Mary Herrold says that when a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear, it’s her job to make sure everyone knows it fell.

As JVM Realty’s vice president of marketing and innovation, Herrold delivers marketing solutions that promote the JVM brand and properties, and identifies opportunities with technology innovations that make their operations more efficient and enhance the customer experience.

“It’s my nature to turn over every stone and evaluate what it can do for us,” Herrold remarked. “That’s where the innovation part of my job comes in: I have to evaluate our teams’ needs and what their priorities are before embarking on research, not to mention implementation and measurement. We can’t manage what we don’t measure. And, believe me, we measure the impact of every solution we choose.”

As a stickler for making informed decisions, Herrold doesn’t allow herself to invest in a technology unless she’s scoured the data to confirm that it works.

“I forbid myself to make a decision without looking at data, and my teammates here at JVM wouldn’t stand for it either,” Herrold stated. “We don’t take on technology just to say we have it; we take it on because we’re going to use it to improve things and maximize the value we get from it — or we don’t want it.”

Two JVM communities, Village West Luxury Apartments in Kansas City, KS, and Summit and Apex on Quality Hill in Kansas City, MO, are leasing in competitive markets where a deluge of new inventory is coming online. To increase the properties’ visibility among rental shoppers, Herrold needed to send more traffic their way by the most efficient and economical methods.

“They needed an inordinate amount of opportunities, but we didn’t want to waste our marketing investment by haphazardly showing up online without providing renters with information or context about what those properties offered,” she explained.

Drawing a bullseye on high-quality renter leads

JVM already used Zillow Rent Connect to reach prospective renters with great success; now Herrold was looking for a solution to attract even more qualified traffic. She attended Zillow Group’s Multifamily Forum and was introduced to Boost with Precision Targeting, which targets Zillow, Trulia and HotPads apartment shoppers with relevant advertising across Zillow Group’s display network, including Facebook. Other forum attendees told Herrold about their notable successes with the product, and she even spoke with Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff and “pushed him to prove why Precision Targeting was such a good thing.”

After starting Boost advertising, Herrold saw an immediate increase in new user website traffic to the two properties. Village West saw 1,474 new users of which 109 converted to either a call or completed web form — that's a rate of more than 7 percent which is more than double the industry average of 2.5 percent for website conversions. Before Boost, the property received a monthly average of 1,863 new user website visits. After Boost, the property’s website receives an average of 2,351 site visitors per month, and Herrold notes that Facebook referral traffic grew 145 percent.

Summit and Apex at Quality Hill are two brand new communities that needed to quickly attract as many prospective renters as possible. After the initial website launch, the properties received an average of 602 new website users per month; after starting Boost advertising, Summit and Apex received an average of 964 new users each month, and total website conversions are at 3.4 percent — again, outpacing the industry rate.

Across all JVM properties for 2016, Zillow and Boost delivered more than 800 guest cards (leads) and 113 move-ins. That equates to a 14 percent guest-card-to-move-in conversion rate, which Herrold directly attributed to Zillow and Boost, and an annual cost per move-in of $130 — $100 below JVM’s annual average.

“You’re surgically targeting exactly who you want and how many you want, and then you’re monitoring the performance,” Herrold remarked. “Without the data, you don’t know what works or with whom it works. I’d rather have our advertising solution do fewer things really well, than have it try to do everything with only mediocre results.”

Paying for accomplishments, not appearances

More than anything, Herrold appreciates the quality of leads that JVM properties receive for its investment in Boost with Precision Targeting.

“The renters who come to us through Zillow Group are obviously serious about finding a place,” Herrold stated. “They know so much about us by the time they take action that they really are just coming to confirm that the property is what it’s represented to be.”

Herrold continues to use Boost with Precision Targeting and the program remains their top website referral source outside of organic traffic.

“I like the fact that I’m paying for performance: I hired Zillow Group to quickly get me leads and then get me impressions through Boost,” Herrold pointed out. “I’m not paying Zillow Group to be included in the long list of competitors with no emphasis on results. I’m only paying for accomplishments.”