media instead of only competing for search intent. Using a lookalike audience built from The Metropole's own customer list, the campaign found an audience close enough to past tenants to convert efficiently, which is what drove both the cost per lead and the click-through rate well past typical benchmarks.
Real suites and the real building, front and centre in the ads.
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Suite photography used across the Search image assets and Meta creative.
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Results
Results: Google Search.
- 192 conversions (calls and booked tours) between January and August 2026, from 7.61K clicks and 216K impressions on $12.3K in spend, on a budget of $1,500 a month.
- Cost per lead of $64.06, calculated on total ad spend against all 192 tracked conversions.
- An average 23% lift in online inquiries during peak lead months, layered on top of what The Metropole's existing listing platforms (apartments.com, RentFaster, Rentsync) were already generating.
- Search-driven leads returned an estimated 97x on ad spend, or $97 in estimated lease revenue for every $1 spent. Based on the building's lowest monthly rent on a 12-month lease, that puts estimated revenue generated from Search at approximately $1,209,600 against $12,300 in spend.
Google Search, January to August 2026.
7.61K
clicks216K
impressions$12.3K
spend192
conversions
Results: Meta Ads, run separately from February through August 2026.
279
leads$15.24
cost per lead$4,251.71
total spend2.07%
click-through rate, well above typical industry benchmarks for the categoryWhy Meta worked
A lookalike of real past tenants.
The lookalike audience, built from The Metropole's own customer list, is what made this cost per lead possible. Rather than targeting broad rental-intent audiences on Meta, the campaign found people who matched the profile of The Metropole's actual past tenants.
The result: occupancy
90% occupancy, three months early.
The Metropole reached 90% occupancy before the end of June 2026, three months ahead of the September target the property had set for itself.
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