BH’s in-house digital advertising solution, Aylist, made its debut in early 2021 and has been thriving ever since. Aylist replaces the use of third-party agencies for most online advertising campaigns, and supports paid search, display, and social ad channels on Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Aylist saves BH communities money and increases Net Operating Incoming (NOI) by reducing agency fees and ensuring better campaign performance at a lower cost. Check out the five main benefits of bringing PPC advertising in-house:
1. Customizable Strategy
Aylist integrates directly with BH’s property management systems and uses community and market information to automate digital ad campaigns. Every property and every market are different, but BH’s in-house subject matter experts know the critical pieces to:
- Align advertising campaigns to the buyer’s journey
- Understand fair housing significance and implications
- Leverage community data in real-time
- Use first-party consumer data to nurture prospects
This allows for BH communities in the same market to have different strategies based on individual property goals. Even with customizable strategy factoring in things such as ever-changing weather and driving conditions, BH has more opportunities to capture demand for less money and time. As referenced in a recent case study by Fluency, advertising with Aylist has resulted in a 11.4% click through rate, 35% lower cost per conversion, and 40% lower cost per guest card.
2. Embracing Automation
With over 300 communities leveraging Aylist, the digital strategy team needs to ensure accuracy and timely optimizations. This is where Fluency comes in. Fluency’s Robotic Process Automation for Advertising (RPA4A) allows BH to implement strategy at scale by:
- Automatically enabling and disabling ads based on availability
- Updating current pricing shown in ads
- Changing images in ads based on current weather conditions
- Factoring in commute times based on location
- Ensuring advertised specials start and end on time
3. Owning Data
With the adoption of Aylist, BH now owns its data. Having raw data at its fingertips allows BH to monitor and refine its marketing mix. Before Aylist, BH had to rely on data from third-party agencies. Now, with Aylist BH can:
- Set up tracking scripts and pixels on its community websites
- Use Google Analytics + Google Tag Manager (GTM) configurations to track consumer behavior
- Roll-up data and segment performance by community
- Track phone calls
Owning the data gives BH the visibility it needs to make informed marketing decisions in real-time.
4. Spending Efficiently
With the in-house ownership and upkeep of Aylist, the need for third-party advertising agencies is eliminated. Aylist is an official Google Partner and is a Participating Member of the Facebook Partner Program. Through these partnerships, BH benefits from savings in ad credits and custom account recommendations from the platforms themselves. In addition, BH communities are now paying 75% lower advertising management fees when running ads with Aylist. Aylist has saved BH communities over $800K in advertising costs to date.
5. Streamlined Communication
In addition to a digital strategy team, BH has its own team of performance analysts (PAs) working directly with on-site teams. The digital strategy team makes recommendations to the PAs based on current and historical leasing trends for overall consideration. An in-house PA team coupled with in-house digital strategy allows for streamlined communication. The PAs have the autonomy and convenience to work alongside digital strategy to make the right marketing and pricing decisions at the right time for BH communities.
In October 2022, BH was awarded “In-House Team of the Year – PPC” by Search Engine Land. Search Engine Land looks at the marketing efforts of thousands of companies, seeking out the world’s best individuals, agencies and in-house teams that deliver exceptional results. BH also won its second PropTech Breakthrough Award in August 2022 for “Property Management Innovation.”
BH is committed to developing best-in-class tools and processes to find and capture demand, which is the result of Aylist and BH Advantage.