It’s an ongoing challenge to attract and engage prospective residents during their search for a home. Today, people search for homes in different ways than they ever have. So when a technology comes along that offers huge potential reach to an interested audience and has very low barriers to adoption, The Bozzuto Group isn’t one to pass it by. Enter Waze — a traffic and navigation app where drivers (or Wazers) share real-time information on local road and traffic conditions, and receive content from advertisers when they drive near those businesses.

Green-lighting a new marketing tool

Although Waze might not be defined as a traditional social media platform, it’s all about communication and information sharing — and Bozzuto Chief Marketing Officer Jamie Gorski knew Bozzuto’s customers were already using it. Plus, she was no stranger to a successful social media strategy: The Bozzuto Group has seen Instagram ads spark a notable increase in its prospects’ time-on-site, and with 25 to 50 percent of their properties running Facebook ads, the platform has become one of their top 10 lead generation sources. For Jamie, the decision to give Waze a try was an easy one.

“When we consider new tactics, we look at where our customers are,” she explained. “So many people are trying to find an apartment and using Waze while they search, so this was a no-brainer.”

Helping renters get from Point A to Point B

In addition to sharing community-based traffic conditions, Waze displays geo-targeted content to mobile users when they’re in proximity to a business that advertises on the app. Bozzuto Group has more than 200 communities in eight states from Virginia to Massachusetts. When Wazers drive near those properties, they see Bozzuto Group ads pop up with information such as each community’s name, address and distance from the Wazer’s current location. Drivers can then take one of three actions: visit Bozzuto Group’s website, initiate a phone call or request directions to the advertised community.

“People still want to know what a neighborhood is like, so they’re on their phones as they drive around,” Jamie noted. “Our competition isn’t what you’d think. It’s the phone, so we want to get into their phones.”

With more than 50 million monthly active Waze users, ads tend to cast a wide net for an audience — Bozzuto Group Founding Partner and Chairman Tom Bozzuto, a baby boomer, is a Wazer — but Jamie believes this message appeals across generational lines.

“The prospective residents we meet through Waze are probably reflective of who the app’s users are, and we could surmise the demographic skews younger,” Jamie remarked. “But it’s really more important to see where our customers are today and then reach them by providing great content that matches what they’re looking for on Waze.”

Zero to 40,000 impressions in no time flat

Bozzuto Group started with a $50 investment in Waze ads and received more than 40,000 impressions. With that initial success, Bozzuto increased its spend and the impressions more than doubled. Wazers increased their actions as well, and when Bozzuto conducted test campaigns to measure its return on investment, it realized the cost per action was just $1.14.

“You play the game of testing efficacy and efficiency and say, ‘Let’s increase our spend and see what happens,’ and you hope the results are good,” Jamie admitted. “A dollar fourteen per action was our result from our tests — I couldn’t say that would be everyone’s experience.”

Adopting Waze to attract and engage prospective renters has so far proved effective for Bozzuto Group, but its savvy CMO knows it’s a mix of thought, timing and effort to keep the success going — and Bozzuto is not afraid to mix up its social media strategy to achieve it.

“We have a higher rate of technology users because of the cities we’re in,” Jamie pointed out. “If Waze helps us to effectively reach renters looking for apartments, then we just have to test and see that it continues to works for us.”